The 2020-21 college basketball season is one filled with change, so over here at the Power Rankings, we’re making changes too. Of course, you can still find our top 16 teams in the country every Monday morning, but we’re adding a few wrinkles this season. We will hand out awards — Player, Team, Win and Coach of the Week — and ask questions of three teams that struggled in the week that was. In other words, fewer meandering words in the introduction from me; we’re going to dive right into the best and brightest in college basketball each week.
And as far as the rankings go, expect plenty of change there, as well. The upcoming week will be no different. With V Week starting Tuesday — go here for more information — there are four marquee games on the docket on back-to-back nights: Kentucky vs. Kansas and Michigan State at Duke on Tuesday; and Illinois vs. Baylor and Gonzaga vs. West Virginia on Wednesday.
Team of the Week: Gonzaga Bulldogs
It’s not often we’re going to put the No. 1 team in the country in this spot, but the biggest talking point coming out of the first week of the season was how dominant Gonzaga looked as compared to the rest of college basketball. Mark Few’s team would’ve been No. 1 in my preseason top 25 had those rankings come out after Andrew Nembhard received his waiver to play immediately, and with the Florida transfer in the fold, there’s not a better offensive team in the country. Scoring 102 against Kansas and then beating Auburn by 23? No team had a better week.