Grading teams this season has, for the most part, followed a formula. I’ve leaned on tougher grades overall and been more judicious with “As,” requiring only truly special weeks from teams to earn that distinction. This week, however, I went full Oprah with the “As.” We’re almost to February. Conference races are fully in form, and a big nonconference weekend served as a perfect late-season test before tournament time.
With heightened stakes come heightened credit. Tennessee, Purdue, Baylor and two others got the rare A+ treatment, and nine total teams earned As on the week.
For all the chaos this weekend — seven ranked teams fell to unranked teams in a wild shakeup Saturday — I felt it necessary to reward those who avoided disaster. Of course, that means those who were not so fortunate must pay the price with some ugly grades.
So let’s dive into the report card for this week. Keep in mind the cycle runs Monday-Sunday.