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College Basketball Rankings January 30: Purdue Stays in Top 25

Purdue is still in the top 25 for a 32nd straight week, but just barely.

Bruce Thorson-USA TODAY Sports

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)
Record: 22-0
PV Rank
3
Points
1,594
2
Baylor (6)
Record: 20-1
5
1,504
3
Kansas (9)
Record: 19-2
2
1,503
4
Record: 20-2
1
1,479
5
Record: 20-2
7
1,387
6
Record: 18-4
13
1,237
7
Record: 17-4
18
1,101
8
Record: 17-4
4
1,083
9
Record: 16-4
12
1,061
10
Record: 18-3
15
1,058
11
Record: 19-3
8
993
12
Record: 19-4
9
965
13
Record: 19-3
10
863
14
19
756
15
Record: 18-4
6
727
16
Record: 18-4
11
717
17
Record: 19-2
22
518
18
Record: 19-2
21
409
19
Record: 17-4
23
384
20
Record: 17-5
14
363
21
Record: 16-5
17
339
22
Record: 19-3
16
307
23
Record: 17-5
20
264
24
Record: 16-5
25
213
25
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

RANK TEAM RECORD POINTS 1st Place Votes Prev CHANGE Hi/Low
1 Gonzaga 22-0 785 24 3 2 1/14
2 Kansas 19-2 749 7 1 -1 1/8
3 Baylor 20-1 720 0 5 2 1/NR
4 Villanova 20-2 719 1 2 -2 1/4
5 Arizona 20-2 672 0 9 4 5/20
6 Kentucky 17-4 583 0 4 -2 1/8
7 Louisville 18-4 525 0 14 7 7/15
8 UCLA 19-3 518 0 7 -1 2/20
9 Wisconsin 18-3 509 0 15 6 9/17
10 North Carolina 19-4 499 0 6 -4 3/16
11 Virginia 16-4 470 0 13 2 6/18
12 West Virginia 17-4 457 0 18 6 7/19
13 Oregon 19-3 451 0 10 -3 4/24
14 Cincinnati 19-2 360 0 19 5 14/NR
15 Butler 18-4 328 0 11 -4 11/NR
16 Florida St. 18-4 321 0 8 -8 8/NR
17 Maryland 19-2 253 0 23 6 17/NR
18 Notre Dame 17-5 228 0 12 -6 12/NR
19 St. Mary's 19-2 214 0 21 2 11/23
20 South Carolina 17-4 191 0 24 4 15/NR
21 Duke 16-5 165 0 17 -4 1/21
22 Creighton 19-3 159 0 16 -6 7/23
23 Florida 16-5 137 0 25 2 21/NR
24 Purdue 17-5 106 0 20 -4 15/24
25 Xavier 15-6 97 0 22 -3 7/25