College Hoops Power Rankings

With just a month to go until the arrival of March the Texas Longhorns sit atop our first college basketball Power Rankings of the season.

The Longhorns appear to be hitting their stride after winning their last six games. That includes their mammoth win at Kansas that snapped the Jayhawks' phenomenal 69-game home winning streak.

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Not only have the Longhorns been putting wins on the board, but they've also been rewarding members of the college basketball betting circuit who have backed them with a sparkling 13-2 record ATS. With only one more AP ranked team on tap the rest of the regular season there's no reason why Texas can't keep it up into the postseason.

Rounding out the Top 3 on the inaugural power rankings are Kansas and Kentucky. The Jayhawks, led by the Morris brothers, are to be feared at 20-1 on the season, but they haven't been big winners for the college basketball betting crowd with only two ATS wins in their last seven games and a lame 8-10 ATS record on the season.

It's impossible for Kentucky to fly under the radar because of their immense history, but two recent losses to Georgia and Alabama have removed some of their luster. They earned their way to No. 3 in our rankings though, so don't be surprised if they pick up their play down the stretch.

Some bettors may be questioning the rankings given out to Ohio State and Duke this week. The Buckeyes are the AP's No. 1 team in the nation due to their perfect 22-0 record. However, the Buckeyes haven't exactly been blowing teams out of the water - just look at their 58-57 win over Northwestern as an example.

At Bovada they were 10-point road favorites in that game. In their last eight games the Buckeyes are only 3-5 ATS.

And then there's Duke, which didn't even crack the Top 25, instead resting at No. 29. The Blue Devils can thank their poor strength of schedule for that. Duke actually had a better Power Ranking than 11 teams in the Top 25, but once their strength of schedule was added to the mix they took a steep drop. Duke's 93-78 upset loss to St. John's as 9-point road favorites didn't help much either.