Jeff BorzelloDec 11, 2025, 09:00 AM ETCloseJeff Borzello is a basketball recruiting insider. He has joined ESPN in 2014.Follow on X
play1:45UConn tops Florida at MSG in battle of last 2 champsUConn wins a slugfest against Florida in the Jimmy V Classic at Madison Square Garden.
play1:17BYU comes back from its largest 2nd-half deficit ever to win at the buzzerRobert Wright III’s shot somehow goes in, and BYU completes the largest second-half comeback in BYU history.
play0:16Emanuel Sharp drills shot vs. Jackson State TigersEmanuel Sharp drills shot vs. Jackson State Tigers.
play1:18Texas Tech Red Raiders vs. LSU Tigers: Game HighlightsTexas Tech Red Raiders vs. LSU Tigers: Game Highlights
Jackson State Tigers vs. Houston Cougars: Game Highlights (1:21)Jackson State Tigers vs. Houston Cougars: Game Highlights (1:21)
UConn tops Florida at MSG in battle of last 2 champsUConn wins a slugfest against Florida in the Jimmy V Classic at Madison Square Garden.
BYU comes back from its largest 2nd-half deficit ever to win at the buzzerRobert Wright III’s shot somehow goes in, and BYU completes the largest second-half comeback in BYU history.
Robert Wright III’s shot somehow goes in, and BYU completes the largest second-half comeback in BYU history.
Emanuel Sharp drills shot vs. Jackson State TigersEmanuel Sharp drills shot vs. Jackson State Tigers.
Texas Tech Red Raiders vs. LSU Tigers: Game HighlightsTexas Tech Red Raiders vs. LSU Tigers: Game Highlights
Michigan took the top spot in last week’s edition thanks to the Wolverines’ overwhelming dominance at the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas, and Dusty May’s team hasn’t slowed since, winning two more games by a combined 69 points.
Arizona was our No. 1 team heading into Feast Week after the Wildcats went into Storrs and knocked off UConn in a true road game. At the time, they had the best résumé in the country featuring quality wins over UConn, Florida and UCLA. They’ve since added a win over Auburn.
Duke now has the best collection of wins of any unbeaten team with victories over Michigan State, Arkansas, Kansas, Florida and Texas — only one of which came at Cameron Indoor Stadium. The Blue Devils are No. 1 in wins above bubble and ESPN’s Strength of Record.
And finally, there’s Iowa State, which landed potentially the most impressive win we’ll see from any team this season, going to Purdue and knocking off the then-AP No. 1 Boilermakers by an astonishing 23 points. A win like that automatically gets the Cyclones into the mix.
We opted to keep Michigan on top given the strength of its dominance over the past few weeks. It doesn’t look like there’s a team in the country that could beat the Wolverines with the way they are playing.
Freshman Brayden Burries is starting to hit his stride, looking more and more like the much-sought-after top-15 recruit he was coming out of high school. He struggled to start his career, scoring in single digits in four of his first five games while shooting 33.3% from the field and 29.4% from 3. But in his past three games, he’s averaging 17.0 points, 4.7 rebounds and 3.0 assists while shooting 56.3% from the field. He went for 16 points on 7-for-11 shooting in Saturday’s win over Auburn.
UConn tops Florida at MSG in battle of last 2 champs
UConn wins a slugfest against Florida in the Jimmy V Classic at Madison Square Garden.
We addressed the lows of Purdue’s historic loss to Iowa State above. Well, entering halftime of Wednesday’s game against Minnesota with only a one-possession lead, it looked as if the Boilermakers’ struggles might continue. But Matt Painter’s team opened the second half with 21 straight points amid a 29-2 run to rebound with a 28-point win over the Golden Gophers.
The recent play of 7-foot-4 center Daniel Jacobsen has been a highlight. He’s scored in double figures four times in Purdue’s past five games, finishing just short of a double-double against Texas Tech (eight rebounds) and Eastern Illinois (9) last month. He has been remarkably efficient, too, playing no more than 21 minutes in a game this season.
There aren’t many teams that can compete with them in the paint, though, and there won’t be many games in which Jeremy Fears Jr. goes 0-for-10 from the field.
BYU comes back from its largest 2nd-half deficit ever to win at the buzzer
Emanuel Sharp put together his best two-game stretch of the season this past week, going for 27 points and three assists against Florida State on 6-for-12 shooting from 3. The senior guard followed that with 23 points and three assists against Jackson State, including 21 points and five 3-pointers in the first half. Sharp struggled mightily in Houston’s lone loss of the season (eight points against Tennessee) but has rebounded to the tune of 21.7 points per game in his past three.
Duke Miles has been one of the best transfer guards of the season, averaging career highs across the board at his fourth school. He put up 17.5 points at High Point two seasons ago, dropped to 9.4 per game last season with a step up in competition at Oklahoma and rediscovered his high-end scoring prowess with Vanderbilt. Miles is averaging 17.8 points, 3.0 rebounds and 4.4 assists through nine games, shooting nearly 43% from 3-point range while contributing 2.3 steals per game.
Nebraska made its Power Rankings debut last week before a pivotal stretch featuring matchups against in-state rival Creighton and Wisconsin. The Cornhuskers won both by a combined 51 points and enjoy a five-spot boost as a result. Rienk Mast was once again the best player on the floor in both games, going for 20 points and five rebounds against the Bluejays then 17 points and 10 boards against the Badgers despite sitting the final 12 minutes of the latter game.
Texas Tech Red Raiders vs. LSU Tigers: Game Highlights
Texas Tech Red Raiders vs. LSU Tigers: Game Highlights
Michigan is on a run rarely seen in college basketball. The Wolverines rattled off four straight wins by at least 30 points, culminating in Saturday’s 101-60 victory over Rutgers. They also became only the third Division I team in the past 25 seasons to win six straight games by at least 25 points with Tuesday’s 89-61 win against Villanova, per ESPN Research, joining the 2018-19 Gonzaga and 2006-07 Florida squads. That Gonzaga team won its next game by 13, while Florida lost its next, so Michigan has a chance to set itself apart this Saturday in College Park.
There are few teams that can match UConn’s depth, and Dan Hurley isn’t afraid to turn to his bench in big games. Dayton transfer Malachi Smith is arguably the best backup point guard in the country. He finished with nine assists and one turnover in Tuesday’s win over Florida and has totaled 31 assists to just six turnovers in five games against top-25 foes this season. Eric Reibe filled in admirably for Tarris Reed Jr., averaging 12.4 points and 5.0 rebounds in five games as a starter before Reed returned Tuesday. Jayden Ross is a defensive game changer. And five-star freshman Braylon Mullins is one of the sport’s elite shooters.
Gonzaga went back to its strengths to rebound from its blowout loss to Michigan at the Players Era, outscoring Kentucky in the paint 46-18 in last week’s win over the Wildcats. Graham Ike had one of the best games of his career with 28 points and 10 rebounds, while Braden Huff went for 20 points on 9-for-11 shooting. The Bulldogs’ offense is heavily predicated on their bigs — they lead the nation in paint points and 2-point attempts per game, per CBB Analytics, and are getting 60% of their points from inside the arc.
AJ Dybantsa had a true statement performance in Tuesday’s Jimmy V Classic at Madison Square Garden, taking over the final 20 minutes against Clemson to lead BYU to its largest second-half comeback in program history. He scored 22 of his 28 points, grabbed 7 of his 9 rebounds and dished 5 of his 6 assists in the final frame. But the most eye-popping stat of the game? Dybantsa had more points and more assists than Clemson in the second half while going 7-for-11 to Clemson’s 7-for-27 from the field.
If Jalil Bethea continues to play like he did in Sunday’s win over UTSA, he adds yet another dimension to Alabama’s offense. The former five-star recruit was considered one of the elite shotmakers in the 2024 high school class before an inconsistent freshman season at Miami in which he didn’t carve out a rotation spot until the second half of the campaign. Then a preseason foot injury sidelined him for the first seven games, but in his second game back, he went for 21 points on 5-for-10 shooting from 3-point range against the Roadrunners.
Illinois is coming off the best week of its season, beating Tennessee by 13 in Nashville on Saturday before hitting the road and taking down Ohio State in a true road game Tuesday. Freshman wing Keaton Wagler broke out of his mini-slump with 16 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists against the Vols then 23 points and 5 assists against the Buckeyes, shooting 7-for-16 from 3 in the two games. He was an unheralded recruit out of high school but received rave reviews in the offseason — and could be tracking as a potential one-and-done recruit given his positional size and shotmaking ability.
Caleb Wilson has been one of this season’s elite players, and with Henri Veesaar also playing at an extremely high level, Hubert Davis has perhaps the best low-post tandem in the country. Wilson is averaging 19.3 points and 10.6 rebounds with six double-doubles in his past seven games. Meanwhile, Veesaar had 17 points and 10 boards against Kentucky then went for 18 points, 15 boards and 3 blocks against Georgetown. The Arizona transfer showed flashes down the stretch last season and has officially taken the next step in Chapel Hill.
Louisville’s awful 3-point shooting effort against Arkansas last week didn’t cause any change in approach in the Cardinals’ game against Indiana — and Pat Kelsey’s team was better for it. It went 13-for-31 from behind the arc against the Hoosiers after making just 21.6% of its attempts against the Razorbacks. Louisville is shooting 47-for-112 (42%) from 3 in its past three wins and now ranks second nationally with 12.7 made 3s per game. It’s worth monitoring, however, that the Cardinals are making 10.5 per game at a 30.9% clip in four games against high-major opponents compared to 14.4 at a 39.8% clip in their other five contests.