Auburn, Oregon, Purdue rise in latest top 25 power rankings

The NCAA basketball season is full of twists and turns every week. November isn’t considered the most exciting month of the season, especially since most of these schools are simply playing easy, winnable games at home to get by. However, this past week gave us a lot to think about as various holiday tournaments took place across the country and abroad.

These holiday tournaments offer opportunities to each of their competitors in different ways. We can see more clearly whether a team is genuine when they finally play against stronger competition and away from home. We have a chance for smaller programs or those with lower expectations to really shine, which some teams certainly did this past week. We can also see individual players starting to assert themselves, both in their own lineups and on the national stage at these events.

The first three weeks of the college basketball season give each team a chance to showcase themselves and begin competing. However, this is certainly the week when we start to get a more concrete picture and a clearer idea. In Maui, the Bahamas or any other event, no team’s season has been made or broken, but this is still a very radical time and a chaotic week where some rankings or expectations seemed to be upended.

We’re now making another attempt at reaching the top 25 rankings, knowing that things look drastically different than last week. Some prominent programs have disappeared from the rankings entirely, while solid tournament performances have propelled several other teams forward. There are still a lot of games left to play and there are no complete stories yet on any of these teams, but let’s start by looking at where exactly the top teams stand at the end of November.