The latest NCAA basketball rankings are out and the news is decidedly mixed for the locals. We’ll start with the good news, which is the Temple Owls. After a couple weeks out of the top 25, Temple re-emerged after a strong final week to rise to #24.
Villanova is where our bad news comes in. After reaching as high #7 in January, the Wildcats were dropped from the top 25 for the first time all season. Losers of 9 of their final 14 games, Nova did receive 64 top 25 votes which would place them at about #28 in the country. To add insult to injury, nine other Big East squads made the top 25.
Nationally, the biggest mover up was North Carolina who jumped from #13 to #6 after they beat Duke to capture the regular season ACC title, but they still sit behind the #5 Blue Devils overall. The biggest notable faller was unfortunately BYU, who dropped from #3 to #8 after their loss to New Mexico which of course followed Brandon Davis’ dismissal from the team due to a violation of the school’s honor code.
Here are the full top 25.
1. Ohio State (29-2) 2. Kansas (29-2) 3. Pittsburgh (27-4) 4. Notre Dame (25-5) 5. Duke (27-4) 6. North Carolina (24-6) 7. San Diego State (29-2) 8. BYU (28-3) 9. Purdue (25-6) 10. Texas (25-6) 11. Syracuse (25-6) 12. Florida (24-6) 13. Wisconsin (23-7) 14. Louisville (23-8) 15. Kentucky (22-8) 16. Arizona (25-6) 17. St. John’s (20-10) 18. Xavier (24-6) 19. Kansas State (22-9) 20. West Virginia (20-10) 21. Connecticut (21-9) 22. Georgetown (21-9) 23. Utah State (28-3) 24. Temple (24-6) 25. Cincinnati (24-7)