Iconic Sportswire
From the start of the 2022-23 college basketball season through the end of calendar year 2022, UConn was ranked the No. 2 in the sport by BartTorvik.com and went into the new year with a 14-1 record while ranked No. 2 in the AP Top 25. But in the weeks since, the No. 6 Huskies have behaved more like the unranked team earlier in the season than the team that rose to the top of the polls. And with a chance to get back on track against the low St. John’s on Sunday, UConn again couldn’t get out of the way, falling as a 15-point favorite for their fourth loss in their last five games.
Let’s just say UConn picked a bad time to hit a bottom in its season. And while UConn wasn’t unique in its misfortune this week – 11 ranked teams lost on Saturday alone (!) and 13 ranked teams lost overall over the weekend if you include UConn and Marquette, who lost to St John’s and Xavier respectively on Sunday fell – it falls into its own special category given how it fell back to earth at a point in the season when we’re examining and examining the teams more closely. I’m sorry Dan Hurley.
In this room, starting today, I will be handing out grades for a bevy of the sport’s teams on a weekly basis based on recent performance, and no punches will be drawn. This is not a power ranking; this task belongs to the inimitable Matt Norlander. This isn’t a season ranking either; Only Gary Parrish is crazy enough to seed 25 (and one) college basketball teams every day during the season. Rather, it’s a random scan of the sport to assess how teams have fared on a Monday through Sunday cycle.
So, without further ado, let’s dive into the testimony.