| Rank | Team | Reason |
|---|
| 1 |   Purdue | Undisputed Number 1 |
| 2 |  Marquette | Only loss is to the undisputed no. 1 + beat the previous no. 1 |
| 3 |  Arizona | Undefeated |
| 4 |  UConn | |
| 5 |  Houston | |
| 6 |  Kansas | End of Tier 1 |
| 7 |  Baylor | |
| 8 |  Duke | |
| 9 |  Gonzaga | |
| 10 |  BYU | Riding high on BYU - undefeated w/ three solid Q1+2 wins |
| 11 |  Tennessee | Two tough losses to quality teams - signature "quality losses" |
| 12 |  Creighton | End of Tier 2 |
| 13 |  Alabama | |
| 14 |  Miami (FL) | |
| 15 |  Texas A&M | |
| 16 |  Kentucky | |
| 17 |  North Carolina | |
| 18 |  Oklahoma | |
| 19 |  UCLA | |
| 20 |  Texas | |
| 21 |  Villanova | End of Tier 3 |
| 22 |  James Madison | |
| 23 |  Florida Atlantic | |
| 24 |  TCU | |
| 25 |  Illinois | Loss to Marquette is looking better and better |
