పురుషుల కళాశాల బాస్కెట్‌బాల్ టాప్ 10, బబుల్ టీమ్ NET ర్యాంకింగ్‌లు: ఎవరైనా UMని పట్టుకోగలరా?

The top 25 rankings are important for understanding just who is killing it in college basketball, but we can go deeper — all the way to the bubble and beyond.

The NCAA Evaluation Tool, or NET, is a rankings system used in Division I basketball to help figure out which teams are going to participate in March Madness. As the NCAA puts it, NET “takes into account game results, strength of schedule, game location, net offensive and defensive efficiency, and the quality of wins and losses,” the latter of which is determined by placing every Division I matchup into different quadrants, ranked 1 through 4, with 1 being the strongest teams and 4 the weakest — Quads aren’t just determined by record, but also whether a game was played at home, on the road or at a neutral site.

Using NET, we can get a sense of which teams are the best at a given moment, as well as which ones are on the bubble for selection in March. While updated daily by the NCAA, we’ll track changes weekly.

With that, here are the top 10 men’s college basketball teams through Dec. 22, according to NET.

The Top 10

10. Illinois (previous: 13)

A huge win over rival Missouri in the annual Braggin’ Rights game played a part in this jump for Illinois — the Fighting Illini had their largest margin of victory over the Tigers in their long history of matchups, 91-48.

9. BYU (previous: 6)

BYU fell back a few spots despite going 3-0 in the past week. How does that happen? Well, the Cougars are still yet to play a road game nearly two months into the season — they’re the only top-10 team without at least one — and they were facing low-level competition over the past seven days. Giving up 81 points to Eastern Washington isn’t a great look.

8. UConn (previous: 8)

Conference wins against Butler (ranked 42nd in NET) and DePaul — the latter in a game without Solo Ball and with an ill Silas Demary Jr. — keep UConn right where they have been.

7. Purdue (previous: 9)

Purdue crushed then-No. 20 Auburn 88-60 on Saturday, which effectively booted the Tigers out of the AP poll. It also bumped the Boilermakers up by a couple of spots in NET.

6. Vanderbilt (previous: 7)

Vanderbilt is still undefeated after picking up wins against Memphis and Wake Forest in the past week — they beat the Demon Deacons by 31 — and are now up to three Quad 1 and Quad 2 wins a piece. 

5. Gonzaga (previous: 3)

Gonzaga faced Campbell — a bottom-tier team — and then Oregon in the past week. And while they won both contests, dominating the former while just slipping by the latter by nine points is the kind of thing NET is meant to catch; so, a two-spot drop. Oregon, naturally, saw a significant jump from 127 to 103 in NET because of the loss.

4. Iowa State (previous: 5)

Iowa State crushed both Eastern Illinois and Long Beach State last week, giving them an additional Quad 2 and Quad 4 wins a piece. Not losing — and not winning close, either — matters in that last category.

3. Duke (previous: 2)

Duke blew it against then-No. 19 Texas Tech on Saturday, and it hurt them in both the poll and in NET. Not by quite as much in NET, however: the tool sees a great team that lost a close game to a worthy opponent. The Red Raiders are 24th by NET, by the way.

2. Arizona (previous: 4)

Arizona remains unbeaten, but what’s a little funny here is that they are moving up more because of how the competition did in the last week than their own performance: the Wildcats actually saw their average opponent NET rank fall since the last check-in, but with Duke and Gonzaga slipping back and Iowa State not facing anyone of note, Arizona moved up by virtue of just taking care of business.

1. Michigan (previous: 1)

FOX Sports’ Casey Jacobsen and NET are in agreement: Michigan is the top team in the nation. Illinois is the only top-10 team that has faced the level of competition that Michigan has, but unlike with the Fighting Illini, the Wolverines remain unbeaten despite this.

Risers and Fallers

In the span of a week, some teams can see their spot in the rankings dramatically shift. Here are the five teams that rose the most in men’s college basketball in the last week…

5. Denver, 256 to 213: Denver had a surprising 86-79 win over Northern Colorado — surprising because they were ranked about 100 spots better than Denver — and then lost to Tulsa (44th in NET) by just five points on Monday.

4. Purdue Fort Wayne, 244 to 200: Wins against Detroit Mercy and Notre Dame bumped Purdue Fort Wayne from the back-end of the rankings to somewhere in the middle.

3. Grambling, 248 to 202: Grambling moved right there alongside Purdue Fort Wayne, after defeating Norfolk State and Hampton, putting separation between the three that had previously been ranked much closer.

2. Pittsburgh, 169 to 119: Pittsburgh beat Binghamton by 40 points and then Penn State by 34. While that’s to be expected against Binghamton, one of the lowest-ranked teams in Division I, Penn State was previously ranked ahead of Pitt. Not anymore, though.

1. Creighton, 112 to 58: What a huge stretch for Creighton. The Bluejays beat Xavier 98-57, Marquette 84-63 and Utah Tech 92-69, and all of this after a narrow loss to Kansas State, which currently ranks 53rd in NET… right by Creighton’s new placement.

…and the five that fell the furthest.

T5. Northern Kentucky, 177 to 218: Northern Kentucky lost to both Oakland and Charleston. The first was less of a problem, but the Norse had been ranked better than the Cougars before that L.

T5. Central Connecticut State, 185 to 226: Just the one loss, but it was a big one: Fairfield’s men’s team is not as competitive as its women’s team, to the point they are still ranked behind Central Connecticut State even after defeating them.

T5. Bethune-Cookman, 246 to 287: Bethune-Cookman actually improved in NET after Arizona beat them 107-71, but that might be because they lost to Saint Louis 112-53 earlier in the week. The Billikens are 26th in NET, but still. That’s a D-I vs. D-II score.

4. Penn State, 104 to 148: The result of Pitt’s big W.

3. Holy Cross, 260 to 311: Losses to Dartmouth (89-64) and Harvard (81-53) made a tough season tougher, and put distance between Holy Cross and the others in NET.

2. ETSU, 100 to 154: Dropping a game to ranked North Carolina is one thing, but then losing to Jacksonville State — now 288th in NET — dropped them back 41 spots on its own.

1. Stony Brook, 152 to 228: Stony Brook lost to Albany and Marist by a combined 35 points, and that first one really hurt them.

On the Bubble 

Of the 68 March Madness teams in the tournament, 31 of them are conference champions who receive automatic entry into the tournament. The other 37 spots are at-large bids. With that in mind, we will look at the teams ranked between 64-to-73 in NET each week, as those are the ones who are the most on the bubble for the tourney.

73. Northern Iowa (previous: 88): Northern Iowa defeated UIC before losing to Saint Mary’s by all of 5 points — the thing is, the latter is ranked 27th by NET, so the Panthers got a bump even in defeat.

72. Oklahoma State (previous: 72): Wins against Kansas City and Cal State Fullerton kept Oklahoma State running in place.

71. Colorado State (previous: 54): Colorado State tumbled backward into the bubble after being crushed by Utah State, 100-58. Utah State is exceptionally well-regarded by NET — they are 18th — but losing by 42 looks ugly regardless of opponent.

70. Murray State (previous: 80): Dubs against Valparaiso and Drake let Murray State climb a few rungs on the ladder and into bubble territory.

69. Wisconsin (previous: 69): Wisconsin held on to this spot despite an overtime loss to Villanova — 30th in NET — thanks to an 88-61 win over Central Michigan.

68. William & Mary (previous: 71): William & Mary moved up ever so slightly, which is what you want: there are just 68 slots, and while Nos. 1 through 68 aren’t necessarily a lock for March, being in that group is better than being outside of it as far as your chances for an at-large bid go.

67. Wake Forest (previous: 48): Losing to ranked Vanderbilt? That happens. Defeating Longwood by just 3 points? That figure is missing a zero at the end, hence the steep drop.

66. TCU (previous: 70): A slight bump for TCU, which beat Oral Roberts by 19 and Florida A&M by 26 last week.

65. Texas A&M (previous: 81): Texas A&M actually didn’t do all that much in the past week, as they played just one game, and against a Division II squad. Simply not losing has its benefits, however, especially as chaos happens around you.

64. South Florida (previous: 75): South Florida lost to ranked Alabama, but by just 11 points. They then turned around and defeated UMBC, 94-69. Who you lose to also has its benefits.

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