Alabama

College basketball rankings: Purdue makes huge jump; Alabama, Duke slide

Published

1 year ago

November 17, 2024

Press Room

College basketball rankings: Purdue makes huge jump; Alabama, Duke slide

John Fanta

College Basketball Broadcaster and Reporter

Friday brought the biggest collective night of the college basketball season with a series of early-season, non-conference matchups across the slate — and one conference notching a pair of top-10 victories: the Big Ten.

If you’re a non-conference team in the regular season, don’t even bother playing Purdue. That has been true since December 2020. The Boilermakers have put together a historic winning streak with 39 consecutive victories in the regular season against out-of-conference opponents after their 87-78 victory over an Alabama team that received six first-place votes in the AP poll last week. It’s not as if this 39-game win streak hasn’t been tested either, with nine of those wins coming over top-10 opponents.

While everybody was wondering in the preseason how Purdue would handle life without Zach Edey, coach Matt Painter said that junior Trey Kaufman-Renn was poised to have a great year. Those words became reality in Friday’s signature win with the 6-foot-9 big man delivering 26 points, eight rebounds and four assists. With how much of a constant the backcourt of Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer are — with Smith posting 17 points and 10 assists and Loyer totaling 17 points on 5-of-9 shooting — that third piece emerging was the question mark with Purdue, and it was answered.

For Purdue to score 87 points and also limit a potent Crimson Tide backcourt to 9-of-29 shooting from beyond the arc was impressive. On the flip side, coach Nate Oats is clearly still trying to figure things out with his Alabama team, with Mark Sears (5 for 15 from the floor) and Cliff Omoruyi (2 for 5) struggling in the defeat.

Elsewhere, Wisconsin put up an unforgettable 103-88 win over 9th-ranked Arizona on a night when the Badgers were honoring their 2014 and 2015 Final Four teams.

There’s plenty to unpack with this result. First and foremost, it shows the depth of the Big Ten and why the conference can very well get a double-digit number of NCAA Tournament bids, because when the program that was projected to finish 12th in the league in the preseason polls beats a top-10 team, it’s an eye-opening and profile-boosting win.

Missouri transfer and sixth-year senior John Tonje put up a historic performance with a career-high 41 points, two shy of the Badgers’ single-game record. Tonje drilled four of Wisconsin’s 12 triples and shot 21 for 22 from the free-throw line in a game that was heavy with whistles and had a combined 87 free throws taken. It wasn’t always pretty, but for the Badgers to score 103 points, get double-figure performances from returnees Max Klesmit and John Blackwell and finish off Arizona (in spite of the fact that it tied the game after a slow start) certainly is a needle-moving result for coach Greg Gard. He currently has an offense that sits at No. 18 in KenPom efficiency. Wisconsin is in my Top 25 because of this.

[Read more: 2024-25 college basketball preview: Ranking the top 50 players and coaches]

As for another big takeaway from the weekend, a Big East team went on the road and beat a Big Ten squad on Friday night in dramatic fashion, as top-15 Marquette went into College Park and held off Maryland, 78-74.

Golden Eagles senior star Kam Jones continues to show he’s as good as any player in the country right now, with the 6-foot-5 guard going off for 28 points on 10-of-18 shooting from the floor, marking his third performance in the first four games of at least 24 in the scoring column. At one point in the second half, Jones went on his own personal 12-2 run over the Terps, who fought back in the final two minutes and showed their potential for this season but fell just short. Jones’ classmate Stevie Mitchell continued to display why he’s the ultimate Shaka Smart player, doing the dirty work and finishing the game with Marquette’s final eight points.

With that, here’s my updated Top 25.

1. Kansas Jayhawks (4-0)

The Jayhawks started the week by grinding out a victory over Michigan State in a game that Hunter Dickinson dominated, but backcourt questions arose despite the win. That said, they’re 4-0 with wins over North Carolina and MSU, with AJ Storr breaking out for a 16-point showing in 19 minutes in a 78-57 win over Oakland on Saturday night. Is there a clear-cut top team in the nation? No, but Kansas is at the top with enough of a body of work and Dickinson, who’s as good as any offensive player in the country.

2. UConn Huskies (3-0)

The Huskies are 36-1 in their past 37 games against non-conference competition after a 90-49 win over Le Moyne on Wednesday. Preseason All-American Alex Karaban continued his strong start to the season with 17 points in the victory. UConn plays its final tune-up before the Maui Invitational when the back-to-back reigning national champions host East Texas A&M on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET on FS1 and the FOX Sports app).

3. Gonzaga Bulldogs (3-0)

The Zags moved to 3-0 on the season with a 113-54 win over UMass Lowell on Friday behind 21 points from Arkansas transfer Khalif Battle. They have a big road game against San Diego State at Viejas Arena on Monday night.

4. Auburn Tigers (3-0)

Johni Broome is one of the best players in America, but I don’t think he gets enough national love for just how great of a big man he is. He had 18 points, 12 rebounds, four assists and three blocks in Wednesday’s 79-56 win over Kent State.

5. Houston Cougars (2-1)

Even though the Cougars fell just short to Auburn last weekend, I still love coach Kelvin Sampson’s squad enough to keep them in my top five. Seven players scored at least eight points in Wednesday’s 91-45 win over Louisiana. We get a better gauge for the Cougars when they meet Alabama at the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas next week.

6. Purdue Boilermakers (4-0)

Freshman guard C.J. Cox appears to be an X-factor on the perimeter, going 7 for 10 from 3-point range in his past two games and combining for 23 points. That’s exactly the type of supplemental scoring the Boilermakers need around Smith, Loyer and Kaufman-Renn. Purdue has its first major road test of the year at Marquette on Tuesday (9 p.m. ET on FS1 and the FOX Sports app).

7. Iowa State Cyclones (2-0)

The Cyclones, who return the majority of their pieces from a Sweet 16 and Big 12 Tournament championship team last year, are off to a 2-0 start after an 82-53 win over Kansas City last Monday. Senior guard Curtis Jones came off the bench and shot 7 for 11 from the floor for 20 points. We’ll get a better measuring stick for coach T.J. Otzelberger’s team when they meet Auburn in Round 1 of the Maui Invitational.

8. Alabama Crimson Tide (3-1)

The Crimson Tide are far from hitting their stride offensively, shooting just over 30% from 3-point land thus far and not fully meshing yet. Give Nate Oats some time. Remember: Last year’s team was 6-5 and ended up in the Final Four. Up next: The Tide take on Illinois — a team that’s just outside my Top 25 rankings — on Wednesday. Tomislav Ivisic, who’s coming off a 20-point performance in a win over Oakland this past week, will meet Omoruyi in that clash.

9. North Carolina Tar Heels (2-1)

The Tar Heels followed up an impressive performance in a loss at Kansas with a 107-55 win over American. Elliott Cadeau is a totally different player in his second season for the Tar Heels, as the UNC point guard delivered 18 points, eight assists and four steals (and just one turnover) in the victory. Having him and RJ Davis together in the backcourt makes for one scary duo for the rest of the ACC. We’ll see UNC get tested more next week at the Maui Invitational.

10. Tennessee Volunteers (3-0)

The Volunteers posted a 2-0 week with Charlotte transfer Igor Milicic posting 18 points, 10 rebounds and five assists in a 92-57 win over Montana on Wednesday. He then followed that up with a 23-point, nine-rebound outing in a 103-67 victory over Austin Peay on Sunday. It would appear coach Rick Barnes and his staff nailed it in the transfer portal once again after doing so last year with Dalton Knecht.

11. Creighton Bluejays (4-0)

12. Kentucky Wildcats (3-0)

13. Duke Blue Devils (3-1)

14. Marquette Golden Eagles (4-0)

15. Baylor Bears (2-1)

16. Xavier Musketeers (4-0)

17. Arizona Wildcats (2-1)

18. Indiana Hoosiers (3-0)

19. Cincinnati Bearcats (3-0)

20. St. John’s Red Storm (4-0)

21. Florida Gators (4-0)

22. Texas Tech Red Raiders (3-0)

23. Arkansas Razorbacks (2-1)

24. Wisconsin Badgers (4-0)

25. Texas A&M Aggies (3-1)

John Fanta is a national college basketball broadcaster and writer for FOX Sports. He covers the sport in a variety of capacities, from calling games on FS1 to serving as lead host on the BIG EAST Digital Network to providing commentary on The Field of 68 Media Network. Follow him at @John_Fanta.

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Alabama

Kalen DeBoer, Curt Cignetti’s Alabama-Indiana coaching paths meet in Rose Bowl

Published

6 hours ago

December 24, 2025

Press Room

Kalen DeBoer, Curt Cignetti’s Alabama-Indiana coaching paths meet in Rose Bowl

BLOOMINGTON, IN – A self-professed film junkie, Curt Cignetti actually got an unintended head start on Alabama prep earlier this season.

The Crimson Tide played games during both of Indiana’s idle weeks this season, and Cignetti confessed he’s “always enjoyed studying coach (Kalen) DeBoer’s offenses.” So, without necessarily meaning to, IU’s coach managed to get eyes on the Hoosiers’ Rose Bowl opponent long before Cignetti know what would await him in Pasadena.

“They do a lot of really great stuff,” Cignetti said. “They’ve got a lot of great players, are extremely well-coached. They’re a really good team, and a tremendous challenge.”

That complimentary nod from one sideline to the other Monday afternoon reflected a College Football Playoff quarterfinal game steeped in intrigue, its two programs remarkably interwoven not least by the journeys of their two coaches.

Cignetti and DeBoer spent time during bowl-organized Zoom sessions praising one another’s success, and considering the similarities in their respective career paths.

From 10,000 feet, Indiana vs. Alabama in the Rose Bowl will be billed as a clash of new and old money. Of Southern establishment against Midwest revolution. History and heritage colliding with so many of modern college football’s overturned conventions.

On the ground, though, it presents a fascinating case study into the binding ties of a sport that’s never quite as far removed from itself as it thinks. And it pits against one another two programs that have never met on the field, yet remain unusually influential on one another today.

Curt Cignetti, Kalen DeBoer mirror one another’s coaching paths with stops at Alabama, Indiana

Their respective histories with one another’s current employers are the only meaningful points of intersection, career-wise, between DeBoer and Cignetti.

DeBoer spent one year as Tom Allen’s offensive coordinator, helping Indiana reach its first Florida-based January bowl game (at a time when that still carried greater meaning) in 2019.

And Cignetti spent four years as part of Nick Saban’s first Alabama staff, coaching wide receivers and coordinating recruiting for the program Cignetti eventually helped win a national championship.

But they’ve both distinguished themselves in their profession through their willingness to climb the coaching pyramid: From outside Division I, through lower levels as either a head coach or coordinator, all the way up to the sport’s biggest stage.

“Knowing coach Cignetti and — you referred to it — his path, nothing but respect for how he’s done it, how he’s gotten to this spot,” DeBoer said.

Cignetti’s path is well documented at this point: He left Tuscaloosa for Division II Indiana-Pennsylvania (IUP), coaching six years at the same school where his father built a hall-of-fame career before moving up through Elon, James Madison and Indiana. He routinely cites that experience as formative now.

DeBoer’s own arc is not that different.

The former Sioux Falls wide receiver won three NAIA national titles with his alma mater before taking coordinator jobs at Southern Illinois, Eastern Michigan, Fresno State and Indiana, then landing his first head job back in Fresno.

In just five full seasons since — Fresno State only played six games in DeBoer’s first season due to COVID-19 — he’s won 54 games, guiding Washington to the national championship game and now Alabama to the playoff.

In an era when breaking into Power Four coaching without Power Four bloodlines has become increasingly difficult, each of the men captaining a Rose Bowl sideline come New Year’s Day will have earned his way to that moment through his willingness to walk the less-traveled road.

“I wouldn’t trade it for the world,” DeBoer said. “I think all of it goes into just being built for these moments.”

Kalen DeBoer is a historical marker of IU football’s growth

If their experiences have indeed built them that way, then what on their paths is shared has built the programs they bring with them.

DeBoer spent just one season at Indiana, but he has with him on staff several faces familiar to Indiana and its fans.

Defensive coordinator Kane Wommack and co-offensive coordinator Nick Sheridan were on staff in Bloomington with DeBoer. Director of sports performance David Ballou worked in Bloomington before joining Nick Saban’s staff, and DeBoer held him over through the coaching change. Rick Danison, a longtime member of IU’s strength staff, now works with Ballou in Tuscaloosa.

Even DeBoer himself still represents something increasingly important in Bloomington.

When Tom Allen hired him from Fresno State, IU handed DeBoer what was then the richest contract given to one of its coordinators. By the time his one season at Indiana finished — inclusive of bonuses and incentives — DeBoer landed just short of becoming the Hoosiers’ first million-dollar coordinator.

That number seems small now, when compared to the eight-figure salary Cignetti now commands, or the new three-year contract Bryant Haines signed this month expected to be worth in the region of $3 million annually.

They all represent the same basic idea: Indiana spent the best part of two decades spending meaningfully on football with the ultimate goal of eventually climbing to the place it occupies today.

“I felt like when we were there, there was a growth, an investment that was happening, and there was success,” DeBoer said. “Coach Cignetti has done a great job providing the spark, which really leads people continuing to be all in. As you get more people all in, you get the moments that you’re in right now.

“It works off each other — the energy and the commitment to the success.”

Curt Cignetti’s Indiana football a flavor of Nick Saban’s Alabama

Cignetti knows Alabama even better, in some ways, than DeBoer knows Indiana.

It was his last stop (of several) as an assistant before beginning his head-coaching career. It was where he won a national championship under Saban.

And it offered Cignetti an experience he refers back to now, almost daily.

“I probably think about it every single day,” Cignetti said.

Cignetti is not shy about referring to his blueprint — an all-encompassing philosophical approach to running his program he adheres to religiously. He even has a self-published handbook on many of its fundamentals to use like a sort of program bible.

Ask Cignetti about the mentors and experiences that helped him build that structure, and he’ll take you on a journey through his football life. From growing up watching his father, Frank Cignetti Sr., to his time at Pitt with Johnny Majors and Walt Harris, through to his time working under Chuck Amato at NC State.

Cignetti’s years at Alabama, which he spent watching perhaps the best program builder in college football history, remain among his most formative.

“Philosophically, the program we run here is probably a lot more the same than different at Alabama,” he said. “There’s probably not a day that goes by where I don’t draw from those experiences.”

He will carry them onto the Pasadena grass in less than two weeks’ time, his program’s first Rose Bowl victory and a place in the playoff semifinal on the line.

That game will come with all kinds of outside noise and meaning. It will be cast as representing many things, some more legitimate than others.

Few more so than the fundamental truth that both Indiana and Alabama will arrive to that moment in a remarkable number of ways because of one another, the connections that bind them together defining their respective journeys to Jan. 1, 2026.

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Alabama

Alabama D-lineman LT Overton cleared to return for playoff quarterfinals

Published

18 hours ago

December 24, 2025

Press Room

Alabama D-lineman LT Overton cleared to return for playoff quarterfinals

Alabama defensive lineman LT Overton has been cleared to return from an undisclosed illness, sources confirm to BamaOnLine. Overton will play in the Crimson Tide’s Rose Bowl matchup with Indiana on New Year’s Day. CBS Sports’ Matt Zenitz first reported the Overton news.

Earlier on Tuesday, Overton stated, “Back like I never left,” on his Instagram story.

On Monday, Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer provided an update on Overton’s progress.

“LT, just continue to monitor him,” DeBoer said. “Definitely not ruling him out right now, but we’ll continue to evaluate him and see how things go here in the days ahead.”

Overton has missed the last two games because of an illness. The senior started the first 12 games of Alabama’s 2025 season before being ruled out for the SEC Championship Game. He is second on the team in sacks (4) and has recorded 35 tackles and six tackles for loss.

Overton’s return will be a boost for an Alabama defense that recorded a season-high five sacks in its 34-24 playoff win over Oklahoma. One of Overton’s backups, Keon Keeley, had one of the five sacks. The senior was missed in the Crimson Tide’s SEC title game loss to Georgia.

DeBoer said on Monday that Alabama was “as healthy as we’ve been in a long time.” The Tide offense was nearly at full strength in Norman. Now, the defense is healthy with Overton back.

Alabama will play Indiana in Pasadena, Calif., on Thursday, January 1, at 3 p.m. CT (ESPN).

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Alabama

Alabama in the NFL: Former Heisman winner among best from Week 16

Published

1 day ago

December 23, 2025

Press Room

Alabama in the NFL: Former Heisman winner among best from Week 16

Yet another week of NFL action has passed, and once again, it was a huge slate for Alabama Crimson Tide football.

A slate of games in which multiple teams clinched playoff berths, former Alabama players were back in action this past weekend at the professional level, with many going on to make significant impacts in their respective games. Some of those same names were also recently named to the 2026 Pro Bowl, only adding to what has been a solid overall season for the Crimson Tide in the NFL.

With the likes of Jalen Hurts, Malachi Moore, and Bryce Young among the names who also enjoyed a big week, here are five of Alabama’s top performing former players during Week 16 in the NFL.

Derrick Henry, Running Back – Baltimore Ravens

The former Heisman Trophy winner was likely Alabama’s top offensive performance of Week 16, even despite losing a fumble in the Baltimore Ravens’ 28-24 loss to the New England Patriots. In all, Henry rushed for 128 yards and two touchdowns on 18 attempts, translating to an average of 7.1 yards per carry.

Jonathan Allen, Defensive Tackle – Minnesota Vikings

In a week loaded with impressive defensive performances, there were likely none greater than that of Allen during a 16-13 win for the Minnesota Vikings over the New York Giants. Allen finished the game with eight total tackles, four of which were solo, along with one sack, two TFL, and one quarterback hit.

Will Reichard, Kicker – Minnesota Vikings

Another member of the Minnesota Vikings who made an impact in their 16-13 win over the New York Giants was the former Alabama kicker. Also making his lone extra point attempt, Reichard finished 3-for-3 on field goal attempts, a trio of makes that came from 43, 31, and 30 yards.

Jordan Battle, Safety – Cincinnati Bengals

Battle enjoyed a huge performance during the Bengals’ 45-21 win over the Miami Dolphins, leading Cincinnati with a total of 10 tackles. Of those 10 tackles, six from Battle were solo.

Marlon Humphrey, Cornerback – Baltimore Ravens

Rounding out Alabama’s top performances from NFL Week 16 was Humphrey, who enjoyed a solid showing despite the Baltimore Ravens’ 28-24 loss to the New England Patriots. Humphrey finished with six total tackles, all of which were solo, two pass defenses, and an interception.

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