25 Hard: Week 12

Written by Sean Murawski // SM Sports 

Originally published January 20th, 2024

If you were a top 25 team, it was a bloodbath this past week. 19 out of the 25 teams ranked took a loss, shuffling the rankings quite a bit for Week 12.

SEC Top 10 teams: 4/10 (40%)   SEC Top 25 teams: 8/25 (32%)

Is that good?

Yes, yes it is. 

Who’s on top?

Auburn (17-1) remains the nation’s best team after another strong week without Johni Broome. Duke (16-2) and Alabama (15-3) move up to 2nd and 3rd respectively, with Iowa State and Florida dropping one spot each to round out the top 5. 

Big Risers

Michigan State (16-2) soars into the top 10 with a big win vs. Illinois (12-5). Purdue (15-4) also moves up 3 spots to #6, and Wisconsin (15-3) 3 spots to #13 in a big week for the Big Ten.

Big Sliders 

Marquette (15-3) dropped 5 spots, and UConn (13-5) 4, after losses to unranked opponents at home. Oregon (14-3) also dropped 4 spots after a home loss to Purdue. 

New Additions

Last week’s bottom 5 (Oklahoma, Gonzaga, Georgia, Memphis, and Utah State) all dropped out after losses. Their replacements come in as follows: St. John’s (16-3) at #19, Louisville (14-5) at #20, Missouri (16-3) at #22, Texas Tech (13-4) at #23, and West Virginia (13-4) at #25. 

Sean Murawski is a writer for his own personal sports website, smsports.net. He publishes weekly columns and rankings on men’s college basketball, as well as coverage columns for the MLB.