This is exactly the type of league everyone wanted. With 14 teams in the top 74, and having any realistic shot of making the NCAA Tournament, gone are a healthy amount of games being landmines. These games are actually mattering, you can see the gravity of the situation in these games that have evolved from "man we can't lose these," to "winning this would be huge."

Can we push to getting double digit teams into the tournament?

Rankings

18: Boston College (7-9) 0-2 last week; Previous ranking (18)

Why: Honestly, I feel bad for Boston College, they're still playing extremely hard. They annoyed NC State for 40 minutes in front of what looked like under 1,000 people in the stands, before going on the road to Louisville on Saturday. Up eight in the second half, you still didn't feel as if they were going to win the game (KenPom had UL's win probability at 80.8% at that point) before running out of gas after the under-8. I think this team has some good players! But they just cannot put the ball in the basket, which is kind of important for this sport.

17: FSU (7-9) 0-1 last week; Previous ranking (17)

Why: Remember that whole not being fooled thing from last week about them being able to shoot threes last week? Well they came crashing back down to earth against NC State, who essentially just let them shoot threes. 5-for-23, that's 21.7% from deep for those of you who didn't want to do math. Felt as if this was a team that could get sneakily blown out if they couldn't shoot above their heads and that happened very loudly on Saturday.

16: Pitt (7-9) 0-1 last week; Previous ranking (17)

Why: Congrats to Pitt for moving up solely because they didn't lose by FOURTY-FOUR POINTS. Anyone with a competent frontcourt, note I didn't say big just competent, is just having their way. Cam Corhen is having to play 38 minutes a game since they've entered conference play. He's not exactly the greatest defensive center, but you have to set your players up for success and there isn't really anyone to spell him outside of spot Kieran Mullen minutes or just throwing a 6'6 Roman Siulepa at the 5 so Corhen doesn't pass out. There honestly isn't much of a way to fix this unless a team gets super cold or they shoot the lights out. A bit of a what-if right now because if Dishon Jackson could've been cleared, I think this team actually fits together perfectly. Baye Ndongo might score 30 on them in Wednesday's matchup.

15: Georgia Tech (10-7) 0-2 last week; Previous ranking (15)

Why: 1) We're all going to watch Pitt-GT like a family on Wednesday, right? Two teams that absolutely need a win to not see the rest of the season spiral out of control, no one is really all that sure if either team can make a shot? 2) Mo Sylla is injured and we'll see if he plays Wednesday, would be their biggest weapon against Pitt. 3) Can this team just at least be fun?

14: Notre Dame (10-6) 0-1 last week; Previous ranking (14)

Why: If you want to talk about a "what-if" story in the ACC, it usually ends up being Micah Shrewsberry's team. They just cannot get anything going offensively (consistently) without Markus Burton in the lineup. They looked just fine against Idaho and Evansville but in their last four games they've been under 1.0 PPP in three of them. What's a bit more concerning, and seemingly unrelated), their defense is falling off a cliff. Against Cal and Clemson they've had their two worst defensive performances by KenPom. It's one thing to not be able to score, but they can't just let teams score at will against them as they're letting teams shoot 54% from two and that's WITH the Stanford abomination factored in there.

13: Virginia Tech (13-4) 1-1 last week; Previous ranking (13)

Why: What a week for Mike Young. They spent a Wednesday night miserable after Ebuka Okorie dropped 31 on them, punctuated by a 3 pointer with three seconds left to top the Hokies by a singular point. Turn the page to Saturday and they spent the entire first half getting clocked on the board by one of the worst rebounding teams in the country in Cal... but they found a way! Young will be sending some flowers to his former player for this turnover when was VT up by two with about six seconds left.

12: Wake Forest (10-7) 0-2 last week; Previous ranking (11)

Why: Nate Calmese and Juke Harris are on absolute heaters the last three games, averaging 24 and 23.6 points over the last three contests. The offense for Wake seems to be fixed but the defense has fallen off of an absolute cliff. Sure, Miami and UNC were on paper all year as the two worst matchups for the Demon Deacons, but they got abused on the glass in critical situations and blew two opportunities to really get back into the tournament picture immediately. The season rides on Cooper Schwieger and Tre'Von Spillers. Schwieger has to show the aggressiveness offensively he flashes from time to time more often while also stop going games without a singular rebound. Spillers is a bit more simple, he has to slow down.

11: Syracuse (11-5) 2-0 last week; Previous ranking (13)

Why: Cuse is going to go into late January 5-1 in the conference and their fans are going to be mad online about it, calling it now. Now granted, they've played and beaten two of the four worst teams in the conference. And they get the other two at the bottom this week. But not losing to the worst teams is a necessary skill. Don't blow this. Also for the love of god stop turning the ball over in the second half.

10: Stanford (13-4) 1-1 last week; Previous ranking (9)

Why: The Trees realized their best chance of winning gams is giving the ball to Ebuka Okorie and getting the hell out of the way (well Chisom Okpara did still have 11 shots against VT). It keeps working for them! Well until they ran into Virginia where Okorie had 14 points at the half... and then finished with 14. They're going to have to get more from Okpara and Gealer the rest of the way if they don't want to waste this talent, whether that's to the NBA Draft or the portal. 

9: Cal (13-4) 0-2 last week; Previous ranking (7)

Why: This is probably the most important week in a while for the Castaways. After falling in their Commonwealth encounters with Virginia and Virginia Tech, they now get paid a visit by both of Duke and North Carolina. It's hard to call either of them must-wins, but after starting out 1-3, for confidence they need to at least be competitive here.

8: NC State (12-5) 2-0 last week; Previous ranking (9)

Why: They almost did the funniest thing by laboring through a sleepy game in Conte Forum. Whatever Will Wade said to the team after that probably needs to be studied as they made 19 threes at FSU. Maybe it's a bad thing they don't play again until Saturday.

7: Miami (14-2) 1-0 last week; Previous ranking (7)

Why: Miami is looking to get their first 10-game winning streak since 2017 (!!!) this week, as they currently hold the nation's 10th longest active win streak. This has been a pro-Malik Reneau space, but seeing Tre Donaldson up close and personal earlier in the week, he's everything Miami wanted when they paid up for him.

6: SMU (12-4) 0-2 last week; Previous ranking (5)

Why: I finally say something nice about this team, and then they go 0-2. Now there's the obvious caveat that it's against what I think are the two best teams in the league, by close margins, both on the road, and the Duke game was without Boopie. But two losses are two losses. One thing to monitor: their free throw rate on defense spiked the last two games. Feature or bug?

5: Louisville (12-4) 1-1 last week; Previous ranking (3)

Why: Not ready to say this team is broken, but man this team has a lot of issues that not even Mikel Brown Jr. coming back from injury solves. Also, what was up with reports getting out about London Johnson being activated to now people would be shocked if he played at all this year? The vibes just feel awful right now.

4: North Carolina (14-2) 1-0 last week; Previous ranking (6)

Why: Short and sweet here, no need for much analysis. If Caleb Wilson goes say three minutes without taking a shot, or even really touching the ball, you take whatever point guard is in out and replace him. If it happens again, you replace him. Keep doing it until they get the message. He's the engine that makes this car go, and Hubert has to be going insane every time a possession happens without him getting the ball.

3: Virginia (14-2) 2-0 last week; Previous ranking (4)

Why: Chance Mallory is awesome man. He adds enough offensively while just being absolutely obnoxious defensively (positive). If there was someone to be excited about next year for a sophomore jump, it's him.

2: Clemson (14-3) 2-0 last week; Previous ranking (2)

Why: Clemson has all the pieces they need to be an absolutely annoying four seed when it comes to March. Justin Porter looks awesome, getting RJ Godfrey back looks better and better every game meanwhile Jake Wahlin and Carter Welling are just going to trade games where they look good. One day they'll get them both going at the same time, right?

1: Duke (15-1) 2-0 last week; Previous ranking (1)

Why: Last week's blurb talked about how problematic their defense has been, and then... it just looked worse last week even with them going 2-0. They've been throwing things at the wall hoping something sticks. Instead of just switching everything, they've gone through exclusively man-to-man, zones, drop, they keep trying to find something and it just... isn't working. The only time they had some semblance of defense was when Maliq Brown and Dame Sarr were on the court. Can they play 40 minutes?