College Basketball

College basketball rankings: No. 1 Arizona blasts Wisconsin with showdown vs. Purdue up next

Arizona blasted Wisconsin on Saturday, 98-73. Purdue dealt with Alabama on Saturday, 92-86. So the much-anticipated showdown between Tommy Lloyd’s Wildcats and Matt Painter’s Boilermakers is now set.

Arizona vs. Purdue in Indianapolis.

It’ll be a day matchup next Saturday inside Gainbridge Fieldhouse between the colleges sitting at No. 1 (Arizona) and No. 2 (Purdue) in Sunday morning’s up to date CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 day by day school basketball rankings. It’ll headline next weekend’s schedule that’ll additionally present us with Kansas-Indiana, Baylor-Michigan State, Houston-Texas A&M, North Carolina-Kentucky, Creighton-Alabama, Clemson-Memphis and Ohio State-UCLA.

Sounds like a blast.

For these curious, KenPom.com is projecting a last rating of Purdue 82, Arizona 80. If it goes down that manner, the Boilermakers would enter Week 7 of this season with victories over the colleges at present ranked No. 1 (Arizona), No. 7 (Marquette), No. 9 (Tennessee), No. 12 (Gonzaga) and No. 26 (Alabama) within the Top 25 And 1. That’s why, if Purdue beats Arizona next Saturday, the Boilermakers ought to return to No. 1 within the Associated Press Top 25 ballot the next Monday primarily based on the concept that A) their lone loss can be an extra time loss on the street to a top-50 KenPom crew (Northwestern), and B) no one would be capable of match the standard of their victories.

Anyway …

Anybody who thought Purdue may look previous Alabama and all the best way forward to Arizona should’ve forgotten that Saturday’s neutral-court contest with the Crimson Tide was Zach Edey‘s “Homecoming Game,” for lack of a greater time period. It was performed in Toronto, the place the reigning CBS Sports National Player of the Year was born and raised. Edey confirmed out in entrance of family and friends by taking 20 photographs, making 12 of them and ending with 35 factors and 7 rebounds. He was 11-of-11 from the free throw line.

“Obviously, Zach Edey is the leading candidate for national player of the year — [and] you can see why, ” stated Alabama coach Nate Oats. “He’s a tough cover. We didn’t do a terrible job on him — and he [still] had 35 points. He makes things difficult.”

As Oats famous, Edey is certainly the main candidate to be the nationwide participant of the 12 months, which suggests he is on observe to be the primary back-to-back Wooden Award winner since Virginia‘s Ralph Sampson took the {hardware} in each 1982 and 1983. Edey is now averaging a career-high 24.8 factors, 10.8 rebounds and a career-high 2.6 blocks in 29.1 minutes per sport. His capturing share of 63.0 is 2.3 share factors greater than it was final season when he gained all POY trophies.

If you are a fan of Kentucky, Miami, Creighton or Duke questioning why your crew dropped in Sunday’s Top 25 And 1 regardless of profitable or not taking part in Saturday, it is merely a byproduct of Oklahoma and Clemson leaping from twentieth and twenty fourth to eleventh and fifteenth, respectively, after Saturday’s wins over Arkansas and TCU. Those developments induced John Calipari’s Wildcats, Jim Larranaga’s Hurricanes, Greg McDermott’s Bluejays and Jon Scheyer’s Blue Devils to be pushed down in Sunday’s replace, no fault of their very own.