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College basketball rankings: Texas A&M moves up in Top 25 And 1 after landing SMU's Zhuric Phelps – CBS Sports
Roster turnover is a real thing in college basketball these days. Nobody is immune from it. Good programs lose good players. The transfer portal is full of them.
But it’s not full with Texas A&M players.
Yeah, the Aggies are losing Tyrece Radford (because he exhausted his eligibility). But every other player who averaged at least 2.2 points per game this season is expected back from a team that advanced to the second round of the 2024 NCAA Tournament — and, on Tuesday, Zhuric Phelps was added to the roster. He’s a 6-foot-5 guard who just averaged 14.8 points, 4.1 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.9 steals in 29.3 minutes per game for an SMU team that finished in the top 70 at BartTorvik.com. His addition has the Aggies up to No. 11 in Version 17.0 of the 2024-25 CBS Sports preseason Top 25 And 1 college basketball rankings.
Shouts to Buzz Williams.
Based on these projections, the 51-year-old Aggies coach should next March become just the second person to ever guide Texas A&M to three straight NCAA Tournament appearances — this after previously becoming the first person to ever guide Virginia Tech to three straight NCAA Tournament appearances, this after becoming just the second person to ever lead Marquette to five straight NCAA Tournament appearances.
It’s a fabulous career.
Again, Texas A&M is now No. 11 in the Top 25 And 1 – where Kansas remains No. 1 thanks to the return of Hunter Dickinson, Dajuan Harris and KJ Adams plus the additions of transfers AJ Storr (Wisconsin), Rylan Griffen (Alabama), Riley Kugel (Florida) and Zeke Mayo (South Dakota State) – and five-star freshman Flory Bidunga. Simply put, the Jayhawks are loaded and sensible favorites in the betting markets to win the 2025 NCAA Tournament. KU is currently listed at +1000 to cut nets next April in San Antonio, according to FanDuel Sportsbook.
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