College Basketball Rankings: CBS Sports alters Top 25 and 1 after Alabama's loss to Purdue

Over the past two nights, college basketball only had one high-level game, which came from a Top 10 matchup in Tuscaloosa on Thursday. With that result, CBS Sports posted a slight update to their ranking of the Top 25 & 1.

No. 2 Purdue went on the road and won 87-80 over No. 8 Alabama last night inside Coleman Coliseum. That game led to a swap made in the rankings on Friday morning. Another one should be coming soon as well, with there set to be matchups for several of these teams, including multiple against one another, in the coming days and into next week.

Here was today’s update to the Top 25 & 1 from CBS Sports:

1. Purdue Boilermakers

Purdue remained the No. 1 team in the Top 25 & 1, despite falling from No. 1 this week in the AP Poll, with that seven-point win over Alabama, led by efforts you’d expect from All-American level players in Braden Smith (29 points, seven rebounds, four assists) and Trey Kaufman-Renn (16 points, 15 rebounds, five assists). It was just the latest big-time win, though, for the Boilermakers, who sit at 3-0 now this season.

“Winning is what the Boilermakers do,” CBS Sports wrote. “And they did it again Thursday, in front of a hostile and capacity crowd, thanks to an all-everything performance from Smith, the first of many double-doubles this season from Kaufman-Renn, and a 9-of-21 effort from beyond the arc that helped offset Alabama’s 16 made 3-pointers.”

2. Houston Cougars

Houston was the team that passed Purdue as the No. 1 team in the country this week in the AP Poll. It’s the third time in the last four seasons that the program has been, at some point, ranked as the best in the nation, and this one is based on the usual effort, namely on defense.

Houston is 3-0 with an average margin of victory of 22.7 points and it is coming off its largest win of the year so far, a 78-45 victory over Oakland. The Cougars now get their chance to play some better competition in the coming weeks, with their first one being on Sunday afternoon in a neutral-site matchup with No. 22 Auburn in Birmingham.

3. BYU Cougars

BYU has also had a dominant start to the season, as it got all the way up at No. 3 in the Top 25 & 1 while being No. 7 in the AP. That’s with a 3-0 start as well, following up an opening win over Villanova in Las Vegas with a blowout of Holy Cross and what was eventually a double-digit win over Delaware.

The Cougars have had an unfortunate end to the week amidst some off-court issues. But Brigham Young has on-court problems to concern itself with as well, as it will now play three straight games against power competition starting with a neutral-site game tomorrow night against No. 4 UConn in Boston.

4. Connecticut Huskies

Speaking of Connecticut, the Huskies find themsleves at No. 4 overall both for the Associated Press and here with the Top 25 & 1 at CBS Sports. That’s as they’re off to a 3-0 start of their own, with three blowouts up in Storrs by an average margin of 38.

UConn will be one of the two teams in that Top 10 matchup tomorrow night in TD Garden, playing against BYU, as one of these two teams will soon drop a bit for CBS. The Huskies will see their level of competition go up in general, though, with six of their next eight being against power conference competition, including a pair of Top 10 matchups in the next week.

5. Arizona Wildcats

Again, speaking of, Arizona is the next team UConn be facing, with the Wildcats going up to Storrs next week. However, they have their own top-ranked matchup to worry about next, as they’ll play tonight against No. 15 UCLA in Los Angeles.

Arizona earned its spot in the top five here for CBS with a six-point win to open the season in Vegas, and has since won two games in Tucson by an average margin of 30.5. The Wildcats could now solidify that spot, or improve where they are in this ranking’s standing, with their next two games in the Top 15.

6. Florida Gators

Florida, the defending national champions, has won its last two games since losing the opener to Arizona in Sin City. That said, the Gators haven’t yet resolved some of the questions that have been asked about them over the 2-1 start to their season, as they find themselves at just No. 6 here for CBS.

Returning to the O’Dome, Florida did earn a 40-point blowout over North Florida last weekend, but got pushed throughout by Florida State in a 78-76 win on Tuesday. That has caused some more of the early-season concerns around the Gators, especially with some of the matchups they have coming up, like their neutral-site game against Miami in Jacksonville on Sunday night.

7. Michigan Wolverines

Michigan, at No. 7 here for CBS Sports, sits at 2-0 this season with just two games played to this point for the maize & blue. The Wolverines had two very different results, too, for the Wolverines.

A 43-point win over Oakland opened their season in Ann Arbor, but Wake Forest then pushed the Wolverines to the brink before Michigan won 85-84 in overtime at a neutral-site game in Detroit on Tuesday. That brings the Wolverines into a bit of question after their first power-level matchup, with another chance to correct that tonight in a true road game at TCU.

8. Duke Blue Devils

Duke played one of the coolest games we’ll see this year in the non-conference, as it played at West Point on Veterans Day on Tuesday. It resulted in the biggest margin of victory of the Blue Devils’ season with a 55-point win over Army, after winning by 51 in the game before against Western Carolina.

The Blue Devils also have an opening win over Texas in Charlotte, and will play again tonight against Indiana State. But their first primetime matchup of the season will come on Tuesday next week, as they’ll face No. 25 Kansas in the Champions Classic at Madison Square Garden.

9. Louisville Cardinals (+1)

Earlier this week, Louisville won one of the biggest games of the first two weeks of this season, getting its first victory over its in-state rival of Kentucky since 2020, with a 96-88 outcome in a Top 12 matchup on Tuesday night. They are also the beneficiary of last night’s loss by ‘Bama, as they were the only team to move up in this edition of the Top 25 & 1 at CBS Sports

The Cardinals are then off to their best start since that season in ’20 at 3-0, as they’re led by one of the nation’s best offenses that results in an average margin of victory so far of 34.3 points. They can continue to bolster that record as well with four easier games to end this month, before the Cards are then truly tested again with some better competition come December.

10. Alabama Crimson Tide (-1)

Looking at it, a seven-point loss to No. 2 Purdue is not going to go down as a bad outcome for Alabama. That’s certainly so as well after the Crimson Tide won by seven themselves just last weekend against No. 5 St. John’s up in NYC.

However, ‘Bama was pretty disappointed in how the loss came about, namely getting beaten down low and on the boards by the Boilermakers. But, the Tide have two more top-ranked opportunities coming up the next 10 days, to either improve or worsen this new standing at CBS Sports, in neutral-site games against Illinois next week in Chicago and against Gonzaga in Vegas at the Player Era Festival.

11. St. John’s Red Storm
12. UCLA Bruins
13. Illinois Fighting Illini
14. Iowa State Cyclones
15. Gonzaga Bulldogs
16. Texas Tech Red Raiders
17. Kentucky Wildcats
18. Michigan State Spartans
19. Oregon Ducks
20. Arkansas Razorbacks
21. North Carolina Tar Heels
22. Kansas Jayhawks
23. Tennessee Volunteers
24. Auburn Tigers
25. Wisconsin Badgers
26. Ole Miss Rebels