Men's Power Rankings: Purdue is the best team in the country

31.01.2023, 18:06 espn.com

Last week in this space, we debated the merits of Alabama and Purdue in the battle for the top spot in the 2022-23 men's college basketball Power Rankings. This week, there's no need for a debate. The Crimson Tide lost by 24 to Oklahoma on Saturday (and it wasn't even that close for a long stretch of the second half), leaving the Boilermakers as the clear-cut pick for No. 1. Matt Painter's team took any drama out of the proceedings by handling business early against Michigan State, jumping out to an 18-point lead by halftime and cruising from there. Zach Edey finished with 38 points, 13 rebounds and 3 assists, adding to his runaway favorite campaign for national player of the year. Besides, Purdue has a rock-solid résumé clearly worthy of the spot. It's in the top five in adjusted efficiency margin and sits atop ESPN's strength of record metric. It's No. 3 in the NET and has eight Quadrant 1 wins, tied with Kansas for the most in the country. It also has a slew of impressive nonconference wins, including against Marquette, Gonzaga, Duke and West Virginia. Will we have to revisit this again next week? A daunting trip to Bloomington to face Trayce Jackson-Davis and Indiana awaits on Saturday. It's the only game the rest of the season in which BPI projects the Boilermakers as underdogs. On to this week's awards and rankings ... There were a number of good candidates for this week. Baylor beat two NCAA tournament teams in Kansas and Arkansas, Creighton had a great win over Xavier, while Missouri surprisingly blew out Iowa State. And we'll get to Pittsburgh shortly. But arguably no team helped itself more than USC, which beat crosstown rival UCLA in its lone game of the week. Boogie Ellis hits a nice step-back over Jaime Jaquez Jr. to give USC a 4-point lead. The Trojans had come up just short in some of their biggest games this season, losing by two at UCLA and in overtime against Tennessee. And it initially looked like more of the same on Thursday, with the Bruins getting out to a 12-point lead at halftime. But the Trojans went on a 25-3 run early in the second half and completely flipped the game, eventually pulling away for a 77-64 win. Boogie Ellis was the star, finishing with 31 points and six assists, while Drew Peterson had 16 points. Andy Enfield's team has now played itself into NCAA tournament contention, winning four of its past five games and separating itself as the third-best team in the Pac-12. Estrada, last season's CAA Player of the Year, boosted his candidacy to win it again this season in a major way last week. He had 40 points against Elon on Thursday, shooting 16-for-25 from the field and 8-for-15 from 3-point range, grabbing four rebounds and making three assists. He then led the Pride in defeating AP No. 18 Charleston, which entered the game on a 20-game winning streak and hadn't lost at home since Feb. 19, 2022. Estrada finished with 25 points, including 23 in the first half, as well as seven rebounds and six assists. He shot 5-for-9 from 3 and played all 40 minutes in the win. When you see there were National Player of the Year watch lists without Aaron Estrada... 🤔@HofstraMBB's star has 23 in the first half, less than 48 hours removed from scoring 40 on Thursday.#CAAHoops on @FloHoops:📺: https://t.co/wNpIZzBZpS pic.twitter.com/oFQLGlpA2W— CAA Basketball (@CAABasketball) So far into a wildly unpredictable season, it takes a lot for a result to be considered jaw-dropping. What happened on Saturday in Norman certainly qualifies. The Sooners entered the day with a three-game losing streak and a 2-6 record in the Big 12. Alabama was on a nine-game winning streak stretching back to Dec. 17 and had won its first seven SEC games by an average of 21 points. Sooners fans celebrate on the court after Oklahoma's dominant 93-69 win over Alabama. Then Oklahoma went out and ran Alabama off the floor. The Sooners landed a couple of early punches, did whatever they wanted offensively and didn't let Alabama get within single digits for the final 24 minutes of the game. They even led by as many as 32 points in the second half. Grant Sherfield was fantastic, finishing with 30 points and six assists. Oklahoma shot 57.6% from the field and 69.2% from 3. It was shocking to see. A few months ago, it seemed like Capel's days at Pitt might be numbered. He was on the coaching hot seat at the end of last season -- his fourth consecutive campaign finishing below .500. Pitt was picked 14th in the 2022-23 preseason ACC poll in October, and then started the season with three losses in four games. Fast-forward 2½ months, and the Panthers are 15-7 overall, 8-3 in the ACC and third in the conference standings. They're coming off arguably their most important week of the season, too, beating fellow ACC bubble team Wake Forest on Wednesday, then stunning Miami with a game-ending 11-0 run to win by three in the final minute. According to ESPN's win probability, Pitt had a 4.9% chance to come out with a victory when Miami led by eight with 2:05 left. The Panthers now own wins over Virginia, Miami, North Carolina, NC State and Northwestern. Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets: Tech is now 1-10 in the ACC after two more blowout losses this past week: a 72-51 defeat at Clemson followed by an 86-43 drubbing at home at the hands of Duke. Duke's 86-43 win over Georgia Tech is just the third game in ACC history that the road team doubled up the home team in conference play.All have come in last decade2023 - Duke def. Georgia Tech, 86-432017 - Louisville def. Pitt, 106-512015 - Virginia def. Wake Forest, 70-34— Bryan Ives (@awaytoworthy) DePaul Blue Demons: DePaul has shown signs of life this season, but it also lost to Georgetown on Tuesday, giving the Hoyas their first win over a Big East team since March 2021. Sorry, that's basically automatic inclusion in this category. Michigan Wolverines: The Wolverines appeared to right the ship early in Big Ten play, winning their first three conference games despite a home loss to Central Michigan right in the middle. But the wheels have fallen off in the three weeks since: Michigan has lost five of its past seven games to drop to 11-10 overall. It was 7-7 and 11-9 at certain points last season before making a tournament run, but it would take a bigger effort to turn this campaign around. 1. Purdue Boilermakers (21-1)Previous ranking: 2This week: vs. Penn State (Wednesday), at Indiana (Saturday) Edey continues to hoard most of the Purdue-related praise, but his supporting cast continues to expand. This past week, it was the well-traveled David Jenkins Jr. who showed promise as a perimeter threat for the Boilermakers. The 6-foot-1 guard, who is on his fourth school after transferring from Utah last spring, has struggled shooting the ball for much of the season but is beginning to come to life. He made both 3-point attempts against Michigan on Thursday, then went 3-for-4 from behind the arc and scored a season-high 11 points against Michigan State on Sunday. He's now up to 41.7% from 3 in Big Ten play after making just 22.7% in the nonconference. 2. Tennessee Volunteers (18-3)Previous ranking: 4This week: at Florida (Wednesday), vs. Auburn (Saturday) On Marty & McGee, ESPN basketball analyst Jay Bilas praises Rick Barnes' defensive priorities and emphasizes the importance of the No. 4 UT vs. No. 10 Texas result. Tennessee allowed Texas back into Saturday's game for a few minutes late in the second half -- but the first 30 or so minutes were as good as we've seen anyone play this season. The Vols are just an elite outfit defensively. After keeping each of their previous three opponents below 60 points for the game, they held Texas to 28 points in the first half. And although it was somewhat inflated by a late surge, after Tennessee went up 67-50 with eight minutes left, Texas' 1.08 points per possession were the most Tennessee has allowed all season. The Vols are starting to look much more dangerous offensively too, especially since Rick Barnes went to a smaller lineup. Olivier Nkamhoua had a career-high 27 points on Saturday, while Zakai Zeigler is averaging 17.3 points, 7.8 assists and 2.8 steals in the four games since he was inserted back into the starting five. 3. Alabama Crimson Tide (18-3)Previous ranking: 1This week: vs. Vanderbilt (Tuesday), at LSU (Saturday) So, what happened this past week? It was more than just the aforementioned Oklahoma loss: Alabama's defense was a train wreck, and the Sooners caused problems with ball screens early and often in the first half. The Tide also looked lackadaisical in their three-point home win over Mississippi State earlier in the week. Their offense was concerning in both games, being held under one point per possession -- which hasn't happened since early December. The easy culprit is 3-point shooting, or lack of it. Alabama made just 11 3s last week, shooting a combined 22% in both games. A drop-off for a team that ranks second in the SEC at 33.6% from the perimeter, sure, but volume is the bigger issue. The Crimson Tide ranked 12th nationally in 3s per game entering the weekend, averaging 10 made 3s per night. 4. Houston Cougars (20-2)Previous ranking: 3This week: at Wichita State (Thursday), at Temple (Sunday) Jarace Walker had a tremendous week in early January, when he totaled 44 points and 15 boards in two games against SMU and Cincinnati. He did it again last week, going for 17 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists in a win over UCF on Wednesday and leading the way with 25 points and seven rebounds in Saturday's comeback win over the Bearcats. However, the freshman forward's performance comes on the heels of a two-game stretch in which he shot 6-for-20 and averaged 7.5 points. If Walker can become a bit more consistent, especially on the days Marcus Sasser or Tramon Mark isn't shooting well, the floor of Houston's offense becomes much higher. 5. Arizona Wildcats (19-3)Previous ranking: 7This week: vs. Oregon (Thursday), vs. Oregon State (Saturday) Pel