Once again, there was movement in the NCAA Men’s Basketball AP Top 10. However, the top five were immune to the change and shake-up this week. We will take a look at the standings from last week to this week. We will then look in the rear view mirror to see what each team did in the past week and take a look ahead to see what each team has in store for them in the upcoming week.
December 29 January 5
- Kentucky 1. Kentucky
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Duke 2. Duke
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Virginia 3. Virginia
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Wisconsin 4. Wisconsin
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Louisville 5. Louisville
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Villanova 6. Gonzaga
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Gonzaga 7. Arizona
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Arizona 8. Villanova
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Iowa State 9. Utah
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Utah 10. Texas
#1 Kentucky (13-0)
The Kentucky Wildcats had the week off and remained the unanimous #1 team in the nation with a 13-0 record. Willie Cauley-Stein has emerged as the team leader. The 7-foot junior decided to come back to the Wildcats after watching the championship game from the bench with an ankle injury, and his return to the Wildcats was a surprise considering that when he signed his letter of intent, everyone thought he would be a one-and-done. Even with the injury, he was expected to be a round one pick. Yet, he has returned and the Wildcat nation is forever grateful.
Cauley-Stein is averaging 10 points and 6 rebounds a game in 24 minutes of a play.
This Week: The Wildcats have two games this week. On Tuesday, they play Mississippi and on Saturday, they play Texas A&M.
# 2 Duke (13-0)
The Duke Blue Devils are sitting at 13-0 as well and over the past week, they were 3-0. On Monday, they beat Toledo 84-69. On Wednesday, they beat Wofford 84-55, and then on Saturday, they opened ACC play by beating Boston College 85-62. Absolute consistency in the points that they scored in each of the three games.
Against Toledo: Jahlil Okafor had a stellar night with 27 points (12 of 15 shooting) and 8 rebounds. Quinn Cook also contributed with 20 points on 6-of-12 shooting.
Against Wofford: Okafor once again shined as Duke began their preparation for the ACC, with 24 points on 11-13 shooting and grabbing 8 rebounds again.
Against Boston College: Duke opened up their ACC play by blowing out BC. Guess who shined? Of course, it was Jahlil Okafor. Once again, he played an unbelievable game and this time, he scored half of his points from the free-throw line. He had 28 points and 8 rebounds for the game, going 7-of-11 from the field and 14 of 17 from the free throw line.
We can now say, Jahlil “All-World” Okafor. He has now pushed his numbers up to 19.5 points a game along with 8.7 rebounds. Oh, he also plays defense.
This Week: They play Wake Forest on Wednesday and North Carolina State on Sunday.
#3 Virginia (13-0)
The Virginia Cavaliers remained undefeated and moved to 13-0 after two victories last week. They played and beat Davidson 83-72 on Tuesday. and on Saturday, they went to Miami and won 89-80 in double overtime.
Against Davidson: Anthony Gill played a stellar game. He scored 25 points on 11-of-16 shooting while grabbing 13 rebounds (6 on the offensive end).
Against Miami: London “Who” Perrantes led Virginia over Miami. Perrantes, who is averaging 5 points a game, scored 26 points while dishing out 8 rebounds.
This Week: They play two games this week. On Wednesday, they play North Carolina State and then on Saturday, they play Notre Dame.
#4 Wisconsin (14-1)
Wisconsin is 14-1 after two wins this past week. They beat Penn State on Wednesday and Northwestern on Sunday. They beat Penn State by 17 (89-72) and Northwestern by 23 (81-58).
Against Penn State: Wisconsin went to the paint. Frank Kaminsky scored 18 points and snatched 14 rebounds to propel them to victory. However, he was not the high scorer. The high scorer of the night was Nigel Hayes, who finished with 21 points.
Against Northwestern: Wisconsin gave Northwestern a 1-2 punch – Kaminsky was all over the court and Sam Dekker was on fire from the outside, going 4-of-6 from 3-point land. They both scored 16 points.
This Week: They play two games. on Wednesday, they play Purdue and then on Sunday, they play Rutgers.
#5 Louisville (13-1)
The Louisville Cardinals moved to 13-1 after two wins over the past week. They beat Long Beach State (63-48) on Tuesday and Wake Forest (85-76) on Sunday.
Against Long Beach State: Terry Rozier helped the Cardinals win by scoring 23 points and grabbing 7 rebounds. Many individuals pointed to the score board and felt that the #5 team in the nation should have blown out a 5-10 team.
Against Wake Forest: Montrezl Harrell had 25 points but we will put the spotlight on Chris Jones, who scored 22 points, dished out 10 assists and pulled down 4 rebounds.
This Week: The Louisville Cardinals play two games this week. On Wednesday, they play Clemson and on Saturday, they play North Carolina.
#6 Gonzaga (14-1)
Gonzaga finished the week 2-0 to improve their record to 14-1. They played the University of San Diego on Monday and won 60-48 and then they beat Portland on Saturday by 12 as well (87-75).
Against San Diego: Gonzaga started on fire but then cooled off and held on to win by 12. Kyle Wiltjer led the way with 15 points and 6 rebounds. Gonzaga struggled from the field, shooting only 42%.
Against Portland: Kevin Pangos and Przemek Karnowski served as a two-headed monster as they both scored 21 points on great shooting nights, shooting a combined 15-of-20.
This Week: Gonzaga plays two games this week. They play San Francisco on Thursday and Santa Clara on Saturday.
# 7 Arizona (13-1)
The Arizona Wildcats had one game last week after having 11 days off. They showed no rust at all as they hammered their in-state rival Arizona State 73-49. The Wildcats were led by three players scoring 13 points each. The player of the game for them was Stanley Johnson, with 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting and 7 rebounds. He was also Mr. Hustle, diving on the floor to get loose balls.
This Week: Arizona goes to the state of Oregon., where they will play two games. On Thursday, they played Oregon and then Oregon State on Sunday.
# 8 Villanova (13-1)
The Wildcats were 1-1 this week to give them the first loss of the year and dropped two spots. They were ranked 6th last week. They beat Butler (67-55) but lost to Seton Hall (66-61).
Against Butler: Villanova played team basketball with four players scoring in double figures. The gold star will go to Daniel Ochefu on his 10-point, 9-rebound performance.
Against Seton Hall: Ochefu absolutely shined and he did everything in his power to try to keep his team undefeated but his spectacular performance could not stop Seton Hall. Ochefu finished the night with 19 points and 24 rebounds.
This Week: Villanova has two games this week. On Tuesday, they travel to St. John’s and then on Saturday, they host DePaul.
# 9 Utah (12-2)
Utah had a fantastic week in their two games. On Friday, they beat USC 79-55, and then they completed the Los Angeles sweep by beating UCLA 71-39 on Sunday. They absolutely cruised and jumped from #10 to #9.
Against USC: Utah shot 57% from the field as they easily beat USC. Delon Wright was the floor general of the game as he scored 11 points and dished out 10 assists.
Against UCLA: The Utah defense held UCLA to 28% shooting. On the offensive side of the game, Wright once again was the team leader. He had a great week. In this game, he had 11 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assist.
This Week: Utah has a busy week as they play three games. They play Colorado on Wednesday, Arizona State on Thursday and Arizona on Saturday.
#10 Texas
Texas went 2-0 last week to improve their record to 12-2. With the two wins, Texas jumped back into the top ten at number 10. Their wins came against Rice (66-55) and Texas Tech (70-61).
Against Rice: Myles Turner took charge on 6-of-7 shooting. Turner scored 16 points and recorded 5 rebounds as Texas beat Rice by 11. Rice is a 3-8 team, so Longhorn nation was a little concerned that the win was not as convincing as they had hoped for.
Against Texas Tech: Jonathan Holmes had a strong performance that helped the Longhorns beat their in-state rival by 9 points. They were able to hold on to the lead in the 2nd half, as concerns continued to grow at Texas’ slim margins of victory.
This Week: Texas plays two games. They play Oklahoma on Monday and Oklahoma State on Saturday.
There are are four one-loss teams that are hanging out at #11-#14 who are hoping that some teams above them in the top ten will stumble and they can have their chance to crack the top ten. They are Maryland, Kansas, Notre Dame and West Virginia.
January should be a fun month as conference play gets into full swing. Stay tuned.
(Featured Photo: AP Photo/Gerry Broome)