Indiana basketball rises to No. 11 in AP Top 25 after impressive week

Indiana basketball went undefeated for the second straight week and beat Xavier on the road, earning themselves the No.11 spot in the AP Top 25.

The Hoosiers battled against Xavier and Miami (Ohio) in their two games this week and came out on top in both games, winning on the road against Xavier 81-79 and pounding Miami (OH) by 30 points in Indianapolis.

Four teams that were ranked in the Top 15 last week, moved up at least one spot in the Top 25 — Houston (No. 3 to No. 2), Kansas (No. 6 to No. 3), Texas (No. 11 to No. 4), and Indiana (No. 12 to No. 11).

Apparently, beginning the season 4-0 and earning your first true road victory over a strong power conference opponent isn’t enough to get into the top 10 of the AP Top 25. Interesting…

My biggest surprise is the fact that even after a Quad 1 win against a very talented team like Xavier, who has a shot to win their conference, the Hoosiers move up just one spot.

Now after two weeks and a preseason full of “college basketball experts” downplaying the talent of the Big Ten, the conference has the most teams of any conference in the AP Top 25 going into week three, with six teams rounding out the Top 25.

The biggest riser of them all was Michigan State, who went undefeated last week beating No. 4 Kentucky and Villanova. Last week’s performance proved to be impressive to the voters as the Spartans rose all the way up to one spot behind the Hoosiers at No. 12.

The biggest faller from the Big Ten conference was Michigan, who was ranked No. 20 before getting routed by Arizona State and nearly losing at home to Ohio in overtime. Michigan is now unranked.

Maryland (No. 23), Purdue (No. 24), and Iowa (No. 25) all moved into the Top 25, and honetly, it seems like Maryland should be higher after their impressive week dominating the Basketball Hall of Fame Tipoff and beating two very good teams in Saint Louis and Miami (FL).

One more thing pertaining to the Big Ten, Illinois. As much as this pains me to say, after their impressive comeback win over No. 8 UCLA and battling with No 16 Virginia to the wire, only moving up three spots to No. 16 is pretty low. The Illini have looked better, in my eyes, than even Michigan State, and that’s saying a lot.

The Hoosiers will keep on rising, especially the more that the AP voters continue to downplay their impressive start to the season. I now don’t expect Indiana basketball to rise to the top 10 until after the game against No. 1 North Carolina, if the Hoosiers can pull off the upset in Bloomington on November 30.