College basketball power rankings: Kansas up to No. 2; Texas A&M, Northwestern make debuts in Hey Nineteen

We have less than a week to go until March arrives and the inconsistency across the top of the sport will not cease. Ranked teams are losing on a nightly basis (we’ve had more days of unranked teams beating ranked teams this season than any other, according to ESPN Stats & Information) and this feels like the bumpiest run through February I can remember. 

Which is why you’re about to read through a set of rankings that are so very unlike any other you’ll find out there. As you’ll see below, I post a reminder each week of exactly I’m doing with the Hey Nineteen. But there’s some major shake-up here. Virginia lost at BC, Tennessee and Iowa State have lost four of five, Baylor’s dropped two straight, Xavier’s lost three of four, Indiana’s lost two of three, and even a school like Pitt, on the fringes of these rankings, took a tough loss against Virginia Tech in the past week. 

I’ve made an executive decision to highlight the small schools who have been on a tear over the past month-plus. After all, these rankings are not bracket projections and they are not trying to tell you explicitly who the very best teams are in the sport. I’m giving you a hot list of who’s trending. As you’ll see below, there are some mid-majors playing more consistently than most power-conference programs. Let’s give them some recognition. So, consider this a quick crash course in the Cinderella candidates that will become trendy talking points in a couple of weeks if they get their business done in the conference tournaments. 

Most teams in this sport right now are struggling to build momentum going into the postseason. If you want the exceptions, take a look at this week’s rankings.

Hey Nineteen Power Rankings

Reminder: My rankings are not solely about whom I think is “best.” This is a weekly encapsulation of the 19 hottest, most successful and/or most *interesting* teams, combining team quality with win quality but also having no shame for recency bias and rewarding significant winning streaks. All records shown are vs. D-I competition.