Wisconsin men’s basketball: Week 8 AP Poll

After that last week that seemed to last about a couple months, the new college basketball rankings came out, setting up for another huge Big Ten showdown that will feature two top 10 teams — and Wisconsin as one of them. Let’s go to the polls!!

Big Ten

Iowa → No. 5
Michigan → No. 7
Wisconsin → No. 9
Illinois → No. 14
Ohio State → No. 21
Minnesota → No. 23

Nationwide View

• The Michigan Wolverines continue to fly up the polls. Undefeated at 10-0, Michigan and head coach Juwan Howard have impressed and exceeded lower pre-season expectations, and are playing some of the best ball of any team out there. Their last game was a 82-57 beat down of Minnesota, and the Maize and Blue are on top of the Big Ten standings. Now, the Wolverines haven’t played a ton of the hard-hitting Big Ten teams so far, but that will change this week as the Badgers come to town tomorrow night in what will be a huge early season test for Michigan.
• Speaking of flying up the polls, the team that jumped the most in the rankings with seven sports are the Clemson Tigers. At 9-1 overall and 4-0 in the ACC, No. 12 Clemson has so far benefited from missing some of the big programs in their games. But you can only win whatever games are scheduled, and Clemson will have a big test coming up with No. 18 Virginia on the docket.

• While obviously most eyes on this blog will be focused on the Michigan and Wisconsin contest on Tuesday, there are a pair of other Top-25 showdowns. No. 21 Duke plays No. 19 Virginia Tech and No. 2 Baylor will look to keep their undefeated record alive as plays No. 13 West Virginia. Meanwhile on Wednesday, No. 4 Texas plays No. 15 Texas Tech. Should be a good week of hoops!

New Teams

AP Poll → No. 21 Ohio State, No. 25 UConn

Drop Outs

AP Poll → Florida State