Steve Hewitt’s college hoops Top 25: Alabama raises more question marks after another loss to unranked team

Editor’s note: Herald sports reporter Steve Hewitt is a voter in the Associated Press college basketball Top 25 poll. Every week through the end of the season, he’ll write a column providing some analysis and thoughts from his poll.

With eight Top 25 teams out of action — due to the Christmas break and some COVID-19 postponements — and most of the Top 25 beating up on cupcakes, there weren’t many big storylines in the week of college basketball. But a few thoughts pertinent to my ballot as the calendar turns to 2022…

— What’s to make of Alabama? The Crimson Tide have a couple of great wins, beating Gonzaga and Houston to help them get into the Top 10. But a couple of puzzling losses have raised some question marks. They lost to Rick Pitino’s Iona team in November and now have another defeat to an unranked team after last week’s loss to Davidson, which dropped them to No. 19 in the poll (No. 21 in mine).

Alabama is certainly a Top 25 team, but their reliance on 3-pointers — first among major conference teams with 353 attempts — may make for a rollercoaster ride over the next few months and make them a tough team to trust in March.

— The Big East could realistically earn seven bids to the NCAA Tournament this year. Four are in this week’s Top 25, while a fifth in UConn is still in mine. Creighton and DePaul (ranked 57th and 59th in the NCAA’s NET rankings, respectively) could certainly earn some consideration, too.

I’m one of 14 voters who still has UConn ranked, with the Huskies barely staying in at No. 25 in my poll. I value their wins over Auburn and St. Bonaventure highly, and I didn’t think their loss to Providence should have dropped them completely out. A win at Xavier on Tuesday should get them back in the Top 25.

— This is trending toward one of the ACC’s worst seasons in conference history. At No. 2, Duke is the only team in the league that’s ranked, while Wake Forest is the only other team receiving votes. North Carolina, which has spent time in the Top 25 but is still searching for consistency with first-year coach Hubert Davis, should earn another NCAA tourney bid for the conference, but there aren’t any other locks. The league has had at least six bids in every tourney since 2014.

— Though COVID has already postponed several intriguing games this week — including Arizona-UCLA — there are still some good games on the schedule this week, with the hope that COVID doesn’t spoil those either. Seton Hall-Providence, LSU-Auburn and Tennessee-Alabama are set for Wednesday, and top-ranked Baylor gets a huge test at Iowa State on Saturday.

Link to Associated Press Top 25 for Dec. 27, 2021

Steve Hewitt’s Top 25 ballot, Dec. 27, 2021

1. Baylor
2. Duke
3. UCLA
4. Gonzaga
5. Purdue
6. Kansas
7. Ohio State
8. Iowa State
9. Michigan State
10. Seton Hall
11. Southern Cal
12. Tennessee
13. Arizona
14. Auburn
15. Houston
16. Texas
17. Providence
18. Villanova
19. LSU
20. Xavier
21. Alabama
22. Kentucky
23. Wisconsin
24. Colorado State
25. UConn

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