{"id":622771,"date":"2026-02-24T22:06:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T22:06:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/622771\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T22:06:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T22:06:20","slug":"college-basketball-rankings-contending-teams-which-exceed-key-metrics-in-week-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/622771\/","title":{"rendered":"College Basketball Rankings: Contending teams which exceed key metrics in Week 17"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the past week, premier matchups between top-ranked teams brought big changes to the analytic world, including the Offensive and Defensive Ratings at KenPom<\/a>. The group of teams which sits inside the Top 10 of both categories remained the same, although two Big 12 teams swapped spots. Meanwhile, no one entered the Top 25 with one team on the way out.<\/p>\n

College basketball features many analytic models which aim to not only predict the results of each matchup, but the ultimate champion by assigning numbers to the offensive efficiency, defensive efficiency, strength of schedule, and a variety of other factors. KenPom, created by Ken Pomeroy, has long been one of the most respected metrics for its historic accuracy.<\/p>\n

KenPom assigns value to each team using a number of factors, including the offensive and defensive efficiency. The top contenders can then be sorted based on their performance on each end of the floor, with those able to make their way toward the top in both likely to find a high spot in the rankings.<\/p>\n

Historically, many of college basketball\u2019s top contenders have ranked inside the Top 25 of both KenPom categories, with a large portion inside the Top 10 of both. Here is a look at the current season, based on data through 17 weeks of college basketball.<\/p>\n

Michigan<\/a> \u2013 No. 1 at KenPom<\/p>\n

ORtg: 5 | DRtg: 1<\/p>\n

Michigan not only meets the Top 25 and Top 10 thresholds, they remain the only team in college basketball which sits inside the Top Five of both metrics across consecutive weeks. The Wolverines are also No. 1 in defensive efficiency even after a loss to Duke, with the past four teams to top the chart finishing in the Sweet 16 or better. They did, however, drop from No. 4 to No. 5 on offense.<\/p>\n

Duke<\/a> \u2013 No. 2 at KenPom<\/p>\n

ORtg: 7 | DRtg: 2<\/p>\n

Duke currently sits at No. 2 in defensive efficiency and No. 7 in offensive efficiency, with no movement since this time last week despite a win over Michigan. The Blue Devils also remain No. 2 in the analytic model\u2019s overall rankings despite a head-to-head win over the top team.<\/p>\n

Arizona<\/a> \u2013 No. 3 at KenPom<\/p>\n

ORtg: 9 | DRtg: 3<\/p>\n

Arizona currently sits at No. 4 overall in KenPom\u2019s rankings, making a move back up the board in the offensive metrics. The Cougars move back into the Top 10 of both categories as a result, joining Michigan and Duke as the only teams which meet the threshold, as the best defenses in the country strongly link to the best in college basketball.<\/p>\n

Dropped out: Houston<\/p>\n

Top 25 in ORtg | DRtg<\/p>\n

Florida<\/a> \u2013 No. 5 at KenPom
ORtg: 16 | DRtg: 4<\/p>\n

Houston<\/a> \u2013 No. 6 at KenPom
ORtg: 13 | DRtg: 7<\/p>\n

Purdue<\/a> \u2013 No. 7 at KenPom
ORtg: 2 | DRtg: 25<\/p>\n

Iowa State<\/a> \u2013 No. 8 at KenPom
ORtg: 17 | DRtg: 8<\/p>\n

Gonzaga \u2013 No. 10 at KenPom
ORtg: 22 | DRtg: 12<\/p>\n

UConn<\/a> \u2013 No. 11 at KenPom
ORtg: 23 | DRtg: 13<\/p>\n

Vanderbilt<\/a> \u2013 No. 13 at KenPom
ORtg: 15 | DRtg: 20<\/p>\n

Dropped Out: Texas Tech<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Over the past week, premier matchups between top-ranked teams brought big changes to the analytic world, including the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622772,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3723],"tags":[7,217,231,772,1544],"class_list":["post-622771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-basketball","tag-basketball","tag-college-basketball","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-basketball","tag-ncaab"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116127883914264968","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622771","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=622771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}