Kentucky surges in latest men’s basketball Power 37

Another week down, and Andy Katzs is back with his March Madness Weekly Word of power rankings, honors and musings from the past week and the week ahead in men’s college basketball. 

The first number after the team name in the rankings is last week’s Power 37 rankings. The records are through Sunday night’s games. Look for him to discuss and debate the AP Top 25 rankings and take your questions every Monday on the Bleacher Report App at 1 p.m. ET. 

1. Kansas (Prev. 1, 4-0): Jayhawks beat Michigan State in Atlanta and Oakland. This week: UNC Wilmington.
2. Gonzaga (Prev. 3, 3-0): The Zags destroyed UMass-Lowell. This week, I will be at San Diego State and then Long Beach State. 
3. UConn (Prev. 4, 3-0): Beat LeMoyne. This week: East Texas A&M.
4. Auburn (Prev. 6, 3-0): Beat Kent State. This week: North Alabama.
5. Kentucky (Prev. 15, 3-0): Beat Duke in Atlanta. This week: Lipscomb and Jackson State at home. 
6. Duke (Prev. 5, 3-1): Lost to Kentucky in Atlanta, beat Wofford. This week: at Arizona. 
7. Purdue (Prev. 17, 4-0): Beat Yale and Alabama. This week: at Marquette and host Marshall. 
8. Alabama (Prev. 2, 3-1): Beat McNeese, lost at Purdue. This week: Illinois in Birmingham. 
9. Iowa State (Prev. 7, 2-0): Beat Kansas City. This week: IU Indianapolis. 
10. North Carolina (Prev. 8, 2-1): Beat American. This week: at Hawaii. 
11. Tennessee (Prev. 9, 4-0): Didn’t play. This week: Virginia in the Bahamas. 
12. Indiana (Prev. 12, 3-0): Beat South Carolina. This week: UNC Greensboro. 
13. Houston (Prev. 10, 2-1): Beat Louisiana. This week: Hofstra. 
14. Creighton (Prev. 11, 4-0): Beat Kansas City. This week: Nebraska. 
15. Baylor (Prev. 16, 3-1): Beat Sam Houston and Tarleton State. Next up: St. John’s in the Bahamas. 
16. Marquette (Prev. 32, 4-0): Beat Central Michigan and won at Maryland. This week: Purdue and against Georgia in the Bahamas.
17. Oregon (Prev. 18, 4-0): Beat Portland in OT and then Troy. This week: at Oregon State. 
18. Wisconsin (Prev. NR, 4-0): Beat Arizona. This week: UT Rio Grande Valley and UCF in West Virginia. 
19. Florida (Prev. 19, 4-0): Beat Grambling and then won at Florida State. This week: Florida A&M and Southern Illinois. 
20. Cincinnati (Prev. 21, 3-0): Beat Nicholls. This week: at Northern Kentucky and at Georgia Tech. 
21. Illinois (Prev. 22, 3-0): Beat Oakland. This week: vs. Alabama in Birmingham, host Maryland Eastern-Shore. 
22. Rutgers (Prev. 23, 3-0): Beat Saint Peter’s and Monmouth. This week: Merrimack and at Kennesaw State. 
23. Texas Tech (Prev. 24, 3-0): Beat Wyoming. This week: Arkansas Pine-Bluff. 
24. Arizona (Prev. 13, 2-1): Lost at Wisconsin. This week: host Duke. 
25. UCF (Prev. 25, 3-0): Beat Florida Atlantic. This week: host Tennessee Tech and play Wisconsin in West Virginia. 
26. Arkansas (Prev. 26, 2-1): Beat Troy. This week: host Pacific and Little Rock. 
27. Texas A&M (Prev. NR, 3-1): Beat Lamar and Ohio State. This week: Southern. 
28. Ohio State (Prev. 14, 2-1): Beat Youngstown State and lost at Texas A&M. This week: host Evansville and Campbell. 
29. Xavier (Prev. 29, 4-0): Beat Jackson State and Wake Forest. This week: Siena. 
30. St. John’s (Prev. 36, 4-0): Beat Wagner and New Mexico. This week: Baylor in the Bahamas. 
31. Texas (Prev. 31, 4-1): Beat Chicago State and Mississippi Valley State. This week: Syracuse in Brooklyn. 
32. Ole Miss (Prev. 34, 4-0): Beat South Alabama and Colorado State. This week: Oral Roberts. 
33. Mississippi State (Prev. 35, 4-0): Beat Se Louisiana and Utah in Southaven, Miss.  This week: at SMU. 
34. Pitt (Prev. NR, 4-0): Beat Gardner-Webb and West Virginia. This week: VMI and LSU in West Virginia. 
35. Penn State (Prev. NR, 4-0): Beat St. Francis (PA) and Virginia Tech in Baltimore. This week: Purdue Fort Wayne. 
36. BYU (Prev. NR, 4-0): Beat Queens and Idaho. This week: Mississippi Valley State. 
37. VCU (Prev. 33, 4-0): Beat Merrimack and Loyola (Md). This week: Seton Hall in Charleston, S.C.

Dropped out: New Mexico (20), Clemson (27), Michigan State (28), Wake Forest (30). Kansas State (37). 

The March Madness National Player of the Week

John Tonje, Wisconsin: The senior guard was sensational in the 103-88 win over Arizona by scoring 41 points. Tonje scored in a variety of ways, getting to the free-throw line 22 times, making 21. He was 4 of 6 from the 3-point line, as well. Tonje, who played at Colorado State and Missouri prior to transferring to Wisconsin, fell just two points shy of tying the all-time Wisconsin single-game record of 43 set by former national player of the year Frank Kaminsky in 2013 in a win over North Dakota. 

The March Madness National Team of the Week

Kentucky: The Wildcats won a thriller over Duke at the Champions Classic in Atlanta, beating the Blue Devils 77-72. Kentucky trailed by nine at the half and eight with just under nine minutes remaining. Kentucky did a great job defensively on Cooper Flagg in the final two Duke possessions, forcing turnovers. Wake Forest transfer Andrew Carr scored a team-high 17 and Oklahoma transfer Otega Owes scored 15, including two clinching free throws. The Wildcats entered the week 3-0 and appeared to be extremely well-connected for coach Mark Pope. 

A Sweet 16 set of March Madness Musings

1. Shout out to the schools who early in the season have embraced true home-and-home games within the first two weeks of the season, regardless of the outcome. Most of these were return games or the start of series. Bravo to the coaches who get it and have figured out what must happen to earn an NCAA Tournament bid.

• Arizona played at Wisconsin. 
• Alabama played at Purdue.
• Ohio State played at Texas A&M.
• Marquette played at Maryland. 
• Clemson played at Boise State.
• TCU played at Michigan. 
• South Carolina played at Indiana.

The only road team that won on this list was Marquette. Still, these were all significant true road games that will benefit these teams. There were others, of course, of traditional rivalries the past week that will continue in the weeks ahead. But even this upcoming week Purdue is at Marquette and Duke is at Arizona just to mention two. 

Love it. Keep it going, please. 

2. The Champions Classic isn’t removing anyone, let alone Michigan State. Just stop it. This is a contractual agreement between ESPN and the four schools — Duke, Kansas, Kentucky and Michigan State. No, UConn isn’t replacing the Spartans. This was an absurd narrative that came out of Kansas’ win over MSU. The contract with the four schools and ESPN was extended through 2028. Next season’s game is at Madison Square Garden in New York. The atmosphere in Atlanta for the second game between Duke and Kentucky was fantastic. Still, the event should really just rotate amid three cities/venues: New York (MSG), Chicago (United Center) and Indianapolis (Gainbridge). Oh, the CBS Sports Classic has the same four teams every year, so this isn’t abnormal to do so. North Carolina, Ohio State, UCLA and Kentucky are the four. The deal with CBS Sports and the four schools goes through 2026. This season’s event — Kentucky vs. Ohio State and UCLA vs. North Carolina — is on Dec. 21 at MSG. 

3. The race for Big East player of the year should be between three players — Ryan Kalkbrenner (Creighton), Kam Jones (Marquette) and Alex Karaban (UConn). 

4. Coaching matters. Chris Holtmann has always been a winner. DePaul is 4-0 and clearly looks like a completely different program. The Blue Demons will be relevant, maybe as soon as this season. 

5. The shot of the week goes to the College of Charleston’s Ante Brzovic. Brzovic scored 39 and hit a game-winning 3-pointer in double-overtime for the win over FAU, 119-116. 

6. Virginia’s interim coach Ron Sanchez has the Cavaliers balling as Isaac McKneely made all six of his 3s and dropped 23 in a neutral-court win over Villanova. Sanchez was thrust into a tough situation with the timing of Tony Bennett’s retirement. But Sanchez has been a head coach and appears to have the attention and focus of this squad. The 3-0 Cavs will step up in comp this week with a game against Tennessee. 

7. Less than a month ago, Arizona State lost 103-47 at Duke. Bobby Hurley was hoping it was a wake-up call. Well, it clearly was an anomaly. ASU is 4-1 after beating Grand Canyon in Phoenix. The one loss was at Gonzaga in a game the Sun Devils were in until the final minute. 

8. Love that Rick and Richard Pitino played the New Mexico-St. John’s game. Too often, coaches don’t want to play their former assistants. This is a unique deal and the hope is that they can play this game every season. The game, won by St. John’s Sunday at MSG, is a quality game for both. 

9. Tremendous week for Hofstra and Speedy Claxton. He’s got a legit squad to make a run to the CAA title and be a tough out in the NCAA Tournament. Hofstra beat Seton Hall in Uniondale, N.Y., at Nassau Coliseum and then won at UMass. The Pride are 4-0 and have a potential CAA player of the year candidate in Jean Aranguren. 

10. The last name should be familiar — Stojakovic — but the first name is not Peja but rather Andrej. Yes, the eldest son of Peja, the former NBA star, is going to be a stud for Cal. He dropped 20 in a road win at USC Sunday. He’s leading the Bears with 16 a game. Cal is off to a 3-1 start under Mark Madsen and will be a tough out in the ACC. 

11. Cal’s one loss was to Vanderbilt, which is off to a 4-0 start under Mark Byington. Byington led James Madison to the NCAA Tournament and a first-round upset of Wisconsin. The Commodores could be an SEC sleeper. 

12. One of the best stat lines of the week belonged to Bucknell’s Noah Williamson. He led the Bison with 26 points, 10 boards and five blocks in a double-overtime win against Richmond. 

13. J.J. Starling stayed at Syracuse and is being rewarded by being a focal point of the offense. He dropped a career-high 38 in a 104-95 double OT win over Youngstown State. 

14. Saint Mary’s loses its point guard to UConn (Aidan Maheney) and all the Gaels do is keep winning. Randy Bennett never gets the credit he deserves. Saint Mary’s is off to a 4-0 start after Sunday’s win over Nebraska in Sioux Falls, S.D.

15. One of the most perplexing teams thus far has been UAB. The Blazers are 2-2 with a home loss to Vermont and a road loss at High Point. They still have the likely player of the year in the American in Yaxel Lendeborg (20.5 ppg). But the margin for error for a shot at an at-large berth is thinning. 

16. The most important game of a multiple-team event, especially the three-game formats, is always the first one. Win that first game and a team is almost guaranteed leaving the site with at least two high-quality games. Lose and the potential is there to leave the event without playing a possible NCAA Tournament team. 

The March Madness Week Ahead

• Purdue at Marquette, Tuesday: The Boilermakers are coming off a home win over Alabama while Marquette knocked off Maryland. 
• Gonzaga at San Diego State, Monday: The Zags are rolling and the Aztecs need to show they are ready to be a MWC contender yet again. 
• Illinois vs. Alabama, Birmingham, Wednesday: The Illini haven’t been tested yet while the Tide continue one of the toughest non-conference schedules in the country. 
• Duke at Arizona, Friday: Duke lost at home to Arizona last season. Duke has arguably more talent, but will need to show the Kansas loss got them ready for a hostile environment. Arizona is coming off allowing John Tonje to drop 41 on them in a loss at Wisconsin. 
• Baylor vs. St. John’s, Bahamas, Thursday: This should be an up-and-down affair but whoever controls the glass will win on the neutral site. 
• Wisconsin vs. UCF, West Virginia, Friday: The Badgers need to continue the momentum of the Arizona win while the Golden Knights have been sneaky good to date. This matchup is at the Greenbrier in West Virginia. 
• Virginia vs. Tennessee, Bahamas, Thursday: The Cavaliers got a confidence boost with the neutral-site win over Villanova. They could really redirect the narrative on the season if they can upset one of the SEC favorites on a neutral court. 
• Texas Tech vs. Saint Joseph’s, Brooklyn, Thursday: The Red Raiders have one of the best players in the country in JT Toppin while the Hawks are projected to be one of the top four teams in the A-10. 
• Nebraska at Creighton, Friday: This is always one of the best in-state non-conference rivalries. The Bluejays are an elite team while the Huskers must prove they can win a peer-to-peer game after losing to Saint Mary’s Sunday in South Dakota. 
• North Carolina at Hawaii, Friday: This is always a dangerous stopover for teams heading to Maui. The Tar Heels should beat Hawaii handily but this will be a tough task based on time change and the expected Rainbow Warrior support. Memphis is doing something similar, playing San Francisco on the way to the Hawaiian Islands.