Top 25 Mid-Majors: Saint Mary's Remains Undefeated in WCC
The Saint Mary's Gaels keep winning and stay at No. 1 on our Top 25 rankings. McNeese re-enters the rankings and Akron jumps in for the first time this season.
We saw the top teams take care of business this week, in what has been the most minimal movements from week-to-week yet among our top 25 rankings this season. We have two new faces entering this week (one is familiar after being ranked at the start of the season) and North Texas marks the largest jump of the week. What else happened among the top 25 this week?
Use the code “BracketBusters” when checking out at Crow’s Nest Coffee Roasters to receive 20% of your order!
Sign up for Bracket Busters’ Discord to discuss all things Mid-Major Basketball!
Among this week’s top five teams, there was no movement from last week. Saint Mary’s kept cruising with a dominating 20 point win over San Francisco and a five point win on the road over Washington State. The Gaels are up to 24th in KenPom and if I were an AP voter, there is no doubt they’d be in my top 25. The Gaels are rolling right now, they are 18-3 and 8-0 in the WCC. They’ll take on red hot Santa Clara on Wednesday on the road, then face off against Gonzaga at home in what will be the toughest week of the year so far for the Gaels.
Utah State, Memphis, New Mexico, and VCU all got the job done this week. Utah State bounced back from their loss to UNLV with a 21 point victory over Nevada and a 29 point victory over Air Force. New Mexico drilled Fresno State by 28, but had a close battle against UNLV where the Lobos prevailed 75-73. Memphis took care of business against Wichita State and then dominated UAB 100-77. VCU extended their winning streak to six with dominating wins over Rhode Island and St. Bonaventure.
Bradley narrowly escaped a tough loss at home against Illinois State where they won 61-57 in what was a rather ugly game. The Braves have been one of the best three point shooting teams in the country, but they shot just 4-18 from beyond the arc. However, good teams find ways to win ugly games. The Braves also took care of Belmont on the road in Nashville 89-77.
UC Irvine suffered their first loss of the season in conference against UC Riverside in overtime 84-80. UC Riverside has now taken down both UC San Diego and UC Irvine, so props to Highlanders who are now 13-8 and third in the Big West. The Anteaters bounced back to normal with a 71-55 win over Hawaii. We shifted UC Irvine down just slightly to #8.
Dayton moved back to #10 after continuing to recover from their skid. The Flyers picked up a 20 point road win against Duquesne and a five point win against Saint Joes. The Flyers are trying to piece back together what was a strong season before dropping three in a row to George Washington, UMass, and George Mason. Fortunately, the Flyers are now on a three game winning streak and look to stay hot against St. Bonaventure and Saint Louis this week.
Boise State is in the midst of a struggle right now. The Broncos have lost two games in a row, getting blown out by New Mexico last week and now a three point loss to Colorado State 75-72. Colorado State started off the year rough, but the Rams have been hot as of late. The Rams are now 13-7 and 7-2 in the Mountain West, falling to only New Mexico and San Diego State. Keep an eye on the Rams, they are back on our bubble for the top 25.
The largest riser of the week was North Texas who is now up to #11. The Mean Green have been flying under the radar all season. Known for their defensive prowess, the Mean Green aren’t flashy, but they are growing into one of the top non-power conference teams in the country. North Texas picked up wins against Temple and Florida Atlantic to extend their winning streak to five games. On the season, their only four losses are to McNeese (away) by seven, Utah State (neutral) by four, High Point (away) by five, and No. 21 Memphis (away) by four. If they can get to the 25+ win column, we will be talking about an at-large bid for the Mean Green.
Arkansas State stayed hot this week, extending their winning streak to five games. They took down App State 65-55 and Texas State 80-65 to move to 7-2 within the Sun Belt. When winning, the Red Wolves have a 15.4 margin of victory against opponents in the Sun Belt. Their two losses came back-to-back from James Madison by five and South Alabama by ten. They are now up to 90th in KenPom, and they’ll look to extend their streak to seven against Southern Mississippi and Texas State this week.
The surprise of the A-10, George Mason just keeps winning. They also extended their winning streak to five against George Washington and St. Bonaventure this week. The Patriots are up to 70th in KenPom where their defense ranks 24th in the country. They are holding Atlantic 10 opponents to just 63 points a game right now. They’ll look to move their streak to seven games against Loyola Chicago and Davidson this week.
Only two teams fell out this week, which was Miami Ohio & St. Bonaventure. The RedHawks entered the top 25 for the first time this season last week and they followed it up with a nice 84-76 victory over Bowling Green, however, it went down hill on Saturday. They faced off against fell undefeated MAC team Akron and it was a bloodbath. Akron went on to with 102-75 and it was 52-28 at the half. Akron drained 15-34 threes, out rebounded Miami Ohio 41-24 and held the RedHawks to just 32% shooting from deep.
The Bonnies are in a 1-5 slump in their last six games, in which they are now 3-5 in the A-10. It doesn’t get easier this week either as they face off against Dayton which is looking to not slip up again, and Fordham who just picked up their first win in conference against Duquesne on Sunday. The Bonnies defense has been the outlier as they still rank 5th in conference in offense, however, they rank 12th in defense. They are getting lit up from deep where opponents are shooting 38.3%, so I think the Bonnies know what they need to improve on. This is a team that can definitely stop the bleeding and rebound through the next month.
One team that entered this week is a familiar face, McNeese. After stumbling at the beginning of the season, the Cowboys are 15-5 overall and 9-0 in the Southland. They are rolling right now, just steamrolling their competition with an average winning margin of 18.7 points. The Cowboys are up to 58th in KenPom and 59th in the NET with a 12-1 record against quad 3 and 4 teams.
Akron slides in for the first time this season at #25 after their dominating win that we highlighted over Miami Ohio. The Zips are 14-5 and 7-0 in the MAC. This is an offensive juggernaut that is scoring over 90 points a game in conference on average. They are up to 97th in KenPom where they rank 94th in offensive efficiency. The Zips are now favored to win every game for the remainder of the season.
Notable Movement
Santa Clara - #10 → #6
North Texas - #18 → #111
Dropped Out
Miami Ohio
St. Bonaventure
On the Bubble
Colorado State
Charleston
Utah Valley
Cleveland State
Northern Colorado
UNLV could be dangerous come MW tourney time
How does Princeton lose at home to Cornell and hold at 22?