rtc16 – Rush The Court

2020-21 RTC16: Week 12

Matthew Eisenberg — Mon, 15 Feb 2021 20:09:09 +0000

Gonzaga returns to a unanimous #1 in the RTC16 following another 2-0 week on the road. While Baylor enters a pause, Michigan returned to action and showed it belongs among the top four teams that have separated from the rest of the pack. While neither team remains in the RTC16, perhaps the biggest outcome of the past week came in the Missouri Valley Conference where Drake and Loyola (Chicago) split their matchups, leaving the possibility of a two-bid MVC.

CONFERENCE BREAKDOWN: Big 12 (5), Big Ten (4), Big East (2), AAC (1), ACC (1), Pac-12 (1), SEC (1), WCC (1)

RISING

Creighton: [...]

2020-21 RTC16: Week 10

Matthew Eisenberg — Tue, 02 Feb 2021 02:06:53 +0000

Teams that began the week ranked among the AP Top 25 lost a combined 13 games this past week, with a handful of other games being too close for comfort. While the RTC16 top five went unscathed, last week’s rankings have undergone a shakeup following the up-and-down week. No one climbed higher in a week than Oklahoma which used wins against Texas and Alabama to vault into the top 10. The state of Texas continues to dominate the RTC16 with four teams ranked among the top 12, but it is now Houston who is ranked second among Lone Star State [...]

2020-21 RTC16: Week 9

Matthew Eisenberg — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 23:31:58 +0000

While the top four remains unchanged this week, the rest of the top 16 was not without shuffle. A loss to Indiana sends Iowa back out of the top five, while Michigan, now headed for a two-week break, moves back into the top five. Alabama extended its winning-streak to nine games and jumps from 13th to 7th, appearing in the top 10 in each ballot cast. Kansas tumbles to a tie for 16th this week, appearing on just 50 percent of the submitted ballots. Kansas gets a home game against TCU mid-week before a test in the Big 12/SEC [...]

2020-21 RTC16: Week 7

Matthew Eisenberg — Mon, 11 Jan 2021 22:56:45 +0000

After trailing most of the second-half, Texas rallied from five down in the final two-minutes to escape West Virginia with a win. Shaka Smart’s team has now picked up road wins at both Kansas and West Virginia over the past 10 days. While Michigan, Iowa and Wisconsin escaped any damage in the Big Ten this past week, the middle of the conference continued to beat on each other with Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan State, Minnesota, Northwestern and Rutgers all losing at least one game over the last seven days. The RTC16 has plenty of consensus on the top 12 teams, [...]

2019-20 RTC16: Week Four

Walker Carey — Tue, 10 Dec 2019 14:01:00 +0000

Around this time in the calendar every season, a team grabs national attention for, not just piling up wins, but piling up those wins in a demonstrative manner. That team in this season is #2 Ohio State. The Buckeyes are now 9-0 after a 25-point win at North Carolina and a 32-point win over Penn State in its Big Ten opener. Since an eight-point win over Cincinnati in the first game of the year, Ohio State has won every one of its contests by at least 19 points. The most remarkable aspect of Chris Holtmann‘s group is how balanced it [...]

The 2019-20 RTC16: Week Three

Walker Carey — Tue, 03 Dec 2019 17:59:00 +0000

It seems like every Feast Week there is a team or two that establishes itself as a legitimate national contender — that was no different this year as #2 Michigan and #5 Maryland both made it known that they will be forces to be reckoned with for the rest of the season. The previously unranked Wolverines put together the most impressive performance of Feast Week with a championship run at Battle 4 Atlantis, as Juwan Howard‘s squad magnificently ripped through Iowa State, #8 North Carolina, and #7 Gonzaga en route to the tournament title. It was fair to have concerns [...]

The 2019-20 RTC16: Week Two

Walker Carey — Mon, 25 Nov 2019 21:55:00 +0000

It is not uncommon for teams breaking in new pieces to experience some peaks and valleys early in the season, but that does not appear to be the case thus far for #2 Duke and #6 Virginia. The mostly new-look Blue Devils rode a star in the making turn from freshman big man Vernon Carey Jr. to throttle California and survive an inspired effort from Georgetown at the 2K Empire Classic at Madison Square Garden this weekend. Carey was far and away Duke’s best player, contributing averages of 25.5 points and 11.0 rebounds to the winning efforts. With most of [...]

The 2019-20 RTC16: Preseason Edition

Walker Carey — Mon, 04 Nov 2019 13:31:17 +0000

And so it begins — that wonderful time of year when we once again find our favorite teams playing college basketball. It is a glorious time, indeed. With a sizable slate of games set to commence on Tuesday evening, we are ready to officially unveil our 2019-20 preseason RTC Top 16. This initial poll will hold for the next two weeks, but you can expect our weekly RTC16 to release on every subsequent Monday morning starting November 18. Along with the rankings will be the usual quick and dirty analysis that dives more deeply into trends that the poll reveals. To [...]

2018-19 RTC16: Week Two

Walker Carey — Mon, 03 Dec 2018 18:19:52 +0000

Right around the beginning of December, the college basketball world begins to really notice which teams may have been severely underrated in the preseason. This year, #5 Michigan is the most glaring example of a team whose significant early season success has been wholly unexpected. The Wolverines began the year with several question marks stemming from the loss of significant production from last season’s national runner-up squad. Because of that looming uncertainty, John Beilein‘s team did not receive even a single vote in the preseason RTC16. So far, that has turned out to be a big omission, as Michigan sits at [...]

2018-19 RTC 16: Week One

Walker Carey — Mon, 26 Nov 2018 16:57:45 +0000

The college basketball season really got cooking during a Feast Week that featured two top-five match-ups that could easily be played again at the Final Four in Minneapolis. #1 Gonzaga and #3 Duke tipped things off Wednesday evening in what was an extremely entertaining Maui Invitational title game. The veteran Bulldogs led by as many as 16 points before withstanding a furious Blue Devils rally to escape with a thrilling 89-87 victory. Not to be outdone, #2 Kansas and #5 Tennessee turned in their own early season classic on Friday in the title game of the Preseason NIT. The Jayhawks [...]

The 2018-19 RTC16: Preseason Edition

Walker Carey — Mon, 05 Nov 2018 13:01:42 +0000

And so it begins — that wonderful time of year when we once again find our favorite teams playing college basketball. It is a glorious time, indeed. With a sizable slate of games set to commence on Tuesday evening, we are ready to officially unveil our 2018-19 preseason RTC Top 16. This initial poll will hold for the next two weeks but you can expect our weekly RTC16 to release on every subsequent Monday morning starting November 19. Along with the rankings will be the usual quick and dirty analysis that dives more deeply into trends that the poll reveals. To see how [...]

The 2017-18 RTC16: Week Five

Walker Carey — Tue, 19 Dec 2017 15:01:30 +0000

Every now and then a college basketball player comes around who makes all of his games a must-watch for fans. It is still only mid-December but it already appears to be the case for freshman sensation Trae Young and #13 Oklahoma. In Saturday’s nationally televised victory over #10 Wichita State, Young thoroughly dominated a strong Shockers backcourt in a 91-83 road victory. The freshman finished the afternoon with 29 points and 10 assists to raise his season averages to 28.8 points and 8.9 assists per game. Considering how the last 13 seasons in the Big 12 have concluded, it is [...]

The 2017-18 RTC16: Preseason Edition

Walker Carey — Thu, 09 Nov 2017 14:01:02 +0000

And so it begins — that wonderful time of year when we once again see old familiar faces on the television along with our favorite teams playing college basketball. It is a glorious time, indeed. With a sizable slate of games set to commence on Friday, we officially unveil our 2017-18 preseason (and revamped) RTC Top 16. We have decided to trim our poll from 25 to 16 teams this season as a means to provide more thorough analysis and justifications for the best teams in the country. This initial poll will hold for the next 10 days or so, but [...]