Men’s Other Top 25: Saint Louis is unanimous No. 1
Four different teams received a first-place vote in our preseason Other Top 25 poll. That all changed one week into the season as Saint Louis is now the unanimous No. 1.
The Billikens won both of their games last week to open the season. They routed Lehigh 92-67 last Monday and then established supremacy in the state with a 90-84 win over Missouri at the Enterprise Center Friday night even with Robbie Avila being ruled ineligible in the lead-up to the game.
Advertisement
Josh Schertz's team is averaging 91 points a game behind six players averaging in double figures. Quentin Jones leads the way with 14.5 points, and Amari McCottry follows at 13.5.
SLU sits 44th in KenPom and 62nd in BartTorvik. Its next three games are against Northern Kentucky (Tuesday) and High Point (Sunday) and at Saint Mary's (Nov. 20).
VCU and Grand Canyon held steady at Nos. 2 and 3.
Memphis made a seismic jump from No. 25 in the preseason to No. 4. Penny Hardaway's Tigers defeated Iowa State, who was ranked 18th in the AP poll, 80-76 Monday night at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, S.D., to open the season. They followed it up with a dramatic 89-88 win over VCU Saturday.
Advertisement
Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys:
Transfer Jayden Reid has been lights out for Memphis. He's averaging 29 points a game, which is second nationally.
The Tigers are the first team receiving votes outside of the AP Top 25 and sit 74th in KenPom. They continue their gauntlet of a non-conference schedule this week at No. 22 Vanderbilt Tuesday night and at home against 10th-ranked Louisville Sunday.
High Point rounded out the top five after jumping two spots from No. 7 in the preseason. Nevada followed fresh off its 96-95 overtime win over Saint Mary's Sunday in Lake Tahoe.
Advertisement
New Mexico was one spot behind its Mountain West rival. Saint Mary's fell to No. 8. The Pac-12 owned the next three spots with San Diego St. at nine, Utah St. at 10 and Boise St. 11th. Wichita St., who took USC to the wire Sunday night in Lake Tahoe, came in at No. 12.
Here is the full ranking:
Ranking | Team (First-Place Votes) | Points | Previous |
1 | Saint Louis (6) | 150 | 1 |
2 | VCU | 124 | 2 |
3 | Grand Canyon | 115 | 3 |
4 | Memphis | 114 | 25 |
5 | High Point | 110 | 7 |
6 | Nevada | 109 | 11 |
7 | New Mexico | 108 | 4 |
8 | Saint Mary's | 100 | 5 |
9 | San Diego St. | 96 | 9 |
10 | Utah St. | 88 | 6 |
11 | Boise St. | 87 | T-13 |
12 | Wichita St. | 74 | 16 |
T-13 | Santa Clara | 70 | 8 |
T-13 | Murray St. | 70 | 17 |
15 | Miami (OH) | 59 | 12 |
T-16 | George Mason | 38 | 20 |
T-16 | Colorado St. | 38 | 15 |
18 | Valparaiso | 34 | NR |
19 | McNeese St. | 33 | T-13 |
20 | Oregon St. | 31 | 19 |
21 | Dayton | 30 | 10 |
T-22 | George Washington | 27 | NR |
T-22 | UC San Diego | 27 | T-22 |
24 | North Texas | 25 | RV |
25 | Illinois Chicago | 23 | RV |
Others receiving votes: UC Irvine 17; Belmont 16; East Texas A&M 15; Tulsa 15; South Dakota St. 12; South Florida 12; Tennessee Tech 11; Furman 11; UNC Wilmington 10; Richmond 8; Akron 8; Charleston 8; UNLV 7; Illinois St. 6; Yale 6; Morgan St. 3; Penn 2; Charlotte 1; Utah Valley 1; UC Santa Barbara 1
Dropped from ranking: South Florida – 18; Belmont – 21; Akron – T-22; San Francisco – T-22
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.