The college basketball Top 25
Two months into the college basketball season, Purdue earned the No. 1 spot in the Associated Press Top 25 poll and most power ratings produced by handicappers and oddsmakers. Few teams have the ability to match up with 7-foot-4, 300-pound Zach Edey, the most dominant player in the game.
The Boilermakers are 12-1 and boast an impressive resume, but they will likely lose again soon and fall from the top spot in the polls because that’s what happens when highly-ranked teams start a challenging schedule of true road games in conference play.
On back-to-back days in the Big East, Marquette fell 72-57 at Providence on Dec. 19, and Connecticut took a 75-60 loss at Seton Hall on Dec. 20. A team’s power rating is not adjusted much or at all after one loss, especially a road loss, so Marquette and UConn remain in the nation’s top 10.
Circa Sports oddsmaker Nick Bogdanovich said he rates Purdue No. 1, with Arizona and Houston each 1.5 points behind. UConn is two points behind the Boilermakers, and Kansas and Marquette are each three behind the top spot. But the Wildcats took a 1.5-point fall on Bogdanovich’s rating scale after a 100-82 loss at Stanford on New Year’s Eve.
“I had Arizona and Purdue exactly the same at the top but dropped Arizona after a bad loss,” Bogdanovich said.
The Boilermakers own five impressive neutral-court wins, beating Gonzaga, Tennessee and Marquette to win the Maui Invitational before Thanksgiving and then defeating Alabama in Toronto and Arizona in Indianapolis in mid-December.
Edey was averaging 23.2 points and 10.2 rebounds going into Purdue’s game at Maryland on Tuesday night. The Terrapins, who did not lose a Big Ten home game last season, figured to pose a big threat as 5.5-point underdogs. The Boilermakers have a stronger supporting cast around Edey, starting with guards Braden Smith, Fletcher Loyer and Lance Jones, and the team’s 3-point shooting has improved after being a fatal flaw last season.
My preseason power ratings showed another Big Ten team, Michigan State, in the No. 1 spot. My mistake. The Spartans (8-5) have slipped all the way to 28th in my current ratings, though they did flash their potential with an 88-64 blowout of Baylor on Dec. 16.