Ranking the Top 30: Week 4
J. Harris - Boston Mountain Publishing
Tuesday, November 29, 2022, 3:28 PM
1. Houston Cougars (6-0)
Houston checks in at #1 as they have one of the most talented returning rosters in the country. They have this spot for now, but if they slip up it won't be hard to crown another team number one this early in the season.
2. Texas Longhorns (5-0)
Texas has started the year off great with a dominant win over the Gonzaga Bulldogs at home. The Longhorns have not skipped a beat and look unbeatable as of now.
3. Purdue Boilermakers (6-0)
Purdue has one of the most impressive resumes as of now taking down Gonzaga, West Virginia, Duke, and Marquette. They are led by 7 '3 center Zach Edey. After winning the PK85 they get a huge boost in the rankings this week.
4. Arizona Wildcats (6-0)
Arizona just won the Maui Invitational with three high quality wins over Creighton, San Diego State, and Cincinnati. Arizona showed that they are probably going to run the PAC 12 once again this season.
5. Virginia Cavaliers (6-0)
Virginia has come out of nowhere this year and have started off hot. Virginia picked up a win at Baylor, and then the very next game took down Illinois in a very hard-fought game. Virginia's next test will be at Michigan tonight.
6. Creighton Blue Jays (6-1)
Creighton may have the best player in basketball on their roster in Baylor Sheirman. He has looked dominant so far this year and he led Creighton all the way to the Maui invitational finals where they lost a tough one to Arizona.
7. UCONN Huskies (8-0)
UCONN may have the Crown for most underrated team coming into the year. They just went to Portland, Oregon and picked up 3 huge wins over really good teams including Alabama, Oregon, and Iowa State.
8. Baylor Bears (5-1)
Baylor has looked really solid to kick off the year. They took one close loss to Virginia, but the very next game took down Top 10 opponent UCLA by 5.
9. Arkansas Razorbacks (6-1)
There were a lot of questions surrounding this Arkansas team heading into the season. Will the Freshman roster be able to compete at such a high level already? Well, that got answered fast with a crushing win over Louisville, a tight game with Creighton and a stunning finish in a win over San Diego State at the Maui Invitational.
10. Alabama Crimson Tide (6-1)
Alabama got a lot of headline attention this past week with some great games followed by a huge, 4 OT win over North Carolina.
11. Indiana Hoosiers (6-0)
Indiana is off to a great start this year. The only great team they have played is Xavier, but they have a big test coming up against North Carolina and many others to follow.
12. Kansas Jayhawks (5-1)
Although the former champs only have one loss, they did not look great at all in the battle for Atlantis. Kansas looked like a Top 20 team, nothing like last year's dominance.
13. Tennessee Volunteers (5-1)
The Vols took a bad loss to Colorado early on and without that loss we would be talking about a Top 10 Tennessee team. The Vols have some really good wins over Butler, USC, and Kansas that propelled them to the Top 15.
14. Iowa State Cyclones (5-1)
Iowa State shocked everybody last week beating Villanova and North Carolina. They took a loss to UCONN on the road, but it looked like they were just worn out. I am excited to see how the Cyclones respond this week.
15. Illinois Fighting Illini (5-1)
Illinois looks really good so far with their only loss coming to Virginia, but they have a win to even that out as they took down UCLA, but other than that, the Illini have played an easier schedule so far.
16. Michigan State Spartans (5-2)
Michigan State will get a lot of credit with their scheduling come tournament time. They were not projected with this great of a record at this point, and it's really impressive. They have played in 5 preseason Top 25 matchups to kick off the year.
17. Gonzaga Bulldogs (5-2)
Gonzaga will climb their way back up as always, but people aren't used to seeing the Zags lose this much so early on, especially the way they lost at Texas.
18. North Carolina Tar Heels (5-2)
North Carolina is led by Caleb Williams and that's about it. No one else has really stepped up for the Tar heels who returned everybody except for Maye off of their Runner-up team from last season. They have not lived up to the hype yet.
19. Duke Blue Devils (6-2)
The Blue Devils have also taken two losses this year, and even though the losses were to good teams, their wins didn't look that good at all.
20. Kentucky Wildcats (4-2)
Another disappointing way to kick off the year. In Kentucky's 4 wins, they have won dominantly against bad teams, but their losses to the good teams like Gonzaga and Michigan State were not very close at all when you look at the final scores.
21. San Diego State Aztecs (4-2)
San Diego State's two losses were hard fought to Arkansas and Arizona which shows that this is a quality team with potential to be dangerous. Their wins are really good too, taking the W over BYU, Stanford, and Ohio State so far.
T-22. Auburn Tigers (7-0)
Even though they are undefeated, the Tigers have not impressed me in one game this year. The shot selection from their top guards hasn't improved since last year and it's going to hold them back once again.
T-22. UCLA Bruins (5-2)
UCLA again another blue blood who is off to a rough start. They have not had one good win yet and lost against the only two ranked opponents they have played.
23. Maryland Terrapins (6-0)
Maryland has looked really good to start off the year. They haven't been tested by any really good teams, but with a dominant win over Miami and Saint Louis, it's easy to see they are legit.
24. Ohio State Buckeyes (5-1)
Ohio State's one loss comes to San Diego State. Unfortunately for them that loss put them on the loser side of the bracket where they couldn't pick up any quality wins, but they did take care of business in good fashion.
25. Mississippi State Bulldogs (7-0)
The Bulldog's Defense has been the best in the country so far as they have not allowed an opponent to score over 60 points this whole year.
26. Charleston Cougars (6-1)
Charleston has looked really good this year as they have beat 4 really good teams. The one loss comes to the team below them, Kent St.
27. Kent State Golden Flashes (5-2)
The only reason Kent State is below Charleston is because of how upset I am that they could have upset Houston, but poor execution halted them. The Flashes are a really good team, but a two-point win doesn't convince me that they are better yet than Charleston.
28. Wisconsin Badgers (5-1)
Wisconsin has started off with wins over Stanford, Dayton, and USC and a one-point loss to Kansas. Wisconsin is full of powerful players that will give teams a really hard challenge when they face off.
29. Virginia Tech Hokies (7-1)
The Hokies one loss comes to Charleston, but they have redeemed themselves with two wins over Big Ten teams in Minnesota and Penn State.
30. St. John Red Storms (7-0)
Ranking St. Johns doesn't usually last for long. I'm interested to see how they will compete when they play some stiffer competition.
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