A big week pays off in the polls.
If you weren’t convinced Tennessee would bounce back after that ugly loss to Colorado, the odds are good that you believe now.
The Volunteers ran through Butler, USC and then No. 3 Kansas to win the Battle 4 Atlantis Tournament in the Bahamas, capturing their first Feast Week tournament title since 2010.
And they did it without Josiah-Jordan James — perhaps Tennessee’s best player — who missed the entire tournament due to knee soreness.
Five-star freshman Julian Phillips arrived, while Tennessee’s lights out defense was on full display throughout the week. Inconsistent offense is just something that Rick Barnes is going to have to deal with, but their elite defense will keep them in just about any game this season.
In Monday’s new AP Poll, Tennessee hopped back up to No. 13. They began the year at No. 11, before tumbling to No. 22 after the Colorado loss. Kansas dropped to 9th.
Houston is your new AP No. 1 team for the first time in 39 years, followed by Texas, Virginia, Arizona and Purdue. The Boilermakers had a particularly impressive week, knocking off both Gonzaga and Duke in the Phil Knight Tournament.
North Carolina dropped from No. 1 all the way down to 18th.
Feast week remains as one of the best weeks in sports. We learned quite a bit over the last seven days, and now the stage is set for conference play in a month. Some big non-conference games remain, but we got a nice early look at who might be contenders and pretenders over Thanksgiving.
Here’s how the dust settled.
New AP College Basketball Top 25
1. Houston
2. Texas
3. Virginia
4. Arizona
5. Purdue
6. Baylor
7. Creighton
8. UConn
9. Kansas
10. Indiana
11. Arkansas
11. Alabama
13. Tennessee
14. Gonzaga
15. Auburn
16. Illinois
17. Duke
18. North Carolina
19. Kentucky
20. Michigan State
21. UCLA
22. Maryland
23. Iowa State
24. San Diego State
25. Ohio State