In early October, Big 12 coaches cast their annual preseason ballots and pegged Kansas State as the No. 10 team in the conference. Reminder: The Big 12 only consists of 10 teams. As we sit here in late January, however, first-year coach Jerome Tang and Kansas State have proven to be at the extreme of one spectrum on the standings -- just not the one many predicted
After stumbling on the road last week at TCU, the No. 13 Wildcats stacked home wins this week over No. 2 Kansas and Texas Tech to improve to 6-1 in Big 12 play while seizing the No. 1 spot in the regular-season title race in the toughest conference in college basketball. Tang and the gang lead our weekly grades column this week as one of three teams with A+ report cards as they continued their ascent into the upper echelon of the sport.
The middle and bottom of the report card for teams this week is somewhere between some extremes. You'll find the usuals at the bottom -- Georgetown and Texas Tech among them -- but there are plenty of surprise Cs and Ds for teams that are typically teacher's pets who pass with flying colors. (Looking at you, Houston. Falling as a 19.5-point favorite on Sunday to Temple will ding ya.)
Let's dive into the report card for this week. Keep in mind the cycle runs Monday-Sunday.
College basketball grades: This week's report card
| Team | Grade | Analysis | |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Kansas State | A+ | The top of the Big 12 standings is now solely occupied by Kansas State after taking down Kansas in OT then Texas Tech four days later, both wins coming inside the Octagon of Doom. CBS Sports Bracketology expert Jerry Palm has the Wildcats, who were picked to finish last in the Big 12, a projected No. 1 seed after this week. |
 | Alabama | A+ | In two fairly tricky road spots this week, all Alabama did was handle its business in comfortable wins over Vanderbilt and Missouri. At 84.1 points per game, the Crimson Tide are the ninth-highest scoring offense in college hoops. |
 | Arizona | A+ | After experiencing some turbulence earlier in the month, Arizona held serve at home this week with wins over USC and UCLA to move to within two games of first in the regular-season race. |
 | San Diego State | A | With Boise State falling Friday to New Mexico and Nevada falling earlier in the week to Boise State, SDSU's 2-0 record this week allowed it to build a one-game edge in the Mountain West regular season battle. |
 | College of Charleston | A | With comfortable wins over lowly Monmouth and Northwestern this week, Charleston extended its nation's-longest win streak to 20 to improve to 21-1 on the year. |
 | Purdue | A | Purdue escaped with a hugely important road win at Michigan State to kick off its busy week, and rolled that momentum forward with another road win over Minnesota before taking down Maryland on Sunday. |
 | Indiana | A | Double-digit wins over Illinois and Michigan State have the Hoosiers with a much-improved report card this week. Trayce Jackson-Davis averaged 33 points and 12 boards in the two wins. |
 | Saint Mary's | A | Saint Mary's -- not Gonzaga, not BYU, but SAINT MARY'S -- sits alone atop the WCC regular-season standings after defeating Pepperdine and Santa Clara this week. Gonzaga fell at home to Loyola Marymount to open up the door for the Gaels to take hold of the race. |
 | Marquette | A | Wins over Providence and Seton Hall this week kept Shaka Smart's Golden Eagles close in the battle for the Big East. They have the No. 1 offense in college hoops in adjusted efficiency at KenPom and are up to No. 8 on the website. |
 | Tennessee | A- | Two road wins by a combined 32 points over Mississippi State and LSU might have been the expectation, but Tennessee still gets a nice grade for executing. Vols still hanging just off the SEC lead behind Alabama. |
 | Baylor | B+ | Wins in the Big 12 are hard to come by, so Baylor doing so on the road vs. Texas Tech and Oklahoma this week -- even if they were tight to the end -- draws nearly an "A" grade from me. The Bears have won four straight after opening league play 0-3. |
 | North Carolina | B | Neither the win over Boston College nor NC State was all that impressive, but a 2-0 week is a 2-0 week for the preseason No. 1 Tar Heels. They seem to be finding a groove just as Armando Bacot is hitting his stride. |
 | Kentucky | B- | If this was a beauty contest, then Kentucky might be walking home with failing grades -- it trailed in the second half of both games vs. Texas A&M and vs. Georgia -- but the 'Cats eventually went on to win both. They don't seem to have totally clicked, but they're finding ways to win. By Kentucky standards, that's not good enough, but by Kentucky standards *this season*, that's a success story. |
 | Duke | B- | Jeremy Roach returned to the court for Duke on Saturday and the Blue Devils took down the No. 17 Hurricanes in an important bounceback win inside Cameron Indoor. Roach had 14 points off the bench and Kyle Filipowski had a double-double with 17 points and 14 rebounds. |
 | UConn | C | UConn fans can breathe a tiny sigh of relief after the Huskies finally snapped their losing skid with an 86-56 win Sunday over Butler. That followed a close loss to Seton Hall earlier in the week, so UConn isn't completely back yet, but perhaps a W can trigger some positive momentum after a rough patch the last few weeks. |
 | Houston | C- | A 20-point win over Tulane on Tuesday was overshadowed by Sunday's stunning loss to Temple at home as a 19.5-point favorite. The Cougars have just two losses on the season, both as the No. 1-ranked team in the country. |
 | Kansas | D | After a tough-fought OT loss at K-State earlier in the week, TCU marched into Allen Fieldhouse and blasted the Jayhawks by 23 points, the second-largest home loss by margin under Bill Self. |
 | Texas Tech | D | Texas Tech is now 0-7 in Big 12 play, its worst start to conference action since the 2011-12 season, after losses to Baylor and Kansas State this week. It is the only Big 12 team yet to win a conference game thus far this season. |
 | Louisville | F | Pitt smoked Louisville by 21 points on Wednesday as the Cardinals dropped to 0-8 in ACC play. Whatever hope fans had for some momentum this season quickly seems to be subsiding. Louisville is bad and not getting better. |
 | LSU | F | LSU is the unofficial punching bag of the SEC after getting blown out by Alabama, Auburn and Tennessee in its last three games by a combined 79 points. It has not won a game this calendar year. |
 | Georgetown | F | Road losses to Villanova and Xavier this week kept the Hoyas winless in Big East play this season after going winless in Big East play last season, too. The last time Georgetown won a conference game was March 6, 2021. |
