Top 25 Mid-Majors: Drake Dominates Feast Week
The Drake Bulldogs have captured college basketball's attention with their clean sweep of the Charleston Classic. What else happened in the Top 25 Mid-Majors?
The start of feast week did not disappoint for college basketball fans. At this point in the season, we are starting to see teams separate themselves from the rest of the pack as they begin to play other opponents that are a match in skill level. Let’s dive into our Week Four Top 25 Mid-Major Rankings.
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The Top 10 did see some shakeups this week. Saint Mary’s remains at #1 as the Gaels remain undefeated. Nevada moved up to 3rd this week after an impressive showing in the Shriners Children’s Charleston Classic. They started off with a tough 73-71 loss to Vanderbilt, however they bounced back with an impressive win over VCU and Oklahoma State. While the Wolf Pack are 6-1, they are just one possession away from a 7-0 record. They’ll be back in action on December 2nd against Washington State.
VCU dropped down this week after a couple of heart-breaking losses. As mentioned, Nevada picked up a narrow 64-61 win against the Rams. They also took a loss against a pretty disappointing Seton Hall team 69-66. Fortunately, they avoided a total disaster of a week by picking up a 77-70 win against Miami, letting them remain in the top 50 of KenPom at #41.
Princeton fell out of the Top 10 this week after a couple of disappointing performances against Wright State and Texas State. In the Tigers 80-62 loss to Wright State, they shot just 35.1% and 29.6% from 3pt. In their 83-80 loss to Texas State, Xaivian Lee put up 30 points, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the Bobcats incredible shooting performance behind Tyrel Morgan’s 27 points on 9-14 shooting. Similar to VCU, they ended a week that could’ve been a complete disaster by drilling Portland 94-67.
Entering the Top 25 this week are: Drake, McNeese, Furman and Saint Joseph’s. For McNeese and Saint Joseph’s, both teams started off the year in the Top 25 rankings, but fell out after some rough starts. Both teams were just on the outside looking in, but bounced back enough this week to re-enter.
Drake put the college basketball world on notice this week by completing the clean sweep and winning the Charleston Classic. The Bulldogs did so pretty handedly as well with an 80-69 win over Miami, 75-63 over FAU, and 81-70 over Vanderbilt. There were some questions around the Bulldogs coming into the season, mostly around whether or not the transfers following head coach Ben McCollum from Northwest Missouri State would translate well…we have our answer. Yes. Bennett Stirtz is averaging 18.3 points, 4.8 rebounds, 6.3 assists, and two steals per game so far. Mitch Mascari is averaging 14.3 points, 2.5 rebounds, 1.5 assists, and 1.3 steals. Daniel Abreu is averaging 15.2 points, 3.7 rebounds, and one assist per game. This might be the most fundamentally driven team in the country and you need to keep a close eye on this team moving forward. Bookmark January 8th, when they take on preseason Missouri Valley favorites, Bradley, in Peoria.
McNeese picked up some solid wins against North Texas, Illinois State, and Longwood this week. They have an opportunity this evening to pick up another resume building win against a tough Liberty team in the Paradise Jam Championship at 7pm CDT. Sincere Parker has been the facilitator on this team, including a 31 point performance in their 84-69 win over Longwood. He’s now averaging 17.7 points and 2.3 rebounds through their first six games. If they want to continue their success, I’ll reiterate once again that Christian Shumate and DJ Richards Jr have to get it going. Richards Jr is shooting just 28.1% from deep and averaging just 7.2 points per game. Shumate is averaging just nine points, but he at least is averaging five rebounds a game as well.
Saint Joseph’s picked up a massive resume building win against Texas Tech. Erik Reynolds II put up 26 points, followed by Xzayvier Brown’s 20 points, six assists, three rebounds, and two steals. They fell to Texas in the UKG Legends Classic Championship 67-58, but their Texas Tech win was enough to put them back in the Top 25 on the lower end. Erik Reynolds shot just 1-10 in the Texas game, while the Hawks shot just 31.8% overall, 30.4% from deep, and a measly 52.9% from the free throw line. This team has all the potential in the world, but they have to get more consistent in their performances on a daily basis.
Furman moved to 6-0 this week, which was good enough to put them on our radar. PJay Smith Jr is dominating every opponent the Paladins play, while averaging 21.2 points, 3.8 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 2.4 steals on 56.5% shooting and an incredible 55% from deep. They have some solid wins over a pretty good Belmont team, Jacksonville, and Tulane. They’ll take on Seattle U and Kansas this week in which will be a true test to the capabilities of this team.
In other news from the Top 25 teams this week: Columbia moved to 7-0 while star Geronimo Rubio De La Rosa posted a career high 37 points against Stony Brook. De La Rosa is now averaging an incredible 24 points per game to continue to push Columbia on this incredible run.
Notable Movement
Drake - NR → 16th
Nevada - 14th → 3rd
VCU - 2nd → 9th
Princeton - 10th → 18th
Dropped Out
Charleston
UAB
Colorado State
On the Bubble
East Carolina
Purdue Fort Wayne
North Florida
St. Bonaventure
Rhode Island
Louisiana Tech