Men's College Basketball Top 10, Bubble Team NET Rankings: Nebraska Joins Top 10

The top 25 rankings are important for understanding just who is killing it in college basketball, but we can go deeper — all the way to the bubble and beyond.

The NCAA Evaluation Tool, or NET, is a rankings system used in Division I basketball to help figure out which teams are going to participate in March Madness. As the NCAA puts it, NET "takes into account game results, strength of schedule, game location, net offensive and defensive efficiency, and the quality of wins and losses," the latter of which is determined by placing every Division I matchup into different quadrants, ranked 1 through 4, with 1 being the strongest teams and 4 the weakest — Quads aren’t just determined by record, but also whether a game was played at home, on the road or at a neutral site.

Using NET, we can get a sense of which teams are the best at a given moment, as well as which ones are on the bubble for selection in March. While updated daily by the NCAA, we’ll track changes weekly.

With that, here are the top 10 men’s college basketball teams through Jan. 19, according to NET.

The Top 10

10. Iowa State (previous: 3)

Last time out, we mentioned that Iowa State had played the weakest schedule of the top-10 teams to that point, but that it was also getting more difficult as Big 12 play ramped up. That tougher schedule finally hit the Cyclones, too, as Iowa State went from undefeated to suffering back-to-back losses against unranked Kansas and Cincinnati teams. Iowa State is still a great team — it is still top-10 in NET — but those were still two games that the Cyclones should have won, and that’s why they dropped seven spots.

9. Houston (previous: 12)

Houston pushed its way into the top 10 on the strength of wins against West Virginia and Arizona State, a bubble team and a top-90 one by NET, respectively. The Cougars didn’t just win, but crushed them both: Houston defeated West Virginia, 77-48, and the Sun Devils 103-73. Now 5-1 in Quad 1 games, the Cougars need some more wins on the road to get additional credit from NET. Which they have an opportunity for before January ends, against No. 12 Texas Tech (19th in NET) and then TCU (49th).

8. UConn (previous: 8)

The Huskies shot up to No. 2 in the poll with voters unwilling to allow Michigan to ascend once more in the wake of Iowa State’s two-loss week. NET is not quite as enthused with UConn’s multiple close wins against Big East opponents, however, so it sticks here in 8th yet again. 

7. Illinois (previous: 10)

Big Ten wins against Northeastern (79-68) and Minnesota (77-67) gave the Fighting Illini a bump; it helps that, despite having 3 losses, Illinois has played the 15th-toughest schedule in Division I men’s basketball this season, which is in turn the third-most-difficult schedule among the top-10 teams.

6. Nebraska (previous: 11)

Nebraska is not only ranked No. 7 in the poll — its best-ever showing — but the Cornhuskers have ascended all the way to 6th in NET. A 35-point rout of Oregon followed by a 77-58 win over Northwestern gave Nebraska that lift, but tests remain for the undefeated Huskers: next up on the January schedule is Washington, Minnesota and then Michigan.

5. Purdue (previous: 6)

Purdue took down Iowa — which is unranked in the poll but sits 20th in NET — 79-72, then followed that up with a dub over top-50 USC on the road. Two Quad 1 wins in a week will get you a boost, albeit a slight one here considering which teams stand in the way.

4. Gonzaga (previous: 5)

Gonzaga defeated Washington State by 21 points and then Seattle by the same margin, which shouldn’t be huge news for the Bulldogs given they are a much better team than either. However, Seattle pushed them to overtime last time out, so a resounding victory is another step in the right direction for Gonzaga.

3. Arizona (previous: 2)

Arizona picked up a road W against UCF, 84-77, and defeated Arizona State 89-82 before that. Good wins in a vacuum, but NET doesn’t calculate in a vacuum: Duke’s competition was just as stiff, but its margin of victory higher. 

2. Duke (previous: 4)

Plus, both of Duke’s dubs came on the road, first against California (71-56) and then Stanford (80-50). Those same two teams looked unstoppable against UNC the same week, but Duke shut both offenses down rather than letting them sink shots at will, and now the Blue Devils are 2nd in NET.

1. Michigan (previous: 1)

NET wasn’t overly concerned with Michigan suffering its first loss of the year last time out, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that the Wolverines remain on top following a week in which they defeated both Washington and Oregon by 10 points. Arizona has two more wins, Duke is 8-1 in Quad 1 games, but Michigan has faced the second-toughest schedule in Division I men’s basketball, and is 16-1 despite that.

Risers and Fallers

In the span of a week, some teams can see their spot in the rankings dramatically shift. Here are the five teams that rose the most in men’s college basketball in the last week…

T5. UIC, 200 to 171: UIC took down UNI and Drake in the last week, with the former being a top-100 school prior to that upset. That’s a big W for the Flames, which still sit in the middle of the Missouri Valley Conference at 4-4 despite this success.

T5. Chattanooga, 310 to 281: Chattanooga defeated Wofford and Western Carolina last week, the first of which was a significant upset since Wofford was around 90 ranks in NET better than the Mocs.

4. UC Santa Barbara, 196 to 166: The Gauchos picked up wins against Cal State Bakersfield and Hawai’i, with the second of those a serious W given the Rainbow Warriors were (and still are) a top-100 team.

3. UNLV, 174 to 143: The Runnin’ Rebels defeated Boise State in overtime, then beat San Jose State by 14 points as a followup. Boise State has had a serious fall the past couple of weeks, but it’s still a big enough deal for that W to count for a ton for UNLV.

T1. Sacramento State, 307 to 273: A convincing win against Northern Arizona (83-69) and an OT dub against Northern Colorado — a top-150 team prior to this defeat — jumped Sacramento State out of the bottom tier of teams. The bottom-bottom, anyway.

T1. Drexel, 247 to 213: Drexel had a 3-game win streak going before losing 59-58 to Towson on Monday, but considering the Tigers were 185th in NET, Drexel actually jumped another six spots in in the rankings even in defeat.

…and the five that fell the furthest.

T5. Southeast Missouri State, 223 to 256: SEMO dropped games against Lindenwood and SIUE, which is the kind of thing that bumps a team to the back of that group.

T5. North Alabama, 300 to 333: A tough season got tougher for the Lions, as they let North Florida cross the century mark in an L and then lost to Jacksonville, 90-68. North Florida entered the week 350th in NET.

T3. Iona, 182 to 217: Iona’s week began with a 4-3 record in MAAC play and as one of the top teams in the conference by NET. The Gaels then lost to Rider — which ranks 358th even after besting Iona — and then the now 8-1 Saint Peter’s. Next up is Merrimack, which is also 8-1 in conference play.

T3. Boston University, 256 to 291: The Terriers lost in overtime to Lehigh and then Loyola Maryland in regulation; to translate, BU lost to two of the 50 or so lowest-ranked teams in Division I, back-to-back.

2. Abilene Christian, 205 to 241: Losses to California Baptist and Southern Utah by a combined 32 points didn’t do Abilene Christian any favors. The Lancers, at least, are a solid team, but Southern Utah entered play ranked 334th in NET.

1. Quinnipiac, 145 to 185: Quinnipiac looked like the clear-cut best team in the MAAC before this week, but then it lost to Saint Peter’s (74-70) and Merrimack (83-71) before rebounding against Manhattan on Monday. Well, sort of: Manhattan is a bottom-tier team (332nd), and the Bobcats needed overtime to defeat them, so NET dropped Quinnipiac another five spots even with the W.

On the Bubble 

Of the 68 March Madness teams in the tournament, 31 of them are conference champions who receive automatic entry into the tournament. The other 37 spots are at-large bids. With that in mind, we will look at the teams ranked between 64-to-73 in NET each week, as those are the ones who are the most on the bubble for the tourney.

73. Dayton (previous: 82): A road win against Duquesne and a dub against Loyola Chicago shot Dayton right into the bubble; the Flyers are now 14-4, though they’re without a Quad 1 win.

72. Nevada (previous: 75): A slighter jump for Nevada, but the Wolf Pack will take heading in the right direction in spite of a loss to Utah State, which was briefly ranked in the poll and is still 21st in NET.

71. South Florida (previous: 58): The Bulls slipped with an overtime loss to Wichita State, though an unremarkable win against a low-level East Carolina didn’t help matters, either — South Florida dropped five spots in the rankings after that W.

70. Oklahoma (previous: 65): Losses to Florida — now ranked again — and Alabama in a week can be excuses to a degree, which is why the Sooners didn’t fall even further.

69. Cincinnati (previous: 94): A huge jump for Cincinnati, one the Bearcats earned by downing Iowa State, 79-70. From top-100 team to a potential at-large pick in the span of a week — Cincinnati will have to keep that energy going for some time to make it happen, though.

68. Stanford (previous: 72): Losing to Duke didn’t help matters, but making UNC’s defense look like it wasn’t even on the court was good for the ole résumé.

67. Missouri (previous: 76): Beating Auburn — ranked 36th in NET at the time of the matchup — was huge, and Missouri’s week would have been even better if it could have also downed LSU. As it is, losing to the Tigers by 8 points is nothing to be ashamed of.

66. Murray State (previous: 61): Murray State slipped mostly due to relative inaction — the Racers played just one game last week, an 85-81 win against Indiana State.

65. Yale (previous: 80): The Bulldogs shoved their way into bubble territory with convincing wins against Cornell (102-68) and Columbia (91-74). Yale is currently tied atop the Ivy League with Dartmouth and Harvard, with all three at 3-1.

64. West Virginia (previous: 70): There are worse fates than regular-season losses to Houston, and West Virginia rebounded with a W over Colorado, anyway.

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