10 Thoughts on the first full week of college basketball
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Photo by Phil Ellsworth, ESPN Images[/caption]
It's Thursday morning, which means that we have officially hit the one-week mark in the college basketball season. And with all the big "Feast Week" events now completed - the Champions Classic, Jimmy V, the Maui Invitational that wasn't in Maui - now seems like as good a time as any to recap what we've seen so far.
Here are 10 thoughts on the national college basketball scene through one week.
1) Gonzaga and Baylor seem to be the pretty clear cut top two in college basketball right now
Understand, this is no disrespect to anyone else. And there's no reason to think that others can't eventually catch up. But considering that Villanova, Virginia, Duke, Kentucky, Kansas, you name it, all have at least one loss, right now it feels like the Zags and Baylor are the top two teams in the country.
And after each took care of a Top 10 opponent on Wednesday night at the Jimmy V Classic, I'm not sure it's all that close.
Starting with Gonzaga, I know that there is still a fragment of the college basketball world that thinks "Oh my God, they don't play anybody, how good could they be." And to that, I would say "if you're still saying that, you're simply being stubborn or not paying attention." The Zags have already beaten Kansas convincingly and took down West Virginia on Wednesday night, with their best player essentially sidelined the whole game.
And really, I think a legitimate argument could that that West Virginia victory was the most impressive win anyone has had all season. The Zags lost their best player - freshman Jalen Suggs - with what looked like a terrifying lower leg injury early in the game. Thankfully it wasn't as bad as it looked, and he eventually returned to the game but clearly wasn't 100 percent. So now you've got the Zags, without their best player, and against the most physically imposing team in college hoops - and they still got the win? Not bad at all.
Then there is Baylor, which easily dispatched of Illinois in the Jimmy V late night game. Illinois is a legit Big Ten title contender, with three potential NBA players in their starting lineup, and Baylor pulled away late for a 13-point win. The Bears have four different guys who can get you 20 on any given night in their backcourt, and two seven-foot rim protectors down low. Just based on the looks of things, this team could actually be better than last year's squad which won 22 games in a row at one point.
Oh, and did I mention Gonzaga and Baylor are playing on Saturday?! Go ahead and sign me up for what should be some really good basketball.
These are the two best teams in the sport. And I'm not sure it's close right now.
2) Kentucky Stinks
I wrote about it earlier this week, so I won't rehash too much here. If you want to read my thoughts on Kentucky's abysmal start, click here.
That's not to say that this team won't eventually figure it out, because with their athleticism and ability on the defensive end, I believe they will.
But right now, there just isn't all that much to be excited about.
3) Duke stinks too
First off, let me just ask this: Of every sports venue where we've seen no fans, was there any weirder one than Cameron Indoor Arena? There were the bizarre, cardboard cutouts of the "crazies." Duke's players weirdly stalking the sidelines when the other team had the ball. The echoes. It was all just so bizarre.
https://twitter.com/Aaron_Torres/status/1333957041497407488
As far as the actual Duke basketball team, well, they stink too. Frankly, I think a lot of their problems are pretty similar to Kentucky's.
First off, like Kentucky, they are entering the season with a true freshman at point guard. In their case his name is Jeremy Roach, and much like Kentucky, they essentially have no flow or consistency to their offense. To be clear, that's not all on Roach. Unfortunately as the point guard though, he takes the brunt of the blame. As mentioned the last few days, Kentucky has been incredibly inefficient on offense, with a staggering 36 turnovers and 13 assists in their last two games, and frankly, Duke isn't much better. In their two games this season, they have 39 turnovers and 29 assists, which yeah, ain't gonna get it done against good teams.
Really beyond that though, I'm just not sure how all the pieces fit for Duke. Last year they had kind of a weird team, but they had a veteran point guard who was the ACC Player of the Year (Tre Jones) so it really didn't matter. This year, basically everyone is an entirely new role. Along with their freshman point guard (Roach), Matthew Hurt is being asked to be a star, and well, I'm just not sure that's in his DNA. Fellow sophomore Wendell Moore has a chance to be really good, but went 0-9 from the field against Michigan State, which leaves the onus on freshman Jalen Johnson to do everything for Duke. Not all that different from kind of the role that BJ Boston is sort-of being thrust into at Kentucky.
Like Kentucky, I think Duke will eventually figure it out.
But man, they just aren't very good right now.
4) North Carolina is back... sort of
To be perfectly honest, I'm not really sure how good North Carolina is. They lost in the Maui/Asheville Invitational championship game to Texas, and even in their semifinal against Stanford, it was hard to know how good they were, since the refs took over the game.
Seriously, if you didn't see the stunt that Teddy Valentine pulled, watch below. It was a microcosm of the entire game.
https://twitter.com/BadSportsRefs/status/1334026824997859328
Still, this isn't just about whether North Carolina is good or not, but instead, how good they are... relative to last year. And if you've forgotten, the Tar Heels were nothing short of an abomination a season ago.
Like, they finished tied for last place in the ACC, bad. Like, the worst season in the modern history of North Carolina bad.
So the good news is, there is no where to go but up, and this team is definitely headed there. Like Duke and Kentucky, they have a freshman point guard, Caleb Love, who is definitely a work in progress (he has 10 assists and 13 turnovers this season). But they also have scoring on the wing from a fellow freshman named RJ Davis (who is actually the team's leading scorer) and man, do they have talent down low. Both Garrison Brooks and Armando Bacot are back, and averaging over 23 points and 16 rebounds per game. They also have a freshman named Day'Ron Sharpe that legitimately looks like a 30-year-old grown man on the court.
In the end, I'm not saying this is a national championship caliber team.
But it's also a lot better than last season.
5) This is also, in my opinion, the best Indiana team in a long time
I know that Indiana has become a national punching bag over the last, well, few decades. And admittedly it feels justified. This is a team that, incredibly, hasn't played in the NCAA Tournament since 2016. That was the year they beat a Tyler Ulis led Kentucky team in the second round of the tournament - which feels like a lifetime ago. They've made one Final Four since the turn of the century, and even that was a little bit fluky since they finished sixth in the Big Ten that season (2002). For comparison's sake, George Mason, Wichita State, VCU and Loyola (IL) have made a Final Four since the last time Indiana did. Heck, Butler has made two.
Still, if you've been paying attention closely, Archie Miller has slowly been wiping the ick of the Tom Crean era off the floor in Bloomington, and seemingly has this program trending in the right direction. Had there been an NCAA Tournament last season, the Hoosiers would've been in, and this year looks like his best team yet.
In the Maui/Asheville Invitational, the Hoosiers picked up two dominant wins over Providence and Stanford, and their loss was to Texas, the eventual champ. More importantly, they appear to have an identity. They play really hard on the defensive end, holding Providence and Stanford to an average of 61 points per game, and move the ball well on offense. They also have a legitimate star in Trayce Jackson-Davis, who is averaging 21 and seven this season.
Ultimately I get that at Indiana, the program is judged by deep tournament runs (or at least it used to be anyway). But to me, this is the best Hoosiers team we've seen in a long time.
6) Shaka Smart may have finally figured things out
First off, shout out to Shaka Smart's hair, which has been the breakout star of the early portion of the college hoops season. Seriously, who knew that guy had a head of lettuce quite like the one he's rocking right now? We're talking a 15 seed versus No. 2 seed upset here.
https://twitter.com/L_Martinez13/status/1333487825027813380
Ok, now that I'm off my Jay Bilas "let's talk way too much about hair" soapbox, let's talk about Smart himself. Because no one has been more critical of the guy than I've been. In my defense though, it's been justified. He's been at Texas for five years and has zero NCAA Tournament wins to show for it. He's got a losing record in Big 12 play and his best team was in 2015 when it was filled with Rick Barnes' players.
So yeah, forgive me for being critical. But it looks as though he has finally figured things out.
The Longhorns went to Maui/Asheville and picked up a trio of impressive wins, including victories over Indiana and North Carolina.
Specifically, it's the guard play which has been so impressive for Texas. Senior point guard Matt Coleman has quietly been one of the most consistent players in college hoops, averaging 16 points and five assists, while junior guard Courtney Ramey is averaging 15 per night (fun fact on Ramey: He was the final player to commit to Rick Pitino, before Pitino was fired, and then ended up at Texas). And the frontcourt is full of size and athleticism with Kai Jones, Greg Brown and others.
We'll find out just how for real these Longhorns are, because the schedule doesn't get any easier, with a game against Villanova on Sunday.
But so far, the Longhorns have looked like the real deal.
7) Speaking of Texas, the Big 12 might be the best conference in college basketball
An argument could absolutely be made that the Big Ten is better, and we'll find out with this week's ACC-Big Ten Challenge, which features the likes of North Carolina-Iowa, Duke-Illinois, Michigan State-Virginia, on and on. But for the time being, the advantage in my opinion, goes to the Big 12.
As mentioned up top, Baylor has the look of one of the two best teams in the country. West Virginia and Kansas have only lost to Gonzaga, which is the only team that might actually be better than Baylor (we'll find out Saturday). Texas is coming off those back-to-back wins over Indiana and North Carolina, and don't sleep on Oklahoma State going on the road and beating Marquette. Texas Tech will be good as well.
We'll find out if the Big Ten is better in this coming week. But right now, it's advantage Big 12.
8) The SEC... yeah, not a great start
I still believe there are six, maybe seven SEC teams that will end up in the NCAA Tournament. But it's safe to say this league is off to a decent, but not great start.
We already talked about Kentucky above, and LSU has already lost a game to Saint Louis (who is an admittedly good team). Alabama, which was the preseason darling of many (I liked them, but didn't love them) did go 2-1 at the Maui/Asheville Invitational, but that loss, to Stanford was a blowout. Auburn looks dreadful, and how about my guy Mike White... who nearly lost to Army in Florida's opener. ARMY!! South Carolina also took a loss to Liberty in its opener.
So far, just about the only solid win of the entire season has come from Missouri of all teams, which beat Oregon on Wednesday night.
We'll find more about all these teams, including a few I haven't mentioned (Arkansas, Texas A&M) in coming weeks.
9) How about the A-10?
I mean, I don't really know what to say about the A-10 that hasn't already been said. Other than... mercy does this league look good early. Here are some of their signature wins:
Richmond won at Kentucky.
Saint Louis beat LSU.
Rhode Island beat Seton Hall.
VCU beat Memphis, and their only losses have been to West Virginia and Penn State on a buzzer beater.
And we haven't even really seen Dayton yet.
Overall, this league is absolutely trending as one which will get at least a couple teams in the NCAA Tournament.
10) Some games to look out for this coming week
I'm not sure if this will end up as a weekly column or not, but if it does, let's end with what to look ahead to this coming week. And my oh MY is a loaded week.
Saturday:
No. 2 Baylor vs. No. 1 Gonzaga (1:00 p.m. ET, CBS)
Sunday:
No. 12 Villanova at No. 17 Texas (1:00 p.m. ET, ESPN)
No. 20 Kentucky vs. Georgia Tech (5:00 p.m. ET, ESPN)
Tuesday:
No. 9 Creighton at No. 8 Kansas (4:00 p.m. ET, ESPN)
No. 14 North Carolina at No. 3 Iowa (7:30 ET, ESPN)
No. 5 Illinois at No. 6 Duke (9:30 p.m. ET, ESPN)
Wednesday:
Louisville at No. 4 Wisconsin (7:15 p.m. ET, ESPN)
No. 8 Michigan State at No. 15 Virginia (9:15 p.m. ET, ESPN)
Indiana at No. 22 Florida State (9:15 p.m. ET, ESPN2)
For more on Tuesday's Champions Classic, click here. And for a quick recap on Gonzaga, Baylor and the Jimmy V event, you can listen to today's Aaron Torres Podcast
Photo by Phil Ellsworth, ESPN Images[/caption]
It's Thursday morning, which means that we have officially hit the one-week mark in the college basketball season. And with all the big "Feast Week" events now completed - the Champions Classic, Jimmy V, the Maui Invitational that wasn't in Maui - now seems like as good a time as any to recap what we've seen so far.
Here are 10 thoughts on the national college basketball scene through one week.
1) Gonzaga and Baylor seem to be the pretty clear cut top two in college basketball right now
Understand, this is no disrespect to anyone else. And there's no reason to think that others can't eventually catch up. But considering that Villanova, Virginia, Duke, Kentucky, Kansas, you name it, all have at least one loss, right now it feels like the Zags and Baylor are the top two teams in the country.
And after each took care of a Top 10 opponent on Wednesday night at the Jimmy V Classic, I'm not sure it's all that close.
Starting with Gonzaga, I know that there is still a fragment of the college basketball world that thinks "Oh my God, they don't play anybody, how good could they be." And to that, I would say "if you're still saying that, you're simply being stubborn or not paying attention." The Zags have already beaten Kansas convincingly and took down West Virginia on Wednesday night, with their best player essentially sidelined the whole game.
And really, I think a legitimate argument could that that West Virginia victory was the most impressive win anyone has had all season. The Zags lost their best player - freshman Jalen Suggs - with what looked like a terrifying lower leg injury early in the game. Thankfully it wasn't as bad as it looked, and he eventually returned to the game but clearly wasn't 100 percent. So now you've got the Zags, without their best player, and against the most physically imposing team in college hoops - and they still got the win? Not bad at all.
Then there is Baylor, which easily dispatched of Illinois in the Jimmy V late night game. Illinois is a legit Big Ten title contender, with three potential NBA players in their starting lineup, and Baylor pulled away late for a 13-point win. The Bears have four different guys who can get you 20 on any given night in their backcourt, and two seven-foot rim protectors down low. Just based on the looks of things, this team could actually be better than last year's squad which won 22 games in a row at one point.
Oh, and did I mention Gonzaga and Baylor are playing on Saturday?! Go ahead and sign me up for what should be some really good basketball.
These are the two best teams in the sport. And I'm not sure it's close right now.
2) Kentucky Stinks
I wrote about it earlier this week, so I won't rehash too much here. If you want to read my thoughts on Kentucky's abysmal start, click here.
That's not to say that this team won't eventually figure it out, because with their athleticism and ability on the defensive end, I believe they will.
But right now, there just isn't all that much to be excited about.
3) Duke stinks too
First off, let me just ask this: Of every sports venue where we've seen no fans, was there any weirder one than Cameron Indoor Arena? There were the bizarre, cardboard cutouts of the "crazies." Duke's players weirdly stalking the sidelines when the other team had the ball. The echoes. It was all just so bizarre.
https://twitter.com/Aaron_Torres/status/1333957041497407488
As far as the actual Duke basketball team, well, they stink too. Frankly, I think a lot of their problems are pretty similar to Kentucky's.
First off, like Kentucky, they are entering the season with a true freshman at point guard. In their case his name is Jeremy Roach, and much like Kentucky, they essentially have no flow or consistency to their offense. To be clear, that's not all on Roach. Unfortunately as the point guard though, he takes the brunt of the blame. As mentioned the last few days, Kentucky has been incredibly inefficient on offense, with a staggering 36 turnovers and 13 assists in their last two games, and frankly, Duke isn't much better. In their two games this season, they have 39 turnovers and 29 assists, which yeah, ain't gonna get it done against good teams.
Really beyond that though, I'm just not sure how all the pieces fit for Duke. Last year they had kind of a weird team, but they had a veteran point guard who was the ACC Player of the Year (Tre Jones) so it really didn't matter. This year, basically everyone is an entirely new role. Along with their freshman point guard (Roach), Matthew Hurt is being asked to be a star, and well, I'm just not sure that's in his DNA. Fellow sophomore Wendell Moore has a chance to be really good, but went 0-9 from the field against Michigan State, which leaves the onus on freshman Jalen Johnson to do everything for Duke. Not all that different from kind of the role that BJ Boston is sort-of being thrust into at Kentucky.
Like Kentucky, I think Duke will eventually figure it out.
But man, they just aren't very good right now.
4) North Carolina is back... sort of
To be perfectly honest, I'm not really sure how good North Carolina is. They lost in the Maui/Asheville Invitational championship game to Texas, and even in their semifinal against Stanford, it was hard to know how good they were, since the refs took over the game.
Seriously, if you didn't see the stunt that Teddy Valentine pulled, watch below. It was a microcosm of the entire game.
https://twitter.com/BadSportsRefs/status/1334026824997859328
Still, this isn't just about whether North Carolina is good or not, but instead, how good they are... relative to last year. And if you've forgotten, the Tar Heels were nothing short of an abomination a season ago.
Like, they finished tied for last place in the ACC, bad. Like, the worst season in the modern history of North Carolina bad.
So the good news is, there is no where to go but up, and this team is definitely headed there. Like Duke and Kentucky, they have a freshman point guard, Caleb Love, who is definitely a work in progress (he has 10 assists and 13 turnovers this season). But they also have scoring on the wing from a fellow freshman named RJ Davis (who is actually the team's leading scorer) and man, do they have talent down low. Both Garrison Brooks and Armando Bacot are back, and averaging over 23 points and 16 rebounds per game. They also have a freshman named Day'Ron Sharpe that legitimately looks like a 30-year-old grown man on the court.
In the end, I'm not saying this is a national championship caliber team.
But it's also a lot better than last season.
5) This is also, in my opinion, the best Indiana team in a long time
I know that Indiana has become a national punching bag over the last, well, few decades. And admittedly it feels justified. This is a team that, incredibly, hasn't played in the NCAA Tournament since 2016. That was the year they beat a Tyler Ulis led Kentucky team in the second round of the tournament - which feels like a lifetime ago. They've made one Final Four since the turn of the century, and even that was a little bit fluky since they finished sixth in the Big Ten that season (2002). For comparison's sake, George Mason, Wichita State, VCU and Loyola (IL) have made a Final Four since the last time Indiana did. Heck, Butler has made two.
Still, if you've been paying attention closely, Archie Miller has slowly been wiping the ick of the Tom Crean era off the floor in Bloomington, and seemingly has this program trending in the right direction. Had there been an NCAA Tournament last season, the Hoosiers would've been in, and this year looks like his best team yet.
In the Maui/Asheville Invitational, the Hoosiers picked up two dominant wins over Providence and Stanford, and their loss was to Texas, the eventual champ. More importantly, they appear to have an identity. They play really hard on the defensive end, holding Providence and Stanford to an average of 61 points per game, and move the ball well on offense. They also have a legitimate star in Trayce Jackson-Davis, who is averaging 21 and seven this season.
Ultimately I get that at Indiana, the program is judged by deep tournament runs (or at least it used to be anyway). But to me, this is the best Hoosiers team we've seen in a long time.
6) Shaka Smart may have finally figured things out
First off, shout out to Shaka Smart's hair, which has been the breakout star of the early portion of the college hoops season. Seriously, who knew that guy had a head of lettuce quite like the one he's rocking right now? We're talking a 15 seed versus No. 2 seed upset here.
https://twitter.com/L_Martinez13/status/1333487825027813380
Ok, now that I'm off my Jay Bilas "let's talk way too much about hair" soapbox, let's talk about Smart himself. Because no one has been more critical of the guy than I've been. In my defense though, it's been justified. He's been at Texas for five years and has zero NCAA Tournament wins to show for it. He's got a losing record in Big 12 play and his best team was in 2015 when it was filled with Rick Barnes' players.
So yeah, forgive me for being critical. But it looks as though he has finally figured things out.
The Longhorns went to Maui/Asheville and picked up a trio of impressive wins, including victories over Indiana and North Carolina.
Specifically, it's the guard play which has been so impressive for Texas. Senior point guard Matt Coleman has quietly been one of the most consistent players in college hoops, averaging 16 points and five assists, while junior guard Courtney Ramey is averaging 15 per night (fun fact on Ramey: He was the final player to commit to Rick Pitino, before Pitino was fired, and then ended up at Texas). And the frontcourt is full of size and athleticism with Kai Jones, Greg Brown and others.
We'll find out just how for real these Longhorns are, because the schedule doesn't get any easier, with a game against Villanova on Sunday.
But so far, the Longhorns have looked like the real deal.
7) Speaking of Texas, the Big 12 might be the best conference in college basketball
An argument could absolutely be made that the Big Ten is better, and we'll find out with this week's ACC-Big Ten Challenge, which features the likes of North Carolina-Iowa, Duke-Illinois, Michigan State-Virginia, on and on. But for the time being, the advantage in my opinion, goes to the Big 12.
As mentioned up top, Baylor has the look of one of the two best teams in the country. West Virginia and Kansas have only lost to Gonzaga, which is the only team that might actually be better than Baylor (we'll find out Saturday). Texas is coming off those back-to-back wins over Indiana and North Carolina, and don't sleep on Oklahoma State going on the road and beating Marquette. Texas Tech will be good as well.
We'll find out if the Big Ten is better in this coming week. But right now, it's advantage Big 12.
8) The SEC... yeah, not a great start
I still believe there are six, maybe seven SEC teams that will end up in the NCAA Tournament. But it's safe to say this league is off to a decent, but not great start.
We already talked about Kentucky above, and LSU has already lost a game to Saint Louis (who is an admittedly good team). Alabama, which was the preseason darling of many (I liked them, but didn't love them) did go 2-1 at the Maui/Asheville Invitational, but that loss, to Stanford was a blowout. Auburn looks dreadful, and how about my guy Mike White... who nearly lost to Army in Florida's opener. ARMY!! South Carolina also took a loss to Liberty in its opener.
So far, just about the only solid win of the entire season has come from Missouri of all teams, which beat Oregon on Wednesday night.
We'll find more about all these teams, including a few I haven't mentioned (Arkansas, Texas A&M) in coming weeks.
9) How about the A-10?
I mean, I don't really know what to say about the A-10 that hasn't already been said. Other than... mercy does this league look good early. Here are some of their signature wins:
Richmond won at Kentucky.
Saint Louis beat LSU.
Rhode Island beat Seton Hall.
VCU beat Memphis, and their only losses have been to West Virginia and Penn State on a buzzer beater.
And we haven't even really seen Dayton yet.
Overall, this league is absolutely trending as one which will get at least a couple teams in the NCAA Tournament.
10) Some games to look out for this coming week
I'm not sure if this will end up as a weekly column or not, but if it does, let's end with what to look ahead to this coming week. And my oh MY is a loaded week.
Saturday:
No. 2 Baylor vs. No. 1 Gonzaga (1:00 p.m. ET, CBS)
Sunday:
No. 12 Villanova at No. 17 Texas (1:00 p.m. ET, ESPN)
No. 20 Kentucky vs. Georgia Tech (5:00 p.m. ET, ESPN)
Tuesday:
No. 9 Creighton at No. 8 Kansas (4:00 p.m. ET, ESPN)
No. 14 North Carolina at No. 3 Iowa (7:30 ET, ESPN)
No. 5 Illinois at No. 6 Duke (9:30 p.m. ET, ESPN)
Wednesday:
Louisville at No. 4 Wisconsin (7:15 p.m. ET, ESPN)
No. 8 Michigan State at No. 15 Virginia (9:15 p.m. ET, ESPN)
Indiana at No. 22 Florida State (9:15 p.m. ET, ESPN2)
For more on Tuesday's Champions Classic, click here. And for a quick recap on Gonzaga, Baylor and the Jimmy V event, you can listen to today's Aaron Torres Podcast
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