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Colorado Buffaloes ranked 24th in AP Poll

The Buffs remain in the Top 25 after beating up USC.

By Sam Metivier

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NCAA Basketball: Colorado at Southern California Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

Despite losing to the mediocre UCLA Bruins, the Colorado Buffaloes remain ranked in the latest AP Poll. The Buffs drop just four spots, from #20 to #24, due in large part to their 21-point demolition of the USC Trojans at the Galen Center.

We feared that CU would fall from the rankings regardless of the USC win, but they remain because they got a ton of help around college basketball. 14 of the 25 ranked teams lost this past week, including #21 Houston, #23 Wichita State and #25 Rutgers, each of whom fell out of the Top 25 and worked as a cushion of sort for the Buffs. With all those losses, Colorado wasn’t going to be punished for a 4-point loss on the road.

The same night Colorado beat USC, Oregon lost to Stanford and Arizona finished the Washington sweep. It has become apparent that there will be a three-team race to win the Pac-12. After them, Stanford and USC figure to be NCAA Tournament teams, but they’re not serious contenders.

As far as the Buffs’ NCAA Tournament resume is concerned, they are locked in barring a collapse. Ranked 17th in NET rating, the Buffs are 17-5 against a very difficult schedule, have resume wins over Dayton (neutral), Oregon (home) and USC (away), and a quantity of B-tier wins both home and away. They have 9 games remaining and 6 of those (at least) are likely wins. If their current play holds, they should be looking at a 5- or 6-seed, with an outside chance of moving up.

Next up for the Buffaloes is a visit from the Cal Bears on Thursday night at 6:00. The Buffaloes only have four home games remaining this season so click here to find tickets for the game in Boulder.

The full Top 25 goes as follows:

  1. Baylor Bears
  2. Gonzaga Bulldogs
  3. Kansas Jayhawks
  4. San Diego State Aztecs
  5. Louisville Cardinals
  6. Dayton Flyers
  7. Duke Blue Devils
  8. Florida State Seminoles
  9. Maryland Terrapins
  10. Villanova Wildcats
  11. Auburn Tigers
  12. Seton Hall Pirates
  13. West Virginia Mountaineers
  14. Oregon Ducks
  15. Kentucky Wildcats
  16. Michigan State Spartans
  17. Iowa Hawkeyes
  18. LSU Tigers
  19. Butler Bulldogs
  20. Illinois Fighting Illini
  21. Creighton Blue Jays
  22. Penn State Nittany Lions
  23. Arizona Wildcats
  24. Colorado Buffaloes
  25. Houston Cougars

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