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Contender or Pretender? Sorting Out Men’s College Basketball’s Top 10

These teams are playing well right now, but not everyone has the same March ceiling.

The outset of conference play is near, and with 10-plus games under the belt of the vast majority of teams, the small sample sizes that cause early-season overreactions are starting to disappear. So six weeks into the season, I decided to look at the AP top 10 and sort out which teams seem destined for March success and which ones might be most prone to falling short.

No. 1 Purdue: Pretender

I’ve written positively about the Boilermakers all season long, and they’ve certainly earned their lofty national ranking with blowout wins over Duke and Gonzaga.