Columbus was a sad place Saturday night, after Ohio State’s football team saw its 24-game winning streak — and with it a shot at the national title — go out the window in the Big Ten championship game. Buckeyes fans, however, have another streak they can follow – the basketball team is a perfect 8-0, and has moved up to No. 2 in The Post’s rankings.
Ohio State is one of many surprises early in the season, right along with undefeated Syracuse and Wisconsin, who move past struggling preseason title contenders Michigan State, Kentucky and Kansas.
(Last week’s ranking in parentheses)
1. Arizona (1): The Braziller Jinx – when I pick you, you lose — had found its way across the country, all the way to Tucson on Saturday night, before T.J. McConnell brought his own karma to the table. The heady Arizona point guard led the Wildcats to a gutty home win over UNLV with all the clutch plays in crunch time.
2. Ohio State (6): The Ohio State football team could’ve used some of the defense the basketball team exhibited over the weekend. While Thad Matta’s schedule hasn’t inspired us, his team’s all-around play has, most notably its 76-60 humbling of future Big Ten foe Maryland last week.
3. Syracuse (9): I told anyone who would listen last year that incoming freshman point guard Tyler Ennis would make Syracuse fans forget all about Michael Carter-Williams. Nine games into the year, the former St. Benedict’s Prep (N.J.) star has made me look like a genius – a very difficult task – in running the undefeated Orange’s offense to a tee, finding the right balance between scoring and distributing.
4. Louisville (8): That North Carolina loss doesn’t look so bad now, does it? The Cardinals have found themselves since the surprising loss to the Tar Heels, winning three games in a row by a combined 98 points.
5. Duke (5): Jabari Parker and Rodney Hood have received all the headlines – and the dynamic duo will receive all of the attention from now until they are NBA lottery picks – but the improved play of point guard Quinn Cook shouldn’t be forgotten. In last week’s bounce-back victory over Michigan, the junior was sensational, scoring 24 points and adding nine assists, the kind of performance that will make the opposition pay for sending double teams at Parker and Hood.
6. Wisconsin (7): The Badgers are 10-0 for the first time since 1993, and they have won in a variety of ways, with typical defensive struggles and uncharacteristic offensive explosions.
7. Michigan State (2): Losing to North Carolina isn’t alarming. The way the Spartans lost was. They were out-muscled, out-rebounded and just thoroughly out-worked. Tom Izzo won’t let that stand. Oakland, Michigan State’s next opponent, you have been warned.
8. Kentucky (3): John Calipari wasn’t trying to trick us, as hard as that is to believe. The Kentucky coach was serious when he repeatedly said his young team had a long way to go during the preseason. Though losing to Kansas at a neutral site and Baylor on the road is nothing to be overly concerned about, the Wildcats are very much a work in progress, a team that has maturing to do.
9. Connecticut (10): As impressive as Shabazz Napier’s play has been over the season’s first few weeks — and the senior guard is doing his best Kemba Walker impression up to this point — the Huskies won’t remain an elite team unless they begin to get more consistent production from his teammates. That means you, Omar Calhoun, DeAndre Daniels and Ryan Boatright.
10. Kansas (4): Andrew Wiggins performed like one of the top players in the nation, tying his career-high with 22 points, but Kansas lost anyway, at the buzzer to Colorado on Saturday. The Jayhawks are dealing with point-guard issues: Bill Self recently inserted Frank Mason into the starting lineup in place of Naadir Tharpe.
11. Memphis (11): Josh Pastner’s team will take center stage next week when it comes to New York for the Jimmy V Classic. Look for versatile sophomore forward Shaq Goodwin to begin to receive the acclaim he deserves.
12. Oklahoma State (12): Friday’s rout of South Carolina didn’t seem like a noteworthy victory, but there was one significant note: the continued impressive play of junior forward Le’Bryan Nash. If Oklahoma State is going to snap Kansas’ string of nine straight Big 12 titles and be a major player in March, Nash will need to emerge as a key piece up front to complement the all-world backcourt of Marcus Smart and Markel Brown.
13. Wichita State (13): Gregg Marshall isn’t just sitting atop his mid-major perch in Kansas, resting on last season’s magical Final Four run. He’s tested his team from the jump, and will continue to do so this week with games against Tennessee and Alabama. Thus far, the undefeated Shockers have been up to the task.
14. Oregon (15): The Ducks are about to get scary good. Fresh off Sunday’s thrilling overtime win at Ole Miss, Oregon gets back point guard Dominic Artis and forward Ben Carter next week, impact pieces that will make coach Dana Altman’s team even deeper and more potent, which is saying something considering they are already ninth in the nation in scoring at 88 points per game.
15. North Carolina (23): There is the good North Carolina, the team that knocked off Louisville and shocked Michigan State. And there is the bad North Carolina, which fell to Belmont and UAB. I have a feeling we’ll be playing this guessing game with the Tar Heels right up until the NCAA Tournament, when they once again shock us — either with a big run or an early exit.
16. Massachusetts (18)
17. Villanova (19)
18. Iowa State (14)
19. Gonzaga (16)
20. Colorado (22)
21. Virginia (20)
22. Creighton (21)
23. Florida (17)
24. New Mexico (25)
25. Pittsburgh (NR)
Out: UCLA
Stock watch —Â Up
Pac 12
The ACC can wait. The Big 10 is a nice conference. But the best league in the country – in our humble opinion – will be the Pac 12. Arizona is the best team in the country, Oregon is the most underrated, Colorado has proven it belongs among the nation’s elite after its upset of Kansas, and UCLA and Arizona State are borderline top 25 teams as well. The league is stocked full of future pros, led by Arizona freshman Aaron Gordon, Arizona State sophomore Jahii Carson and Oregon sophomore Dominic Artis.
Chaz Williams
The senior point guard turned down a lucrative pro offer to play overseas in Turkey to come back for his senior year. So far, it appears to be a wise decision. UMass is 8-0, its best start since the 1995-96 season which netted a vacated Final Four berth, and Williams is undoubtedly one of the best floor generals in the nation, as his 32-point, 15-assist performance in a win over BYU on Saturday showed.
Stock watch — Down
Preseason favorites
Duke, Kansas and Kentucky were most everyone’s preseason national championship pick. Roughly a month into the year, the three blue bloods each have two losses, and could have more if not for a few fortunate bounces. It speaks to the up-and-down nature of college basketball and the time it will take freshmen to get acclimated to this new level of competition, even freshmen as talented as Andrew Wiggins, Jabari Parker and Julius Randle. Furthermore, the three favorites’ coaches knew it was important to get their young teams as much experience as possible, so they created hazardous schedules they knew could result in losses, but also pave the way for success down the road.
Big Five minus Villanova
Temple and St. Joseph’s are struggling, both at 4-4, LaSalle is a mediocre 4-5 and Penn is 2-6. Good thing Villanova has emerged as one of the nation’s top teams, because the rest of the Big Five has disappointed the City of Brotherly Love. I still think LaSalle and St. Joseph’s will be fine, but they have a way to go to right the ship.