Updated college basketball rankings: Arizona, Gonzaga drop after wild week of upsets

Posted by Admin January 20, 2025 Basketball

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March Madness came early in 2025.

In one of the wildest stretches of college basketball in recent memory, seventeen teams ranked in the AP Top 25 Poll lost this past week.

Among the teams who were upset? No. 2 Iowa State, No. 4 Alabama, No. 5 Florida, No. 6 Tennessee, No. 7 Marquette, No. 8 Kentucky and No. 9 Kansas. And No. 16 Gonzaga lost twice.

All of the upsets added up to significant movement in the only rankings that matter: the NCAA NET Rankings. The NET Rankings are important because the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee uses the NET as the primary sorting tool for selection and seeding for the NCAA tournament.

Top Of Big 12 Moves Up

Texas Tech’s win over Arizona on Saturday hurt the Wildcats — but it helped the Big 12 in the NET Rankings. The win bumped the Red Raiders up to No. 15 in the latest rankings, while Arizona dropped two spots to No. 14.

The Big 12 now has five teams in the top 15: No. 3 Houston, No. 6 Iowa State, No. 9 Kansas, No. 14 Arizona and No. 15 Texas Tech.

Marquette’s 59-57 loss to Xavier and Gonzaga’s 103-99 loss to Santa Clara on Saturday also helped the Big 12. Both were bad losses — at home to teams ranked outside the top 50 — and significantly hurt their NET Rankings. Marquette dropped six spots to No. 19 and Gonzaga dropped seven spots to No. 18.

While a team like Arizona still has plenty of opportunities to improve its ranking because of the tough conference it plays in, Gonzaga will have a difficult time moving back into the top 15.

The historically weak West Coast Conference only has two teams in the top 50 of the NET — Gonzaga and No. 28 Saint Mary’s. The Big 12 has nine teams in the top 50, which gives Arizona many more chances to pick up Quad 1 victories. A Quad 1 game is a home matchup against a top 30 team in the NET, or a road game against a top 50 team in the NET.

The NCAA Tournament Selection Committee puts significant weight on a team’s Quad 1 record. Arizona is 3-6 in Quad 1 games, with at least eight Quad 1 opportunities left on its schedule. The No. 1 team in the NET, Auburn, is 10-1 in Quad 1 games.