{"id":140161,"date":"2022-11-26T18:38:12","date_gmt":"2022-11-26T18:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/college-basketball-rankings-iowa-state-joins-top-25-and-1-after-upset-of-unc-sends-tar-heels-plummeting\/"},"modified":"2022-11-26T18:38:12","modified_gmt":"2022-11-26T18:38:12","slug":"college-basketball-rankings-iowa-state-joins-top-25-and-1-after-upset-of-unc-sends-tar-heels-plummeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/college-basketball-rankings-iowa-state-joins-top-25-and-1-after-upset-of-unc-sends-tar-heels-plummeting\/","title":{"rendered":"College basketball rankings: Iowa State joins Top 25 And 1 after upset of UNC sends Tar Heels plummeting"},"content":{"rendered":"
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North Carolina entered this season with understandable hype after returning four starters from a team that played in the title game of the 2022 NCAA Tournament. Just about everybody was high on the Tar Heels, myself included. Over time, they might prove to be the great team the roster suggests they’re capable of being. But the truth is that they’ve looked less-than-sharp in every game they’ve played this season \u2014 and that reality finally got them beat Friday.<\/p>\n

Final score: Iowa State 70, UNC 65.<\/p>\n

The Tar Heels had previously overcome deficits to beat UNC Wilmington, Charleston, Gardner-Webb and Portland. But they could not come from behind against Iowa State<\/span>which is off to a surprisingly great start for the second straight season under second-year coach TJ Otzelberger.<\/p>\n

Caleb Grill was the star against UNC.<\/p>\n

He’s a fabulous story.<\/p>\n

Grill signed with South Dakota State out of high school when Otzelberger was coaching the Jackrabbits \u2014 but reopened his recruitment after Otzelberger left SDSU to be UNLV’s coach in March 2019. Grill eventually enrolled at Iowa State. After one season in the Big 12, the 6-foot-3 guard transferred to UNLV to play for Otzelberger, then followed his coach back to Iowa State when Otzelberger replaced Steve Prohm following the 2020-21 season. Grill averaged 6.4 points in 24.1 minutes per game last season while helping the Cyclones make the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. On Friday, the Kansas native had the game of his life, scoring a career-high 31 points on 11-of-15 shooting to give the Cyclones a signature victory and 5-0 start for the second straight year.<\/p>\n

“I’m actually really enjoying sitting next to him \u2026 just thinking about how long we’ve known each other and how cool this really was,” Otzelberger said at the postgame press conference with Grill by his side. She added Grill: “Just having him be the first person that really had belief in me, it’s just really special what he’s done for me and my family.”<\/p>\n

Thanks to the big win that highlights a terrific start, Iowa State is No. 19 in Saturday morning’s updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings. North Carolina is now No. 20. Yes, I know that’s a big drop \u2014 from No. 2 to No. 20. But as I’ve explained many times, I don’t tend to punish teams in these rankings for winning unimpressively as much as I just wait for them to lose and then adjust accordingly. Inarguably, North Carolina has looked more like No. 20 than No. 2 all season — and now the Tar Heels have a resume of zero top-75 KenPom wins and a loss to previously unranked Iowa State. So somewhere in the 20s is probably where UNC belongs right now.<\/p>\n

Another reminder: Please don’t get caught up on how many spots a team moves up or down after a win or loss this early in the season because I genuinely don’t think in those terms. I simply try to make the order make sense relative to a mix of preseason expectations and the actual results of games with little regard for how high or low teams rise or fall each morning. And it’s also worth noting that after a wild day like Friday, when schools like Purdue, Connecticut, Tennessee and Iowa State make big jumps thanks to quality victories, some schools below them will be pushed down a spot or two (or three or four) even after wins. It’s just a math thing and shouldn’t be difficult to understand (even if my Twitter replies often suggest otherwise).<\/p>\n