In what has been a pretty boring week on the college basketball scene, I have done little to no watching of basketball. Most of my evenings have consisted of taking naps actually. Since last Wednesday, the only majorly notable game was Virginia knocking off Duke on the road. Other than that, there really hasn't been anything worthy of writing/tweeting about. Anyway, here are the Week 13 ETPR.
1 Villanova
Villanova survived a tough road test against Marquette last Saturday, and I was really worried about how they would handle Creighton on the road last night. The Wildcats surprised me again though, and they dominated the Blue Jays and won by 20. This is all without Phil Booth by the way. Basically, Villanova has the #1 spot until they give me a reason to hand it to someone else.
2 Virginia
Virginia is becoming an outside-the-box national champion pick for me. It's weird to say that about the 2nd-ranked team in America, but it's appropriate given their lack of tournament success in recent years. Still I'm still high on the Cavaliers because of their defense and recent offensive surge (65 and 74 points in their last two games).
3 Purdue
It really sucks that Purdue is stuck as the #3 since they could very well be the top team in other years. They recently eclipsed their all-time win streak mark last Sunday, at Indiana of all places. I feel that accomplishing that feat against their longtime big brother signifies a different Purdue team this year in some cosmic way. Just something to consider.
4 Duke
Even though they lost to Virginia, I cannot move Duke down the rankings. I just think Virginia is a buzzsaw. Duke is still an insanely good team, even with three ACC losses. The more I watch Duke, the more I am impressed with Wendell Carter Jr. Marvin Bagley's Robin is averaging 18 ppg and 11.2 rpg in his last 5 games and might end up Duke's x-factor in the tournament.
5 Kansas
I've been waiting all my life to scream "SVIOTSLAV' in a not ironic way. Now I can because Svi is playing out of his effing mind. He's averaging 17 ppg on on 47.9% from 3. It's weird seeing him be an consistent force on Kansas, something we haven't seen in his first 3 seasons. He and Devonte' Graham are making the Jayhawks a real contender. (I'm kicking myself for saying that).
6 Xavier
I don't know why Xavier isn't being looked at in a higher regard. The Musketeers are 20-3 overall and 8-2 in the Big East with no appalling losses. They also got to the Elite Eight last year and returned most of their core for this year. Like seriously people, get on the X Train before it rolls to the Final Four.
7 Michigan State
Michigan State had two straight scares last week, almost losing to Maryland and Penn State before getting their act together late. If this were another team, I probably wouldn't drop them two spots for winning two games. But until they actually play well for 40 minutes in the wake of this sexual assault cover-up, I'm gonna assume that it's taking a toll on the players.
8 Cincinnati
Cincinnati continues to roll in the American, even though Houston gave them a decent run earlier this week. The Bearcats are still undefeated in conference and only have two losses on the season. Is strength of schedule an issue? Yes. Is it enough of an issue to overlook them as a top 10 team? Not at the moment. You can't fault Cincy for having a sucky conference, but I'm still deciding whether I like this team for March.
9 Arizona
A dominant performance over Washington State still has me high on Arizona. It's also nice that they have been winning without Rawle Alkins, who's missed their last 3 games. Allonzo Trier and Deandre Ayton are starting to take over this team like we thought they would in the preseason.
10 Auburn
Hey! An SEC team is back in the ETPR for the first time since Week 8! And if you told me it would be Auburn, I would've said you were clinically insane. But here we are, on the 2nd of February, talking about Auburn basketball. The Tigers are 20-2 and only have one SEC loss. Bryce Brown is a force on the offensive end, and Auburn could actually be legit.
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