Top 25 Mid-Majors: San Diego State Claims Top Spot
San Diego State rises to No. 1 in the Mid-Major Rankings, while Memphis, Dayton, and UC Irvine face setbacks. Top moments and stats from the week.
We had some incredible slates of games this week despite many schools starting their sporadic winter break schedules. This was the first week this season that there were no new teams in the Top 25 Mid-Major Rankings, however, that doesn’t mean there wasn’t plenty of movement. UC San Diego took down Utah State, then Utah State ran Saint Mary’s out of their own home court. Dayton nearly dropped two in a row, but held on against UNLV. Drake remained undefeated to enter our Top 10. Arkansas State, North Texas, and Furman all continue to win. Princeton picked up a key win over Rutgers. Let’s check out what else happened across Mid-Major college basketball this week.
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San Diego State is in the midst of a five game winning streak and that’s good enough to earn the Aztecs the top spot in our Mid-Major Top 25 rankings. The Aztecs took down Cal Baptist 81-75 on Wednesday and California 71-50 on Saturday. On the season, they’ve picked up wins over Creighton, Houston, and a UC San Diego team that continues to rise up the rankings. San Diego State is 36th in KenPom and 43rd in the NET. It’s important to keep in mind that the NET is just a sorting system. With Christmas week upon us, the slate of games will be minimal, but the Aztecs will take on inter-conference rival Utah State to officially kick off conference season on Saturday, December 28th on FOX.
Memphis and Dayton both suffered a loss this week. Memphis followed up from their Clemson victory in overtime last weekend with a 64-62 win over Virginia on Wednesday. However, Saturday was a different story, falling to a tough Mississippi State team 79-66. Memphis struggled mightily, shooting just 35% from the floor and 29% from 3pt. They have another ranked opportunity this coming weekend against Ole Miss on Saturday.
Dayton escaped a trap game against UNLV, winning 66-65 thanks to Malachi Smith’s late game heroics on Tuesday evening. However, the Flyers would lose to No. 19 Cincinnati 66-59. It was a rough first half to say the least where the Flyers didn’t make their first basket until 12 minutes into the game. At halftime the score was 25-17 Bearcats. The second half was more interesting, but the Flyers couldn’t overcome their first half offensive struggles. Fortunately, their only three loses this season are to all ranked teams, so their at-large resume remains intact. The Flyers won’t play again until they open up A-10 play against La Salle on New Year’s Eve.
We had a massive matchup between two Top Five Mid-Major teams on Sunday evening. Utah State took down Saint Mary’s on the road 75-68. Utah State was on the edge of blowing out the Gaels multiple times in the second half, but the Gaels continued to fight their way back into it. The Aggies are now 11-1 with their only loss coming from UC San Diego on Tuesday. For Saint Mary’s, they’ve now dropped two out of their last three to Boise State and Utah State, while squeaking out a close win to Merrimack. Fortunately, the Gaels have a break until next week to take a breath and regroup.
The New Mexico Lobos picked up a couple of wins this week to move to 9-3 on the season. They took down a non-division I opponent in Western New Mexico 122-70. Their notable win was a 78-71 victory over VCU at the Pit. Donovan Dent dropped a ridiculous 40 points in this one, bringing his average up to 19.6 points per game. Dent is also averaging a career high 7.3 assists through the Lobos first 12 games of the season. When Donovan Dent is hot, it’s nearly impossible to beat this New Mexico team. The Lobos are up to 67th in KenPom and 85th in the NET.
UC Irvine struggled this week. The Anteaters travelled to Nashville to take on Belmont, where I was able to attend the game live. UC Irvine struggled mightily in the first half, posting just 25 points. However, they caught fire in the second half, scoring 67 to win 92-84. This was an out of sorts game for the Anteaters who have been one of the best defensive teams in the country. They followed up with yet another disappointing defensive performance against the 4-8 Duquesne Dukes. We praised the Dukes all offseason about their potential, but they just hadn’t put it together until Saturday. The Dukes took down the Anteaters 70-54 where UCI shot just 34%. Unfortunately, this loss is going to kill their at-large chances. There’s still a chance that they can pull it off if they lose to UC San Diego in the Big West championship, but this hurts their chances. Good teams find ways to win bad games and they were able to do that against Belmont, but not Duquesne.
St. Bonaventure continues to win as the Bonnies move to 12-1 after taking down Siena and Niagara this week. Chance Moore has been a star this year as he is now up to averaging 15.8 points, 7.3 rebounds, 1.4 blocks, and 1.5 steals per game so far. He’s also shooting nearly 50% from the floor. The Bonnies are up to 80th in KenPom and 553rd in the NET. Per KenPom, their defensive efficiency is 37th in the country, which is evident by the fact they have held opponents to less than 60 points in eight out of their 13 games. They won’t play this week, but they’ll open up their A-10 conference schedule against a tough VCU team. Keep your eyes on the Bonnies to see in their non-conference success translates to an ultra-competitive Atlantic 10 conference.
There was minimal movement among the bottom half of teams this week as each team got the job done this week. Wichita State nearly knocked themselves out this week after being dismantled by DePaul 91-72 last weekend, then turning around and losing to Kansas City 74-64 on Tuesday. Fortunately, they ran Kansas State out of the building 84-65 to bounce back. They are the largest faller, but still have life in the Top 25.
Princeton picked up a tremendous win over Rutgers 83-82 behind a couple of solid performances from Xaivian Lee and Caden Pierce. The Tigers are now 9-4 on the season with wins over Saint Joseph’s and Rutgers. I don’t believe they have an at-large resume at this point, but if they lose just one or two games in the Ivy League, there could still be a chance. The Tigers are sitting at 110th in KenPom and 117th in the NET.
Furman and UC San Diego continue to win as the Paladins are up to 12-1 on the season and the Tritons are 11-2. UC San Diego is our largest riser of the week after taking down Utah State 75-73 on Tuesday. The Tritons have won nine games in a row and their only two losses are to San Diego State and Seattle U. Had UC Irvine not dropped the game to Duquesne, there was a legitimate chance the Big West could earn two bids. Alas, UC San Diego is now up to 81st in KenPom and 59th in the NET.
Unfortunately for Louisiana Tech fans, the Bulldogs just missed the cut this week. If we were ranking 26 teams, they would be in there. After their win over Grand Canyon, I was convinced that I’d find a spot for them in the upcoming week, however, each of the lower half teams won where they needed to, making it difficult to replace. The Bulldogs are sitting at 89th in the NET and 101st in KenPom to go along with their 11-2 record. Louisiana Tech is off until January 1st when they open up Conference USA play against UTEP.
Notable Movement
New Mexico - #13 → #7
UC Irvine - #10 → #14
UC San Diego - #24 → #20
Wichita State - #18 → #24
Dropped Out
None
On the Bubble
Louisiana Tech
Columbia
Belmont
North Dakota State
Samford