After this weekend’s top 3 matchup between Gonzaga and Iowa, the end of non-conference play is upon us. Slowly but surely teams across the country have moved into their familiar slates against conference foes, which is bittersweet and exciting all at the same time. A lot of action went down this week, and there’s quite a bit of shakeup in our rankings to reflect that. Let’s get into it:

Rank	Composite	Alex	Ben	Dylan	Ryan
1	Gonzaga	Gonzaga	Gonzaga	Gonzaga	Gonzaga
2	Baylor	Baylor	Baylor	Baylor	Baylor
3	Kansas	Kansas	Kansas	Kansas	Kansas
4	Houston	Houston	Houston	Houston	Houston
5	Iowa	Villanova	Iowa	Iowa	Iowa
6	Villanova	West Virginia	Villanova	Villanova	Villanova
7	West Virginia	Iowa	West Virginia	Texas	Tennessee
8	Texas	Texas	Texas	West Virginia	West Virginia
9	Tennessee	Tennessee	Wisconsin	Rutgers	Texas
10	Rutgers	Rutgers	Tennessee	Tennessee	Rutgers
11	Wisconsin	Wisconsin	Creighton	Creighton	Wisconsin
12	Creighton	Creighton	Rutgers	Wisconsin	Creighton
13	Michigan State	Missouri	Michigan State	Michigan State	Michigan State
14	Texas Tech	Texas Tech	Texas Tech	Texas Tech	Missouri
15	Missouri	Michigan State	North Carolina	Missouri	Texas Tech
16	Michigan	North Carolina	Missouri	Xavier	North Carolina
17	Xavier	Illinois	Illinois	Michigan	Michigan
18	North Carolina	Xavier	Michigan	Ohio State	Xavier
19	Ohio State	Michigan	Ohio State	Florida State	Ohio State
20	Illinois	Richmond	Xavier	Illinois	Virginia
21	Oregon	Ohio State	Oregon	Virginia	Duke
22	Florida State	San Diego St	Virginia Tech	Oregon	Oregon
23	Richmond	Oregon	Florida State	Richmond	Florida State
24	Virginia	Virginia Tech	Saint Louis	Saint Louis	Richmond
25	Virginia Tech	Virginia	Richmond	Duke	Virginia Tech

Movers and Shakers

Patience Is A Virtue:
In a week where 12 of our Top 25 teams lost a game, sometimes the best game is no game at all. Without even playing a game this week, Missouri jumped 2 spots, Michigan jumped 8, and Virginia returned to the poll.

Gonzaga vs The Field:
Only one month into the season, the #1 ranked Bulldogs are unbeaten and hold wins over 3 teams in the top 10 of our poll. It may be very early in the season, but there may not be anyone anywhere who can stop the Zags on their road to a title.

Rutgers? Really?:

Steve Pikiell has Rutgers on a roll. They finished dead last in the B1G the two seasons prior to his arrival, and in his first two seasons at the helm. In Year 5, however, he has the Scarlet Knights ranked 10th in our poll, the second highest ranked team in arguably the best conference in the nation. As long as everything goes okay on the COVID front, it appears Rutgers is a lock to receive its first postseason berth since 2006, and is first NCAA Tournament since 1991.

We Hope To See You Again Soon:
When 12 teams in the Top 25 drop a game in a one week span, some teams are bound to exit the rankings. This week was the biggest mass exodus we have had as 5 teams left the poll. (#19) San Diego State lost a west coast clash with BYU, (#20) Louisville had their doors blown off in Madison losing by 37 to Wisconsin in a game they probably wish had remained postponed, (#22) Saint Louis went 1-1 against the power 5 but it wasn’t enough to keep them ranked, (#23) Clemson lost its first game as a member of the poll against once, and now once again, ranked Virginia Tech, and (#25) Oklahoma State dropped its first two conference games to TCU and Texas.

New Faces, Old Friends:
Five new teams enter the poll this week, with three of them making a return to the rankings. #25 Virginia Tech beat a ranked Clemson to open ACC play, #24 Virginia played the waiting game and snuck back in without playing in almost 2.5 weeks, and #23 Richmond returns after a week away thanks to solid wins over Vanderbilt and Loyola Chicago. Oregon debuts at #21, riding a 6 game win streak after dropping their opener to #15 Missouri, and Xavier jumps in at #17 after Adam Kunkel’s buzzer beater pushed them over Marquette in the Big East opener to move to 8-0.