EAST
Washington, D.C.

Top Dog — Indiana (1)

EAST
Washington, D.C.

COMPLETE REGION PREVIEWS

In a college basketball season marked by uncertainty, determining the nation’s top players at any position is a tall task.

These days, it takes a special effort to defeat Syracuse or Colorado State on their home courts.

The Orange and the Rams have owned their arenas, with home winning streaks of 38 and 27 games, respectively. Both of those streaks ended Saturday thanks to dominating performances from two players.

Is it time to start celebrating or time to start worrying?

Those are the questions fans of a handful of teams will start asking over the next month or so of the season. Are NCAA bids or conference contender status being locked up? Or for other teams, are the wheels to a satisfying season starting to fall off?

Another week, another No. 1 in the Athlon Sports college basketball power rankings.

For the third week in a row, we have a new team in the top spot following Duke two weeks ago, then Michigan. We return to an old friend at No. 1 in Indiana, who defeated the Wolverines 81-73 on Saturday.

Miami’s 90-63 drubbing of Duke last week shuffled the power rankings in more ways than one.

As the college basketball season nears the end of the first month of the new year, the standings still reveal a handful of surprises.

Instead of Arizona and UCLA, Oregon is atop the Pac-12. Ole Miss is undefeated in the SEC, though the Rebels have yet to run into the Florida steamroller. Meanwhile, Miami is the only team unscathed in ACC play.

For most college basketball teams, players are preparing for finals. For those of us watching the sport, we’re preparing for midterms, so to speak.

As the non-conference seasons start to wrap up and league play to begin around the new year, Athlon is looking back and looking ahead at each conference.

We’ll start with the ACC where Duke has pulled off the impossible and managed to surprise people.

EARLY SEASON CONFERENCE CATCHUP: ACC

Basketball season is in full swing, which for the ACC and Big Ten is a welcome sight.