UCLA starts fast, and 10 teams share the top of The Precedent Ratings
The first week of college basketball brought one big early-season upset, a handful of tight finishes and a crowded top of the Ratings.
The Precedent: College Basketball
Every league's Ratings on one page, and how The Precedent Rating works: theprecedentmedia.com/ratings
The week in college basketball
The biggest result of opening week came on the first night. UCLA, 22nd in the AP poll, beat fifth-ranked Arizona 84-75 in Las Vegas. The Bruins built a 14-point halftime lead, and Arizona never got all the way back. Trent Perry led UCLA with 21 points, and Ivan Kharchenkov scored 38 for Arizona in a losing effort. Arizona bounced back Thursday with a 104-84 win over Cal Poly and is 1-1. UCLA is 1-0 and one of 10 teams tied for No. 1 in The Precedent Ratings.
Top-ranked Florida opened with a 77-67 win over Miami (FL), 14th in the AP poll, at a neutral site. The Gators led by 10 at halftime, and the second half was even. They followed it with a win over Jacksonville and are 2-0.
BYU, 25th in the AP poll, trailed Ohio State at halftime and then took over after the break, winning 94-83. Ohio State is 0-1.
Several AP Top 25 teams cruised through two games. Texas beat Chicago State 109-59 and Gardner-Webb 98-50. Michigan State beat Quinnipiac 96-59 and Toledo 91-61. Kansas beat Fordham 95-65 in its only game. Texas Tech handled Jackson State and Bethune-Cookman, and Vanderbilt beat Bellarmine 93-47 before beating Wake Forest 74-51 on Thursday in a meeting of two power-conference teams.
DePaul nearly let one get away. The Blue Demons were comfortably ahead of South Florida at halftime on Thursday, then had to hold on for an 82-80 win. They are 2-0. Jackson State, 1-1, won 87-85 at Tulane after trailing at the break, and South Alabama needed overtime to beat Jacksonville State 83-80.
Among the teams at the top of The Precedent Ratings, Saint Louis beat Lehigh 92-67, Providence beat Maine 83-56 and Northwestern beat Binghamton 86-60. North Texas is 2-0 after beating McNeese 77-67 on Thursday, and Dartmouth is 2-0 after winning at Marist.
The Ratings
It is early, and The Precedent Ratings show it. Ten teams share No. 1: Dartmouth, George Washington, Kansas, North Texas, Northwestern, Ohio, Providence, Saint Louis, UCLA and Yale. Dartmouth and North Texas are 2-0; the other eight are 1-0. The Precedent Ratings spread out as teams play more games and their opponents build records of their own.
| Rank | Team | Record | Rating | AP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dartmouth | 2-0 | 0.500 | NR |
| 1 | George Washington | 1-0 | 0.500 | NR |
| 1 | Kansas | 1-0 | 0.500 | 17 |
| 1 | North Texas | 2-0 | 0.500 | NR |
| 1 | Northwestern | 1-0 | 0.500 | NR |
| 1 | Ohio | 1-0 | 0.500 | NR |
| 1 | Providence | 1-0 | 0.500 | NR |
| 1 | Saint Louis | 1-0 | 0.500 | NR |
| 1 | UCLA | 1-0 | 0.500 | 22 |
| 1 | Yale | 1-0 | 0.500 | NR |
| 11 | Jackson State | 1-1 | 0.375 | NR |
| 11 | Quinnipiac | 1-1 | 0.375 | NR |
| 13 | Lehigh | 1-1 | 0.334 | NR |
| 13 | South Florida | 1-1 | 0.334 | NR |
| 13 | Vermont | 1-1 | 0.334 | NR |
| 16 | Arizona | 1-1 | 0.250 | 5 |
| 16 | Chicago State | 1-1 | 0.250 | NR |
| 16 | DePaul | 2-0 | 0.250 | NR |
| 16 | Fordham | 1-1 | 0.250 | NR |
| 16 | Iona | 2-0 | 0.250 | NR |
| 16 | Maine | 1-1 | 0.250 | NR |
| 16 | McNeese | 1-1 | 0.250 | NR |
| 16 | Michigan State | 2-0 | 0.250 | 6 |
| 16 | Navy | 1-1 | 0.250 | NR |
| 16 | South Alabama | 1-1 | 0.250 | NR |
| 16 | Texas | 2-0 | 0.250 | 7 |
| 16 | Texas Tech | 2-0 | 0.250 | 19 |
| 16 | Vanderbilt | 2-0 | 0.250 | 24 |
| 16 | Wake Forest | 1-1 | 0.250 | NR |
Rating and Rank are The Precedent's; AP is the latest AP poll (NR = not ranked).
Only two of the 10 teams tied at No. 1 are in the AP Top 25: Kansas, 17th, and UCLA, 22nd. The AP's top three, Florida, Duke and Illinois, are all 2-0 but tied for 36th in The Precedent Ratings, along with UConn, Tennessee, Virginia and Houston. Saint Louis is the clearest gap the other way: tied for No. 1 in The Precedent Ratings and unranked by the AP.
Arizona is tied for 16th at 1-1. Michigan State, Texas, Texas Tech and Vanderbilt, all 2-0 and all in the AP Top 25, share that spot with the Wildcats.
Looking ahead
The best matchup of the weekend comes Friday night, when UConn, fourth in the AP poll, meets 16th-ranked Michigan at a neutral site at 7:00 PM on TNT. Both are 1-0.
Five teams tied for No. 1 in The Precedent Ratings play Friday. Yale visits UCF and Saint Louis plays Missouri in St. Louis at 6:00 PM (ESPN+ and ESPNU). Northwestern hosts Stony Brook at 7:00 PM on B1G+, Kansas hosts Middle Tennessee at 8:00 PM on ESPNU, and UCLA hosts North Florida at 9:30 PM on BTN.
Saturday, Providence plays Nebraska at a neutral site at 6:00 PM on FS1, and Maryland visits Georgetown at 6:30 PM on Peacock. Ohio and George Washington, also tied for No. 1, are at home against North Carolina A&T and Hampton.
On Sunday, 13th-ranked St. John's hosts 2-0 Iona at 11:00 AM on Peacock, and Dartmouth puts its 2-0 start on the line at home against Central Connecticut at 1:00 PM on ESPN+. The highest game on The Precedent's board by Game Rank is Quinnipiac, tied for 11th, at Vermont, tied for 13th, at 1:00 PM on ESPN+.
The full Precedent Ratings for every team and the standings, updated every morning: College Basketball Ratings · College Basketball Standings
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