the ballot of\u00a0The Athletic\u2019s C.J. Moore<\/a>:<\/p>\nAP men’s Top 25: Jan. 5<\/p>\n
Rank<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Team<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Record<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Prev<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
CJ’s vote<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
1<\/p>\n
14-0<\/p>\n
1<\/p>\n
2<\/p>\n
2<\/p>\n
13-0<\/p>\n
2<\/p>\n
1<\/p>\n
3<\/p>\n
14-0<\/p>\n
3<\/p>\n
3<\/p>\n
4<\/p>\n
14-1<\/p>\n
4<\/p>\n
4<\/p>\n
5<\/p>\n
13-1<\/p>\n
5<\/p>\n
5<\/p>\n
6<\/p>\n
13-1<\/p>\n
6<\/p>\n
8<\/p>\n
7<\/p>\n
13-1<\/p>\n
8<\/p>\n
7<\/p>\n
8<\/p>\n
15-1<\/p>\n
7<\/p>\n
6<\/p>\n
9<\/p>\n
13-1<\/p>\n
10<\/p>\n
9<\/p>\n
10<\/p>\n
14-0<\/p>\n
13<\/p>\n
11<\/p>\n
11<\/p>\n
14-0<\/p>\n
11<\/p>\n
10<\/p>\n
12<\/p>\n
12-2<\/p>\n
9<\/p>\n
12<\/p>\n
13<\/p>\n
11-3<\/p>\n
14<\/p>\n
13<\/p>\n
14<\/p>\n
11-3<\/p>\n
15<\/p>\n
16<\/p>\n
15<\/p>\n
11-3<\/p>\n
18<\/p>\n
14<\/p>\n
16<\/p>\n
11-3<\/p>\n
20<\/p>\n
15<\/p>\n
17<\/p>\n
13-2<\/p>\n
12<\/p>\n
17<\/p>\n
18<\/p>\n
13-1<\/p>\n
23<\/p>\n
23<\/p>\n
19<\/p>\n
12-2<\/p>\n
25<\/p>\n
18<\/p>\n
20<\/p>\n
11-3<\/p>\n
16<\/p>\n
20<\/p>\n
21<\/p>\n
10-4<\/p>\n
19<\/p>\n
19<\/p>\n
22<\/p>\n
10-4<\/p>\n
17<\/p>\n
21<\/p>\n
23<\/p>\n
12-2<\/p>\n
21<\/p>\n
22<\/p>\n
24<\/p>\n
12-2<\/p>\n
NR<\/p>\n
24<\/p>\n
25<\/p>\n
12-1<\/p>\n
NR<\/p>\n
NR<\/p>\n
NR<\/p>\n
12-2<\/p>\n
NR<\/p>\n
25<\/p>\n
Others receiving votes:\u00a0Villanova 127, Seton Hall 31, USC 28, Utah State 27, Miami (Ohio) 22, Clemson 21, Saint Louis 14, LSU 14, Texas 12, Florida 11, Saint Mary\u2019s 10, Kentucky 9, California 8, Miami (Fla.) 5, Indiana 4, Auburn 3, TCU 2, UCLA 2, Virginia Tech 2.<\/p>\n
Should Vandy be higher?<\/p>\n
Vanderbilt just missed making the top 10 for the first time in-season since 1992-93. But should Vandy be even higher? The Commodores are top seven in every major resume metric and every quality metric except for BPI (they\u2019re 11 there), and they\u2019re as high as No. 2 at KPI.<\/p>\n
Their best two wins (at UCF and a 19-point home win against SMU) look even better after this weekend. UCF knocked off Kansas and SMU looked extremely impressive in a win over North Carolina. Wake Forest, which Vandy recently smoked by 31 on the road, also picked up a quality win over Virginia Tech. Vandy plays Alabama on Wednesday. Win that one and I\u2019ll consider moving the Commodores up. Keep an eye on Duke Miles for that one. Vandy\u2019s leading scorer has missed the last two games.<\/p>\n
Why I moved Iowa into the top 20<\/p>\n
Iowa was my biggest riser this week, going from 23rd to 18th. The Hawkeyes are 0-2 against current Top 25 teams but have looked strong against other high-majors, including a 13-point win Saturday against UCLA. The quality-based metrics are high on Iowa, which ranks as high as 13 at the NET.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll have a good feel for the Hawkeyes after the next two weeks. After a road game Tuesday at Minnesota, they play three straight quality opponents (hosting Illinois on Sunday, then road games against Purdue and Indiana next week). Coach Ben McCollum continues to look like one of the best hires of this cycle. In two years at the Division I level, he\u2019s now 43-6, and 8-3 against high-majors.<\/p>\n
Also rising: SMU<\/p>\n
SMU made its debut in my poll this week, and if for some reason the Mustangs fall off the radar in the next few weeks, do not be surprised to see them reemerge in February. I\u2019m a believer in the talent, but the schedule could produce some losses soon. SMU has a road swing this week against Clemson and Duke, then hosts Virginia and Virginia Tech. That means SMU will have played five of the league\u2019s top nine teams to open ACC play. The back half of the schedule is a lot easier and most ACC bottom-half teams are going to struggle trying to keep pace with SMU\u2019s offense, which has scored 87 or more in 12 of 14 games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arizona remains the No. 1 team in the country \u2014 but Michigan is as close as it can…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":518637,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3723],"tags":[7998,1982,598,1398,7,3294,18360,7150,217,6133,691,950,6721,4250,2811,7367,6523,3755,7368,3730,3075,1984,4253,354,59646,14569,3491,1043,231,772,1544,8905,1770,12513,34561,10413,5972,6775,9346,1797,2398,1640,8858,4262,849,25823,20705,6722,1774,12809],"class_list":{"0":"post-518636","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-alabama-crimson-tide","9":"tag-arizona-wildcats","10":"tag-arkansas-razorbacks","11":"tag-auburn-tigers","12":"tag-basketball","13":"tag-byu-cougars","14":"tag-california-golden-bears","15":"tag-clemson-tigers","16":"tag-college-basketball","17":"tag-connecticut-huskies","18":"tag-duke-blue-devils","19":"tag-florida-gators","20":"tag-georgia-bulldogs","21":"tag-gonzaga-bulldogs","22":"tag-houston-cougars","23":"tag-illinois-fighting-illini","24":"tag-indiana-hoosiers","25":"tag-iowa-hawkeyes","26":"tag-iowa-state-cyclones","27":"tag-kansas-jayhawks","28":"tag-kentucky-wildcats","29":"tag-louisville-cardinals","30":"tag-lsu-tigers","31":"tag-mens-college-basketball","32":"tag-miami-oh-redhawks","33":"tag-miami-hurricanes","34":"tag-michigan-state-spartans","35":"tag-michigan-wolverines","36":"tag-ncaa","37":"tag-ncaa-basketball","38":"tag-ncaab","39":"tag-nebraska-cornhuskers","40":"tag-north-carolina-tar-heels","41":"tag-purdue-boilermakers","42":"tag-saint-louis-billikens","43":"tag-saint-marys-gaels","44":"tag-seton-hall-pirates","45":"tag-smu-mustangs","46":"tag-tcu-horned-frogs","47":"tag-tennessee-volunteers","48":"tag-texas-longhorns","49":"tag-texas-tech-red-raiders","50":"tag-ucf-knights","51":"tag-ucla-bruins","52":"tag-usc-trojans","53":"tag-utah-state-aggies","54":"tag-vanderbilt-commodores","55":"tag-villanova-wildcats","56":"tag-virginia-cavaliers","57":"tag-virginia-tech-hokies"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=518636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518636\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/518637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=518636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=518636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=518636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}