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College Basketball Rankings: Memphis is No. 9 in Top 25 And 1 as it prepares to move on without James Wiseman

James Wiseman announced Thursday that he’s withdrawing from Memphis and will spend the next six months preparing for the NBA Draft without playing college basketball.

The timing is odd.

To be clear, I completely understand when a consensus top-five pick decides to skip college from the jump — or when an injured player concludes returning isn’t worth it. But this isn’t that. Wiseman wanted to play college basketball; that’s why enrolled at Memphis. And he’s not hurt. So, far as I can tell, he’s the only healthy top-five prospect in history to just up and quit his team in the middle of the season for reasons he attached to the NBA Draft.

It’s his right to do it, obviously.

But it’s hard to contrast Wiseman’s decision to bolt with what Zion Williamson did last February and not speculate about the difference in mindset of the two players. When Williamson suffered a knee injury against North Carolina after establishing himself as the sure-bet No. 1 pick of the 2019 NBA Draft, literally millions of people insisted he should not play another minute of college basketball. But the eventual consensus National Player of the Year paid it no mind. He loved playing with his best friends, loved representing Duke and wanted to compete for a national championship. He saw real value in college basketball. So he played and, by extension, benefitted — evidence being that he signed the richest annual rookie shoe deal in history.

Wiseman saw no similar value.

Or, at least, he was convinced by others that the pros of rejoining the Tigers in a little more than three weeks did not outweigh the cons. Again, it’s Wiseman’s right to reach that conclusion. And a person could reasonably argue it’s the smart conclusion to reach, I guess. But by leaving his team, after serving the majority of his 12-game suspension, Wiseman has, I’m told, lost the respect of some of his former coaches and teammates. Everybody will say the right things publicly, probably. But behind the scenes, the coaches who fought for him, and the players who backed him, feel abandoned. If Zion Williamson could still play for Duke even after solidifying his draft stock in ways that far exceed what James Wiseman has done, some Memphis players are wondering, why didn’t James Wiseman choose to do the same?

It’s a fair question to ask.

Either way, the season will roll on — and the good news for Memphis is that, so far, the Tigers have been really good without Wiseman. They’re 7-0 in his absence with victories over Tennessee, NC State and Ole Miss. That’s not meant to suggest Memphis is better, or even just as good, without the star center because that would be a foolish thing to suggest. But, on paper, the Tigers should still be good enough to win the AAC and compete for a trip to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament.

Memphis is No. 9 in Friday’s updated Top 25 And 1. The Tigers play Jackson State on Saturday. And Kansas is No. 1 for the fifth consecutive morning. The Jayhawks play at Villanova on Saturday.

Friday’s Top 25 And 1 rankings

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