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AP Poll Top 25 Men's College Basketball Rankings Prediction after Week 18

Monday's college basketball AP poll top 25 could look like a dartboard. Array the top teams in college basketball, and basically throw a few guesses at who's a top 25 team. Granted, the top squads were unscathed, but it was a brutal week for the lower half of the top 25.

The projected AP poll reflects the craziness of week 18.


AP Poll top 25 college basketball rankings prediction after Week 18

Predicted AP Poll

Ranking

Team NameOverall RecordTotal PointsRanking Last Week
1Houston28-315501
2UConn28-314602
3Purdue27-314503
4North Carolina25-613507
5Tennessee24-712754
6Arizona24-712255
7Creighton23-8120010
8Iowa State24-710806
9Auburn24-7103013
10Marquette23-89708
11Duke24-79509
12Kentucky23-885015
13Baylor22-978011
14Illinois22-874012
15Gonzaga24-670019
16Kansas22-958014
17Alabama21-1055016
18South Carolina25-649017
19Utah State26-539022
20St. Mary's 24-734023
21Washington State23-833018
22Dayton24-628025
23Nevada25-6250NR
24BYU22-916020
25Texas Tech 22-955NR

Week 18 upsets

A loss to Kentucky dropped No. 4 Tennessee a spot in the projected AP poll.
A loss to Kentucky dropped No. 4 Tennessee a spot in the projected AP poll.

Where to begin? For illustration, the ranks of teams that lost this week were: 4, 6, 8, 9, 11, 12, 14, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21 (twice) and 24.

If anything, that list makes the week seem even more drastic than it was. Instead, much of the poll impact consisted of teams falling or rising a spot or two after mild disappointments.

Kansas's humiliation against Houston was significant, but the guess is the AP poll does not penalize them much. San Diego State took a pair of losses and could pay the price of falling from the top 25.


Top-10 activity

North Carolina and Creighton, both already in the top 10, took jumps.

Duke was the only team that fell from the top 10, which sounds more drastic than saying they went from ninth to 11th.

Auburn was the only team to climb into the top 10. While four top-10 teams lost, there wasn't a ton of turmoil. Credit Houston, UConn and Purdue for not falling.


Rising in and dropping out

The projected top 25 has two new entrants, Nevada and Texas Tech.

Texas Tech was rewarded for an upset win over Baylor, while Nevada's path was more complicated. The Wolfpack overtook Boise State, otherwise, it would have been Boise that made the top 25.

San Diego State's awful 0-2 week dropped them from 21st to outside the projected top 25. Likewise, South Florida's loss to Tulsa caused the Bulls to slide out of the poll from 24th.

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