After starting out the 2022-23 season 2-0, Indiana basketball moves up one spot to No. 12 in the AP Top 25, with a huge matchup against Xavier on Friday, November 18.
The Hoosiers took down Morehead State 88-53 on November 7 and Bethune-Cookman 101-49 on November 10. While both teams were less than impressive against Indiana, they both will have decent seasons against some good competition in their respective conferences.
Of the teams ranked in the AP Top 25, the Hoosiers were one of three teams in the top 15 to move up at least one spot: Arkansas (10th to 9th), Texas (12th to 11th), and Auburn (15th to 13th).
There were many surprises to me in the second week of the AP Top 25.
One of them was Michigan State not moving into the Top 25 after battling No. 2 Gonzaga to the buzzer and losing by one point and, part of that, No. 2 Gonzaga not moving down at all after struggling against an unranked opponent. In my opinion, Gonzaga did not look like a top-five team after that game, and Michigan State should at least move into the Top 25 after that type of game.
Another surprise for me was Villanova completely dropping out of the Top 25 after a hard-fought loss to Temple. The Wildcats are in their first season without Jay Wright running the show since 2000-01 and are without their five-star freshman, Cameron Whitmore. Those two notes right there make sense why Villanova lost that game to Temple, but the Owls are also going to be tough to beat this season for anyone. They have two scorers, Khalif Battle and Damian Dunn, that can go and score 30 points whenever they want.
The last surprise for me was the fact that No. 1 North Carolina stayed put in the No. 1 spot, even after being tested by Charleston Southern and winning 102-86 on Friday. Many Hoosier fans may not like to hear this, but I believe Kelvin Sampson’s Houston Cougars should be ranked No. 1 overall, and by the end of this week, they definitely could be.
Besides Indiana at No. 12, the Big Ten has only two other teams in the AP Top 25 — Illinois at No. 19 and Michigan at No. 20. Other Big Ten teams are getting votes to be included in the Top 25, but have not done enough yet to be thrown in. Look out for Michigan State, Purdue, and potentially Ohio State to move into the Top 25 by next Monday.
If Indiana basketball does its job and goes into Cincinnati and takes down unranked Xavier (receiving votes – No. 31), the Hoosiers should move into the Top 10 for the first time since 2016-17.