NCAA Top 25: Indiana still 1, Duke jumps to 2

The Hoosiers of Indiana University seem to be living up to the pre-season hype and are widening their margin on their ‘poll competition’ with the voting results of the week for the NCAA Men’s Basketball Associated Press and the USA Today/Coaches Poll Top 25. Indiana is still firmly in the top spot in both polls earning 47 of 65 first place votes (up 1 from last week) in the AP Poll with a total of 1,606 points. In the coaches poll they picked up 27 of 31 first place votes (up 2 from last week) with 769 total points. Their showing is based on their current 6-0 record (as of Sunday, Nov. 25), picking up wins this week over Georgia (NR – 66:53), Georgetown (AP#20, USA#25 – 82:72), and Ball State (NR – 101:53).

Coming off a big week with wins over Minnesota (AP#21, USA#26 – 89:71), Virginia Commonwealth (NR – 67:58) and Louisville (AP#5, USA#6 – 76:71), the Duke Blue Devils (6-0) made an impressive jump to the second highest ranked men’s collegiate basketball team in the US. Last week they were fifth on both polls. They also earned 18 first place votes on the AP Poll with 1,554 points as well as 4 first place votes on the Coaches Poll with 723 total votes. The win over Louisville was also in the championship of the ‘Battle 4 Atlantis’ tournament, held in Paradise Island, Bahamas.

The third slot in the Top 25 goes to Michigan this week coming in with two wins over Pittsburgh (AP#30, USA#27 – 67-62) and Kansas State University (71:57).

Ohio State (4-0) dropped one spot on both polls with only one game this week, a win over unranked and grossly overmatched University of Missouri-Kansas City (NR – 91:45).

Louisville and Syracuse occupy the fifth and sixth spots on the polls, with Louisville in fifth in the AP Poll, but sixth in the Coaches poll; Syracuse holds the opposite in the polls. The spot marks a one position drop for Louisville, who’s 5-1, in the AP Poll after their close loss to Duke. They also beat the University of Northern Iowa (NR – 51:46) and Missouri (AP#16, USA#15 – 84:61). Syracuse, 4-0, is AP#6 and USA#5 and won games against Princeton, (NR – 73:53), and Colgate, (NR-87:51).

Florida (5-0) and Kentucky (4-1) hold down the seventh and eight spots in both polls, which is no move in the AP poll, but has the clubs flopping positions on the Coaches poll. Florida beat Savannah State (NR – 58:40) and the University or Central Florida (NR – 79:66) this week and Kentucky earned victories over Morehead State (NR – 91:74), and LIU Brooklyn (NR – 104:75). The win over LIU was KU’s 55th straight home victory.

Rounding out the top 10 are Arizona (3-0) and Kansas (4-1), who both move up slightly this week. Arizona only had one game on their schedule last week, Long Beach State, which they won convincingly (NR – 94:72). Kansas, who dropped out of the top 10 last week with a loss to Michigan State, but got back in the voters good graces with three wins this week over Washington State (NR – 78:41), Saint Louis (NR – 73:59), and San Jose State (NR – 70:57). Arizona jumped one place in both polls, from 11 to 10, while Kansas moved from 11 to 10 on the AP Poll and 12 to 10 on the Coaches Poll.

The biggest moves this week came in the 11-25 spots. Gonzaga (6-0) jumped five spots on the AP list (from 17 to 12) and four spots on the Coaches Poll (from 16 to 12) with three big wins this week over Clemson (NR – 57:49), Oklahoma (NR – 72:47) and Davidson (NR – 81:67). North Carolina fell victim to Butler (NR – 82:71) and dropped five spots with AP (9 to 14) and four with the Coaches 99 to 13). The biggest drop on the list (without falling off the list) is from the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. The UNLV squad fell to Oregon (NR – 83:79), and beat Iowa State (NR – 82:70) to finish the week at 3-1. The Oregon loss helped drop them 11 spots (13 to 24) on the Coaches poll and six spots (18 to 24) on the AP list). UCLA also took a big hit this week, dropping from 11 on the AP list last week to 30 this week and from 13 to 24 on the Coaches Poll. The drop is due to two big losses against Georgetown (AP#25, USA#20 – 78:70) and Cal Poly (NR – 70:68), while picking up a win against Georgia (NR – 60:56) to wrap up the week 4-2.

Moving up the list were Oklahoma State, up five on both polls (AP#20 to AP#15 and USA#22 to US#17); Minnesota, up 5 from AP#26 to AP#21 and USA#30 to USA#26; Colorado moved up nine on the Coaches list (32 to 23) and four on the AP list (23 to 19). Georgetown came from off the AP list (no votes) to 20th and 257 votes with a 4-1 record, which includes ‘W’s over Duquesne (61:55), Liberty (68:59); UCLA (78:70); and Mount St. Mary’s. Illinois also moved on to the list with a 7-0 record and landing in the 22nd slot on both polls.

Coastal Carolina’s Anthony Raffa leads the country in scoring after week 4 with a 26.0 points per game average. Raffa’s dropped in games of 34, 26, 25, 18 and 27 so far this season. Lamont Jones from Iona is right behind Raffa with a 25.8ppg average, and C.J. McCollum and Kyle Vinales are on Jones’ heels with and average of 25.7.

Siena Senior O.D. Anosike is pacing the big men in rebounds with a 14.3rpg average. Anosike has had games of 20, 13, 12, 12, 12 and 17 so far this year. Cole Dickerson of San Francisco is close behind with 13.8rpg.

Michael Carter-Williams is the leading assist-maker with an average of 9.3 dishes per contest for Syracuse. DeAndre Kane of Marshall is right behind him with 9.2apg.

For the second week in a row, Jordan zbachynski of Arizona State leads the nation in blocks with 5.20 blocks per game. Jeff Whitey of Kansas is second with 5.0bpg.

The Associated Press Top 25 Poll

Rank	Team (First Place Votes)	Record	Votes	Previous	+/-
1	Indiana (47)	6-0	1606	1	–
2	Duke (18)	6-0	1554	5	+3
3	Michigan	5-0	1421	4	+1
4	Ohio State	4-0	1416	3	-1
5	Louisville	5-1	1347	2	-3
6	Syracuse	4-0	1323	6	–
7	Florida	5-0	1227	7	–
8	Kentucky	4-1	1180	8	–
9	Arizona	3-0	1076	10	+1
10	Kansas	4-1	937	12	+2
11	Creighton	6-0	926	14	+3
12	Gonzaga	6-0	854	17	+5
13	Michigan State	5-1	818	15	+2
14	North Carolina	5-1	718	9	-5
15	Oklahoma State	5-0	668	20	+5
16	Missouri	5-1	665	13	-3
17	Cincinnati	6-0	571	22	+5
18	North Carolina State	4-1	553	16	-2
19	Colorado	5-0	478	23	+4
20	Georgetown	4-1	257	NR	–
21	Minnesota	6-1	197	26	+5
22	Illinois	7-0	185	NR	–
23	San Diego State	4-1	182	25	+2
24	UNLV	3-1	175	18	-6
25	New Mexico	6-0	141	40	+15
Others Receiving Votes: Alabama 108, Wichita State 99, Connecticut 93, UCLA 85, Pittsburgh 55, Oregon 44, Notre Dame 42, Memphis 23, Butler 20, Wisconsin 16, California 12, Florida State 10, Saint Joseph’s 9, Ohio 8, Marquette 7, Murray State 5, Temple 5, Baylor 4, Tennessee 3, Colorado State 1, Virginia Commonwealth 1

Division I Coaches’ Top 25 Poll

Rank	Team (First Place Votes)	Record	Votes	Previous	+/-
1	Indiana (27)	6-0	769	1	–
2	Duke (4)	6-0	723	5	+3
3	Michigan	5-0	691	4	+1
4	Ohio State	4-0	689	3	-1
5	Syracuse	4-0	630	6	+1
6	Louisville	5-1	615	2	-4
7	Florida	5-0	573	8	+1
8	Kentucky	4-1	557	7	-1
9	Arizona	3-0	520	10	+1
10	Kansas	4-1	484	11	+1
11	Creighton	6-0	463	12	+1
12	Gonzaga	6-0	440	16	+4
13	North Carolina	5-1	355	9	-4
14	Michigan State	5-1	320	19	+5
15	Missouri	5-1	319	14	-1
16	Cincinnati	6-0	295	20	+4
17	Oklahoma State	5-0	261	22	+5
18	North Carolina State	4-1	240	15	-3
19	Colorado	5-0	172	27	+9
20	UNLV	3-1	144	18	-2
21	San Diego State	4-1	139	25	+4
22	Illinois	7-0	103	NR	–
23	New Mexico	6-0	68	32	+9
24	UCLA	4-2	62	13	-11
25	Georgetown	4-1	56	NR	–
Others Receiving Votes: Minnesota 48, Pittsburgh 41, Alabama 38, Connecticut 38, Notre Dame 36, Florida State 26, Wisconsin 24, Memphis 16, Wichita State 16, California 14, Murray State 13, Kansas State 12, Oregon 12, Ohio 10, Saint Joseph’s 10, Saint Mary’s 8, Butler 5, Tennessee 5, Marquette 4, Baylor 3, Maryland 2, Virginia Commonwealth 2, Colorado State 1, Davidson 1, Mississippi 1, Texas 1

Comparison Poll

Rank	Team	Record	AP	Coaches	Avg
1	Indiana	6-0	1.0	1.0	1.0
2	Duke	6-0	2.0	2.0	2.0
3	Michigan	5-0	3.0	3.0	3.0
4	Ohio State	4-0	4.0	4.0	4.0
5	Louisville	5-1	5.0	6.0	5.5
	Syracuse	4-0	6.0	5.0	5.5
7	Florida	5-0	7.0	7.0	7.0
8	Kentucky	4-1	8.0	8.0	8.0
9	Arizona	3-0	9.0	9.0	9.0
10	Kansas	4-1	10.0	10.0	10.0
11	Creighton	6-0	11.0	11.0	11.0
12	Gonzaga	6-0	12.0	12.0	12.0
13	North Carolina	5-1	14.0	13.0	13.5
	Michigan State	5-1	13.0	14.0	13.5
15	Missouri	5-1	16.0	15.0	15.5
16	Oklahoma State	5-0	15.0	17.0	16.0
17	Cincinnati	6-0	17.0	16.0	16.5
18	North Carolina State	4-1	18.0	18.0	18.0
19	Colorado	5-0	19.0	19.0	19.0
20	San Diego State	4-1	23.0	21.0	22.0
	UNLV	3-1	24.0	20.0	22.0
	Illinois	7-0	22.0	22.0	22.0
23	Georgetown	4-1	20.0	25.0	22.5
24	Minnesota	6-1	21.0	26.0	23.5
25	New Mexico	6-0	25.0	23.0	24.0