Wichita State Debuts at No. 24 in AP Rankings

The schedule has been up and down, against the toughest and some of the easiest opponents, but nothing has appeared to give Wichita State difficulty so far.

The 8-0 Shockers debuted in the AP poll this week at No. 24, based on their impressive resume so far. Needless to say, we had some doubts at the beginning of the year about whether Wichita State had what it would take to be this good, this soon.

But the team has quashed those questions based on their top defensive marks so far. And much of the offensive credit should go to junior college transfer Cleanthony Early, who has been dominant in the early going.

Wichita State is the only new mid-major to make the rankings, after Illinois State lost a heartbreaker to Louisville on Saturday. The Redbirds, as we detailed in the computer rankings this week, would have made an interesting case for the humans voters to consider.

Gonzaga moved up to the No. 10 spot with two more wins, comprised of a dominant win against a non-Division 1 opponent and an easy romp over future WCC-team Pacific.

Creighton suffered its first loss at the hands of Boise State earlier in the week, when its defensive woes from last season returned. That cost the Bluejays, even though they got back on the winning side of the ledger against St. Joseph's. Creighton came in at No. 16 this week, down five spots.

With Ohio losing to Robert Morris, and Memphis having just a single game against Tennessee-Martin (and a whole lot of questions), only one other mid-major received votes this week. Murray State received four points.