Mid Major Top 25 Week 14

Bracket Buster's Mid Major Top 25 Week 14 on 02/05/24.

Feb 05, 2024

All rankings below are updated as of 02/05/24.

The count down is quickly ticking as we are now just six weeks away from Selection Sunday. At this point in the season, every game matters. This week, we saw Memphis lose again and save themselves to live another day after nearly being defeated by Wichita State at home and winning on a buzzer beater. Saint Mary’s defeated Gonzaga, which saw some wild antics, including questionable refereeing, students throwing trash on the court, and more. Indiana State kept their hot hands rolling with victories over Belmont and Drake, leaving the Sycamore’s own destiny in their hands. McNeese took their first loss in the Southland to a 9-13 South Eastern Louisiana team with a 295 Net Ranking. The Charlotte 49ers are now 8-1 in the AAC and are keeping the two-bid hopes of the conference alive. This is just scratching the surface.

Largest Movers of the Week

New Mexico remains in the #1 spot on our Top 25 rankings, however, really you could probably just slide any of the top 5 in the Mountain West and have an argument for them being the Top Mid-Major in the country. However, Colorado State did fall to #9 this week after winning both their games, but that’s more of a result of Boise State and Indiana State picking up some large wins against #19 New Mexico (at The Pit) and Drake respectively, and Saint Mary’s dominating.

On the flip side, Memphis fell all the way to #11 on this week’s ranking. The Memphis Tigers lost yet again after taking just a miserable loss to Rice at Memphis on January 31^st. Rice currently sits at 211 in the NET Rankings. To put the cherry on top, Memphis almost and probably should have lost to Wichita State at Memphis as well. The Shockers were up 14 points at one point in the second half before the Tigers came back to tie the game and win on a buzzer beater by David Jones. The Tigers have completely fell apart as they are now sitting at #80 in the NET Rankings and #75 in the KenPom. Memphis has danced its way out of the Bubble and straight to the NIT (maybe?).

The largest vertical jump of the week was by the Saint Mary’s Gaels. After starting off 3-5 with losses to Weber State, San Diego State, Xavier, Utah, and Boise State, the Gaels have rebounded by going 15-1 since. This week, they beat Santa Clara 82-77 and Gonzaga at McCarthey Athletic Center 64-62 which came to a wild finish with students throwing trash on the courts following what they believed were questionable calls. Saint Mary’s is now #21 in the NET Rankings with a 7-4 record in Quad 1 & 2 games, and #28 in the KenPom. This is one of the most impressive turnarounds in recent years by a college basketball team. In our Top 25 Rankings, the Gaels now sit at #6 and are looking to continue to climb this week with games at Pacific and Portland.

New Faces

Vermont has returned to Bracket Buster’s Top 25 Mid-Major rankings as the Catamounts are running the American East. On the season, Vermont is 18-5 and undefeated in the American East, while running a wild rotation that sees 10 out of 13 of their players averaging 14.4 minutes or more per game. The Catamounts are sitting at #101 in the NET Rankings & #105 in the KenPom. This is an excellent Vermont team that sits in the top of offensive team statistics, including #30 in Effective Field Goal Percentage. They have eight games left in the regular season conference play and there is a legitimate chance they can go undefeated in the regular season to claim the American East crown.

Charlotte has entered the rankings for the first time this season because of their outstanding performances in the American Athletic Conference thus far. The 49ers are 14-7 overall and 8-1 in the AAC with a win over #17 FAU. Looking at their 7 losses, none stand out as a “bad loss” except for potentially Liberty which has fallen quite far in conference play. Among those seven, Liberty, UCF, Davidson, #22 Duke, Richmond, Stetson, and SMU, with the only blow out loss coming at Duke 80-56. Charlotte has climbed to a sub-100 NET Ranking at #95 and #103 in the KenPom. The 49ers have 9 games left, in which they have a real shot at winning at least 6 of those, with three tough games in a home and away with South Florida and an away game at Memphis. Keep your eyes on Charlotte as a team that could sneak their way into the NCAA Tournament.