College Basketball Power Rankings: 2/11

I feel bad for people who think the college basketball season doesn't start until they can fill out a bracket in March. Those poor soulless drones.




15. PITTSBURGH (20-5). It's probably time to finally notice the Panthers after their surprising road win at Cincinnati. This is a deep, unselfish team that's won seven of eight, including an upset of Syracuse. Because they lack a flashy or well-known player, it feels like this Pitt team will continue to go unnoticed the rest of the way, earn at 7-seed in the tournament despite deserving a 4, and then make an unexpected run.
Last week: unranked

14. WISCONSIN (17-7). Given how much praise has been heaped upon Indiana and Michigan this season, I'd say it's a pretty big deal that Wisconsin is the only team in the country to have beaten both of them.
Last week: unranked

13. ARIZONA (20-3). If "East Coast Bias" really is a thing, it has its benefits. Most of Arizona's losing efforts come when the rest of the country is fast asleep. The Wildcats can hope nobody noticed their head-scratching home loss to Cal late Sunday night while we all go on pretending that Arizona is an elite team.
Last week: #13

12. BUTLER (20-4). Here's one of the few top-15 teams that actually didn't lose this week.
Last week: #12

11. KANSAS (19-4). Whoa. What the heck happened here. Not only are the Jayhawks riding a three-game losing streak ... they lost to TCU. That stands as one of the most shocking regular season upsets in recent memory. TCU is awful, probably the worst team in a power-six conference. They were 0-8 in the Big 12 this season and didn't even come close to winning any of those eight games. And not only did Kansas lose to TCU -- the Jayhawks trailed the entire game and were just outplayed. It's not a death sentence for their season by any means, but no team has ever suffered such a baffling loss and gone on to win a national championship.
Last week: #3

10. OHIO STATE (17-6). Under normal circumstances, a winless week would have been grounds for a sharp drop in the rankings (see: Kansas). The Buckeyes, though, forced overtime at Michigan before losing and then fell to Indiana, so no shame there.
Last week: #11

9. SYRACUSE (20-3). With the vacuum that currently exists at the top of the rankings, Syracuse has the look of a team that could take advantage and rise quickly. James Southerland is back in the lineup, the Orange pummeled St. John's on Sunday, and their upcoming schedule is very manageable.
Last week: #10

8. LOUISVILLE (19-5). No team suffered a more bizarre loss than Louisville did on late Saturday night at Notre Dame. The Cardinals, up by eight with less than a minute to play, were on their way to a rather routine road win before Jerian Grant of the Fighting Irish took it upon himself to score 12 points in about forty seconds. And Louisville went on to lose after five overtimes. It was that kind of week.
Last week: #5

7. GONZAGA (23-2). Good old reliable Gonzaga. The Bulldogs were unaffected by the chaos that churned around them. They're halfway to a perfect conference record in the WCC after two more blowout wins.
Last week: #9

6. MICHIGAN STATE (20-4). We're well into February and the forever-under-the-radar Spartans are still tied for first in the Big Ten at 9-2. Here comes the crucial stretch: four of their next five games are against Michigan (twice!), Indiana, and Ohio State.
Last week: #8

5. DUKE (21-2). This is the only team in the top five of the national polls that didn't lose this week. It's not like the Blue Devils didn't try, though; they made things interesting at Boston College before pulling out a 62-61 win. Beating the snot out of N.C. State earlier in the week did help prove that the ACC is still a two-team race.
Last week: #6

4. MIAMI (19-3). What a meteoric rise to the top. There's even an argument to be made that the Hurricanes should be ranked #1 next week because they haven't lost since Christmas Day. Which is fair, but Miami hasn't been tested on the road yet like the top Big Ten teams have. Away from home, they were blown out by Arizona and lost to Florida Gulf Coast and Indiana State. Their best road win was N.C. State at the buzzer. So circle March 2nd on the calendar, when the Hurricanes travel to Duke; if they win that game, they'll establish themselves as serious national championship contenders.
Last week: #7

3. FLORIDA (19-3). The Gators lost all their street cred by getting pummeled at Arkansas. There are only so many opportunities on the SEC schedule to win it back. Taking out a rapidly-improving Kentucky team on Tuesday would be an excellent start.
Last week: #1

2. MICHIGAN (21-3). It'll be hilarious to see how far the Wolverines drop in the national polls just because they've lost two out of three. Those three games were at Indiana, home against Ohio State, and at Wisconsin. How many teams in the country could do better than one-out-of-three? If anything, I'm more impressed by Michigan than I was before this three-game stretch.
Last week: #4

1. INDIANA (21-3). It's not often that the #1 team can lose to an unranked opponent and still stay in the #1 spot. But then again, it's not often that every other good team loses, too. The Hoosiers deserve to be at the top because they responded to their last-second loss at Illinois with an impressively straightforward 81-68 win at Ohio State. They've finally proven they can win on the road against a tough opponent, and that might be the most significant development of an insane week.
Last week: #2