The 2026 Rankings list is what I call the “Crown Jewel” of this site. It’s where the vast majority of the work is put in and it’s what is actually interesting. If you haven’t looked at it yet, it’s what you’re looking for probably. Every few games, the rankings change some. Until a feature showing movement is added to the table, here is a good place to talk about it. I want to preface this by saying yes, we will be guilty of recency bias and that’s okay.
As I write this, I am watching Purdue and Illinois battle it out and Keaton Wagler has an absurd 46 points so far with Braden Smith pouring in 27 and 12 assists. Wagler scored 9 out of 11 from 3 point land. Wagler is one of the Illini’s several NBA prospects and one of college basketball’s many uber-talented freshman and Smith is Purdue’s Senior leader and recent record breaker of the Big 10’s assist record. We’ve come to expect games like this from the undersized (6’0″) Smith but a game like this from Wagler will undoubtedly move him up from where we have him currently at 79th in our Power Rankings. It’s 1 game but he did it with extreme efficiency in a big game against a top opponent in an away game.
Mikel Brown Jr. returned to form from his absence, he should remain where he is at 5.
Wagler will jump up to probably the 50s or 60s, we dont want to overreact on 1 phenomenal game, though he showed he might not need that extra muscle to score. We’ll leave the the discussion for who should be #1 for another post. AJ Dybantsa makes it hard to knock him off the top spot when he scored 43 against Utah today.
Nate Ament solidifies his ranking against Alabama. He’s so fluid and unlocking parts of his game all the time. Just gobs of potential to do whatever he wants. He’s gained a lot of strength and is learning how to impose it.
*** Players movement in internal rankings may not show publicly right away.