Before we get into the Never Been Kissed rankings for this year in D1 Men’s Basketball, we will take a moment to congratulate the D3 Men’s Basketball teams who made the Sweet Sixteen by surviving this past weekend. Among them is WashU, winning two straight overtime games to make the Sweet Sixteen for the ninth time — their last time qualifying was in March 2020 before COVID shut down the remainder of the D3 tourney.

OK, back to D1. This week saw several members take a step back, including our top two TCU (two losses this week) and Nebraska (one loss, one win). N.C. State, UNC-Wilmington, and Oakland dropped all the way out of our rankings after losses this week. SMU is on a three-game skid (two this week) and dropped 16 places in the KenPom, while Samford got waxed by 22 at Wofford and dropped 14 spots.

On a positive note, Grand Canyon rebounded from their two-game skid with two emphatic wins this week, moving up 11 spots in the KenPom and three in the NBK. UC-Irvine also blew out their opponents this week, moving up 14 in the KenPom and one in the NBK. Akron, Charleston, and Youngstown St make their NBK 2024 debuts. Our NBK Four from the Mountain West Conference all held onto their spots in Joey’s Bracket, with Boise St shoving New Mexico to the very brink of the bracket, Lobos losing at Broncos by ten.

The two weeks of Championship Week are now underway, as the Ohio Valley, Big South, Missouri Valley, and Atlantic Sun will all crown tournament champions by Sunday.

Data courtesy Kenpom.com and ESPN Bracketology and ESPN Bubble Watch ($)