| Rank | Team | Comments | Prior | |
| 1 |  | Syracuse | Syracuse had enough spurts to survive their first real road test of the season against North Carolina State. | 1 |
| 2 |  | Louisville | The Cardinals put up 95 points against Memphis. We'll see what they do to Charleston and WKU this week. | 2 |
| 3 |  | North Carolina | North Carolina can put up a ton of points, but this week the defense will need to step up against Texas. | 3 |
| 4 |  | Ohio State | The health of Jared Sullinger is the big story and the good news is the Buckeyes won't need him for a little while. | 4 |
| 5 |  | Kentucky | Kentucky rebounded nicely from their loss to IU and should keep winning until the big showdown with Louisville. | 5 |
| 6 |  | Kansas | Kansas did not have a game last week, but will take on Davidson on Monday and head to USC on Thursday. | 6 |
| 7 |  | Duke | The Dukies will take a short study break to take on UNC Greensboro on Monday. Then it's back to the books. | 7 |
| 8 |  | Connecticut | The Huskies had no rust after their ten days off when they beat Holy Cross on Sunday. Fairfield is up next. | 8 |
| 9 |  | Baylor | Baylor went on the road, got behind and came back to beat a good BYU team. Next up is the Las Vegas Classic. | 13 |
| 10 |  | Marquette | Marquette is for real, but we probably won't see them in another close game for a couple more weeks. | 10 |
| 11 |  | Florida | Florida had their way with Texas A&M and have a pretty big game against rival Florida State this week. | 12 |
| 12 |  | Missouri | Missouri keeps blowing out the competition and Illinois better shore up their defense before Thursday. | 11 |
| 13 |  | Wisconsin | The Badgers had no trouble with Savannah State and won't have any issues with Mississippi Valley State either. | 14 |
| 14 |  | Xavier | It's really not too surprising that Xavier lost to ORU on Sunday. ORU is good and Xavier was without key players. | 9 |
| 15 |  | Pittsburgh | Pittsburgh only has one loss on the season, but they have let inferior opponents stay too close, like SCSU. | 15 |
| 16 |  | Mississippi State | Beating Florida Atlantic and Detroit is much more impressive than it sounds and this MSU team is pretty good. | 17 |
| 17 |  | Georgetown | The Hoyas knocked off American on Saturday, but now have to try and beat Memphis again before BE play starts. | 19 |
| 18 |  | Michigan | U of M will add another W to their record when they face Bradley on Thursday, but are they ready for the Big Ten? | 21 |
| 19 |  | Michigan State | The Spartans have now won nine games in a row and they will likely make it 11 by the end of the week. | 22 |
| 20 |  | Indiana | The Hoosiers remained undefeated with their win over Notre Dame. The start of the Big Ten slate is brutal. | NR |
| 21 |  | UNLV | UNLV got a nice win on the road against Illinois. They will try to add to their list of quality wins on Friday against Cal. | NR |
| 22 |  | Creighton | The Bluejays might have to beat Tulsa and Northwestern this week if they hope to garner at-large consideration. | NR |
| 23 |  | California | California has a couple good games this week against UCSB and UNLV. After that conference play begins. | 25 |
| 24 |  | Murray State | MSU knocked off Lipscomb and Arkansas State to remain undefeated and it will take an upset for them to lose. | NR |
| 25 |  | Texas A&M | Texas A&M needs to get some good wins, but they won't have the opportunity until January in Big 12 play. | 16 |
12/19 Men's Basketball Top 25
Sun, 12/18/2011
