While many complained about the slow first week of the season, men’s college basketball’s early-season schedule was as stressful as it has been for a long time. From the Champions Classic on November 15th to his Jimmy V Classic on December 6th, there have been so many high-profile matchups and tournaments that we have learned so much about who the country’s top teams truly are. I was.
A month later, let’s take a look at five overreactions we’ve seen in the first few weeks of the season.
The Big Ten have title contenders
Skepticism about March’s Big 10 is earned. The league has produced only two Final Four teams in the last six tournaments (he has never been from outside Michigan) and has not had a national champion since 2000. team.
A month later, I was on multiple Big 10 teams and at least made it to the Final 4. Purdue had first month better than anyone, as the Boilermakers started 9–0 with quality wins over Duke, Gonzaga, Marquette and West Virginia. So far, they have the best players in the country dominating center Zach Eady, and freshman guards Braden Smith and Fletcher Royer have exceeded all expectations. While it’s fair to question whether a team that relies heavily on a young backcourt can succeed in his March, Purdue is clearly one of the nation’s elite so far, and the league has others. There are several dangerous teams in .
Illinois It could be your best bet for the March meeting. New Style Fighting His Illini are ahead of schedule early on and behind the emergence of transfer wing Terrence Shannon Jr. has wins over UCLA and Texas. march. The only concern is the lack of end-game shot creation, which is really needed in a tournament setting.
Indiana Also, with guards Xavier Johnson and Jalen Hood Schifino continuing to improve behind star heavyweight Trace Jackson Davis, teams like Maryland, Wisconsin and Ohio State are also potential dark horses. March is upbeat because
UConn is 10–0 after beating Florida on the road.
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UConn is the No.1 team in Japan
I wrote after PK85 UConn was a legitimate national title contender.
I don’t know if that work has gone far enough. just now, U Conn Should be considered the best in the country.
The Huskies are the only 10-0 team in the nation. They say he has double-digit wins in every game they’ve played. His last five games in them have been against major opponents (three on neutral courts, one at home and one away) and he has won those games by an average margin of nearly 18 points. I’m here. UConn hasn’t lost a second half game this season and didn’t even have his single digits behind an opponent in his final five minutes of a game this season.
Ever beat an elite team? Probably not. But this group checks all the boxes. The Huskies shoot it at a high level, with Adam Sanogo and Donovan Klingan he has two dominant internal presences, shares the ball and has an elite tier. They combine the usual physicality and toughness of the Dan Hurley team with the type of powerful offense needed to contend for championships. teams are a good example), if the NCAA tournament was held today, I would pick UConn to win it all.
Gonzaga has no national title ceiling
yes, Gonzaga Despite spending most of both seasons as the #1 team in the polls, they have failed to win all of the past two years. But there was little doubt that these Zag teams had a real chance of winning it all heading into his March. I don’t know how Gonzaga will be this year.
Bulldogs are good, but not great. Drew Timm is in the talk of National Player of the Year, but Gonzaga lacks the elite guard and high-level defensive bigs that were around him years ago. Sophomore point guard Nolan Hickman was frustratingly inconsistent in positions where the Zags required high-level play. With best guard Rasir Bolton winning his sixth straight in his March, it’s hard to imagine a team going up against a high-level team. And without a rim protector like Chet Holmgren hanging around to eliminate mistakes, Tim’s defensive struggle is more easily attacked.
It will be classic college basketball that this flawed Gonzaga team will finally breakthrough after missing two consecutive elite teams. But a month later, it’s hard to believe this is the team that brought Spokane a championship.
A-10 is 1 bid league
Perhaps no sports conference has had a worse first month than the Atlantic 10. And given how important it is for a midfield league in the majors like the A-10 to make the non-conference haystack, it’s quite possible the league will win the NCAA just one. First tournament bid since 2005.
The two teams with the best prospects in the preseason were Dayton When St. LouisThe Flyers entered the year with high hopes but have remained flat so far, starting 5-5 and 0-5 against KenPom’s top 150 teams. It may not be an automatic bid or a bust yet for Dayton, but for this to become a large team it will need a turnaround that seems highly unlikely at this point. St. Louis are decent against Providence and Memphis But if the league’s best team is blown away by Iona, things are probably not going well.
VCU’s preseason third team in the league suffered a dismal loss to Jacksonville on the ledger, with their best win being a neutral-court victory over Pittsburgh, ending the non-conference slate. Loyola Chicago got off to a much slower start than expected with a new look roster in their first year in the league. George Mason went 0–3 at the Paradise Jam, losing to a bad team from Belmont, Buffalo, and Boston College. Richmond and Davidson look far from common quality. His second best chance for the public outside of St. Louis might be his UMass. The Minutemen look ahead of schedule, but I doubt they’ll be consistent enough to get over that hump in league play.
Additionally, a weak mid-tier in the league makes it much harder for the top of the conference to build a resume. Q2, becoming Q3 at home. This means more potential obstacles while his stack quality wins high majors.
Maryland did well with Kevin Willard
It’s usually best not to make coaching hiring decisions after a season, let alone a month after a season.But it’s hard not to take note of the work Willard did early on Marylandwhich got off to an impressive 8-1 start to the first year.
After retaining the three main cogs in Donta Scott, Julian Rees and Hakim Hart, Willard seamlessly integrated two newcomers in Jameel Young and Don Carey into the starting rotation. His 2023 recruiting classes of Young, Carey and Terps are marked a definite improvement from his Tarjon days in recruiting the talented Maryland, with the high level of competition often seen under Tarjon. The non-conference problem for has disappeared.
Willard’s hiring wasn’t widely praised for his struggles in past NCAA tournaments, but his success at Seton Hall in reviving a program that was in decline is undisputed. So far Willard is making all the right moves, hiring a strong staff and making a good impression early on.
