If you thought the early-season appetizers were fun, listeners, the main course of college basketball has officially arrived, and it is absolute chaos at the top. According to the latest AP poll from CBS Sports, Arizona and Michigan are still standing as the clear one-two punch in the country, both unbeaten, both 14-0, trading the top spot in different metrics but owning the national conversation. Arizona’s held No. 1 in the AP Top 25, while Michigan sits right behind them and actually owns the top spot in the NCAA’s NET rankings, which tells you just how dominant the Wolverines have been in the efficiency game.
Right on their heels, Iowa State, UConn, and Purdue are making sure this isn’t a two-team story. Iowa State is still unbeaten, UConn and Purdue have that single sting of a loss but keep stacking conference wins, and all three look like one-seed material in early bracketology projections from ESPN and Fox Sports. This is old-school, grown-man basketball from Purdue in particular, with national analysts pointing out how Matt Painter’s veteran core has turned continuity into a weapon.
But maybe the most fun twist near the top is the fresh blood. Nebraska and Vanderbilt are both unbeaten, climbing into the top 11 in the AP poll, and Fox Sports’ latest tournament projections now have Nebraska sitting on the two line as one of the biggest climbers in the country. At the same time, BYU has cracked the top 10 in Andy Katz’s Power 37 on NCAA.com and sits ninth in both the AP poll and ESPN’s rankings, continuing a breakout season that has them suddenly mentioned with bluebloods.
And then there’s the nightly drama. NCAA.com called this first full week of conference play “wild,” and that might be underselling it. Kansas just pulled off a ridiculous comeback against TCU, erasing a double-digit deficit in the final minutes before winning in overtime, behind the poise of freshman Darryn Peterson, who calmly buried three free throws with under two seconds left to force OT. On the same night, Penn State, coming off blowout losses and missing its top freshman, pushed unbeaten Michigan to the edge and forced the Wolverines to prove they could survive a true road scare. Georgetown managed to tie an NCAA record for offensive futility with just one made field goal in a half against DePaul, while Texas A&M and Auburn delivered a wild finish where both teams celebrated as if they had won before replay wiped a buzzer-beater off the board and gave the Aggies a 90–88 road shocker.
So as Arizona, Michigan, and the rest of the elite try to stay unbeaten or stay in that one-seed conversation, the real story is that every night feels like March. Upsets, comebacks, records, and resumes are all being rewritten in real time, and it’s only early January.
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This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI
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