College basketball power rankings: Arizona, USC and UCLA are salvaging a miserable first month for the Pac-12

Not only are we already past the one-month mark of the season, we’ve also played more than 25% of the inventory of games for 2021-22. This sport’s regular season always moves so quickly. Nonconference play is already 80%-plus completed as well, meaning we are starting to get stability with how good each conference is. 

The not-so-good: The Pac-12 has a 57-30 non-league record, meaning it’s firmly No. 6 among the seven major conferences. 

(Only the American Athletic Conference has been worse.) It’s a bit ironic to see such dominance at the top of the Pac-12, and that dominance is reflected in this week’s rankings. 

In chronological order, here are the six most intriguing nonconference games over the next few days. (I’d give you a top five, but the schedule’s just that good!)

1. Thursday, 6:30 p.m. ET: Texas @ Seton Hall (FS1)
2. Thursday, 9 p.m. ET: Iowa @ Iowa State (ESPN2)
3. Saturday, noon ET: Wisconsin @ Ohio State (Fox)
4. Saturday, 5 p.m. ET: Arizona @ Illinois (Fox)
5. Saturday, 10 p.m. ET: Houston @ Alabama (ESPN2)
6. Sunday, 3 p.m. ET: Villanova @ Baylor (ABC)

Now let’s see where the teams line up in the third edition of the Hey Nineteen. 

Hey Nineteen Power Rankings

Reminder: My rankings are not solely about whom I think is *best.* (Our Top 25 And 1 already does that daily.) The Hey Nineteen is a weekly encapsulation of the 19 hottest, most successful and/or most interesting teams in college basketball, combining team quality with win quality but also leaving no shame for recency bias and rewarding significant winning streaks.