Auburn and Duke hold down the No. 1 and No. 2 spots for the second consecutive week in the AP college basketball poll, and Auburn has been named the SEC champs as well. There were some changes in the top five, as Houston and Tennessee each moved up one spot to No. 3 and No. 4 after a clean week and Florida dropped to No. 5 after a loss earlier in the week to unranked Georgia. I believe Florida is a better team than both of them, but you have to reward Houston and Tennessee after they both picked up ranked wins.

St. John’s kept rising, as they switched spots with Alabama and are now ranked No. 6 after a good week which included capturing the Big East regular season title. I said last week they could have jumped Alabama, but this week was well-deserved, especially since Alabama dropped a heartbreaker to Tennessee on the road this past Saturday.

Some risers in the middle of the poll include Maryland, who rose three spots to No. 13, and Louisville who rose five spots to No. 14. I think Louisville is a little too high; they are ahead of Missouri, Memphis, and Michigan who I think could all be ranked higher than them. Maryland could be higher in my opinion, they are behind a Wisconsin team they have already taken down as well as a Clemson team that they have a better resume than.

The one big faller that sticks out is Texas A&M, who has been struggling for the past two weeks having lost four games in a row. The Aggies fell from No. 12 to No. 20 which is interesting to me. I understand they have been struggling, but the AP Poll has not dropped teams this far for struggles this year. Use Marquette as an example, who hadn’t had a good win for almost a month and lost to all ranked teams they played. I think A&M is better than a handful of teams ahead of them, and just because they lost to three ranked teams in the hardest conference in America shouldn’t warrant them dropping eight spots. I would have them at No. 18. I would bump them ahead of Saint Mary’s, Marquette, Kentucky, and Purdue.

Nobody dropped out of the poll this week, which is something that does not normally happen. A team that could have hoped to jump into the top-25 this week could have been Vanderbilt. The Commodores have been very solid this year, and this past week they took down No. 15 Missouri in addition to beating four other ranked teams this year, which is very impressive. I would have put them in over Mississippi State, who has not impressed me recently.

Another team who could have made it in is VCU, an impressive mid-major this season. They have won seven in a row and are at the top of the Atlantic 10 at 14-2 in the conference as well as 24-5 overall. The Rams have taken down the second, third and fourth best teams in the Atlantic 10 in George Mason, Dayton and Loyola Chicago. They have also taken down a good Colorado State team out of conference this year.

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