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Mike's college basketball rankings for Week 15 of the 2025-26 season. His top college basketball teams. Where are Duke, Houston, Arizona, and Gonzaga ranked?
One of the two remaining undefeated teams fell this week. As with the ones before them, Arizona lost both games last week. What is it with losses coming in pairs for undefeated teams this year?
We crown a new top team this week and have some more shakeups throughout the rankings. Let's see how far Arizona falls!
You all know that my rankings vary greatly from the AP Polls. In fairness, I watch more games than nearly every AP voter, and big wins matter. Playing in big games shouldn't hurt you much, but not winning any of them shouldn't be that rewarding (looking at you, Florida). Let's check the top 25 rankings for Week 15 of the 2025-26 season.
25. Miami (OH) (25-0)
Last week: 24 (⇓1)
Results: W 90-74 vs. Ohio
The Redhawks scored 90 points for the 12th time this season against Ohio, and their average number of points per game still dropped. The good news is that Miami still leads Division I with 92.6 points per game.
I see that MACtion has carried over to basketball. MACtion isn't about who wins or loses. It's about attitude. It's about games in a blizzard in the middle of the week. It's about coaches having as much fun as the players.
Miami Ohio's swim team showed up to the basketball game in speedos, Travis Steele said he'll repay them by them wearing one to the Selection Sunday watch party if they finish the season undefeated😂 pic.twitter.com/vN16sWqJC2
— College Basketball Review (@CbbReview) February 14, 2026
24. Wisconsin (18-7)
Last week: NR
Results: W 92-90 at (9) Illinois, W 92-71 vs. (7) Michigan State
Hey, SEC! You want to get a 7-loss team ranked? You may get it in the AP, but not from me. Wisconsin is the only 7-loss team worthy of being ranked. The Badgers have beaten Michigan, Illinois, and Michigan State. Three top-10 teams. No other Big Ten team can claim that.
They also lost to USC and Indiana after the Michigan win, so take everything with a grain of salt. Wisconsin is the Texas Tech of the Big Ten without the talent of JT Toppin or Christian Anderson. The 21-point win over Michigan State was the largest in school history over a top-10 opponent.
23. Miami (FL) (20-5)
Last week: NR
Results: W 75-66 vs. (11) North Carolina, W 77-76 at North Carolina State
The Hurricanes hit the state of North Carolina hard last week. They don't have a terrible loss, but the one to Florida State hurts. The win over North Carolina is the only win over a ranked team.
I can see why the AP has them out of the rankings, but this team is basically Virginia if they had blown another game. The schedules are the same.
22. Louisville (19-6)
Last week: NR
Results: W 118-77 vs. North Carolina State, W 82-71 vs. Baylor
A performance for the history books ‼️@LouisvilleMBB Mikel Brown Jr.'s 45-point night earns him ACC Player of the Week. pic.twitter.com/aNSa79VZSh
— ACC Men's Basketball (@accmbb) February 16, 2026
That's a good win over a Baylor team on the bubble, and a romp over conference foe NC State, which is in the same boat as Baylor. Mikel Brown Jr. scored 74 points in those two games.
We're seeing why Louisville was ranked in the top 10 before Brown went down. This team can still make some noise before the ACC Tournament with a game at the Dean Dome next week.
21. BYU (19-6)
Last week: 23 (⇑2)
Results: W 99-94 at Baylor, W 90-86 vs. Colorado
Two wins by a combined nine points over two of the worst teams in the conference is not a good sign. Neither is losing guard Richie Saunders for the remainder of the season.
BYU might still get into the NCAA Tournament, but they are no longer a threat to make a run unless Robert Wright III or AJ Dybantsa takes over the team. Don't rule that out. Wright scored 30 points against Baylor, his former team, before lighting up Colorado with a career-high 39 points.
20. Saint Louis (24-1)
Last week: 21 (⇑1)
Results: W 86-59 at Loyola Chicago
The only loss for the Billikens was a strange one against Stanford when Benny Gealer hit a three-pointer with less than a second left after an intentionally missed free throw in the Acrisure Championship Game.
That tells us everything we need to know about the Billikens. They're a fun team to watch, but if they lose in the A-10 Tournament, they have virtually no chance at an at-large bid in the NCAA Tournament.
I don't agree with that, but we've seen enough from selection committees to know that they despise the little guys even though the public loves them.
19. Vanderbilt (21-4)
Last week: 19 ⇔
Results: W 84-76 at Auburn, W 82-69 vs. Texas A&M
Vandy is holding serve in the SEC. That's good enough to keep them ranked, but it won't move them up my rankings. This conference has a couple of solid teams, and about 10 teams that are identical, with the only thing separating them being jerseys.
18. Virginia (22-3)
Last week: 18 ⇔
Results: W 61-58 at Florida State, W 70-66 vs. Ohio State
The Ohio State game in the middle of conference season was an anomaly, but it gave the Cavs a solid win. The only win that Virginia has over a currently ranked team is against Louisville, which was without Brown.
That's the reason I have them much lower than the AP does. Virginia's 22 wins in 25 games is the best mark since 2018-19, when the Cavs won the NCAA Championship. Beating up on a bunch of nobodies doesn't impress me the way it does the AP.
17. St. John's (20-5)
Last week: 17 ⇔
Results: W 87-82 vs. Xavier, W 79-69 at Providence
Providence College Basketball player Duncan Powell has been suspended for 2-games by the Big East Conference in addition to the automatic 1-game suspension mandated by NCAA rules for fighting during Saturday's game against St. John's pic.twitter.com/UePtXK3kwD
— NIL 𝘯𝘰𝘵 NLI (@NILnotNLI) February 16, 2026
The brawl against the Friars suspended the game for nearly 20 minutes while the officials sorted things out. The good news is that Oswin Erhunmwunse, a teammate of Bryce Hopkins last year, led his friend and former teammate away from trouble.
That fight will cost the Johnnies a little bit of depth, but it won't cost them Hopkins, Dylan Darling, or Zuby Ejiofor. St. John's has won 11 straight games. That's good enough for a tie for the fourth-longest win streak in Division I.
16. Florida (19-6)
Last week: 16 ⇔
Results: W 86-66 at Georgia, W 92-83 vs. Kentucky
Florida's "big" wins are against Vanderbilt and Alabama, who have both gone in the tank. They are both NCAA Tournament teams, but it's likely that neither makes it out of the first weekend.
I don't care what the AP says. Those wins are not great wins. I get it. Florida has talent. They won the title last year. Are they really going to do it this year when they couldn't find a way to beat Duke, UConn, or Arizona? You would think that a championship team would have claimed one of those.
15. Arkansas (19-6)
Last week: 15 ⇔
Results: W 91-62 at LSU, W 88-75 vs. Auburn
The AP LOVES Florida, don't they? The fact is that Arkansas has much better wins out of conference (Texas Tech and Louisville) than Florida does. Florida played the big games (UConn, Duke, and Arizona) but lost all three of them.
It's like the SEC in football. Tennessee and Auburn showed up to play those games, but they didn't win the games. I'm giving Arkansas the credit for winning them.
In a banner year of freshmen, it's easy to lose track of Darius Acuff Jr. He became the first SEC freshman to notch 500 points and 150 assists in a season since Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of Kentucky and Tremont Waters of LSU did it in 2017-18.
14. North Carolina (20-5)
Last week: 11 (⇓3)
Results: L 66-75 at Miami (FL), W 79-65 vs. Pittsburgh
The Tar Heels didn't just lose to Miami. They lost a big part of the rest of the season. Freshman sensation Caleb Wilson suffered a fractured wrist in the loss.
The crazy part is that Wilson re-entered the game after an X-ray taken during the game didn't show a fracture. Further analysis after the game revealed the fracture.
Tar Heels HC Hubert Davis gives an injury update on Caleb Wilson after he fractured his left hand last week. pic.twitter.com/uqCbSh4EAX
— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) February 17, 2026
North Carolina hasn't given a timetable for Wilson's return, but he said on social media that he would be back. Knowing that Wilson is a one-and-done in college, it would seem that he expects to play at some point later this year. Selection Sunday is about a month away.
A wrist fracture can take anywhere from one to three months to heal, depending on the severity. Considering he came back into the game, I would expect Wilson to play in the NCAA Tournament, but maybe not before then. How much can we really trust the coach speak?
13. Gonzaga (23-2)
Last week: 14 (⇑1)
Results: W 83-53 vs. Washington State, W 94-86 at Santa Clara
It's easy for Gonzaga to move back up since the strength of the WCC isn't what it used to be. Teams around the Bulldogs all lost, and the win over Santa Clara will count as a Quad 1 win. That's enough to get the Bulldogs ahead of a North Carolina team that just lost to another unranked team.
12. Michigan State (20-5)
Last week: 8 (⇓4)
Results: L 71-92 at Wisconsin
We have seen this happen a lot this year. Teams that have only had one game in a week often lose that game this season. It happened to Texas Tech. It happened to Purdue. Now it happened to the Spartans. The 21-point loss to Wisconsin is Michigan State's worst since February 22, 2022, when they lost to Iowa by 26.
The AP severely punished the Spartans for losing three of the last four games, two of those to unranked teams. I'm still giving them credit for wins over Arkansas, North Carolina, and Illinois.
11. Texas Tech (19-6)
Last week: 13 (⇑2)
Results: W 78-44 vs. Colorado, W 78-75 at (1) Arizona
Texas Tech has beaten three of the top four teams in the AP Poll. They have also lost to four top-10 teams (Kansas, Illinois, Purdue, and Houston). There's a strong case to be made that the Red Raiders are one of the best teams in the country.
Of course, losses like the one to Central Florida make us have to take a step back and re-evaluate. It is safe to say that this team can play with -- and beat -- anyone in the country.
10. Illinois (21-5)
Last week: 9 (⇓1)
Results: L 90-92 vs. Wisconsin, W 71-51 vs. Indiana
The Illini lost to an unranked team again, but everyone else is losing as well. They aren't slipping that far. Conference play is starting to beat up the top 10, especially those teams that reside in the tough Big 12 and Big Ten.
We know a lot about this banner freshman class around college basketball, but Illinois has two of the more unheralded freshmen of this class. Keaton Wagler and David Mirkovic have recorded multiple 25-point games this season. They are the only Illinois freshmen of the last 25 years to do so.
9. Kansas (19-6)
Last week: 10 (⇑1)
Results: W 82-78 vs. (1) Arizona, L 56-74 at (7) Iowa State
You know, a 1-1 week against top-10 teams with one of the games being on the road isn't a bad week. Kansas is being judged accordingly.
The Darryn Peterson saga has taken on a life of its own, but Flory Bidunga and Melvin Council Jr. have taken over this Kansas team. Anything that Peterson adds is just a bonus at this point.
8. Purdue (21-4)
Last week: 12 (⇑4)
Results: W 80-77 at (5) Nebraska, W 78-57 at (25) Iowa
It was a good week that Purdue desperately needed after losing to Indiana and a UCLA team that may not even make the NCAA Tournament. Braden Smith, after a couple of light weeks, racked up 22 assists in wins this week. That brings his career total to 980.
Braden Smith the last two games on the road.
ASTS: 22
TOs: 2980 assists and counting. pic.twitter.com/C9wypeOfLA
— Purdue Men's Basketball (@BoilerBall) February 15, 2026
Smith passed Sherman Douglas and Steve Blake last week. He is now just three assists behind East Tennessee State's Keith Jennings for fifth on the career assists list.
Smith is 96 assists shy of tying Bobby Hurley's mark. Purdue has six regular-season games left. At this point, Purdue would have to make a deep Big Ten Tournament run and make it out of the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament for Smith to break the record.
7. Nebraska (22-3)
Last week: 5 (⇓2)
Results: L 77-80 vs. (12) Purdue, W 68-49 vs. Northwestern
Nebraska has wins over Illinois and Michigan State. All three of the losses are to top-10 teams. Something can be said about winning the games that you are supposed to win. Most teams in front of Nebraska haven't even done that.
6. Iowa State (22-3)
Last week: 7 (⇑1)
Results: L 55-62 at TCU, W 74-56 vs. (10) Kansas
It was a weird week for the Cyclones. They lost on the road to TCU but avenged an earlier loss to Kansas...and still managed to move up in the rankings because Nebraska also lost again.
Iowa State's wins over Purdue and Kansas put them just ahead of the Cornhuskers. That was Iowa State's biggest win over Kansas since 1973.
5. Houston (23-2)
Last week: 6 (⇑1)
Results: W 66-52 at Utah, W 78-64 vs. Kansas State
It was an easier week for Houston, but that doesn't mean they weren't good about taking care of business. On paper, these were 14-point and 12-point wins. In actuality, they were defensive clinics, and Emanuel Sharp put on his own personal three-point shooting contest.
4. Connecticut (24-2)
Last week: 4 ⇔
Results: W 80-70 at Butler, W 79-75 vs. Georgetown
The wins weren't all that pretty against the bottom of the Big East, but wins are wins. The AP is punishing UConn for a weaker Big East, but the wins over Kansas, Illinois, and BYU before conference play are better than anything Houston has.
The AP has blinders on when it comes to the full body of work. The wins over Illinois and Kansas look better than they did at the time, and the only losses are to Arizona and St. John's.
3. Duke (23-2)
Last week: 3 ⇔
Results: W 70-54 at Pittsburgh, W 67-54 vs. (20) Clemson
The Blue Devils were back on track after blowing another big lead against Carolina last week. Duke has led by double figures in the second half of both losses this season.
Duke won its 29th straight home game over the weekend. Only Miami-Ohio and Akron have longer streaks. You know you're in elite company when you're being mentioned in the same breath as MAC teams.
2. Arizona (23-2)
Last week: 1 (⇓1)
Results: L 78-82 at (10) Kansas, L 75-78 vs. (13) Texas Tech
It was two losses to two ranked teams. We saw recency bias once again in the AP rankings, dropping Arizona to fourth. I don't agree. Arizona beat Florida, Connecticut, and Alabama before conference season started. Houston doesn't have wins like that, but they do pass the eye test.
Arizona followed up the best start in Big 12 history with back-to-back losses. The Wildcats became the third DI team to lose consecutive games after a 20-0 start or better. The other teams were Nebraska this year and Syracuse in 2013-14.
1. Michigan (24-1)
Last week: 2 (⇑1)
Results: W 87-75 at Northwestern, W 86-56 vs. UCLA
Michigan tops the AP Poll for the first time since 2013. The 30-point win over UCLA last weekend was the 10th such win for the Wolverines this year. That's the most in Division I. Michigan has won 20 of its 24 games by 10 points or more.
