College Basketball Power Rankings – Week 16

              Hello again and welcome back to our weekly college basketball power rankings here at Music City Drive In. This weekend was wild, as it was the first time in college basketball history that the top 6 teams in the AP poll all lost in the same day. After the damage was done, 7 of the top 10 teams in the country fell on Saturday. This will be the shortest power rankings this season because I am traveling abroad this week. As an international man of travel, it’s tough to give the power rankings the love they deserve. I apologize for that, sincerely, and will make it up to the readers during the final power rankings of the regular season before conference tournaments start. We are less than two weeks to Selection Sunday, so every game matters for seeding purposes at this point. Since these will be short, I will be giving 6 games I would make a point to watch this week other than mid-major conference tournaments.  Without further ado, here are second to last power rankings of the regular season and as always last week’s rankings are in parentheses. Thank you in advance for not holding it against me for the lack of commentary.

1. Gonzaga (1) – 24-3
2. Arizona (2) – 25-3
3. Baylor (10) – 24-5
4. Auburn (3) – 25-4
5. Duke (7) – 25-4
6. Kentucky (5) – 23-6
7. Kansas (6) – 23-5
8. Purdue (4) – 24-5
9. Providence (11) – 24-3
10. Wisconsin (12) – 23-5
11. Tennessee (14) – 21-7
12. Arkansas (18) – 23-6
13. Texas Tech (9) – 22-7
14. Villanova (8) – 21-7
15. Houston (13) – 24-4
16. UCLA (16) – 21-6
17. USC (17) – 24-5
18. St. Mary’s (NR) – 24-6
19. UConn (NR) – 21-7
20. Murray State (20) – 28-2

Teams that Dropped Out: Illinois (15), Texas (19)

Six Games to Watch This Week:

(9) Providence @ (14) Villanova – Tuesday 3/1 @ 6:30 PM ESPN on FS1

(8) Purdue @ (10) Wisconsin – Tuesday 3/1 @ 9:00 PM EST on ESPN

(2) Arizona @ (17) USC – Tuesday 3/1 @ 11:00 PM EST on ESPN

(12) Arkansas @ (11) Tennessee – Saturday 3/5 @ 12:00 PM EST on ESPN

North Carolina @ (4) Duke – Saturday 3/5 @ 6:00 PM EST on ESPN

(17) USC @ (16) UCLA – Saturday 3/5 @ 10:00 PM EST on ESPN