Men’s College Basketball Top 10, Bubble Team NET Rankings: Duke Maintains Top Spot

The top 25 rankings are important for understanding just who is killing it in college basketball, but we can go deeper — all the way to the bubble and beyond. The NCAA Evaluation Tool, or NET, is a rankings system used in Division I basketball to help figure out which teams are going to participate in March Madness. As the NCAA puts it, NET “takes into account game results, strength of schedule, game location, net offensive and defensive efficiency, and the quality of wins and losses,” the latter of which is determined by placing every Division I matchup into different quadrants, ranked 1 through 4, with 1 being the strongest teams and 4 the weakest — Quads aren’t just determined by record, but also whether a game was played at home, on the road or at a neutral site. Using NET, we can get a sense of which teams are the best at a given moment, as well as which ones are on the bubble for selection in March. While updated daily by the NCAA, we’ll track changes weekly. With that, here are the top 10 men’s college basketball teams through March 9, according to NET. The Top 10 10. Purdue (previous: 9) Purdue is still in the top 10 for now, but depending on the Boilermakers’ performance in the Big Ten tournament, that might not hold — Michigan State and Nebraska are right behind them in NET as is. Purdue lost to Michigan State and Ohio State in the previous week, then barely bested Northwestern and lost to Wisconsin in the last week. 9. UConn (previous: 8) The Huskies losing to Marquette — not even a top-100 team — gave St. John’s its second-consecutive Big East regular-season title, which is much more impactful than UConn slipping a spot in NET. Still, not the way a team that is already getting more love in the poll than it is by the metrics to end its regular season. 8. Iowa State (previous: 10) Iowa State rebounded from losing to Arizona by blowing out Arizona State, 86-65, and is now the 5-seed in the Big 12. That the Cyclones are 8th in NET and No. 7 in the poll yet the fifth seed in the Big 12 should be a reminder of how chaotic that conference has been this season. Iowa State isn’t in action again until Wednesday, against an opponent to be determined. 7. Houston (previous: 7) In a related story, here is Houston, barely ahead of Iowa State in NET yet the 2-seed in the Big 12 after downing Baylor and Oklahoma State last week. Like with Iowa State, it’s unknown who Houston will be playing on Thursday, but it will be one of BYU, Kansas State or West Virginia. 6. Gonzaga (previous: 6) Gonzaga played just one game, defeating Oregon State by 9 points in the West Coast semifinals. That’s not as much as the Bulldogs should have won by, but it’s also so late in the season that this sort of thing isn’t going to push you if you’re this close to the top. Not unless another team is doing the pushing, and UConn slipping while Houston was also mostly idle kept that from happening. Now, if Gonzaga loses to Santa Clara in the WCC finals, things might be different this time next week. 5. Illinois (previous: 5) A big week for Illinois, winning 80-54 against Oregon and 78-72 against Maryland, though the bigness of that has more to do with its Big Ten tournament seeding than its ranking in NET. Illinois awaits the winner of USC-Washington and then that team against Wisconsin to know who its first Big Ten tourney opponent will be. 4. Florida (previous: 4) Florida beat Mississippi State by 34 points and then defeated Kentucky to close out its regular season, and while it didn’t move up any further in NET, it also doesn’t have much room to go as is — the Gators might be a 1-seed in March Madness, if the SEC tournament goes anything like their recent SEC play. 3. Arizona (previous: 3) Arizona took out Colorado and secured the top seed in the Big 12 tournament; it’s now waiting to see if Cincinnati, Utah or UCF makes it to the quarterfinals. About the only way Arizona is going to get knocked out of the top 3 in NET is by losing to one of those teams — taking an L against any of the other top-4 Big 12 seeds won’t move the needle enough for that, even with Florida’s ascent. 2. Michigan (previous: 2) Michigan is the No. 3 team in the country, but No. 1 in the Big Ten after defeating Iowa (71-68) and Michigan State (90-80) to close out the regular season last week. The winner of Maryland-Oregon will face Iowa, and the winner of that Ohio State, then the winner of that game advances to take on the Wolverines. Like with Arizona, losing to any of those teams would be bad for Michigan as far as NET goes; afterward is a more cushioned landing. 1. Duke (previous: 1) Duke held on to the top spot, which is separated from second by the thinnest of margins. The Blue Devils played just one game last week, but it was against a ranked UNC team, which this time around Duke handled, 76-61. Risers and Fallers In the span of a week, some teams can see their spot in the rankings dramatically shift. Here are the five teams that rose the most in men’s college basketball in the last week… T4. UMBC, 223 to 205: UMBC is the top seed in America East, and reminded the conference of why with a 91-52 dub against NJIT to end the regular season. T4. Marquette, 109 to 91: Marquette beat UConn, which if you’ll remember from just a minute ago is one of the top-10 teams by NET. Marquette also took down Providence, 78-56, before that W over the Huskies. None of this will be enough for March Madness, no, but it did create Big East chaos. 3. Towson, 180 to 157: Towson closed out its regular season with a win over Stony Brook, then won its first two CAA tournament games — including an upset against 2-seed Charleston — before falling to 3-seed Hofstra in overtime in the semifinal. 2. Georgia Southern,  to 222: Georgia Southern lost to Troy in the Sun Belt conference final, but the 10-seed took out 3-seed Coastal Carolina and 2-seed Marshall before then — none of those teams are powerhouses, but that’s still a great end to the season for the Eagles. 1. Louisiana Tech, 247 to 212: The Bulldogs beat Liberty then crushed Delaware, 81-38. Its next game comes against 5-seed Middle Tennessee in the Conference USA tournament, with Tech as the 4. …and the five that fell the furthest. T5. Elon, 209 to 223: Elon fell to UNCW to end its regular season, then dropped the first game of the CAA tourney, 72-62, to William & Mary. T5. Coastal Carolina, 217 to 231: Losing to Georgia Southern was not going to be great in a vacuum, with the Eagles ranked 254th in NET, but losing by 24 points made it that much worse. 4. Charleston, 147 to 163: Similarly, Towson beating Charleston wasn’t the worst of it: it was that the Tigers routed the Cougars, 81-56. 3. Abilene Christian, 229 to 247: The Wildcats ended their regular season with consecutive losses to California Baptist and UT Arlington, with the first of those just shy of a 40-point loss. T1. Western Kentucky, 134 to 156: This past week was basically the opposite of the one prior: after scoring 93 and 97 points in consecutive games, the Hilltoppers then lost to Missouri State and FIU, with the latter winning 92-67. T1. Lipscomb, 173 to 195: Lipscomb had just one game last week, but it was a tournament one and it lost — FGCU ranked 262nd in NET before the upset, hence the Bisons slipping so far in one game. On the Bubble Of the 68 March Madness teams in the tournament, 31 of them are conference champions who receive automatic entry into the tournament. The other 37 spots are at-large bids. With that in mind, we will look at the teams ranked between 64-to-73 in NET each week, as those are the ones who are the most on the bubble for the tourney. 73. Nevada (previous: 67): A loss to Wyoming (101st in NET) far outweighed a win against Air Force, one of the bottom 15 or so teams in Division I men’s basketball. Not what Nevada needs at this late stage when it’s already on the wrong side of the bubble. 72. UNI (previous: 81): Northern Iowa has been on a run, winning against the Missouri Valley tournament field again and again: the Panthers took down 11-seed Evansville, 3-seed Illinois State, 2-seed Bradley and 5-seed UIC in the final to grab the conference’s automatic bid. No need to worry about bubble status now! [2026 Men’s NCAA Tournament Projections: Ohio State Gets a Bump, Texas Drops] 71. Colorado (previous: 78): The Buffaloes jumped up thanks to a 92-78 win against Utah State followed by a 10-point loss to Arizona, but they will need to get deep into the Big 12 tournament to finish in bubble territory, as neither its NET nor Wins Above Bubble are there yet. 70. Northwestern (previous: 72): Near-wins against Purdue and Minnesota have Northwestern moving up in NET, ever-so-slightly, given the quality of the competition. It would need a shocking run through the Big Ten at this point to be under any kind of consideration at this stage, however. 69. Florida State (previous: 77): A 75-74 win against Pittsburgh was followed up with a 91-78 drubbing of SMU — like with Colorado, the Seminoles aren’t fully out of this thing just yet, but it would take a hell of a conference tourney showing to keep the end from coming soon. 68. Grand Canyon (previous: 75): The Antelopes will take on the winner of Nevada and Air Force, which for their sake they better hope is Nevada since any boost from quality of competition that can be found is necessary at this juncture. What would also help is defeating Utah State in the round after that — not just because that’s the Mountain West’s top seed, but because it would put Grand Canyon in the final and a step away from the automatic bid. 67. Arizona State (previous: 73): The Sun Devils lost twice last week, but it was to Kansas and Iowa State, so NET smiled upon their misfortune. Arizona State faced Baylor on Tuesday in the opening round of the Big 12 tournament; its performance in that tourney will determine which side of the bubble it ends up on. 66. Wake Forest (previous: 69): The Demon Deacons picked up an important win against California to close out the regular season, but it will need a deep run in the ACC tournament to finish on the right of the bubble. 65. Yale (previous: 66): Yale is the top seed in the Ivy League and reminded Princeton of why with a 25-point victory to end the regular season. That automatic bid is the only one the conference is going to get; if Yale loses, its standing as a bubble-caliber team goes, too. 64. California (previous: 63): California lost to Wake Forest, which made its task that much tougher, but it’s also a lot closer to making it as a bubble team than the Demon Deacons. A quality ACC tournament run could push its WAB over the line — the Golden Bears are at -0.04 through Monday, putting it right on the bubble.