Top 25 Mid-Majors: Utah State Can't Stop Winning
Mid-Major basketball heats up with UC Irvine climbing and Santa Clara surprising. Explore all the Top 25 action and rankings updates!
This week was nothing short of incredible and it’s just a random week in January. We had some major shakeups across the board from teams in our Top 25 rankings. Dayton dropped a game to UMass, New Mexico held San Diego State to just 48 points, Santa Clara throttled San Francisco, and UC Irvine and UC San Diego went head-to-head. Let’s walk through this week’s Top 25 rankings and recap major movement.
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This week’s recap will be a tad shorter as we posted a lengthy recap of the Saturday action yesterday afternoon. If you are looking for some mid-week college basketball reading, check it out here:
Saturday Highlights: Big South, Atlantic 10 & Beyond
We had another huge slate of games yesterday that led to an enormous amount of movement throughout the conferences. From Utah State’s incredible four point play to take down Boise State, to Duke Deen’s clutch three pointer to let Bradley squeak by UIC, there was a ton of action. Let’s recap the key results of yesterday’s matchups.
Utah State remained at the top this week after taking down San Jose State and Boise State. The Boise State game was a crazy one as Ian Martinez was fouled on a three point shot, completed the four point play with mere seconds remaining to put the Aggies on top. They’ll look to keep rolling as they take on UNLV this week.
New Mexico shot up to third after knocking off Wyoming and holding San Diego State to just 48 points at the pit. The Lobos are on fire as they’ve won seven in a row and remain undefeated in the Mountain West. Donovan Dent is unreal as he is averaging 19.1 points right now. The Lobos take on San Jose State and Boise State this week.
Dayton fell down to ninth after dropping two in a row to George Washington and UMass. The Flyers were hard to rank this week as this stretch of games are a bit of an outlier on their schedule this year considering their accomplishments over Northwestern, Marquette, and UConn. You can swallow the George Washington loss as the Revolutionaries have been playing well at 13-3, however, the UMass loss is detrimental. It’ll be difficult for the A-10 to move towards a multi-bid league after this one and the Bonnies dropping a heartbreaker to La Salle, but never say never. Dayton is a headscratcher right now and they need to bounce back against George Mason and Loyola Chicago this week.
UC Irvine moved back up into the top ten after taking down UC San Diego. The Anteaters are now 15-2 and undefeated in the Big West as they sit at 59th in KenPom. UC San Diego is right behind at 64th, so they earn a spot at 10th as well. These two teams have been a blast to watch this season and their final score of 60-52 was fitting for two of the most stout defenses not just among mid-majors, but across college basketball.
Samford continues to win as the Bulldogs are 14-3 and undefeated in the SoCon, taking down VMI and UNC Greensboro this week. Trey Fort, the Mississippi State transfer has been huge for the Bulldogs after losing Achor Achor. Against UNC Greensboro, Fort posted 21 points, while Collin Holloway locked down the boards and Rylan Jones controlled the game. This is a well rounded team for Bucky McMillan and Samford is looking like a team that could be sitting at 26+ wins by the time we get to the NCAA Tournament.
We have a couple of new faces in Santa Clara and St. Thomas this week. For Santa Clara, they’ve rebounded better than they could’ve expected after struggling to start the year. The Broncos started off 3-5, but proceeded to rip off a six game winning streak and now have won nine out of their last ten games. Their only loss in that period was a three point loss to San Francisco in overtime. This is a well rounded team that currently sits at 52nd in offensive efficiency and 116in in defensive efficiency. They don’t do one thing specifically at an elite level, rather they are a well rounded team with favorable above average metrics. They have a true test this week against Loyola Marymount and Gonzaga.
St. Thomas dropped 119 points against South Dakota to move to 14-5 on the season and remain undefeated in the Summit. If you love offense, this is the team for you. The Tommies rank 51st in offensive efficiency, 6th in effective field goal percentage, 8th in three point percentage, 18th in 2pt percentage, 29th in free throw percentage, and they simply don’t turn the ball over ranking 47th in least about of steals and 30th in turnovers overall. Their defense leaves many things to be desired as they rank 259th overall, but their offense is so fun to watch. If you aren’t familiar with Miles Barnstable yet, you should be. The junior is averaging 14.9 points on 44.1% shooting so far. In the Summit, he’s averaging 21.5 points.
For the teams that dropped out in Nevada and Grand Canyon, there were some notable reasons. Nevada picked up their first win in the Mountain West against Fresno State, but it took them overtime to squeeze out the win. Fresno State is 4-13 and 0-6 in conference, where they rank 262nd in KenPom. The computer metrics are still kind to Nevada thanks to their notable non-conference wins, but the reality is, they are 9-7. The Wolf Pack is just not the same team we saw early in the season.
For Grand Canyon, the Lopes moved to 11-5 after dropping a game to Utah Valley 72-64. This is a much improved Utah Valley team, however, it snapped Grand Canyon’s five game winning streak. The Lopes will be back in the Top 25 at some point as long as they rebound well after this loss. They take on Abilene Christian (220th) and Tarleton State (282nd), so they can’t afford to drop on here.
Notable Movement
UC Irvine - #12 → #8
Samford - #25 → #20
Santa Clara - NR → #17
Dropped Out
Nevada
Grand Canyon
On the Bubble
Charleston
Columbia
Saint Louis
Lipscomb
Saint Joseph’s