College Basketball Rankings January 30: Purdue Stays in Top 25

It helps that 14 teams in the top 25 lost last week, many of them twice. That mitigates the damage somewhat that Purdue sustained from the bad loss at Nebraska (and yes, I agree it is a bad loss). Purdue is still a good team with a ton of talent. It just has no depth now and there are major questions about what it does in the final minutes of a close game. IN all three Big Ten losses, plus the loss to Villanova, Purdue has had the basketball down three points or loss. only once in those four games did it convert, against Minnesota, and that was a game it eventually lost in overtime.

Fortunately, there are nine game left. I said this on twitter earlier today: If Purdue finds a way to win all nine games (difficult, but far from impossible) it will be just fine heading into the Big Ten Tournament at 26-5 overall and 15-3. It might even be the Big Ten champion, too. Purdue needs to win out and have the following happen:

• Two Wisconsin losses
• Two Maryland losses (one of which would come against Purdue if it wins out).
  

That's three games that need to go Purdue's way outside of its own games, and one of those three losses will occur because Wisconsin and Maryland still must play once. the biggest difference between Purdue and Wisconsin right now is that Wisconsin closed out three games late against Minnesota, Michigan, and Rutgers, while Purdue couldn't against Iowa, Minnesota, and Nebraska.

Anyway, onto the rankings:

1

		Gonzaga (46) West Coast Record: 22-0	PV Rank 3 Points 1,594
2		Baylor (6) Big 12 Record: 20-1	5 1,504
3		Kansas (9) Big 12 Record: 19-2	2 1,503
4		Villanova (4) Big East Record: 20-2	1 1,479
5		Arizona Pac-12 Record: 20-2	7 1,387
6		Louisville ACC Record: 18-4	13 1,237
7		West Virginia Big 12 Record: 17-4	18 1,101
8		Kentucky SEC Record: 17-4	4 1,083
9		Virginia ACC Record: 16-4	12 1,061
10		Wisconsin Big Ten Record: 18-3	15 1,058
11		UCLA Pac-12 Record: 19-3	8 993
12		North Carolina ACC Record: 19-4	9 965
13		Oregon Pac-12 Record: 19-3	10 863
14		Cincinnati American Athletic Conference (AAC) Record: 19-2	19 756
15		Florida State ACC Record: 18-4	6 727
16		Butler Big East Record: 18-4	11 717
17		Maryland Big Ten Record: 19-2	22 518
18		Saint Mary's (Cal) West Coast Record: 19-2	21 409
19		South Carolina SEC Record: 17-4	23 384
20		Notre Dame ACC Record: 17-5	14 363
21		Duke ACC Record: 16-5	17 339
22		Creighton Big East Record: 19-3	16 307
23		Purdue Big Ten Record: 17-5	20 264
24		Florida SEC Record: 16-5	25 213
25		Northwestern Big Ten Record: 18-4	- 106

Purdue hangs in at No. 23, dropping only 3 spots. It also has a game against a ranked team this week as Northwestern jumps in at No. 25, breaking a streak of 139 non-ranked weeks. It is only the second time they have been ranked since 1969.

In the coaches poll Purdue drops four spots to No. 24:

TOP 25 TEAMS, WEEK 13