Editor's note: WBIR's Sports Executive Producer/Anchor Patrick Murray is in his first season voting for the Associated Press Top 25 Poll for college basketball. This column explains his rankings for Week 13 (poll released 1/30/2017).
This week was probably the wildest week of the season so far in college basketball. Ten of the top 15 and 14 of the top 25 teams lost.
That made it difficult to order my top 25 this week, but here's what I came up with (if I refer to top 25/50/100 wins, I'm using the KenPom.com rankings):
1. Gonzaga (22-0)
Spots Moved: 0
The Zags are the only undefeated team left and they have solid wins over Arizona and Florida, plus seven KenPom top-100 wins.
2. Baylor (20-1)
Spots Moved: +1
Baylor was the only team from my top 10 last week that didn't lose. The Bears have one more top-50 win than Kansas and one less loss.
3. Kansas (19-2)
Spots Moved: +1
The Jayhawks made up for a road loss to a very good West Virginia team by beating Kentucky on the road. Only Baylor has more top-50 KenPom wins.
4. Villanova (20-2)
Spots Moved: -2
The defending champs lost on the road at Marquette, then charged back from a double-digit second-half deficit to sneak by Virginia on a last second tip-in. Baylor and Kansas have slightly better resumes in terms of losses and top-50/100 wins.
5. Arizona (20-2)
Spots Moved: +6
The Wildcats have won 14 straight and their last loss was to No. 1 Gonzaga on December 3rd. 'Zona only has two top-50 wins but one of them is over UCLA.
6. West Virginia (17-4)
Spots Moved: +8
West Virginia upended then No. 2 Kansas this week to add to an impressive resume of wins that includes Baylor and Virginia. Only Florida State can match the Mountaineers' three KenPom top-10 wins and no one else has more than one. WVU's four losses came by a combined 11 points and two of them went to overtime.
7. UCLA (19-3)
Spots Moved: 0
The Bruins lost their only game this week to USC so it's kind of weird to keep them in the same spot but with so many other teams also losing I felt it was alright. UCLA did beat Kentucky at Rupp earlier this season and only has three losses to go with eight top-100 wins.
8. Kentucky (17-4)
Spots moved: 0
Again, like UCLA, strange to keep Kentucky in the same spot after two losses during the week but so many other teams around them lost too. One of those L's was to a great Kansas team, the other on the road to a Tennessee team that is coming into its own and has climbed into the 38 spot in the KenPom rankings. Plus, the 'Cats beat UNC so I wanted to keep them ahead of the Tar Heels.
9. North Carolina (19-4)
Spots moved: +4
I know what you're saying, "YOU MOVED CAROLINA UP FOUR SPOTS AFTER THEY LOST BY 15 TO MIAMI?!"
Stuff like that happens when so many teams lose in the same week and I'm looking more at the overall body of work and less of what happened this week. The Tar Heels boast seven top-50 and 12 top-100 wins. No team I have ranked behind Carolina can match those numbers besides Butler. Plus, I'm running into a bevy of head-to-head matchups that come into play for me here. UNC beat Florida State and the 'Noles have beaten Virginia and Louisville (and they all have four losses). I'm not trying to get into the transitive property here but if one team beat another head-to-head, I'd like to rank that winner ahead of the loser when it makes sense.
10. Florida State (18-4)
Spots Moved: -5
The 10+ point losses to Georgia Tech and Syracuse this week weren't great but at least they were on the road. Florida State still has one of the more impressive resumes in the country with five KenPom top-25 wins (more than anybody) and three top-10 W's. For that reason, I feel comfortable keeping them in my top 10, plus the 'Noles have beaten Virginia (on the road) and Louisville (and have a better overall resume than the Cavs and Cards, in terms of wins) so I wanted to keep them in front of those two teams.
11. Virginia (16-4)
Spots Moved: +4
The head-to-head win gives UVA the nod over Louisville.
12. Louisville (18-4) (+4 spots)
13. Butler (18-4)
Spots Moved: -3
Nobody has more top-100 wins (14) than the Bulldogs and only Baylor has more top-50 wins. However, losses to Indiana State and St. John's are holding Butler back in my mind. Louisville has four top-25 wins to Butler's three, and all four of the Cardinals' losses came to KenPom Top-25 teams, so I dropped Butler behind them.
14. Cincinnati (19-2) (+3 spots)
15. Maryland (19-2) (+3 spots)
16. Creighton (19-3) (-10 spots)
A lot of people are down on Creighton and I know they're without their excellent point guard Maurice Watson for the rest of the year but the Jays only have three losses, all of them to teams ranked 53 or better, including Villanova. They do have 9 top-100 wins and beat Wisconsin, so I stopped their slide just ahead of the Badgers.
17. Wisconsin (18-3) (+4 spots)
I probably have Wisconsin a little lower than most voters do and while their losses aren't bad by any means (Creighton, UNC, Purdue, all away from home) and they have 10 top-100 wins, they just don't have a really great stand-out win. The Badgers best victory is probably at Marquette. You could make the same argument against Cincinnati and Maryland but they both have at least one KenPom top-25 win (Wisconsin doesn't) and only have two losses. I have Creighton ahead of Wisconsin because the Jays beat them head-to-head.
18. Oregon (19-3) (-9 spots)
The Ducks do have that nice win over UCLA but Wisconsin has more top-50 and top-100 wins and two of Oregon's losses came to teams outside the top 50. Dana Altman's crew has a chance for a huge, resume-boosting win coming up - a home date with Arizona on Saturday.
19. South Carolina (17-4) (+3 spots)
20. Purdue (17-5) (0 spots moved)
21. Notre Dame (17-5) (-8 spots)
22. Duke (16-5) (-3 spots)
23. Saint Mary's (19-2) (0 spots moved)
24. Northwestern (18-4) (not ranked last week)
25. Florida (16-5) (not ranked last week)
