College Basketball Power Rankings: 1/28

Before the week began, the Villanova Wildcats had achieved virtually nothing of note this season. Now that the week is over, they've beaten two top-five teams. Welcome to conference play.

15. MINNESOTA (15-5). The poor Golden Gophers have gone from 15-1 to 15-5 in the blink of an eye thanks to four straight single-digit losses. Three of those were on the road (to Indiana, Northwestern, and Wisconsin); the home game was against Michigan. Yowza. The schedule eases off a little in the coming weeks and Minnesota should recover.
Last week: #12

14. ARIZONA (17-2). All season long, the biggest criticism of this team has been its lack of a true point guard. That hole was seriously exposed in Arizona's unexpected 84-73 home loss to UCLA on Thursday. Against the Bruins' hilariously-porous defense, "point guard" Mark Lyons didn't record a single assist while shooting just 6-of-17 from the floor. Lyons is a scorer, not a facilitator, and that probably can't change between now and March. Something to do with square pegs and round holes.
Last week: #9

13. OREGON (18-2). The Ducks have already beaten both UCLA and Arizona, and they don't play either team again. That gives Oregon a nice leg-up on the Pac-12 title race. Unfortunately, freshman point guard Dominic Artis hurt his foot last week, putting this team's long-term future in doubt.
Last week: #15

12. OHIO STATE (15-4). In most other years, Ohio State would be good enough to win its conference. The Buckeyes are a ferocious defensive unit with an excellent point guard, an elite scorer, and a solid cast of complementary players. They'd be either the best or second-best team in any other conference in the country right now. In this year's Big Ten, though? They can't even crack the top three, not with Indiana, Michigan, and Michigan State around.
Last week: #14

11. GONZAGA (19-2). Meet Kelly Olynyk, pictured on the right, Gonzaga's center and the best player nobody talks about. The seven-foot junior is averaging 18 points and seven rebounds per game with ridiculously good percentages: 66% from the field and 82% from the line. He's the biggest reason why the Zags are 6-0 in the West Coast Conference, and why they might not lose again all season. He also looks a bit like a girl.
Last week: #11

10. MIAMI (15-3). That 90-63 takedown of #1 Duke might be the most impressive win in college basketball this season. Equally as impressive: the Hurricanes didn't endure any sort of hangover. They thrashed Florida State in their next game, 71-47, to move to 6-0 in the ACC.
Last week: unranked

9. BUTLER (17-3). The Bulldogs did suffer their first conference loss this week, to La Salle. But leading scorer Rotnei Clarke was inactive for that one; in his return against Temple, he led Butler to a 83-71 win with 24 points and nine assists.
Last week: #8

8. MICHIGAN STATE (17-4). Stop me if you've heard this before: the Spartans are coming on strong at just the right time. In their last three contests, they've beaten Ohio State at home, won at Wisconsin, and lost by just five at Indiana in a game where point guard Keith Appling was limited to 19 minutes due to foul trouble. A 6-2 record in this year's Big Ten is nothing to sneeze at.
Last week: #10

7. SYRACUSE (18-2). James Southerland, Syracuse's leading three-point shooter, is still academically ineligible. On Saturday, the Orange made only five three-pointers in a shocking loss at Villanova. Connect the dots as needed.
Last week: #6

6. DUKE (17-2). After getting steamrolled by Miami, the Blue Devils rebounded with a 20-point win over Maryland. They may have found a replacement for Ryan Kelly on the perimeter: freshman Rasheed Sulaimon, who sunk six of his eight three-point attempts en route to a team-leading 25 points.
Last week: #5

5. LOUISVILLE (16-4). Nobody had a worse week than the Cardinals. They've now lost three in a row, to Syracuse, Villanova, and Georgetown, dropping them to just 4-3 in the Big East. But nobody gets anywhere by overreacting. This same team had similarly awful stretches last year, and still ended up in the Final Four.
Last week: #3

4. INDIANA (18-2). We officially learned who the Hoosiers' best player is during their intense 75-70 victory over Michigan State on Sunday. It's not preseason player of the year favorite Cody Zeller, who went 2-of-7 from the field. It's versatile slasher Victor Oladipo, who scored 21 points on 8-of-12 shooting with seven rebounds, six steals, three blocks, and tenacious defense. Indiana wouldn't be anything special without him.
Last week: #4

3. FLORIDA (16-2). How many teams can go on the road in conference play and win by 35 points? That's what the Gators did on Saturday when they traveled to Mississippi State and won by the score of 82-47. Florida is owning the SEC in the same way that Kentucky owned it last year, just with fewer headlines.
Last week: #7

2. MICHIGAN (19-1). During the Wolverines' road win over Illinois, one of the broadcasters brought up Michigan's hellish schedule over the next two weeks: home vs Northwestern, at Indiana, home vs Ohio State, at Wisconsin, and at Michigan State. The second broadcaster summed it up perfectly by replying, "What, the Thunder weren't available?"
Last week: #2

1. KANSAS (18-1). Utter dominance over a major conference isn't supposed to look so easy. Earlier this week, the Jayhawks passed what will probably be their toughest road test of the year by winning at Kansas State, 59-55. Now Kansas is the last undefeated team in the Big 12 at 6-0. With Michigan's schedule covered in landmines, it's only a matter of time before the Jayhawks ascend to the #1 ranking in the national polls.
Last week: #1