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Join the Check the Net crew with special guest Josh Lee as they create their own top 25 rankings! Also, figure out why Josh was talking about Goldey-Beacom, Colin was talking about Stonehill, Eli talking about Utah Valley, and Kylee talking about (you guessed it) the MAC! All that and more this week on Check the Net!
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What is Check the Net on Impact 89FM?
Are you a fan of college hoops? Check the Net is a podcast that covers everything about the world of college basketball. Whether it is discussions regarding top teams and weekly rankings, updates on transfer portal and coaching news, or commentary on the latest major stories from around the game, Check the Net has got you covered. The podcast covers both men’s and women’s basketball across all Division I conferences. Check the Net is available through Impact 89FM’s website, as well as via all major audio platforms.
Welcome back to Check the Net Impact 80 nine's men's and women's college basketball podcast. I'm your host, Kylie Taylor, and I'm joined today by my baddies, Colin Pearson and Eli Flickama, and our guest host for the week, Josh Lee. Is everybody so excited for today? Today.
Eli:We're so back. It's spring semester. We're back in East Lansing Yep. And back on the air even though no one asked.
Kylee:Indeed. So we're gonna do some quick intros because we do have a guest today. I guess we can start with Colin because there's no order.
Colin:Fine. Know, new semester. We're starting intros. I get it. I get it.
Colin:I'm Colin, civil engineering major. And then we decided we were gonna say our most random team that we like and our hometown teams that we like. And so my hometown team was Michigan State growing up. You know, go green. And then most random team, I've got 2, McNeese State and Rhode Island.
Colin:Big fans.
Kylee:Big big fans. Big fans. Okay.
Colin:No particular reason.
Kylee:Okay. I'm Max. I'm Kylie. Y'all just heard that. I am a social relation social relations and policy major.
Kylee:My hometown team that I kinda grew up rooting for is University of Toledo, woohoo, go Rockets. And, my most random team is definitely Creighton.
Eli:I'm Eli. I'm an urban and regional planning major. I grew up rooting for the University of Northern Iowa because I grew up in a college town, and the most random team I'm rooting for definitely this season is Meramec.
Josh:As Cali said, I'm Josh. I'm the new guest for this week. I am a sports and broadcast journalism major, so kind of this stuff is what I wanna do in the future. Like Colin, I grew up around the area, so I'm a big MSU fan from my hometown team. And then that random team that I always root for is that VCU team that made that run all those years ago.
Kylee:Yes. Love it. Great team.
Eli:Hear that, folks? Josh is actually qualified to do this.
Kylee:Yeah. We all just We're
Eli:we're just here.
Kylee:We're we're amateurs in comparison.
Colin:Alright. Should we quit with the boring stuff and get to basketball?
Kylee:Who said we're boring? You're boring. I
Eli:am boring.
Kylee:We're we're full of we're full of interesting It's
Eli:like Kylie's hosting this one.
Kylee:Exactly. But, we are doing our mid season rankings. Basically, we we took the AP top 25, and we changed it because most of the time, we never agree with them.
Eli:And, also, a lot happened over winter break.
Kylee:That's also very true. And then we're also gonna be doing our kind of individual top fives for each. We're just kinda gonna go through them. And, yeah, so super exciting stuff. I guess I can start with my women's top 5.
Kylee:So I have UCLA, fair enough. South Carolina, fair enough. Notre Dame, fair enough. Again, not really changing much from the AP. Women's AP is always typically pretty accurate.
Kylee:And then I have LSU at number 4 because they're undefeated right now, aren't they?
Eli:Yep.
Kylee:Yeah. They're undefeated. So it's yeah. How you have to put them above most other teams, and then I have USC at number 5.
Colin:Yeah. I I would agree. I would put LSU above most other teams, and that's why I have UCLA 1, LSU at 2. Frankly, because LSU is undefeated and South Carolina is not, I put LSU above South Carolina. I don't ride the South Carolina hype train like everyone else, it seems.
Colin:So with South Carolina 3, Notre Dame at 4, USC at 5. Notre Dame has a win over USC. That's pretty much the only reasoning there. But, you know, the top 5 for women's basketball is pretty well set, with the exception of one additional team. Eli, I think you have them.
Eli:Yep. So I've got, UCLA at number 1 and South Carolina at number 2 because the fact that Colin doesn't ride that hype train means that it's going to run him over. Indeed. I've got LSU at number 3 because, again, they're undefeated until proven otherwise they are practically the best team in the country. And then I've got Notre Dame at number 4 as well.
Eli:And then I've put Yukon into my top 5 because I've seen some inconsistencies that that I don't like from USC. And I think UConn Notre Dame is going to wind up as, besides probably tournament games, the best game of the season.
Colin:Honestly, yeah. UConn Notre Dame is was a phenomenal game, and I totally get that.
Josh:I have the exact same top 5 as Kylie. UCLA, undefeated. They just look like the best team in the country right now. South Carolina, I will never bet against Dawn Staley, especially when it comes time in March. Notre Dame, they look very good this season.
Josh:LSU, as Colin mentioned, still undefeated. So you could really make an argument, but I still will never bet against Dawn Staley. And this UCLA team looks different. And USC, especially coming into the big ten, looks like they can match the challenge.
Kylee:So, basically, me and Josh are right?
Colin:Yeah. Essentially. Yeah. Yeah.
Josh:Kyle's the main one that's wrong.
Kylee:Yeah. Yeah. Basically. Always. Always.
Kylee:Yeah. You're always wrong. How's that?
Colin:Per you. That's usually how it goes.
Eli:You know? That's per you.
Colin:Kylie was cursed, but I'm just usually the wrong one when it comes to rankings and,
Eli:like, hey.
Kylee:I'm not I'm not cursed this year yet. There's still time. I mean,
Eli:you were you were sort of cursed.
Kylee:A little bit, but not as bad as it was last year. That was bad.
Eli:You're you're growing as a person.
Kylee:Yeah. So now Alright. We can just kind of go back and forth with our our top 25 rankings. And then the AP top 25. We agreed with the AP for UCLA, USC I'm sorry.
Kylee:South Carolina staying at 1 and 2. We flipped some things around then. We have LSU at 3, Notre Dame at 4, USC at 5 versus the Notre Dame at 3, USC at 4, and LSC at 5 from the AP. We both have UConn at 6. And then now we really kinda flipped more things around.
Kylee:We have Ohio State at 7, Maryland at 8, and Texas at 9 versus a Texas at 7, Maryland at 8, Ohio State at 9. The main reason for that was Ohio State's undefeated.
Eli:And it's because we have the games played up until Thursday, whereas the 8 people came out on Monday. So we're taking into account the fact that Texas lost on Wednesday night to South Carolina, which we, in our rankings, drops us below Ohio State and Maryland.
Colin:Yes. Yeah. So some other interesting things about this. We're pretty much sticking with it on the with the AP poll on this, you know, flipping a few teams based on recent losses. But honestly, the AP poll didn't do a bad job this week.
Colin:No. Or just in general on the women's side, they don't usually. You know? It's, pretty clear who's on top in the women's. Mhmm.
Kylee:Yeah. So everyone everything's they're pretty they're fairly consistent. But Lot
Colin:of lot of top players at all these schools.
Kylee:Yeah. So then we both have TCU at 10. We have Tennessee at 11 versus Kansas State at 11 for the a people. Then we have Kansas State at 12, Kentucky at 13, Oklahoma at 14, where they have, Kansas State at 11, Kentucky at 12, and Oklahoma at 13. So a little bit of differences there.
Eli:We jumped Tennessee above a lot of these teams in the lower teens because we really feel that for a 1st year a program with a 1st year head coach that's dealing with a lot of talent turnover and especially being in the SCC, they're far outperforming expectations. And I their head coach did an interview where she talked a lot about how people kept referring to her current seniors and graduate students or whatever as not her players because she didn't recruit them. They were already in Knoxville when she got the job. But she made a really big point about winning now, winning for these players, giving these players the best opportunity they have to compete for championships because she does view them as her players.
Colin:Yeah. I'm looking at Tennessee's 2 losses Yeah. Being by 1 and 2 points to top 15 teams. Exactly.
Josh:Yeah. You jumped my point. That's literally what I was about to say to you.
Colin:Yeah. Go for it, Josh.
Josh:I mean, for a 1st year head coach and especially like Eli just said, I mean, that was a strong message to give to your program. It set the tone for the years to come. But for your only two losses to be a combined 3 points against, at the time, 2 top 10 teams, it's really impressive what they've been able to do, and they deserve a lot of credit down in Knoxville.
Kylee:Yeah. Definitely agree. They've had a pretty strong start to the year. I definitely did not foresee this strong start just because of the coaching transition, but they've done a very, very good job of, keeping with the consistency and the strength of, like, the Tennessee program in general. So kinda moving on a little bit, we starting with looking at us.
Kylee:So we have North Carolina at 15 versus a, the a people having Tennessee at 15, and then we both have Duke at 16. And then so we moved some things around yet again towards kinda towards the bottom just because a lot of these teams are interchange interchangeable. They all have, like, similar, like, strengths and similar, like, records. So we have Alabama at 17, Michigan State at 18, Cal, Cal at 19, Minnesota at 20. They have Georgia the AP has Georgia Tech at 17, Cal at 18, Alabama at 19, and West Virginia at 20.
Colin:Simply by, you know, games played against each other. That's how we went with along with that. Mhmm. Alabama beat Michigan State. Michigan State beat Cal.
Colin:You know? And it was silly to us that Cal was above Alabama, but Michigan State was below both of them. It just it didn't make sense. You know. And so And we in our logic there.
Eli:We haven't seen the strongest play from Georgia Tech lately, so that's why we felt justified jumping that 3 team cluster above teams like Georgia Tech. And we also, moved Minnesota ahead of West Virginia because Minnesota has had a very, very hot start to the year. They only have 2 losses, and they're really looking to be a contender in big 10 play. Their most recent was to Maryland, and I I think both of their losses are the top 10 teams. So they've genuine they've come out of kind of nowhere to be a contender in the Big 10 this year.
Colin:Minnesota's other loss was Nebraska.
Kylee:Who was
Colin:a top 25 team? When Nebraska was 9 and 1. Mhmm.
Eli:And Nebraska remains undefeated at home.
Colin:Yeah. Nebraska is a very competitive team.
Eli:Against several ranked teams.
Kylee:Mhmm.
Colin:Yeah. On the road, on the other hand, Nebraska's kind of falling apart. Yeah. That is with UCLA, USC, Georgia Tech. You know, that list makes up quite a bit of those losses.
Eli:I I can absolutely excuse a loss in Lincoln this season Yeah. Just because of how strong they've been on their home floor.
Josh:And then going back about Minnesota, I mean, you just said it. They lost in Lincoln, which would you 2 just talked about. They for some reason, Lincoln is a fortress for this team, but then once they go on the road, something happens. And then their other loss was another road loss against a very good Maryland team.
Kylee:Mhmm.
Josh:This Minnesota team is looking very good, and they're deaf they could definitely challenge. I don't know if necessarily UCLA will get knocked off in the regular season, but you may expect a surprise maybe in the tournament come March. You never know when it comes to that. So Minnesota looks pretty damn good.
Kylee:Yeah. I think we talk about this all the time. The big ten is very even even cute. Like, we all we there's no doubt that the big ten is the best women's basketball conference. Like, I'm sorry.
Kylee:At this point, no one's gonna be able to convince me otherwise of that, and that just is what it is, because even the teams that aren't ranked in the top 25, like Iowa, Nebraska, Indiana, Michigan, I mean, these are teams that are gonna be, like, going that have went out and competed with top tier teams and have beaten top tier teams so far this season. So I think being able to compete in this conference is hard, and everyone just kinda beats up on each other, minus, I guess, UCLA at this point, who's up on that undefeated 17 and o pedestal. So I think it's gonna be but, I mean, their time is their time to fall is coming. Like, there is definitely I don't think they're gonna get out unscathed this year at
Colin:all. Especially with the fact of, you know, travel. You know, they UCLA goes 28 Maryland. They go, to u c USC. You know?
Colin:And lucky for them, they get to host, Michigan State. They get to host Ohio State. They get to host Minnesota. So the some of those tougher games are at home for them, luckily, which is really an advantage to to them. But being that extra travel has a big difference, and, we haven't seen it play out for UCLA or USC quite as much yet.
Colin:But towards the end of the season, when everyone's looking a little bit more exhausted, I just wonder.
Eli:And we we did just see USC win that tough road game at Maryland in College Park. So I think that was just a huge boost to how talented and how good the LA schools are this year.
Kylee:Yeah. Yeah.
Eli:But who's who's rounding out our top 25, Kylie?
Kylee:Yes. So we have for us, we had West Virginia at 21, Georgia Tech at 22, NC State at 23, Utah at 24, and Michigan at 25 in comparison to the AP poll who had, NC State at 21, Michigan State at 22, Utah at 23, Minnesota at 24, and Oklahoma State at 25. I think Michigan has just faced such a ridiculously difficult schedule so early in the season that that their losses are completely justifiable. They are still a top 25 team, so I think that they belong and they fit perfectly at 25.
Eli:Yeah. And I we we moved Michigan State and that cluster of teams up a little bit because Michigan State, despite being 4 and 2 in big 10 play, their losses are a road loss at Maryland and then that loss in Lincoln to undefeated at home Nebraska. So I feel that they deserve a little more AP respect, especially after last night. We have that perspective of they pulled out a tough road win against Rutgers to get their 1st conference road win even though it's against one of the teams that's currently sitting at the bottom of the standings.
Colin:Yeah. I wanna quick speak on NC State too. They've been a pretty quiet team this season. We haven't talked about them. You know, you don't see them in
Kylee:the news. They had a rough start. That's why.
Colin:They did have a rough start against, you know, number 2 South Carolina, number 10 TCU, and number 5 LSU.
Josh:Mhmm. And
Colin:the game against TCU was a 3 point game. I mean, these were top level teams that have played well all season, and those are, you know, strong losses. But they have come back, and they have been winning, winning, winning with the exception of one loss to our number 19, the AP's number 18, California.
Kylee:Mhmm.
Colin:On the road, on the other side of the country, you know, 4 time zones off at what I think started at was at 11 PM Eastern. Oh, yes. So a very late game for NC State. Kinda tough to get your head in the game after that long of a day, some long flights. So frankly, NC State, little bit of a sleeper team.
Colin:Definitely look out for them, especially come tournament time.
Kylee:Yeah.
Colin:ACC tournament time, that
Kylee:is. Yes.
Colin:Alright. We got some honorable mentions.
Kylee:You can talk about the first one, Colin, since you're so insistent.
Colin:I really wanted to put these guys at in at number 25. Quinnipiac only has one loss, which is weird for a MAAAC team, the Metro Atlantic. And that one loss was in overtime to Miami, Florida. Granted, hasn't really shown up this year as much as people thought they would. You know, but that is still a very strong, strong team.
Colin:With 14 and 1, one loss in overtime to a Power 5 school, you gotta wonder if they can pull something off in the tournament and, honestly, whether they deserve to be in that top 25 if they keep winning out. They also have 4 Ivy League wins in that, stretch against Princeton and the likes. So some very strong wins in, smaller conferences.
Eli:Josh, who are our other honorable mentions?
Josh:Looks like South Dakota State is someone that it looks like you guys wanna talk about
Colin:in
Josh:terms of who deserves some love. Maybe not so much putting into the top 25, but they definitely deserve some love, especially somebody from the outside, not from the power 4 conferences.
Kylee:Yeah. Especially with the smaller conferences, they never get love in the AP. Never ever like, Fairfield was the first one, and that was last year, and they got a 25 ranking.
Eli:Especially not in the women's poll. It's really hard for mid major teams to break into that.
Kylee:Yeah. Yeah. So I think it's fair to kinda bring up some of those smaller teams. Portland's another one who not not on my radar ever. They've only lost to Gonzaga and then in overtime to an Oregon State team, so looking pretty good so far.
Kylee:Yeah. And then we talked a little bit about Nebraska as well. It was undefeated at home. So that is definitely worth noting. I'm not gonna go over the honorable mentions for the AP because who cares?
Kylee:And, you can look them up anyway.
Colin:Should we get into next week some of the fun games, some of the, you know, double ranks, some power games, some non power games.
Eli:Some random non conference games? It's January. Hello?
Colin:Yeah. Why are we doing non conference games in January? Like, late January?
Eli:I don't know, but the Coretta Scott Invitational is here.
Colin:Alright. Eli, you wanna talk about that now that you've brought it up? I didn't
Eli:pick either of those games.
Kylee:Incorrect.
Colin:Josh, you wanna talk about it because you picked one of
Josh:the games? Yeah. Why not? As we mentioned earlier, number 1 UCLA looking like they're going through they're just going through every team in their path. But they got an interesting challenge, 3 o'clock on January 20th with Baylor, who is 15 and 3 and not ranked in one team we did not mention.
Josh:But they're coming off a 4 game winning streak against their opponents, and it will be an interesting challenge, especially since that is a longer travel for UCLA. That's something that they would expect going to Rutgers. They're playing in New Jersey on 20th. But Baylor has shorter travel. Maybe some maybe something crazy could happen.
Josh:But, interestingly, we have a a power 4 matchup out of conference game in the middle of January, but that could be a really fun classic, especially between UCLA and Baylor who were 2 teams that who can make some noise come in March.
Kylee:Absolutely. And especially since what's interesting is that Baylor has height, and that's where I think UCLA has been dominating with Lauren Betts specifically. She's very good. She's a very tall player. So I think that kind of matching that up against her with another team with quite a bit of height in Baylor, I think that'll be interesting and provide a completely different challenge.
Kylee:I have the other game, right, of the Invitational. Awesome. So, I have number 7 Texas versus number 8 Maryland. Again, why nonconference in January? I don't know.
Kylee:But that's a really fun matchup. Like, a very, very fun matchup. I think Maryland's gonna come out on top, personally. I think they're they're very, very talented. It's very fun to watch, intense defense.
Kylee:They go all out all the time, so I'm very excited to kinda watch how that unfolds.
Colin:Yeah. And, I mean, Texas, after Maryland, also faces Tennessee, number 15 in the country. And so, you know, Texas is probably not fully focused on Maryland. And so I do wonder whether that will have an effect. Maryland, I believe their next game Ohio State.
Colin:Is Ohio State, and then they face UCLA. So they're also probably not gonna be fully in the headspace. So it'll be really interesting to see which team can focus in and really try to dominate. I don't think there will be a domination. Frankly, these two teams are gonna be very even.
Colin:It should be a fun one.
Kylee:Alright. Colin,
Colin:what do you have? Alright. I've got number 10 TCU at number 24 Oklahoma State. It's always fun when a higher ranked team goes to a lower ranked team and tries to face off. TCU, obviously, has been very good this year.
Colin:They've been very good in years past. Last year, they fell apart due to injuries. This year, that's not happening. Knock on wood. Fingers crossed.
Colin:And so, you know, TCU, looking for a revenge season here. And this game against Oklahoma State is kind of their first bigger test on the road, and so should be interesting to see what they come up with on, Wednesday, 22nd.
Eli:And then I've got number 15, Tennessee at Vanderbilt. I picked this one out because we talked about Tennessee and how they're absolutely overperforming a lot of their preseason expectations with that new coaching staff. Then Vanderbilt is a team that was really hanging around in that receiving AP votes, but not quite ranked area and has been hanging there throughout the season. They received one AP vote in this in the most recent poll, But they they've been hanging with a lot of these really higher ranked opponents in the SEC. They were tied up with LSU at halftime in their recent matchup this week.
Eli:And things can anything can happen in a rivalry game. So I really think Vanderbilt welcoming a ranked Tennessee squad into town, that should be a great showdown.
Colin:Yeah. I do wonder if Tennessee is gonna have more fans there than Vanderbilt, simply because it's in Nashville. You know? That's right down the road for most Tennessee fans rather than traveling all the way out to Knoxville. But at the same time, Vanderbilt has really built themselves a fan base thanks to recent football success.
Colin:Mhmm. So you gotta wonder both ways. It's gonna be an interesting one.
Kylee:Yeah. Alright. Time to move to small conference. I'll start because, of course, I'm gonna talk about the Mac, obviously. So I have
Colin:Yeah. For those of you on your bingo card, go ahead and check that one off.
Kylee:Kylie talking about the MAC. So I have Toledo at Ball State next week. So, yeah, both exciting. They're kinda both middle of the road in the MAC for the most part, but one of the the players from my hometown home area they used to play against got her first start, at University of Toledo, like, recently, so that was really exciting. But, yeah, you know, Mac action, gotta love it.
Colin:Toledo had a really weird game the other day, right, with Western Michigan?
Kylee:They they was 38 to 41 they lost, to Western. That's Horrible scoring.
Eli:So we're we're we're hoping to see them, roar back a little against Ball State.
Colin:Is that shooting percentage? Is that, like, what?
Eli:Well I don't even wanna know.
Colin:Don't even wanna know.
Eli:I've got, same general geographical region from the Horizon League. I've got, Purdue Fort Wayne at Detroit Mercy. And I chose this because the Horizon League has been playing conference games for a lot longer than most other basketball conferences have. So we have a lot clearer picture of how their conference standings are currently shaking out. And Purdue Fort Wayne is at the top, and it's really not close.
Eli:They're 8 and o in league play, and they're visiting Dee Mercy, who's currently 5 and 2 in the Horizon, and we'll be looking to close that gap a little bit. So should be fun.
Josh:I'll go next. Go for it. I wanted to be a little different. Instead of going for teams that are near here in Michigan, I went over to the a 10, an interesting matchup between a 13 and 4 Saint Josephs and a 9 and 8 UMASS. Now I know a 9 and 8 matchup does not sound like a good matchup, but for these smaller conferences that, like, we've talked about, especially in women's basketball, it's hard to get yourself a power 5 or get yourself an at large bid.
Josh:So both these teams are 4 and 2 in their conference in the a 10. They're just try you gotta jockey for position, especially in those in conference matchups. Saint Joseph obviously has the better record coming into it. But looking at some of their wins compared to what UMASS played, this could be an even keel matchup. Saint Joseph, some of their wins against a good Syracuse team, but they started out the season against gold Goldie Beckham.
Josh:I'm not gonna lie. I don't know who that I don't know that school. I
Kylee:have no idea.
Colin:Can we make bets on what state that is from?
Josh:I I can't even click. I can't click.
Kylee:Wyoming. Wyoming. Wyoming.
Colin:Goldie Beacom, Tennessee. I I feel like this is a small school from, like, Pennsylvania.
Kylee:That's fair.
Colin:Middle of the mountains.
Josh:All of you are incorrect. It is Delaware.
Kylee:Nice. Never would've guessed.
Colin:Nice. Definitely not on my opinion. Kidding me?
Kylee:I like
Eli:it. Not
Josh:at all. But back to the point of 2 teams that are 42 in the a 10, they're gonna the this is a big matchup in terms of just getting a conference win and trying to get higher up to get a home court advantage, especially come tournament time, especially playing against the worser teams at the conference. So big match up on Saturday afternoon in UMass. Should be an interesting one.
Colin:Yeah. That'll be fun. It's also interesting. You know, this is UMass's last year in the a 10 before they have to kinda figure it out in the MAC. So should be a very interesting matchup.
Colin:Probably one of the last ones between these two teams ever. Probably.
Kylee:So Yeah.
Colin:Could be fun.
Kylee:Alrighty. Men's basketball time. No.
Colin:No. Colin. Holly.
Kylee:He doesn't matter.
Colin:Kylie doesn't wanna talk about 89 Stonehill
Kylee:versus 13 3 Fairleigh Dickinson. Correct. I do not.
Colin:89 Stonehill is 4 and o in the NEC. They currently lead the NEC. They had a much harder non conference schedule than Fairleigh Dickinson, I will say. Fairleigh Dickinson is also undefeated in the NEC. That game is on January 23rd at 7 PM, so we will actually not be able to talk about this game next week because we will be recording just before it.
Colin:But they are the only 2 teams in the NEC right now with more than 4 wins total, and the only, total. Yes. And the only 2 undefeated NEC teams with Stonehill off 4 game win streak should be a lot of fun.
Kylee:Yeah. Probably not, though. Wow. Anyway Wow.
Josh:No restraint to Stonehill.
Kylee:No. Stonehill 4
Colin:and o.
Kylee:Not the 89. No, Alright. Let's get to meds. Yeah. What I wanted to do already.
Kylee:So same same rules apply. I'll start again. So, for our for all of our top fives, so beginning with mine, we I have Auburn, which they should have been number 1 overall for weeks ago.
Colin:Can we just start with we all have Auburn,
Kylee:Iowa State? At our 1 and 2.
Colin:Yeah. Because Understood. Yeah. Very clearly the 1 and 2 in the country. That Maui matchup was by far the best game of the season so far, and there's no question those 2 teams are 1 and 2 in the country right now.
Kylee:Yeah. No. 100%. So then on my number 3, I have Marquette's. They've just been stunned for some reason.
Kylee:Did not expect that. And then at 4, I have Tennessee, you know, just had a rough little rough go there for a second, but they bounced back pretty well with the win against Georgia. And then I have Kentucky at 5. Other people don't necessarily agree with that.
Colin:I disagree strongly. But
Kylee:can't justify putting teams like Duke after watching them how they get in crunch time. And, like, Houston has had a little bit of a rough go, and Florida is another team that I can't really justify also putting in the top five just because they've struggled in recent games, and Kentucky beat them. So I fear that's, like, that's my there it is. That's my top five.
Colin:The reason I can't see Kentucky is because their losses to Clemson or Ohio State as well as Georgia. Obviously, Georgia looking like a weirdly good team. Not sure where that came from. But Clemson and Ohio State are not.
Kylee:Ohio State is not a bad team, and I'm tired of people saying that they're a bad team.
Eli:They they should beat some good teams They did. Besides Kentucky. Yeah.
Colin:There it is. Okay.
Eli:To preface this, the rest of us all have the same 3 teams at 345, but we all have them in a different order.
Colin:Yes. Yep. So I have Tennessee at 3, Marquette at 4, Duke at 5. Tennessee has looked really strong. Marquette leading the Big East, and then Duke leading the ACC right now.
Colin:Hard hard for me to go against that.
Eli:I have Duke at 3, Tennessee at 4, and Marquette at 5. Tennessee has suffered a couple of upset losses in recent weeks. And I agree with Kylie's criticism that Duke can show a lot of faults in crunch time, but they aren't in crunch time very much because they're routinely winning by 20. So I will continue to rank them as one of the best teams in the country until people actually start playing close games with them. And then I've got Marquette at 5 because Marquette has been really, really good lately.
Josh:Yeah. Yep. I have the same 3 teams as Eli, but the only switch is I have Tennessee at 3, Duke at 4, and Marquette at 5. I think Tennessee, there it's a really weird situation because they're still, like, one of the best teams in the country, and you could make an argument for number 1. But that 30 point loss in Gainesville Yeah.
Josh:I still don't know
Colin:how that happened. I Florida is
Josh:a great team, and they look really good. But sometimes It was just sometimes. That is true. They did just come off a loss last night. But it's it's such a weird one looking at it.
Josh:Like, they just didn't do anything right. They could not shoot the ball at all. They just couldn't do anything in that Gainesville game. But I still think I still think they're the number 3 team in the country with how they played. Duke, really good with Cooper Flagg, you know, the guy that should still be at high school.
Colin:Yeah.
Josh:The guy that
Colin:Honestly. The guy that
Josh:should still be playing against kids that will not be at the same level as him. And then Marquette's been really good this year, so they deserve a shout out at number 5.
Colin:Yeah. Tennessee is really weird with that, because their only loss this season only loss. Is a 30 point loss to Florida who then proceeded to turn around and also lose.
Josh:Exactly. That was my exact point.
Colin:To Mizuh. So weird.
Josh:It's such a weird one for Tennessee.
Colin:I just I don't understand it personally. I'm counting it as a fluke, and that's why I still have them at 3. And I think, Josh, you'd say pretty much Yeah.
Josh:I think I think it was just an anomaly of a game as I ten I watched that game in Tennessee. Just could not shoot anything. They couldn't get anything to go. It was just a really weird game to watch, and you're just watching it thinking, like, is this Yeah.
Colin:Tennessee is regularly scoring in the seventies, eighties, and they scored 43 points in that game.
Josh:They just could not get anything to go. Simple simple things that Good.
Colin:They're they're missing the way ups at that point.
Josh:Yeah. At that point, good programs. They do the little things right, and they just could not do anything right in that game. So I think that might have just been a game. Rick Barnes just said, throw away the tape, move on, and focus on the next game.
Josh:Yeah.
Colin:Which they did. They've won 2 games since then, including one over ranked Georgia by 18 points. So yeah. Alright, Don. Our top 25
Eli:Also will not be tolerating any Duke slander because Duke beat Auburn.
Josh:So I was gonna mention that
Kylee:too with Duke. Did.
Colin:That's that's the interesting
Kylee:thing. Continue to slander because they lost to Kentucky and Kansas. So And it was crunch time mistakes. Listen. I'm not saying that they're not talented.
Kylee:I'm saying they're young. And, like, being young comes inexperience, and that is typically a disadvantage. Are they gonna be better at the end of the season? Well, yeah, obviously. Are they better now than they were games ago?
Kylee:Yes. But I still think that they like, once they're put in a crunch time situation in comparison to some of these teams who have more talented, more experienced vets, I think that they're still not gonna succeed. But, I mean, I they're either my pick 20 ACC. It doesn't really matter. Yeah.
Kylee:Okay. So
Eli:The top 25.
Kylee:The top 25. The top 25. So we The
Eli:top 25.
Kylee:The top 25. So the AP, has Auburn, Iowa State top 2. So do we, obviously. We moved definitely moved some stuff around in this one because we all think that the AP is wrong. Yeah.
Kylee:Especially for math.
Colin:Even wanna compare to the
Kylee:AP? No. No. No. Please don't.
Kylee:I think
Colin:we don't need to.
Kylee:Please don't. Yeah.
Eli:Look We'll just explain our rankings, and you can open a Chrome tab.
Kylee:Yeah. Yeah. You look at the AP. You know? It is what it is.
Kylee:No. So we have Tennessee at 3, Duke at 4, Marquette at 5. So just a a variation of what Yeah. We were just talking about. We have Kentucky at 6, Houston at 7, Florida.
Colin:Same reasons we were just talking about.
Kylee:Yep. Florida at 8, Alabama at 9, and Texas A&M at 10.
Colin:So that's 3 SEC schools back to back to back.
Eli:We we dropped Alabama pretty significantly from their current AP spot, which is 4, because Alabama has some, in my eyes, pretty significant early season losses to Oregon and Purdue, which really and they also just
Kylee:They just lost.
Josh:They just lost
Eli:last night. And they just lost last night to Ole Miss. Yeah. So they have not proven that they are a top five team.
Colin:They're just not consistent. They can beat almost any team in the country, I think, but it's not consistent because they lost at home to Ole Miss by 10 points last night.
Eli:Exactly.
Colin:It's not like this was a tough road game. This was a home game. You know, you gotta win some of those. Florida, obviously, we dropped a little bit as well for the reasons we talked about because they're just confusing.
Kylee:Yeah. I hate they're good. I hate that they're good, but they're also, like, not at the same time. I I don't know. They're good, and then they're not.
Colin:Depends on the day. Yeah. They're so inconsistently good. Yeah. That's tough.
Colin:Either that or the SCC is the best conference in basketball we have ever seen, and I have just have a hard time processing that.
Josh:I'd say I wouldn't even say that as especially since, Colin, you and I, we grew up in the state, big 10 foot basketball has been always good.
Kylee:Best.
Josh:It's it's hard look I'm looking at the standings, and not all of them have 10 plus wins. So it's hard hard to justify saying that they're the best when
Colin:They they won as a conference 75% of their nonconference games.
Eli:It was, like, 85.
Colin:Yeah. They won a wide majority of their nonconference games, including a lot
Eli:of over powerful teams. The ACC and the SEC ACC giants.
Colin:Well, the ACC is not
Kylee:good this year.
Colin:Yeah. They're bad this year. But there's just a lot of question marks out there. And so
Eli:Back to the rankings. Yeah.
Colin:Back to the rankings.
Eli:We Yeah. Basketball fans might be crying out at A and M at 10 because they're on a 2 game losing streak, you say, and that's very fair. Man.
Colin:I,
Kylee:Me too.
Josh:I've I've before we came on, I was campaigning hard why
Kylee:is it them
Josh:at 10? But their
Eli:2 their 2 game losing streak is to our ranked number 6 Kentucky and number 9 Alabama. So in a 10, they go.
Kylee:Boo. Boo.
Josh:They lost to UCF, but,
Eli:they lost to UCF on November 4th.
Josh:I know. I know. Still lost. I'm new. I'm new.
Josh:I'll stop. I'll stop.
Kylee:No. Don't don't stop. Keep going.
Colin:You have great reason to care.
Kylee:You're right.
Eli:You're right. You're right, but also November.
Kylee:But, also, you're right.
Colin:Is anyone gonna complain about Gonzaga?
Eli:No. At 11? I guess not.
Kylee:I yeah. But, like,
Colin:you know, I
Kylee:guess what again, they're hot and cold, and aren't all of is it the West Coast Conference all, like, have, like, the same record Yes. Yes. In conference? Like, that's kinda ridiculous. 52.
Kylee:Because Gonzaga is really supposed to be heads and shoulders above everybody else, like, program period. And besides, like,
Colin:some sites, same areas. And Gonzaga are both 5 and 1. Santa Clara is 4 and 1. Love. Respect to Santa Clara.
Colin:San Francisco's 4 and 2. Washington State's 3 and 2. Oregon State's 3 and 2. Yeah. They got 6 teams that are easily in contention.
Eli:And everybody else is terrible.
Colin:They all have about the same overall record. Yeah. The only team I didn't expect to see there is Santa Clara. Where the heck did they come from? Yeah.
Eli:Hi, Santa Clara.
Kylee:And they
Eli:pull out
Kylee:all the stuff.
Colin:And those include wins over San Francisco and Oregon State.
Kylee:Love.
Colin:Like, I I'm shocked
Eli:that Oregon State is there, honestly. Yeah. And Oregon State's sitting at 13 and 5 overall, which is very impressive to me.
Kylee:Yeah. I don't know. Gonzaga But
Eli:another Gonzaga's at 11.
Kylee:To walk.
Eli:We're gonna keep yelling at them or we'll move on, so we're gonna move on.
Kylee:Yep. Yeah. I'm gonna be yelling at them
Colin:To Kansas.
Kylee:Kansas too because Wow. Lost to West Virginia. Lost to Mizzou.
Eli:Kansas, we dropped from their AP number 9 spot because we have the perspective of they just lost last night in Ames to number 2 Iowa State, which is fair.
Colin:I don't think that's the only reason we dropped them. Yeah. That's not No.
Kylee:Fine. They have they have losses to West Virginia, who they have never lost to. They do not deserve to
Colin:do not.
Kylee:This year and Mizzou. The why was Mizzou their first loss? Like, someone please explain that to me.
Colin:The only reason they're at 12 is because they beat Michigan State, and we have Michigan State at 13.
Kylee:Yeah. Yeah.
Colin:And that's simply based on, you know, head to head.
Kylee:Yes. Michigan State's at 13.
Eli:They also beat Yeah.
Kylee:Duke. They did beat Duke. They did beat Duke.
Colin:Don't know how.
Eli:So at 12, they are.
Kylee:Well, we did complain about I complained a lot about them beating you. Young team. I complained about So
Eli:at 12, they are. Yes.
Colin:Michigan State. I'm in some of the most fun Michigan State basketball I have seen in a very long time.
Kylee:Minus Yes. Last night.
Eli:Where we almost lost to Penn State.
Kylee:Don't remind me. Minus last night, but that's okay.
Colin:Michigan State's still on a, at the current moment, 10 and o or 10 game win streak and 5 and o in the big cap.
Kylee:Not lost since Thanksgiving.
Colin:And so knock on wood, that is
Kylee:So how it's going
Colin:at the current moment.
Kylee:Biggest challenge since North Carolina is Sunday Illinois. Against Illinois.
Eli:In the Bras.
Kylee:So we'll see we'll be there.
Eli:We will be there.
Josh:I'd say second half performance has gotta start being questioned a little bit, especially the last couple games.
Eli:Mhmm.
Josh:I'm not going to say anything about the officials.
Eli:I will not. Yeah. We we almost lost to Penn State, but it was also crazy.
Josh:I'll bite I'll bite my tongue on saying anything about the officials.
Colin:I will say Oh, you'll go for it. Not specifically about the officials, but about the broadcast mentioning how bad the officials were. Yes. Which means
Eli:Which never happened.
Colin:It really was that bad.
Josh:Yes. But the second half performance, the last two games, defensively, it you can ask some questions, especially last night against Penn State. I Mhmm. Have some question marks. Giving up was it 85?
Josh:90? Yeah. 85 points. Penn State team whose best player is having back issues. I have a couple questions, but Sunday will be a huge test for this team.
Josh:And if they can win that game, man, it feels like I I'm a little kid again watching as you say basketball.
Colin:This one felt a little bit like a trap game as well. Yes. It felt like it especially with Illinois coming up right around the corner. I think our team might have been a little bit too focused on that and a little bit less focused on Penn State. And so now that we've made it over that hump, I think we have a better chance.
Kylee:That's that's the hope, especially that they just didn't seem, I don't know, into it. Yeah. That was, like, the whole thing last night. They just didn't seem into it. But on.
Colin:Yes. Team that has seen
Kylee:a lot of talk show down this year. Top 25 weeks ago and still did not. So I hate the AP. UConn.
Colin:And we kept them at the same spot. Yeah.
Eli:14.
Kylee:They're scraping by in Big East play, like, very close margins. And I can't tell if that's because everyone in the Big East is better or everyone in the East is not good, and they're all just at the same level of not that good.
Colin:We're talking, like, a 3 point win over Providence, a 4 point win over Butler, a 5 point win over Xavier, a 2 point loss to Villanova. I mean, this this Yukon team has beaten Gonzaga, has beaten Baylor, has beaten Texas, you know, some very good teams. But
Kylee:But also
Colin:we also look back to the Maui Grand Maui Classic, and they lost 3 in a row to Memphis, Colorado, and Dayton. As discussed extensively. Bad. Dayton as well, actually. They're 1 in 4 in a 10 play right
Kylee:now. So much faith in Dayton too.
Eli:So I I still just think that Maui was a bad dream for this Yukon team, and they've taken an early season conference trap game loss, which every ranked good team does at some point. But they have clearly a lot to prove. Yeah. And I but I think they're going to continue proving it. So at 14, they stay.
Colin:There's not a ton of opportunities to prove themselves in the Big East this year.
Eli:Besides winning out.
Colin:You've got Marquette, and you've got Saint John's on the schedule. Yeah. Both twice. But, you
Kylee:know That'll be there.
Colin:You need to win those games against Villanova, Georgetown, Creighton.
Kylee:Creighton. Creighton Mention.
Josh:Oh, yep.
Colin:Sorry. Yeah. 15 Illinois. We've talked about them a little bit with Michigan State. Up and down.
Eli:Been very solid.
Colin:They've been a pretty solid team.
Kylee:They've been kinda up I think they've been kind of up and down.
Colin:Their Washington game was bad. But other than that, they were
Eli:against Oregon.
Colin:Fun team to watch. They are a young team. They've got a lot of young talent on that team. But, you know, they are they're doing very good. Shout out to my grandpa who watched the Illinois, Wisconsin or Illinois, Washington game with me.
Kylee:That's
Colin:My grandpa used to work at University of Illinois, so he was telling me all about it.
Eli:Shout
Colin:out. Yeah. 16, Memphis.
Kylee:Gotta love Memphis.
Eli:They're stuck at 16 until they prove that they're not gonna lose to another, like, Sunbelt school. And I know we're in conference play.
Kylee:But That is also very true. But they've they've I they're solid. I think they're
Eli:very confident. Beatle miss, so they're back up.
Kylee:Yep. I don't think in it.
Colin:Yeah. There's not a whole lot more we can drop them or raise them. They're kinda stuck. Yeah. Unless they had some really bad losses, but, you know, right now, they're in control of their own destiny.
Eli:At 17/18, we finished out the team's cluster of big 10 teams with Michigan and Purdue.
Kylee:Yeah. Michigan's scary.
Eli:But none of the big 10 has separated themselves yet.
Colin:No. That's that's the biggest issue. We had a very hard time determining between Michigan, Purdue, Oregon, Wisconsin, Illinois
Eli:Michigan State.
Colin:Michigan State. You know?
Kylee:I think a lot of them are playing the more lower level teams in the big ten right
Colin:now.
Kylee:That's just the way they schedule a line.
Eli:And they're gonna finish conference play all playing each other, which is when somebody will actually separate themselves.
Josh:Yes. I'd say look ahead a little bit, but not too far. March 9th could be for the big 10 championship.
Kylee:Yes.
Colin:A A 100%. Very easily.
Josh:Between Michigan State and Michigan. It easily could be for the Big 10 championship. Mhmm. And that could be the most electric environment any of us have ever been a part of Oh. On that night.
Eli:No rush. In the beres.
Kylee:And we'll be there.
Colin:Whole game.
Eli:And we might have to camp out the night before.
Josh:Oh my gosh.
Colin:I will.
Josh:But we mentioned we mentioned right before we hopped on it that all these big 10 teams, we could all just said big 10, 15, and that would have made sense because Yes. They're all none of them have really played each other yet until this coming now that we're getting into February.
Kylee:Mhmm.
Colin:Yeah. Yeah. I think just so many questions, and they all look about the exact same level.
Kylee:Yeah. Mhmm. I definitely agree. We talked about, like, the holes in Purdue.
Eli:They they look shaky against Washington last night and then pulled away late.
Kylee:Yeah. There's just
Eli:Pretty much
Colin:every team has a few, though.
Kylee:Yeah. I mean, Oregon State hasn't
Colin:had Yeah. You know, the Penn State game was not fun to watch, frankly.
Eli:No. No.
Colin:My heart rate was at 120.
Eli:Nightmarish.
Colin:Good portion
Eli:of that game.
Josh:Same, especially with not saying anything but about the officials.
Colin:My watch gave me a warning.
Kylee:Yeah. Like, Oregon started very strong, had some rough has had some rough games.
Colin:We have them at 21. We have Wisconsin at 22.
Kylee:Yeah. Wisconsin, same thing. I mean, they're all they're all the same team, slightly different
Eli:thought. And we've got the Egg Bowl at 19 and 20 with Ole Miss in Mississippi State.
Colin:Yeah. I know. That's so fun. I love the Egg Bowl. Why did we put Ole Miss above Mississippi State?
Colin:Any particular reason or just because
Josh:I don't know. Why not? I was advocating for Ole Miss.
Eli:Beat Alabama?
Colin:Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's why. Yep. Yeah.
Colin:Indeed. Indeed.
Eli:And their their their tough losses to Memphis who we ranked above them.
Colin:So Yeah. Yeah. And kinda been quietly performing really, really well in the SCC.
Eli:Mississippi State is a is a good tournament team from last year who's done just fine in conference play so far. So Yep. They're they'll sit around in the twenties for now. Mississippi State is on a 2 game losing streak, but it's to Kentucky and Auburn.
Colin:Fair enough. You can't argue with that. Yep. Yeah.
Kylee:Like we said, 21, 22, we have Oregon, Washington I mean, sorry, Wisconsin. My bad.
Colin:Yep.
Kylee:And then to the end of ours, we have Baylor at 23 having a a year, I guess, of Welcome Back. Kind of.
Eli:Welcome back.
Kylee:Yeah. And then, we have Saint John's at 24, which I very respectable. I think that they're performing very well in the Big East.
Eli:They are.
Kylee:So I think they should be ranked where they are. They're not in the AP, just to mind you. So
Eli:They're first team out of the AP. Out.
Kylee:And then at 25, we have Mizzou. We love Mizzou.
Colin:Yep.
Kylee:Rightfully so, having some big wins, big win over Kansas. I'm looking I was just checking out.
Eli:Talk about Mizzou.
Josh:Yeah. I loved I loved I I can't say enough. That should've probably been my random team I love. I love Missouri. But, you know, you look at their losses in Memphis.
Josh:Okay. Eight point loss. We have Memphis ranked. Illinois, a 3 point loss. We have Illinois ranked.
Josh:And we and at Auburn, we have established Auburn as the number one team in the country Easily. Without a doubt. But you go on the road in Florida. That is a big time win. You go you play against Kansas.
Josh:That's another big time win, who at the time was number 1 in the country. Sorry. My voice went as soon as I started talking. But I'm this team looks super exciting to watch, and I I I can't help. I am so glad we put them top 20 we put them in 25 instead of what the AP poll did because I thought that was disrespectful.
Josh:But I 8
Eli:votes, people.
Colin:Yeah. Terrible. But For a team like that, that is absurd.
Josh:I they they better get some love come this come round on the AP poll, especially a beating Florida in Florida who beat Tennessee by 30 in Gainesville.
Colin:Can I mention that Missouri got the same number of votes in the AP poll as Clemson?
Eli:And fewer than Texas Tech.
Colin:In Maryland. Fewer than Maryland. But
Eli:that I think that win at Florida proved a lot, and, obviously, that's something the AP voters couldn't consider because they would have had to time travel.
Kylee:Who even knows if they're gonna consider? So
Josh:I They bet they better.
Eli:The Tigers will be ranked next week.
Kylee:Yep. Alright. Setting us up for disappointment. Alright.
Colin:But The one team we did drop out, Georgia.
Kylee:So Well, they just lost.
Colin:So That's exactly what I was about to say. They just lost quite a bit to Tennessee. They've been on a hot streak, but they do have quite a few random losses. They definitely deserve to be in that, like, 27 through 30 range.
Eli:Their their other losses are all ranked teams. It's Marquette and Ole Miss. So They don't
Colin:Yeah.
Eli:Really been okay.
Colin:They beat Kentucky. They've got that win Yeah. Under their belt. And they
Eli:beat Saint John's
Colin:by 3. Johns. Mhmm. But, you know, I just don't they're not a bad team. They'll be a tournament team.
Colin:No question. They couldn't even win a tournament game.
Eli:I I would just say some warning signs are a 5 point win over Grand Canyon and a 7 point win over South Carolina State.
Colin:The South Carolina State one is the bigger warning sign for me. Grand Canyon is a pretty good team.
Kylee:And it's typically a tournament team.
Josh:Yeah. It's
Colin:South Carolina State, I forgot they existed, frankly.
Kylee:Did Did anyone else forget they existed? Yeah. Yep. Wouldn't have wouldn't have pointed them out.
Colin:They're 6 and 10 right now. Yeah.
Eli:But Georgia, SEC schedule ahead of them. Lots of opportunities to prove themselves. Yeah. Good luck. They'll they'll be back in our top 25 if they pull out a couple of key wins.
Colin:Yeah. Some other honorable mentions. West Virginia and Louisville both looking really good, coming out of that Ohio Valley.
Eli:Some, you know If he starts to conference play, but definitely very solid non conference records and a lot of opportunities Yep. Future.
Colin:Arizona, you know They've somehow
Eli:felt great. Started so slow.
Colin:Yeah. Their start up to the season was really, really bad, and they figured it out. They seem to look like a team now, which is
Kylee:Well, that's good.
Colin:It's promising, you know, especially considering it's big 12 season.
Kylee:Right. You need to get it together Yep. Like yesterday.
Colin:And then we have 2 non or, 2 small conference teams in there, UC Irvine and VCU, who have both been dominating their conferences. I know VCU has been crushing the a ten. UC dominating their conferences. I know VCU has been crushing the a 10. UC Irvine crushing the Big West.
Kylee:And they received 2 votes.
Eli:Yeah. UC Irvine is undefeated in Big West play. Yeah. So Doing great.
Colin:Alright. Conference games. Yes. Let's do it. It's all conference games now for the men's.
Colin:There's no fun No
Eli:no Loretta Scott King invitationals.
Colin:Yeah. No.
Eli:No. Random. But I'll I'll kick it off. I've got number 24 Wisconsin at UCLA, and I know there were plenty of other ranked on ranked games this week. But I really zeroed in on this matchup because these are both teams that came into the season with UCLA a lot of expectations, Wisconsin not super high expectations.
Eli:UCLA was ranked and now isn't. Wisconsin wasn't ranked and now is. And this is basically Wisconsin's opportunity to prove that they deserve to be a top 25 team, and it's the exact same thing for UCLA. So I think it's really good to know
Colin:that game will probably be top 25.
Eli:Exactly.
Kylee:Yeah. That's a lot of fun. I have another big ten matchup. I have number 19 19, Illinois, at 12 MSU, obviously, since we will all be there. And, yeah, this is important because people are also looking towards Illinois as a potential big 10 contender.
Kylee:And I think, again, we said earlier, this is MSU's first real challenge since North Carolina
Colin:Yeah.
Kylee:Which was all the way back in November. So, I think they have what it takes to pull it out, but we will we will see for sure.
Colin:Yeah. Josh, what you got?
Josh:We're gonna switch since we were talking about how competitive between the SEC and the Big 10 are in basketball. I'm gonna go over to the SEC. And Tennessee and Mississippi State, they play on Tuesday night. Is this a chance for Mississippi State to get back on track after 2 tough games against Auburn and Kentucky? And then can Tennessee continue to right this massive wrong with floor that Florida blunder in Gainesville?
Josh:Tennessee looks like they can easily be one of the top seeds, and they could go all the way this year. It should be a really interesting matchup in Knoxville or not Knoxville. Is it Knoxville or
Eli:Starkville?
Colin:Starkville. Thank you. It's in Starkville.
Josh:Thank you. That was a massive blunder. Like, the Florida loss. But this should be a really interesting matchup to see if Tennessee can go on the road and get a win in an environment like Mississippi State and see if they can actually go on the road in the SEC again.
Colin:Yeah. I'm looking at another big game on the road for another SEC team. Number 1 Auburn travels out to number 23 Georgia. And we've talked about Georgia. We've talked about Auburn.
Colin:Obviously, Auburn looks far and away the best team in the country. But Georgia's toppled quite a few top teams in the past few weeks. And so being a home game for Georgia, Auburn's really, really focused, but they've been playing at a high level for a long time. Sometimes that causes you to have blunders just like Tennessee did. And so I wonder if Georgia can pull off a major upset here, earn some real respect in the AP poll.
Colin:You know? You just you just wonder. And so that one's on Saturday at 1 PM. I expect Auburn to win, but that doesn't mean that's that Georgia has no chance.
Kylee:Yeah. Time for small conference because
Eli:Woods.
Kylee:Sometimes they tend to be more exciting, just kinda, you know, when there's not much that much, I guess, at stake necessarily. So I have VCU at Rhode Island. Number 1 teams over here, random teams for, for Josh and Colin.
Colin:Brody.
Kylee:So that'll be very fun, for them. And,
Colin:you know, I'm watching that game.
Eli:It's also Rams versus Rams, which is fun.
Kylee:Is cool. We I mean, VCU, watching them play, they're they're a they're a fun team.
Colin:So They're definitely a fun team to watch. Rhode Island, also a very fun team to watch. Somewhat more inconsistent than VCU, but, when they play well, they're definitely playing at a very high level. So Got it. Yeah.
Colin:Sure. Ivy League. We We all love the
Kylee:Ivy League.
Colin:We do love the Ivy League. We do. I've got Columbia at Princeton. Columbia's 11 and 3 on the season coming off a very close loss to Cornell in their very first Ivy League game. Princeton's got the best record overall in the Ivy League at 12 and 4, but they just had a 4 point win over Harvard only.
Colin:And so these two teams very, very close coming into the 2nd Ivy League, game of the season. Ivy League starts a lot later, and so that conference play is just ramping up. And so we're really getting a just a glimpse of who would actually be good in the Ivy League. And, frankly, I don't know. And that's why I'm excited about this one.
Eli:I've got, Utah Valley versus Utah Tech, and these are the 2 of the 3 Utah schools in the WAC, the Western Athletic Conference. And they're both currently undefeated in conference play, but we haven't seen a ton from them net yet. UVU is 3 and o in conference, and Utah Tech is 2 and o. But this is another one of those conferences where it's really gonna be all about that auto bid, and that means setting yourself up for success in that conference tournament. Even though these teams don't have the best overall records, they're absolutely not competing for those at large bids.
Eli:This is gonna be a really important game to getting that higher seed in that conference tournament to give yourself the best chance to make it to March.
Colin:Yeah. Really interestingly, Utah Valley and Utah Tech are leading the WAC with Charleston State and Grand Canyon right behind them. Grand Canyon, easily the favorite at the beginning of the season to win that conference. So
Kylee:Utah run-in basketball apparently.
Josh:Yep. And just like Eli, I picked a absolute, in terms of overall record, a great showdown between 313 Jackson State and 413 Prairie View A and M. But Jackson State is 3 and o in SWAC play, and Prairie View A and M is 3 and 1 in SWAC play. So like Eli was saying, especially with Utah Valley and Utah Tech, it's gonna come down to more who gets the higher seed in coming towards that tournament for the SWAC. They're both trying to chase.
Josh:They're both right behind, the Southern Jaguars for that top spot in the SWAC, which that's all that matters to these lower conferences is not getting the at large bid, which would be very, very surprising if either of these teams get an at large bid in the recent in recent times. But it could be a great matchup into see who gets higher positioning for that tournament come March.
Colin:Yeah. I really love that pick. The SWAC obviously had a very, very rough non conference, schedule with a lot of SCC schools on there for almost every team. And so right now, the best team overall in the SWAC is Southern with a 9 and 8 record. Mhmm.
Colin:And second best is 6 and 11. You know? So that 313 and 413 are pretty high up, overall record wise in the SWAC, and that just comes down to strength of schedule.
Josh:Yeah. They all play tough tough opponents. And like you said, in the SWAC, there's only one team above 500. And Southern who is barely above 509 and 8. A bunch of these teams are 313, 5 and 11, 6 and 11.
Josh:So it's really gonna come down to the better conference record.
Eli:It's all gonna come down to conference play.
Colin:Absolutely. Yeah. Alright. Should we close this thing out?
Kylee:Yes. Let's do it. Well, thanks for listening to this week's episode of Check the Net on Impact 89 FM. Let us know what you think by connecting with the station on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram at wdbmand@impact89fm. We're about halfway through our 2nd basketball season, and we are very excited.
Kylee:We are in the heart of conference play, and this season is really beginning to take shape. But as you all know, this season's madness is only just beginning, and we can't wait to talk about it more next week on Check the Net. Bye, everybody.