Shocking news out of West Lafayette

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Tuesday, October 27, 2026

7:00 PM EST

People’s Bank Arena Hartford, Connecticut

Local TV: WFSB

Streaming: UConn+

Radio: Purdue Global Sports Network / UConn Radio Broadcast

A10
1. VCU (11) 308
2. Saint Louis (10) 307
3. Dayton (2) 279
4. George Mason 240
5. George Washington 207
6. Saint Joseph’s 181
7. Fordham 169
8. Davidson 144
9. Richmond 138
10. Duquesne 130
11. Loyola Chicago 116
12. Rhode Island 104
13. La Salle 59
14. St. Bonaventure 33

ACC
1. Duke (45) 861
2. Virginia (1) 778
3. Louisville (1) 758
4. Miami (1) 753
5. North Carolina 658
6. Clemson 623
7. Florida State 519
8. NC State 502
9. Virginia Tech 489
10. SMU 443
11. Syracuse 353
12. Pitt 323
13. Stanford 267
14. Wake Forest 234
15. California 225
16. Notre Dame 153
17. Boston College 150
18. Georgia Tech 119

America East
1. Vermont (7) 62
2. UMBC (1) 46
3. Binghamton (1) 45
4. NJIT 38
5. Bryant 36
6. UAlbany 34
7. UMass Lowell 31
8. Maine 19
9. New Hampshire 13

American
1. Wichita State (9) 140
2. Memphis (4) 131
3. South Florida 118
4. Tulsa 99
5. Charlotte 95
6. UAB 89
7. UNT 84
8. Florida Atlantic 75
9. Temple 61
10. Tulane 52
11. East Carolina 34
12. Rice 22
13. UTSA 14

ASUN
No 2026-27 media/coaches poll

B10
1. Illinois (18)
2. Michigan State (9)
3. Michigan (1)
4. UCLA
5. Nebraska
6. Purdue
7. USC
8. Ohio State
9. Indiana
10. Iowa
11. Wisconsin
12. Maryland
13. Minnesota
14. Oregon
15. Washington
16. Northwestern
17. Rutgers
18. Penn State

B12
1. Arizona (12) 220
2. Houston (4) 214
3. Kansas 186
4. Iowa State 181
5. Texas Tech 180
6. BYU 148
7. TCU 137
T8. Cincinnati 116
T8. West Virginia 116
10. Baylor 102
11. Oklahoma State 98
12. Arizona State 75
13. UCF 55
T14. Colorado 34
T14. Kansas State 34
16. Utah 24

Big East
1. UConn (8) 98
2. St. John's (2) 90
3. Villanova 81
4. Marquette (1) 73
5. Providence 59
6. Xavier 54
7. Creighton 47
8. DePaul 32
9. Seton Hall 31
10. Georgetown 27
11. Butler 13

Big Sky Coaches Poll
1. Montana State (7) 97
2. Northern Colorado 81
3. Eastern Washington (3) 79
T4. Montana 73
T4. Portland State 73
6. Idaho (1) 56
7. Utah Tech 50
8. Weber State 29
9. Idaho State 26
10. Southern Utah 25
11. Northern Arizona 16

Big Sky Media Poll
1. Montana State (19) 326
2. Northern Colorado (7) 295
3. Eastern Washington (5) 279
4. Montana (1) 254
5. Portland State 236
6. Idaho 183
7. Utah Tech 161
8. Weber State 143
9. Idaho State 93
10. Southern Utah 85
11. Northern Arizona 57

Big South
1. High Point (7) 79
2. Presbyterian College (2) 69
3. Winthrop 57
4. Longwood 54
5. UNC Asheville 43
6. Radford 34
7. Charleston Southern 33
8. USC Upstate 21
9. Gardner-Webb 15

Big West
1. UC Irvine (7) 114
2. UC San Diego (3) 105
3. UC Santa Barbara (2) 103
4. CSUN 86
5. Utah Valley 85
6. Cal Poly 75
7. Sacramento State 65
8. Cal State Fullerton 49
9. California Baptist 40
10. Cal State Bakersfield 28
11. UC Riverside 23
12. Long Beach State 19

CAA
1. UNCW (11) 143
2. Charleston 130
3. Hofstra (2) 125
4. Towson 110
5. Monmouth 95
6. William & Mary 78
7. Stony Brook 69
8. Elon 63
9. Drexel 58
10. Hampton 48
11. Northeastern 42
12. Campbell 35
13. North Carolina A&T 18

CUSA
1. WKU (5) 94
2. Kennesaw State (3) 90
3. Liberty (2) 79
4. Sam Houston 64
5. MTSU 57
6. NM State 56
7. Jax State 36
8. Missouri State 28
9. FIU 25
10. Delaware 21

Horizon
1. Wright State 492
2. RMU 446
3. Green Bay 367
4. Oakland 354
5. Northern Kentucky 336
6. Milwaukee 309
7. Detroit Mercy 271
8. Purdue Fort Wayne 244
9. Youngstown State 192
10. NIU 142
11. Cleveland State 121
12. IU Indianapolis 80

Ivy
1. Penn (11) 157
2. Harvard (7) 146
3. Yale (2) 133
4. Princeton (1) 97
5. Cornell 82
6. Columbia 69
7. Brown 42
8. Dartmouth 30

MAC
1. Miami (9) 130
2. Toledo (2) 117
3. Akron 110
4. Kent State (1) 108
5. Ohio 82
6. UMass 79
7. Bowling Green 63
8. Western Michigan 58
9. Eastern Michigan 56
10. Buffalo 47
11. Ball State 40
12. Central Michigan 25

MEAC
1. Howard (6) 62
2. Morgan State (1) 46
3. Norfolk State (1) 43
4. North Carolina Central 42
5. South Carolina State 36
T6. Delaware State 20
T6. Coppin State 20
8. Maryland Eastern Shore 18

Metro
1. Fairfield (6) 154
2. Merrimack (3) 148
3. Siena (2) 132
4. Iona (1) 131
5. Marist 120
6. Quinnipiac 109
7. Saint Peter’s (1) 90
8. Mount St. Mary’s 89
9. Sacred Heart 78
10. Manhattan 45
11. Canisius 34
12. Niagara 31
13. Rider 22

Mountain West
1. New Mexico (9) 179
2. Grand Canyon (10) 178
3. Nevada 148
4. UNLV 125
5. Wyoming 116
6. Hawaii 99
7. San Jose State 63
8. UC Davis 62
9. UTEP 52
10. Air Force 23

MVC (Only top 6 provided by conference)
1. Murray State (32) 517
2. Illinois State (7) 471
3. UIC (6) 466
4. Belmont (1) 353
5. Valparaiso (1) 343
6. Bradley (1) 313

NEC
1. LIU (7)
2. Mercyhurst (2)
T3. CCSU
T3. Le Moyne
5. Wagner
T6. FDU
T6. Stonehill
8. Chicago State
9. New Haven

OVC
1. Tennessee State (13) 125
2. Southeast Missouri (2) 107
T3. Morehead State (3) 86
T3. SIUE 86
T3. UT Martin 86
6. Lindenwood 61
7. Southern Indiana 44
8. Eastern Illinois 37
9. Western Illinois 17

Pac-12
No 2026-27 media/coaches poll

Patriot
1. American (9) 81
2. Lehigh (1) 72
T3. Colgate 61
T3. Boston University 61
5. Navy 42
6. Bucknell 39
7. Lafayette 29
8. Holy Cross 28
9. Loyola Maryland 26
10. Army West Point 11

SEC
1. Florida
2. Texas
3. Arkansas
4. Tennessee
5. Alabama
6. Vanderbilt
7. Kentucky
8. Missouri
9. Texas A&M
10. Auburn
11. Georgia
12. Oklahoma
13. Ole Miss
14. LSU
15. Mississippi State
16. South Carolina

SoCon
1. Furman (10) 100
2. ETSU (1) 86
3. Wofford 78
4. Samford 70
5. Chattanooga 59
6. Tennessee Tech 57
7. Mercer 47
8. Western Carolina 41
9. VMI 32
10. The Citadel 21
11. UNCG 14

Southland
1. McNeese (11) 121
2. SFA 109
3. A&M-Corpus Christi (1) 98
4. Lamar 91
5. UTRGV 78
6. LSU New Orleans 68
7. HCU 47
8. Northwestern State 45
9. Southeastern 38
10. Nicholls 37
11. UIW 36
12. East Texas A&M 24

Summit
1. North Dakota State (13) 418
2. St. Thomas (11) 410
3. South Dakota State (7) 396
4. Omaha (1) 296
5. South Dakota 240
6. North Dakota 194
7. Oral Roberts 183
8. Kansas City 127

Sun Belt
1. Arkansas State (3) 182
2. James Madison (9) 176
3. Troy 143
4. South Alabama 136
5. Marshall 125
6. Louisiana 117
7. Southern Miss (2) 109
8. App State 105
9. Georgia Southern 85
10. Georgia State 79
11. Old Dominion 76
12. Louisiana Tech 64
13. Coastal Carolina 58
14. ULM 15

SWAC
1. Bethune-Cookman (10) 181
2. Southern (3) 148
3. Alabama A&M 143
4. Florida A&M 125
5. Prairie View A&M 124
6. Jackson State (1) 105
7. Alabama State (1) 102
8. Grambling State 95
9. Texas Southern (1) 75
10. Alcorn State 61
11. Arkansas-Pine Bluff 57
12. Mississippi Valley State 32

UAC
1. Central Arkansas
2. Little Rock
3. Austin Peay
4. UT Arlington
5. Tarleton State
6. Eastern Kentucky
7. Abilene Christian
8. North Alabama
9. West Georgia

WCC
1. Santa Clara (9) 81
2. Saint Mary’s (1) 70
3. San Francisco 58
4. Seattle U 54
5. Pacific 53
6. LMU 46
7. Pepperdine 30
8. San Diego 26
9. Portland 22
10. Denver 10

Every preseason Top 25 team’s schedule, split into games against other preseason Top 25 teams, other teams that were top 75 last season, and everyone else. Arizona and Kentucky play the most ranked teams (11 each). Gonzaga plays 3, with 17 games against everyone else. Only games already set are counted, so later rounds of multi-game events aren’t in yet. Whose schedule is going to expose them?

TL;DR: they matter about as much as real games early in the season.

Very happy Akron did a public exhibition this year. I’ve always said as a sicko I’d attend them and now I finally can. Plus it’s a team in YSU we don’t usually face anymore out of conference. Go zips!

The Players Era 16 tournament in Las Vegas consists of two 8-team brackets, with each team guaranteed three games, plus the two winners playing each other in a fourth game. There's just one small problem: Alabama, Baylor, Creighton, Iowa State, Kansas State, Maryland, Miami, Oregon, TCU, and Tennessee show 29 games outside of this tournament on their schedules, so if they make the final, that's 33, which is one over the new NCAA limit of 32. (Note that the old "you can count one tournament that doesn't count against the limit" rule has been removed.)

Michigan and St. John's found a way around this: they have games "scheduled" against Mississippi Valley State and Columbia, respectively, that would be cancelled if they play four games in Vegas. (The other four teams - Gonzaga, Louisville, San Diego State, and Texas Tech - don't show 29 games outside of the tournament, so even if they play four, they're still under the limit of 32.)

Just like the title says. If these last few weeks of preseason games had actually been regular season games that counted, how would you be reacting to your team's performance?

I feel like bench depth gets overlooked so much when people talk about contenders. Having reliable players who can come in without the whole offense falling apart makes such a difference late in the season.

Voting for the preseason main poll is done, but you can still vote on the top 25 teams from all conferences excluding the ACC, B10, B12, BE & SEC

The "+" in the poll name is a nod to the varied usage of the term "mid-major", as there are teams sometimes discussed as outliers, high or low majors etc. and the scope of this poll includes ALL teams outside of the 5 conferences mentioned above. For this season this will mean all teams in the new P12 and:

A10, AE, American, ASun, BSky, BSth, BW, CAA, CUSA, HORZ, Ivy, MAC, MEAC, Metro, MVC, MWC, NEC, OVC, PAT, SB, SC, SLND, SUM, SWAC, UAC & WCC.

Like the main user poll, this is a closed poll to approved voters, but joining is currently open. To apply simply send me a sentence or two blurb through a DM or a chat if you think you'd be a good contributor and would like to participate. Voters who were active in this poll at the end of last year are pre-approved.

Applications for this poll will be open until Thursday night (closing Fri, Oct 30th 12:01 AM ET) and the deadline to submit a ballot will be Friday night (closing Sat, Oct 31st 12:01 AM ET). The poll results should be posted sometime Saturday or early on Sunday. I will only be on reddit intermittently this week, so I may not be able to respond immediately to inquiries, but rest assured I will review my inboxes when I am able.

The expectation will be the same as last year, don’t miss 4 consecutive weeks and otherwise we mostly have similar guidelines as listed here. Please inquire if you have more questions regarding this specific poll.

Also, if you voted early on in last year's season and then were dropped for inactivity, we’re all about second chances in that scenario, just touch base with me.

Week 2 and onwards I will do my best to continue to submit results soon after the polls close when possible like last year, but at worst aim for same day. This is a one man operation.

Big Ten Plus unfortunately

Mark Pope, Kentucky

I know the seats holding Hardaway at Memphis and Capel at Pitt are hotter in the traditional sense. But I’m going with Pope because of the sheer expectations attached to Kentucky. Ever since reading this helpful explainer in March, I don’t understand how you can assemble a historic $22 million roster only to finish 22-14 and bow out in the NCAA Tournament’s second round. Injuries certainly played a role, but that’s an awfully modest return on such a staggering investment. Kentucky has reloaded with a talented roster headlined by Milan Momcilovic, and Pope enters his third season with one Sweet 16 appearance and plenty of goodwill as a former UK player. But the resources and talent are there. At some point, the results have to match. — Ira Gorawara

The tenor of the offseason changed when the Wildcats won the Momcilovic sweepstakes, but if things don’t click, the teams at the top of the ultra-deep SEC will give UK fans a bi-weekly look at the level they’re not on. — Eric Single

Penny Hardaway, Memphis

He’s gone a couple of years ago if he isn’t one of the most beloved figures in program history. Tigers fans desperately want Hardaway to work out, but none of them would have believed you eight years ago if you told them he’d be entering his ninth season with a grand total of one NCAA Tournament win earned. That’s not nearly enough success to offset the turmoil. Now he’s chipping in with his own money on a roster that probably won’t earn his fourth NCAA bid. Enough. — Joe Rexrode

It’s never a good sign when you’re publicly putting up your own money to fund your roster. And even more concerning when your AD has to then step in and clarify to avoid violations. — Justin Williams

College basketball is better when Memphis is good. The Tigers fell off last season, finishing 13-19 — their worst record since 1970 — and projected a $1.2 million shortfall in ticket sales last season. This feels like a make-or-break year. — Mark Cooper

Hardaway won at least 20 games each of his first seven seasons at his alma mater, but the floor at Memphis finally fell out last season, as the Tigers posted the first losing record of Hardaway’s tenure. Short of a (surprise) return trip to the NCAA Tournament this season, it feels like Memphis’ big bet on its golden era is finally coming to an end. — Matthew Ho