Mid Major Top 25 (12/18)
Bracket Buster's Mid Major Top 25 week of 12/18/23.
All rankings below are updated as of 12/18/23.
Finals week held back a lot of movement on our Top 25 mid-majors, but there were some notable wins and losses that led to some changes. Let’s start with the largest mover of the week, Tulane.
I debated about adding Tulane to last week’s list, and now I’m realizing I should have. This team’s offense is absolutely lights out. They’ve scored less than 84 points in a game just once this year in their 80-77 loss to Bradley earlier this season. In their two games last week, they scored 117 & 105 in their double overtime win against Furman and their 105-81 win over Southern. Kevin Cross Jr. is now the first player in 15 years to post a triple-double in back-to-back games. The Green Wave are putting up video game numbers right now and have been brought to everyone’s attention.
Memphis has moved up to #3 after defeating Texas A&M and handing #13 Clemson their first loss of the season. Before I get dragged by their fans, which for some reason think that Memphis is not a mid-major, I want to say that this is a dangerous Memphis team. They haven’t been to the Sweet 16 since 2009, and in my opinion, anything less than a run to the Sweet 16 would be a disappointment. David Jones is an absolute beast, posting a ridiculous 20.3/6.5/1.3/2.3 a game against some of the best teams in the country. The Tigers are now 3-0 against AP Top 25 teams this year, so there is no reason they shouldn’t be ranked in this coming week’s AP poll.
Grand Canyon & Indiana St kept their hot hands rolling this week as Grand Canyon picked up a 91-63 win over Portland, and Indiana St defeated Ball State 83-72. I doubt the AP Poll will ranked either team next week, but they absolutely deserve to be receiving votes. Last week, Grand Canyon received just one vote which is ridiculous. These are two of the best mid-majors in the country this year with next-level players on their teams. The Sycamores go up against a solid Tennessee St team and Michigan St who just ran top-10 Baylor out of the building this past weekend to finish out their non-conference. If they win both games, they have to be ranked going into conference play.
Two more newcomers have entered the list in Evansville and Kennesaw St. Evansville being my alma-mater is not a bias in this ranking, however, they are now 8-2 with their only losses coming to a very good Missouri State team in conference & a top 25 team in BYU who is winning at home by an average of over 30 points. The Purple Aces went on the road this week to Bellarmine who has won just one game against a Division 1 school this season. It was a rocky game, but good teams find ways to win ugly games and that’s what they did. Led by some late-game heroics from 4-star freshman Chuck Bailey, the Aces pulled away with a 70-61 win. They now have two games at home against UT Martin & Tennessee Tech from the OVC. The Purple Aces have a legitimate chance at being 10-2 when traveling to an excellent Cincinnati team.
Kennesaw St is back on top of the Atlantic Sun after a 94-84 win over a Presbyterian team that has shocked a lot of people this season. The Owls have had a resurgence over the last couple of years and are being led by a trio of Simeon Cottle (16.6/2.5/3), Murray State transfer Demond Robinson (13.8/8.5/1.1), and 5th year senior Terrell Burden (13.7/4.3/6.1). What I love about this team is, Terrell Burden has spent all five seasons with the Owls and Dedmon Robinson transferred in from Murray State after playing on a team that went 23-9 and would have been an at-large bid had the tournament not been cancelled by COVID. During the same 2019-2020 season Kennesaw St ended the season with a horrid 1-28 record and 0-16 in conference. Slowly but surely they have improved each season going, 5-19 (2-13) in 2020-2021, 13-18 (7-9) in 2021-2022, and 26-9 (15-3) in 2022-2023 where they won the Atlantic Sun tournament by beating Liberty to go to their first NCAA Tournament in school history. Despite their head coach leaving, their top 3 players mentioned above all stayed with new head coach Antoine Pettway. This is an easy team to root for and now at 8-3, they have a chance to sit at 10-3 if they can knock off a solid UNC Asheville team this coming Saturday when they travel to Indiana at Assembly Hall.
Notable Movement:
Tulane: NR → #18
Evansville: NR → #24
Kennesaw St: NR → #25
Dropped Out:
Southern Illinois
Vermont
Winthrop
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