Who is the nominee for the No. 1 college men’s basketball team after Purdue’s loss to Rutgers?

Was it only last season that Gonzaga won every game? When we always know the name of the national No. 1 team? When Bracket so easy?

That’s the day …

The new season is only a month away and we’re about to have our fourth-place team in the AP Top 25 poll. We can thank star Rutgers Ron Harper Jr., for the half-court heroes, and we can conclude – in just four weeks and three days – that it will be one of those years.

Purdue’s loss at Rutgers brought an early end to the team’s first week at the top of the national leaderboard. Defending national champion Baylor will be next on the hot seat, provided the #2 Bears survive the numbers it will be an epic challenge to visit No. 6 Villanova on Sunday afternoon (3 p.m.). dimension ET, ABC).

Those with long memories recall how close the short-sleeved Wildcats ended Baylor’s title turn in Sweet 16 last March. The cats are back in full strength with Collin Gillespie running the program, so the Bears can’t guarantee when Monday’s poll results are released.

Meanwhile, Purdue will have to scratch his head on his way back to West Lafayette. Boiling water couldn’t be the better team on Thursday night but looks ready to get rid of the Piscataway on a Trevion Williams layup with four seconds to play.

Harper, however, has other ideas. And he revived the season of Scarlet Knights in the process. The boys from Jersey came back 4-4, losing to the likes of Lafayette and UMass and by 35 points in the Big Ten opener in Illinois. The thought that they might be ready to upset the best Purdue team in decades is never a serious consideration.

The good news for the Dolls team is that a loss doesn’t rule anything out. Not a 1st seed, not an official run at the NCAA championship, not even a recap of their 1st place.

Hell, if Villanova beat Baylor and the Hammers of the Bunker State on Sunday, maybe the voters would forget about the last second of the game against the Rutgers. It’s enough to give a voter – not to mention a bracket house – a headache.

Come to think of it, the rules of the game require us to have 4 No. 1 seeds in the next group. Entering the weekend, Baylor (South Zone) became the #1 seed overall. In order, the Bears are followed by Duke (East Zone), Gonzaga (West Zone) and the aforementioned teams of Boilers (Midwest Region).

In fact, one could argue nearly any order, or even Kansas or UCLA are back at the top. But with a handful of loss-making candidates in the mix, this analyst prefers to measure the quality of those losses. Duke received the nod in 2nd place ahead of Gonzaga, after defeating Zags. The Blues also took the lead from Purdue, as their loss at Ohio State was unlike the Bunker’s loss to the underrated Rutgers. And, for me, the way Purdue lost to the point of falling out of top lane was completely unreasonable.

All we really know is that the top teams will be playing a lot of chess between now and March. And the identity of the last person to the throne is significantly more uncertain than it was a year ago.

In other words, it’s normal business in college basketball. We now enter another volatile weekend with last year’s champions at the top of the table. Can Baylor book permanent accommodation and defend its title?

If the first four weeks of this season are any indication, don’t bet on it.