Coaches Poll Top 25 released after opening week of college basketball

After one week of college hoops, we finally have a coaches poll different from the preseason rankings released nearly a month ago.

While many of the top teams completed a milquetoast week of play by beating up on a couple of low-majors, there were still plenty of unexpected fireworks. James Madison won the week after toppling Michigan State and then a solid Kent State team both on the road. Meanwhile, teams like Arizona, Tennessee and Texas A&M all scored true power conference road wins all over other teams that expect to make the NCAA Tournament.

Without further distraction, here is your college basketball coaches poll as we head into Week 2 play:

Full Coaches Poll Top 25

1. Kansas

The Jayhawks affirmed the coaches’ confidence in them in their opening two games this season, pouring in 99 points in each of their victories over Manhattan and North Carolina Central. Personnel-wise, star transfer Hunter Dickinson is worth his billing so far, leading the way with 38 combined points in those two contests, while a transfer from two offseasons ago, Kevin McCullar is also coming on strong as a senior.

Going forward, this Kansas club is set to face some much bigger tests, beginning with Tuesday’s trip to Chicago for a Champions Classic matchup with Kentucky. With Dickinson, the Jayhawks have a mighty advantage down low, but John Calipari has some supremely talented kids on the perimeter that should make for a heck of a matchup.

2. Purdue

After Purdue returned nearly all of its lineup from a year ago, you’d think their rotation would look pretty similar. It does — except, there are a few newcomers throwing a wrench into things. Namely, Southern Illinois transfer Lance Jones and freshmen Camden Heide (redshirt) and Myles Colvin all find themselves as top-five scorers on the team through two games.

Who knows whether they’ll last, especially the freshmen. However, their early success shows that Matt Painter is not simply running back last year’s group and hoping for better results. No, he’s trying some new tricks without forgetting about the old ones, like dumping the ball down to the National Player of the Year for a handful of easy buckets every game.

3. Arizona

The Wildcats out west ventured far east to land the No. 1 win in the country through one week of college hoops. That victory, of course, came in Cameron Indoor Stadium over the No. 2 ranked Duke Blue Devils.

For the Wildcats, it was a balanced attack as all five starters reached double figures, led by San Diego State transfer Keshad Johnson with 14. Point guard Kylan Boswell continues to be a revelation in year two, going for 12 points, eight rebounds and five assists in the win while Caleb Love donned his finest cape once again to play spoiler in front of the Dukies.

4. UConn

The defending champs are off to a nice start with a pair of wins which starred some returning pieces off the title team, Alex Karaban and Tristen Newton. Newton’s a senior point guard taking on a bigger role after Andre Jackson assumed primary ball-handling duties towards the end of the season. Meanwhile, Karaban was built in a lab to play stretch four at the college level.

Those two plus Donovan Clingan make for a pretty remarkable returning trio. Really, Clingan is the key for a possible title defense, since the 7’2 center praised as one of the most promising players in the country after one year. That lingering foot injury is still a concern and he’s only playing 15 minutes a game so far, which is well below the minute load you’d expect him to play at full health.

5. Marquette

File Marquette with the group of teams who came out and just smashed two low-major opponents in their first week of play. So yeah, it’s hard to take much away from 20+ point wins over Rider and Southern Illinois — but the Golden Eagles do look like the team they were last season, just with some minor adjustments.

Shaka Smart’s heel-turn from aggressive defensive-minded coach to blazingly-efficient space-and-pace offensive coach is something to behold. At VCU, he won by forcing turnovers (No. 1 in the nation for three straight years!), then at Texas, he couldn’t find an identity. Now, at Marquette, Smart is winning with some of the most efficient offensive play in the country, especially from inside the arc, where Marquette converted 58% of their shots a year ago and are above that mark to begin 2023-24.

6. Houston

Man, do the Cougars have guards. Jamal Shead is a strong pure point guard and has sacrificed some scoring in favor of dishing the ball to guys like LJ Cryer and Emmanuel Sharp, the latter of which has made a huge leap since providing some spark off the bench as a freshman. Cryer from Baylor is a transfer with high-level scoring ability and so is Damian Dunn from Temple.

Add those guys in with a nasty front-court of J’Wan Roberts and J’Vier Francis and Kelvin Sampson once again possesses one of the best teams in the nation. The Cougars may not have an All-American like Marcus Sasser or a lottery pick like Jarace Walker, but this roster could be more balanced and deeper than the 2023 team.

7. Creighton

Aside from about a three-week stretch where Ryan Kalkbrenner was sick and the Blue Jays experienced some full throttle Murphy’s Law, Creighton was one of the best teams in the country. They proved that fact in the NCAA Tournament, making an Elite Eight run before crashing against San Diego State with a Final Four on the line.

Three pillars of that team are back with Kalkbrenner down low leading the way as a potential All-American since he led Creighton in scoring last season while serving as one of the top rim-protectors in college ball. Then, there’s Trey Alexander, who averaged 13 points and shot 41% from three last year. Lastly, Baylor Scheierman is as good a portal grab as you can get. He came over from South Dakota State last season and was a terrific scorer while crashing the glass as hard as any wing in the nation.

8. Tennessee

If Arizona scored the country’s most impressive win of the week, Tennessee certainly wasn’t far behind. The Volunteers went into the Kohl Center vs. Wisconsin and controlled the Badgers to eventually win by 10 on the road, adding a feather in their NCAA Tournament cap early in November.

The real storyline for Tennessee early on is that they have some serious scoring power on then perimeter this season. That’s no offense to Santiago Vescovi and Zakai Zeigler — studs from last season who are back again — but transfers Dalton Knecht and Jordan Gainey have raised the offense to a level it hasn’t seen since Grant Williams and Admiral Schofield were still around. Knecht scored 24 to lead the Wisconsin win while the duo is averaging 32 points a game and shooting 38% from deep.

9. Duke

Duke remains in the top 10 despite taking a loss on their home court to Arizona. But that’s life when you open the year ranked No. 2 in the country.

Luckily, the Blue Devils won’t need to hang their heads for long as they have a get-right opportunity and a second early-season test coming up against Michigan State in the Champions Classic this week. Both of those squads are reeling after home losses in the opening week, though the Spartan ‘s the mush worse of the two.

10. FAU

As part of their season-opener in the Barstool Invitational, the Owls passed their first legitimacy test, handling a fellow former Cinderella program in Loyola Chicago from tip to finish. Sure, Dusty May’s group seems like a solid top-10 team after returning seven of the top eight scorers off a Final Four club. But remember, FAU was a nine-seed who was very fortunate to even win their first game of the NCAA Tournament.

Without that win which unlocked the path to the national semifinals, where would this group stack up? The answer is probably still pretty high, since they went 31-3 before March Madness and earned a nine-seed out of a small conference. This group is great and the Final Four appearance was confirmation, not a fluke.

11. Miami
12. Gonzaga
13. Baylor
14. Arkansas
15. Texas A&M
16. Kentucky
17. Texas
18. North Carolina
19. Michigan State
20. USC
21. Villanova
22. Alabama
23. Illinois
24. Saint Mary’s
25. Virginia
25. UCLA

New to Poll: Illinois, Virginia

Dropped Out: San Diego State

Others Receiving Votes: Colorado 46, Memphis 40, San Diego State 35, Michigan 25, James Madison 25, TCU 19, Mississippi State 17, Iowa State 16, Xavier 13, BYU 6, Auburn 6, St. John’s 5, Princeton 4, Clemson 4, Wisconsin 3, Oregon 2, NC State 1, Iowa 1, Boise State 1.