Coaches Poll Top 25 updated for college basketball ahead of Feast Week

On Monday, the USA Today Coaches Poll received its latest update as college hoops prepares for a loaded Feast Week worth of Holiday Tournaments and Multi-Team Events.

Many of the top teams in this poll will gather across the United States at random locations for even-more-randomly named events — such as the Allstate Maui Invitational, hosted in Honolulu, not Maui, the Rady Children’s Invitational, the Acrisure Classic, the Emerald Coast Classic, along with many others. Particularly, this year’s Maui field is elite with four top-15 teams. Even with the tournament moved to a different island thanks to the Maui fires last summer, the games should produce just as much fun as usual.

Before the pandemonium really gets underway this Feast Week, take a look at how the coaches poll shook out following the second week of play:

1. Kansas

Kansas remains up top after winning just one massive game over the last seven days. The Jayhawks fended off an explosive and extremely young Kentucky team up in Chicago during the Champions Classic, riding 27 points and 21 rebounds from Hunter Dickinson plus five three-pointers from reluctant three-point shooter and starting point guard Dajuan Harris.

Bill Self once again doesn’t have a ton of reliable depth to flex, especially at wing this season, but the starting lineup is as talented and effective as any in the country. Particularly, along with the seasoned PG in Harris and star transfer in Dickinson, second-year Kansas wing and fifth-year Big 12 player Kevin McCullar is coming on as one of the country’s top two-way players in his second season in Lawrence after transferring from Texas Tech.

2. Purdue

The Boilermakers are off to a strong start, posting some crazy-high efficiency numbers on offense while remaining a disciplined defense under Matt Painter. Particularly, Purdue is shooting the heck out of the basketball from deep, converting on just over 46% of threes through three games. Sharpshooters like Braden Smith (50%), Fletcher Loyer (41.7%) and Myles Colvin (70%) are really helping that cause.

Starting today (Monday), Purdue kicks off play in the Maui Invitational this season at noontime in Hawaii but 5 p.m. ET against Gonzaga. A victory likely means a matchup against Tennessee then another against Kansas,. Marquette or UCLA after that. This group is going to get tested in Honolulu this week.

3. Arizona

Arizona has that road win at Duke to hang their hats on, and now they’re set up to face Michigan State on Thanksgiving in the Acrisure Classic, the name given to the championship game in the Acrisure Invitational. In the first round of The Invitational, the Wildcats hammered UT Arlington 101-56 while MSU pounded Alcorn State 81-49.

After those games took place on the respective campuses of Michigan State and Arizona, the Spartans and Wildcats will now travel to Palm Springs, CA for the Acrisure Classic in — you guessed it — Acrisure Arena. With Michigan State reeling and already having two losses, Arizona will likely be the favorite, however, Tom Izzo’s squad will be desperate for a quality win to avoid a truly disastrous start to the year.

4. UConn

Connecticut beat up on some schlubs during the first couple of weeks. But this week, the Huskies are facing stiffer competition, and started out with a win vs. Indiana on Sunday afternoon as part of The Saatva Empire Classic benefiting Wounded Warrior Project presented by Continental Tire.

UConn flexed their muscles on a national stage for the first time in Madison Square Garden during round one of The Classic by running away from IU in the second half. Senior point guard Tristen Newton was the star vs. the Hoosiers, turning in 23 points, 11 rebounds and six assists to lead the Huskies as they’ll now face on Monday a Texas team which barely scraped by lowly Louisville.

5. Marquette

Here’s another Big East club that was tremendous in 2022-23 and is off to a stellar start in 2023-24. Marquette is humming along, and like UConn, also just picked up their first quality win of the season, going on the road to beat Illinois early last week as part of the Gavitt Games.

This week, they head far west to play in the Maui Invitational, which they’ll tip off in Monday evening against an enigmatic UCLA squad in the late, late window — scheduled for 11:30 p.m. ET tip time, and even later if the Kansas-Chaminade game doesn’t finish up on time. Win or lose on day one, Marquette will still get at least a couple chances at more quality wins.

6. Houston

Houston already has their Holiday Tournament — or Multi-Team Event — out of the way after sweeping their way through the tongue-twisting Shriner’s Children’s Charleston Classic, which actually featured a pretty exciting field. Eventual champ Houston met eventually last place finisher Towson in round one for a blowout, but the Cougars had to fight in the other two contests.

Utah’s overall size and twin tower big men down low gave Houston’s small-ball lineups some fits but UH still pulled it out thanks to a balanced offensive attack. Then, they met Dayton in the title ganme after the Flyers fended off LSU and St. John’s in games No. 1 and No. 2, but the Cougars finally dispatched UD, 69-55 to advance to 6-0.

7. Creighton

The Blue Jays are 4-0 and boast one power conference victory over Iowa in the Gavitt Games. This week, the Blue Jays will leave Omaha and won’t face a couple of cupcakes on their home court, however they only participate in the Hall of Fame Classic in Kansas City, which features a matchup vs. Loyola Chicago on Wednesday followed by a game against either Colorado State or Boston College on Thanksgiving.

Look, that’s not a Multi-Team Event worthy of knocking football of the TV screen on Thursday, so it’s slightly disappointing a top team is playing in such a low-profile tourney. But it’s a nice change of scenery for a Creighton team that hasn’t left the CHI Health Center.

8. Tennessee

Everyone will know much more about Tennessee in a couple hours and in a couple days as the Volunteers get set to tip off the 2023 Maui Invitational at 2:30 p.m. ET and 9:30 a.m. local Honolulu time vs. Syracuse. UT is big favorites against The Orange in their first season post-Jim Boeheim, but all college ball fans know you can throw point spreads into the Pacific Ocean when it comes to this tournament.

After the matchup with ‘Cuse, Tennessee will then see either Purdue or Gonzaga, giving the Vols one guaranteed top-25 matchup this weekend regardless of whether they win or lose Game 1. This is a huge opportunity for Rick Barnes to steal some very high-quality resume wins.

9. Duke

After Arizona punked Duke in Cameroon Indoor, the Blue Devils took a small slide but rebounded last week with a win over Michigan State to drop the Spartans to a panicky 1-2 record. After facing two preseason top-20 teams in the span of a few days, Duke is remaining home during the Holidays.

But like most schools, Duke is still participating in a Multi-Team Event, something called the Blue Devil Classic. The Classic features a round robin between Duke, La Salle, Bucknell and Southern Indiana. Duke hosts in all three of their games, La Salle hosts two of three, Bucknell hosts one and Southern Indiana will play on the road in each game. The Blue Devils are currently 1-0 in their own Classic after beating Bucknell by 30 on Friday.

10. Gonzaga (+2)

The Zags are just 2-0 and really haven’t had the chance to showcase their 2023-24 team to the nation. But like Purdue, Tennessee and Marquette, that will all change in Honolulu this week as the Zags prepare to take on Zach Edey and the Boilermakers before facing the winner or loser of Tennessee vs. Syracuse.

If Gonzaga is able to win both, or even one, of those contests, they’ll then face a third formidable and possibly top-25-caliber club in as many days as part of their Hawaiian vacation. There will be no days off in paradise on the basketball court.

Coaches Poll 11-25

11. Miami
12. Baylor (+1)
13. Texas A&M (+2)
14. North Carolina (+4)
15. Alabama (+7)
16. Kentucky
17. Texas
18. Virginia (+7)
19. Michigan State
20. FAU (-10)
21. Colorado (NEW)
22. Illinois (+1)
23. Memphis (NEW)
24. UCLA (+1)
25. Mississippi State (NEW)

Others Receiving Votes: Arkansas 83; USC 75; James Madison 60; Villanova 50; TCU 40; Iowa State 35; San Diego State 30; Clemson 30; Auburn 29; BYU 27; Nevada 12; Princeton 11; South Carolina 7; Oregon 2; Liberty 2; Kansas State 2; Florida 2; North Carolina State 1; Iowa 1

Well, after the coaches who voted in last week’s poll ignored Saint Mary’s brutal late-Sunday night home loss to Weber State and kept the Gaels in last week’s rankings, they finally dropped out this time around after further cratering in blowout losses at the hands of San Diego State and Xavier. Meanwhile, Mississippi State and Memphis each moved into the rankings after strong starts to their season, particularly by the Bulldogs who are undefeated against a decent schedule yet without their best player.