AP College Basketball Poll Released; Thoughts

Brian Spurlock-US PRESSWIRE

Indiana is once again proven itself as the nation’s best team.

The Hoosiers (20-2; 8-1) unseated the former No. 1 Michigan Wolverines 81-73, shaking the NCAA’s top-25 AP poll and once again churning the top teams in the nation onto itself. In fact, the college system has posted the fifth consecutive No. 1 team in as many weeks, the first time it’s done that since the 2008-09 season. The latest No. 1s are Duke, Louisville, Duke again, Michigan and Indiana.

Indiana, the preseason No. 1, hit another hot streak, tallying five wins in a row and earing 58 first-place votes of the 65-member national media panel. Defeating former No. 1 Michigan squashes all doubts about their abilities to perform against the nation’s top talents. The next road bumps they will face is against Illinois on Thursday and Ohio State on Sunday.

Trailing Indiana is a deep Florida team. The current No. 2 team in the nation climbed two spots from last week, smashing an Ole Miss team (adding to their mark of defeating their last 10 opponents by 14 points or more).

In the meantime, Michigan falls to No. 3 nationally and will look to lick its wounds and rebound from a tough road loss that dropped them two pegs.  Duke, Kansas, Gonzaga and Arizona follow behind.

One of the bigger surprises to come out of the AP Poll this week is the jump that No. 8 Miami (FL) took. The Hurricanes leapfrogged seven spots after a last-second road victory over NC State. The squad is playing like the best ACC team in the conference after its star player Reggie Johnson returned to give them a one-man spark.

The newest additions to the AP poll are Oklahoma State (No. 22) and Pittsburgh (No. 23), who defeated Kansas and Syracuse, respectively, and Georgetown and Notre Dame. The four teams replace Wichita State, Mississippi, north Carolina State and San Diego State.

The new poll spotlights the Big East, which now boasts seven ranked teams in the top 25, two more than the Big Ten.