It seemed like just yesterday Kansas was considered a disappointment.
The Jayhawks looked like a title contender this week, reeling off impressive victories in the league at Iowa State and at home against Oklahoma State and Baylor to climb atop the Big 12.
The brutal schedule Bill Self compiled — the non-conference slate included challenging games against Duke, Villanova, Florida and San Diego State — certainly seems to be paying off. His freshmen — Andrew Wiggins, Joel Embiid and Wayne Selden — aren’t playing like freshmen anymore, and junior Naadir Tharpe is excelling at the point guard position after early-season struggles.
(Last week’s rankings in parentheses)
1. Arizona (1):Â The best team in the country showed Arizona State, its biggest rival, why it has vanquished all 17 of its opponents, jumping on the Sun Devils early and often, bludgeoning the NCAA Tournament contender. Common sense says Arizona will lose a game eventually, that someone in the deep Pac-12 will get the Wildcats. But the longer this run continues, the more it seems something special is going on in Tucson, and we could be talking about history come March.
2. Syracuse (2): On paper, the Orange aren’t as talented as they were last season, don’t have the NBA prospects last year’s Final Four team did. Yet 18 games into this season, Syracuse is a better basketball team, smarter, more disciplined and the pieces fit better together. We’ll see in March what that means.
3. Michigan State (6):Â While the other elite Big Ten programs are stumbling — Ohio State and Wisconsin have lost a combined five straight league games — Michigan State is surging. The Spartans picked up a pair of impressive road victories at Illinois and Northwestern, allowing an average of 51 points — the kind of defense Tom Izzo is used to seeing. Sophomore guard Gary Harris is looking like a future lottery pick and the Spartans have now won 10 straight. All is well in East Lansing.
4. Florida (4): Counting the days until Feb. 15, when the only two ranked teams in the SEC — Florida and Kentucky — meet in Lexington for the first of two showdowns that likely will determine the conference champion. Florida has won nine straight games, a streak that may be intact in three weeks.
5. Wichita State (5): The Shockers survived their scare, and they didn’t like that uneasy feeling. Wichita State cruised to a pair of Missouri Valley Conference victories this week, destroying second-place Indiana State by 20 points to improve to a program-record 19-0. It tied the 1962-63 Cincinnati team for the second-best start for a Missouri Valley team. The 1978-79 Indiana State team — led by a fellow named Larry Bird — did not lose until the national championship game.
6. Villanova (7): Before losing Monday night’s first-place battle to hot-shooting Creighton in Philadelphia, Villanova had been the only undefeated team in the new Big East. Still, the Wildcats have been a blessing to the new league, which has been downgraded by the struggles of Marquette, Georgetown and St. John’s. Balanced, deep and lethal, ‘Nova, meanwhile, is 16-2 and in the running for a possible No. 1 seed.
7. San Diego State (8): The Aztecs’ last loss was way back on Nov. 14 at top-ranked Arizona. At this pace, they may not take another ‘L’ until March. San Diego State continued to win in its typical ugly fashion, grinding out league wins over UNLV and Fresno State. It doesn’t face New Mexico, its only true threat in the Mountain West, until Feb. 22.
8. Kansas (12): Andrew Wiggins is still searching for consistency, but Kansas’ other top freshmen, Joel Embliid and Wayne Selden, have emerged for the Jawhawks.
9. Iowa (13): Who says the Big Ten is all defense? The Hawkeyes can score with anyone in the nation, as their 86.4 points per game (fifth in the country) and 17.4 assists (seventh) illustrate. Iowa doesn’t rely on one guy: Seven different players average between 16.4 and 6.5 points per game, led by playmaking senior guard Roy Devyn Marble.
10. Cincinnati (14): The Bearcats rarely win pretty. They don’t run anybody off the floor. But they win — 17 times in 19 games — and are the only team in the AAC with a perfect league mark. Cincinnati’s been tremendous defensively, giving up just 56.3 points per game — fourth-fewest in the nation — and has yet to allow a league foe to score more than 60.
11. Wisconsin (3): Two losses don’t wipe out the Badgers’ brilliant 16-0 start, but they better be careful, or those setbacks could result in a significant slide. Wednesday’s visit to Minnesota won’t be easy. Bo Ryan no doubt stressed defense in practice after Wisconsin gave up 77 points to Michigan and 75 to Indiana in the defeats.
12. Oklahoma State (9):Â The Cowboys left Lawrence, Kan., a loser Saturday afternoon, but they did so feeling better about themselves after a shoddy first half, losing by just two after trailing by 17, and thinking the next matchup could be different.
13. Kentucky (10): Saturday night’s win over Tennessee was important on a variety of levels. The Wildcats rebounded well from a road overtime loss at Arkansas, and the Harrison twins, Andrew and Aaron, put together their best performance in tandem in what has been an up-and-down freshman season for the duo. Andrew scored 26 points and Aaron added 14.
14. Louisville (19):Â The hard-to-figure Cardinals finally beat a quality opponent Saturday night, and they did so on the road by notching a commanding victory at UConn. Russ Smith scored 23 points and forward Montezl Harrell was just as impressive with 18 points and 13 rebounds — the kind of effort Louisville truly needs on a consistent basis from the talented sophomore.
15. Michigan (NR): Mitch McGary’s back surgery was supposed to sink Michigan. Instead, the Wolverines have taken off without their go-to low-post threat, winning seven in a row and getting off to a surprising 5-0 start in the Big Ten. The difference in this stretch? Look no further than sophomore guard Nik Stauskas, who is scoring (18.o points), distributing (3.8 assists) and rebounding (3.7 boards).
16. Massachusetts (20)
17. Pittsburgh (22)
18. Kansas State (NR)
19. Duke (21)
20. Ohio State (3)
21. Saint Louis (24)
22. Memphis (15)
23. Creighton (11)
24. Iowa State (17)
25. Baylor (18)
Dropped out: Oklahoma, Gonzaga
Stock Watch — Up
Pittsburgh
Sure, it was a loss Saturday afternoon to No. 2 Syracuse, a five-point setback. But it was more impressive than any of Pittsburgh’s 16 victories. The undefeated Orange haven’t been pushed like that all season — not by Baylor, not by Villanova, not by North Carolina. The Panthers announced they’re for real … and a legit contender in their first year in the ACC.
Antoine Mason
It’s easy to look at the the numbers the son of the former Knicks star is putting up, glance at Niagara’s win-loss record (5-14), and dismiss them. But look closer: See what the Purple Eagles have lost — their coach, Joe Mihalich, took two of the team’s best players, Juan’ya Green and Ameen Tanksley, with him to Hofstra — and how consistent the 6-foot-3 New Rochelle product has been, averaging 27.6 points per game while shooting a better percentage, nearly 45 percent, than he did last year, and getting to the free throw line 12.2 times a night.
Stock Watch — Down
Ohio State
We wrote endlessly in the space about Ohio State’s soft non-league schedule, how uncertain we were about Thad Matta’s team as a result. And after 15 wins, mostly against soft competition, the Buckeyes have lost three straight games, two on the road, as the opposition cranked up from JV to varsity. Ohio State is a good team, there is no doubt, but that gaudy 15-0 record was a product of a Charmin-soft schedule .
Big East
Imagine where the new league would be without Villanova (and, to a lesser extent, Creighton)? Marquette, predicted to finish first by the conference’s coaches, is mired in mediocrity, at 10-8 and 2-3. Georgetown has lost to Providence and Butler, and its biggest victory is over Kansas State. St. John’s is still looking for its first league win. Right now, the league looks like it has three NCAA Tournament teams — Villanova, Creighton and Xavier — and two bubble teams in improving Providence and Georgetown, granted the Hoyas can get it together.