The last few days of college basketball have been quite a spectacle. On Wednesday we saw St. John's knock off their second top-5 opponent in a row in a win at (1) Villanova. Purdue finally lost their undefeated Big Ten record as Ohio State beat them in West Lafayette. Auburn, a team I've started to really like, lost by 1 to Texas A&M at home, putting a lot of doubt into their surprising season. Duke's struggles continued with loss at rival North Carolina on Thursday, and Arizona looked like a YMCA team in a loss to UCLA at home. College basketball has gone off the wall. I'll try to make sense of it in these rankings.
1. Virginia
Virginia finally claims the #1 spot in my rankings after several top teams lost this week. The defense is downright absurd, with an adjusted rating of 81.8 per KenPom. That's good for the best in basketball. Perhaps the most telling telling mark of Virginia's improvement was Wednesday night against Florida State. The Cavs were down 10 at halftime, but they rallied back in the second half to win 59-55. A previous Virginia team probably wouldn't have done that.
2. Michigan State
With all the stuff going on in East Lansing, the Spartans haven't been too bad. They have won their last 7 games, and a lot of those were won in clutch situations. Michigan State still has a turnover issue, but it hasn't really hurt them in late-game situations. Miles Bridges has scored 20+ points in two of his last three games, so that's also encouraging as we come to the final month of the season. The real test comes tomorrow when they take on Purdue in a top-5 matchup.
3. Villanova
Villanova suffered their second loss on Wednesday when they fell to St John's at home, a team that was previously winless in the Big East. This was coming off a solid 16-point win over Seton Hall, so it was kind of surprising to see the Wildcats get outplayed by a team in the cellar of the Big East. I'm not that worried about this game though because Villanova played without two starters, Phil Booth and Eric Paschall. We need to reevaluate Villanova when it is completely healthy, which should be by the end of February.
4. Purdue
Purdue is finding itself in one of the most grueling two-game stretches of any team this year. First they had to host Ohio State on Wednesday, a game in which they blew a 14-point lead in the second half and lost, and now they must travel to Michigan State. The end of this week could see the Boilermakers fall from undefeated in the Big Ten to 3rd in a matter of 4 days. That's rough. Overall I'm still high on Purdue, but we'll learn much more about them on Saturday.
5. Xavier
You can look at Xavier in two ways. The first is that they are 21-3 (10-2) on the season and have a half-game lead over Villanova in the Big East. The second would be that Xavier has just gotten extremely lucky this season and are not as good as their record suggests. After all, this IS a team that needed a miraculous 4-point play and overtime to get past Georgetown at home a week ago, so who knows what type of team Xavier will be in the tournament? For right now though, they are still hanging on to that elite status.
6. Ohio State
What Ohio State has done in the Big Ten this year has been nothing short of remarkable. This team looked dead in the water early in the season with blowout losses to Gonzaga, North Carolina and Clemson, but they have resurrected themselves with wins over Michigan, Michigan State and Purdue. The Buckeyes are 12-1 in the Big Ten and have already gotten past the hardest part of their schedule. If they win the Big Ten, are we looking at a potential 2 seed in the tournament?
7. Cincinnati
The Bearcats still haven't lost in the AAC so far, and they don't seem likely to anytime soon. Cincinnati currently sits 4th in the KenPom efficiency rankings and has the second-best defense in the country behind Virginia. Strength of schedule is obviously an issue. The American is NOT good at basketball as a whole. But Cincinnati still has two games against Wichita State and one against Houston, so the opportunity to enhance their record is still there.
8. Texas Tech
Every week I feel like I just insert some random Big 12 team and call it a day. This week that honor goes to Texas Tech. The title of the best Big 12 team is a revolving door with whoever lost the longest time ago getting the nod. The Red Raiders have won five straight since their embarrassing defeat against Iowa State back in January. Keenan Evans has put himself into Big 12 POY discussion, but time will tell if his play will be enough to get Tech over the Kansas hump. They are currently tied for the Big 12 lead at 8-3 with the Jayhawks.
9. Saint Mary's
Saint Mary's has been tearing up the WCC and hasn't lost since November 26th. The Gaels already have the all-important road win at Gonzaga, and Jock Landale has put himself into NPOY consideration. The senior center from Australia is averaging 22.7 ppg and 10.7 rpg to go along with 40% 3pt shooting. Put him with perimeter players like Emmett Naar and Calvin Hermanson, and you got yourself a team ranked 3rd nationally in offensive efficiency. Despite their ridiculously awful nickname (the GAELS??!?), Saint Mary's is actually a pretty viable threat this year.
10. Auburn
I was so pissed off at Auburn for losing to Texas A&M on Wednesday. The Tigers were going to be my extreme sleeper Final Four pick, but now I'm not so sure. Auburn is really good offensively. Their 3-point shooting and just overall swagger on that end is overwhelming for many opponents. But I'm worried about their lack of size as we head into March. A&M out rebounded Auburn 33-22, and if that's any indication of how they will handle bigger teams, we have a problem.
No comments:
Post a Comment