Mid Major Top 25 Week 10
Bracket Buster's Mid Major Top 25 Week 9 on 01/08/24.
All rankings below are updated as of 01/08/24.
Conference play has officially started for all teams across the country, and it did not disappoint this week. We saw James Madison take their first loss of the season, Florida Atlantic suffered yet another Quad 4 loss, and Colorado St lost to an excellent Utah State team. Ranking Mid-Majors pre-conference play is exceptionally difficult depending on strength of schedule, player health, etc. Once conference play starts, teams’ true colors start to show as they play teams of equal caliber.
There was quite a bit of movement among our Top-25 Mid-Majors this week as a result. Florida Atlantic moved down two spots to #4 after their loss to Charlotte, James Madison plummeted to #9 after losing to Southern Mississippi, while Mountain West schools Colorado St, San Diego St, and Utah State all moved up and now claim top-5 spots.
Some people might be curious why Colorado St moves up to #2 after a loss to Utah State, but I believe in viewing the overall season results rather than just one week of results. A loss to a Utah State team that will surely be ranked in the AP Top 25 this week is not a bad loss at all. In my opinion, the Colorado St & Utah State games was the best game of the week. Colorado St, San Diego St, and Utah State now all sit in the top-26 NET Rankings, proving that the Mountain West is the best mid-major conference so far this season.
Let’s talk about the teams that dropped out:
UNC Wilmington
Duquesne
Missouri State
Tulane
UNC Wilmington took some tough losses to Drexel and Towson after an excellent non-conference. It’s a shame to see the Seahawks fall like this, but these conference losses simply cannot happen for a team that was looking to do some damage in the NCAA Tournament. UNCW has fallen to #135 in the Net Rankings and #126 in the KenPom.
Duquesne has opened A10 abysmally with an 80-61 blowout loss to UMass & a 72-67 loss to Loyola. The Dukes have dropped to #91 in the NET Rankings and #104 in the KenPom. These two losses have pretty much eliminated any chance at an At-Large bid, unless Duquesne is able to go on a hot run in the A10 and run the table for the rest of the season.
Missouri State was blown out at Bradley 86-60 and took a 64-62 loss to Northern Iowa to open up Missouri Valley Conference play for the remainder of the season. The Bears are now 1-3 in conference play after an impressive non-conference that featured wins over Kent State, Saint Mary’s, and an opening conference win over Evansville. The Bears have now lost to West Virginia, Middle Tennessee State, and Northern Iowa which are all teams that are having disappointing seasons. The Bears have now dropped to #128 in the NET Rankings and #128 in the KenPom.
Tulane took a blowout loss to North Texas this past week 70-56. Tulane moving out of our Top 25 rankings isn’t so much a testament to a tough loss, but more so any overall better showing from the newcomers in the rankings. I stand firm that Tulane can win some big games in the AAC this year. We could very well see them back on these rankings in the coming weeks. However, the Green Wave currently sit at #115 in the NET Rankings, and #111 in the KenPom.
Looking at some of the newcomers:
SMU
St. Bonaventure
Western Carolina
High Point
SMU went from previously unranked to now ranked #20. The Mustangs are now 10-5 on the season and 1-1 in conference after nearly knocking off #15 Memphis last night. Previously, SMU was overlooked due to some of the more impressive non-conference wins by other mid-majors around the country. However, with conference play upon us, those other teams have dropped off while SMU has put up some nice wins in the last couple of weeks. SMU drilled Murray State 92-65, in which Murray State then took out their frustrations on Evansville to move to 3-1 in a very good Missouri Valley conference. SMU then defeated Charlotte 66-54 to open conference play, in which Charlotte then proceeded to beat #17 Florida Atlantic. This was a dream scenario for SMU. SMU now sits at #43 in the Net Rankings & #47 in the KenPom.
St. Bonaventure did take a 65-54 loss to Richmond this week, but they did knock off a VCU team that has bounced back from a rough start to the season 89-78. On the season, the Bonnies have now beat Oklahoma State, Akron, and VCU. St. Bonaventure now sits are #65 in the NET Rankings & #72 in the KenPom. I believe that the Bonnies and Richmond are very similar, and both have great opportunities in the remainder of the A10 schedule to pick up some excellent wins.
Western Carolina has continued to roll this season. The Catamounts now sit at 13-2 and 2-0 in conference after defeating Citadel 80-71 and Wofford 70-66. Vonterius Woolbright might be one of the most underrated players in the entire country as he is leading the team in points (21.1), rebounds (12.4), and assists (5.1). This team is incredibly fun to watch, and I believe they are a better team than their computer metrics show. They sit at #101 in the NET Rankings and #123 in the KenPom. Like Samford, being in the Southern Conference brings down their credibility, however, watching Western Carolina and Samford battle it out is going to be must-watch TV.
High Point is completely flying under the radar. Like I mentioned with Western Carolina above, I believe they are playing better than their computer metrics show. The Panthers are 13-4 and 2-0 in conference. They sit at #99 in the NET Rankings and #120 in the KenPom. Like the Southern conference, playing in the Big South hurts their credibility in those rankings, but this is an excellent team. Keeza Giffia dropped 24 points in their 85-71 win over Radford and 30 in their 85-76 win over Gardner-Webb. This covers the fact that their leading scorer Duke Miles (19.1/2.1/3.8 on the season) scored 23 and 26 points in those games respectively. This is a deep team that has the potential to be a first round upset come March Madness.
Notable Movement:
Florida Atlantic #2 -> #4
James Madison #4 -> #9
Utah State #9 -> #5
San Diego State #7 -> #3
SMU NR -> #20
Dropped Out:
UNC Wilmington
Duquesne
Missouri State
Tulane
On the Bubble:
Boise St
Belmont
Southern Illinois
Akron
Richmond
Weber St
Western Kentucky
Tulane
Duquesne
Previous Rankings: