Gonzaga, Baylor, and Michigan are the best teams that I’ve seen so far this year.
3 Best Teams
- Thread starter TheSpecialSauce
- Start date
Ha. The last 3 unbeatens are the best teams that you've seen? Who'd have thunk it? 😉
Well......Michigan is ranked #7, so apparently the pollsters missed the memo. 😉
They aren't the last three unbeatens. There are currently still eight teams that have played games and have not lost yet.
Gotcha. I just scanned the top 25. I'm guessing the other 5 are like 4-0?
Drake is 13-0. But they are Drake. Winthrop is 11-0. Valentine loves it, but the rest of the world is unimpressed. Sienna is 4-0. And Alabama A&M is 2-0 (the surprise there being that they could find two teams that Alabama A&M could actually beat).
The 5th was the Citadel, but they lost this afternoon to Furman. They were 8-0 before today.
Michigan under Juwan Howard may be turning into the new Kentucky from a recruiting standpoint. That class they have coming in next year is sick.
Still skeptical of Howard as head coach, although if he keeps this up over a couple of seasons I won't stay that way.
Howard was very smart to hire Phil Martelli, an excellent former HC, as his chief assistant. That was critical in helping him transition to college coaching. Martelli has seen and one it all in college basketball, and I think he has been more the Xs and Os guy at Michigan than Howard has.
I thought Michigan was looking like a top team too, but they just got steamrolled by Minnesota.
Relatedly, Marcus Carr has come back down to earth somewhat after playing like any All-American early on.
In his last five games, he has averaged 13.8 PPG, 8-33 from three (24%) and 22-78 from the floor (28%).
It's still early, but Gonzaga's formerly amazing offense is stuck in neutral so far against St. Mary's. They've only scored 17 points at the under eight timeout. Down 22-17.
This might be one of those games I was talking about earlier this year when I said that the WCC teams would be at a huge disadvantage in not having home crowds when trying to beat Gonzaga. Because that place would be going absolutely bonkers right now if there was a crowd there.
This might be one of those games I was talking about earlier this year when I said that the WCC teams would be at a huge disadvantage in not having home crowds when trying to beat Gonzaga. Because that place would be going absolutely bonkers right now if there was a crowd there.
I had an opportunity to attend a game in Moraga many years ago and turned it down, big mistake in my part. That is one of the more underrated nutso home court advantages in the country.
I‘ll probably play Gonzaga in the 2nd half like I did in the Pepperdine game a couple days ago. They are too good to be held down this long, also can’t get the memory of the St Mary’s/BYU game out of my head where the Gaels were shut out for something like 6-7 minutes at the end of the game.
Their scoring has pretty much already ground to a halt here over the last 8 to 10 minutes.
Im not right as often as SMF, but had mentioned I thought this was the worst St Mary’s team of the Randy Bennett era.
It’s as simple as a lack of talent, they just don’t have the horses this year.
They really are hard to watch, you can tell by Bennett’s expression on the sideline that he is in anguish.
I hate the Drake!
He really is. Suggs is one of those guys that’s an obvious one and done, but if you have him for even one year your team has a legit chance to win it all.
Very true. It amazes me how Few gets these kids to come to Spokane after most likely taking visits to Kansas, Kentucky and the likes of UNC. Very, very good program with what coach Few has done.
I think there are a few different reasons for their recruiting success. One is there is a lot of in state talent and Gonzaga is by far the premier program in Washington. They also got a head start over most of the country in the foreign market, every single year they have good talent from outside the USA.
By far the most important though is how many guys they put in the NBA. Year after year Gonzaga puts more guys in the league than anybody other than probably Kentucky and Duke. If you go to Gonzaga and play there is a real legacy of churning out NBA draft picks.
Just left Spokane after six years and Few sells it not Spokane. You are right on with his international connections. These kids WANT to play for him because the NBA will be a couple rows up in the stands. Amazing program. They will be hard to beat this year, the only one that may challenge is Baylor (close to where I live now, lol).
Just saw them flash the Boeheim quote saying that no one is beating Gonzaga and they are the best since the Wooden UCLA teams.
I don’t know about that, the NCAA tournament will (probably) require a 6 game winning streak and Gonzaga will face some decent teams after the 1st round. Outscoring them is probably not a winning strategy, but there are some good solid defensive teams out there that have enough talent to give Gonzaga trouble if they have an off shooting night.
I don’t know about that, the NCAA tournament will (probably) require a 6 game winning streak and Gonzaga will face some decent teams after the 1st round. Outscoring them is probably not a winning strategy, but there are some good solid defensive teams out there that have enough talent to give Gonzaga trouble if they have an off shooting night.
Winthrop is a heck of a team. They're led by DJ Burns, a former top-50 recruit and transfer from Tennessee. Only a redshirt-sophomore too. Needs to work on endurance though. They're currently 13-0 and are heavy favorites to win the Big South. They were top-5 in the nation in PPG as a team last season and they're still winning games by double-digits consistently. I'm a student there, so I'm glad that they got mentioned on this board!
Heck, the could have lost last night if they were playing a team that could play offense at a reasonably high level. They are surely the favorites, but the notion that they can't be beat is silly.
So what you are saying is that we need you to move to Pittsburgh!
It’s a shame because they were good last year too and won the Big South and would have been maybe a 14 seed if there was a tourney. They are certainly the best program in the Big South year in and year out.
I have split-residency in Pittsburgh and in South Carolina. It's a beautiful campus!
Interestingly they beat Minnesota by 30 a week before that. This time they were missing Eli Brooks-their best ball handler and perimeter defender - and they just had a bad night, played lazy and sloppy. It’s a long season, every good team has a letdown once in a while.
Another impressive performance by Michigan beating Ohio St. The Illinois vs Michigan game coming up is going to be a battle of heavyweights.
Illinois vs Michigan should be a good one, as you said. I still think Zags and Baylor are head and shoulders above the rest. Baylor’s guards are incredible players, especially defensively. There’s a reason the closest point spread has been 8 points. And that’s in the best conference in the country (or at least right there with B1G).
I still think the best 3 are the Zags, Baylor and Michigan. I really like Illinois or Villanova for the 4th 1 seed.
I think today’s OSU/Michigan game (the best of the season so far) cements OSU as 4th 1 seed. They have 9 Q1 wins which is 2 more than the next best team. Legit resume. They ARE smallish and not good defensively, but they are outstanding on offense.
I’d put Baylor and Zags at top, Michigan at next tier (alone) and then a group of 10-12 programs after that. TOSU is in that group but their resume stands out and they’d be deserving of 1 seed. However, they could easily get beat by the 4-5 seed in Sweet 16.
