Who are the Late Season Risers After the Release of Week 12’s AP Top-25 Poll?

Within Week 12’s AP Top-25 poll(Associated Press) there are several intriguing but familiar faces slowly rising back into the ranks. Teams who were counted out after a rocky start to the men’s college basketball season only to respond with impressive win streaks.

The Michigan State Spartans Come Marching Back

After losing to an undiscovered Memphis Tigers team, the Michigan State Spartans fell to 5-2 and wouldn’t sniff a top-25 ranking until week six, where they entered in at the 21 spot. Over the next several weeks they held steady, accumulating an 11 game win streak and moving up the poll one or two spots each week.

Suddenly they have jumped eight spots in the last two weeks to No. 8 in the AP Top-25 poll and continue to roll- their most recent win verses a No. 19 ranked Illinois team proved that this team has some spark. They have the second longest win streak in DI basketball second only to Duke(W12).

However, there are some notable flaws with Michigan State that might restrain them from making a deep March Madness run. Their leading scorer, Jaden Akins is the only Spartan to average double digits, and he only scores 13.9 pointer per game. They do manage to put up decent points most games though, they’ve scored 80+ in 12 out of 18 games.

Somehow the highest individual point total in one game is 25 by Akins and all four times the team has scored 90+, no Spartan had over 20 points…. on the bright side MSU does know how to share the ball effectively.

They will still need someone, whether it’s Jaden Akins or not, to step up come March if they want to hang with the big dogs.

The Cream Rises to the Top for Purdue

There was a time this season where the Purdue Boilermakers were sitting at 8-4. Not the record they pictured ended 2024 with. They were handed a string of losses to three top 20 teams and fell from No. 6 to No. 21 in the AP Top-25 poll. Purdue’s offense severely struggled in each loss and their lack of consistent scoring cost them several games.

But the Boilermakers have been steadily rising as of late. Since their fourth loss they have won seven straight, their most recent win being against the No. 13 Oregon Ducks. They jumped six spots up to rank 11 in Week 12’s AP Top-25 poll.

They, contrary to Michigan State, run most of their playbook through their two leading scorers, forward Trey Kaufman-Renn and guard Braden Smith who logs the 17th most minutes per game in MNCAA. They average 17.9 and 15.1 respectively and have stepped up big in the past several weeks.

Don’t Look Now, Wisconsin Basketball Might be Back

Nearly a decade ago the Wisconsin Badgers ended a historic streak of making the March Madness Tournament 19 times in a row, one of the longest streaks ever. Since then, they have been in and out of the tournament and not performed well in their limited post season chances.

This season has been back and forth as well. They were ranked as high as No. 11 in Week 4 but then lost three devastating games in a row to Michigan, Marquette and Illinois. Although all three of these teams are ranked in the top 25 now, they weren’t then and because of that Wisconsin fell far from the AP Top-25 poll.

After going on a seven game win streak, the Badgers are back in the poll, entering for the first time in Week 11 and now moving up six spots to No. 18 in Week 12.

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