Now, the NBA is undoubtedly extremely interesting this year. The Atlanta Hawks look like Spurs Lite, there's a pair of brothers splashing like a toddler in a puddle all over the Bay Area, and the Cavs have somehow won the quietest 12 straight games for a team with the best basketball player on Earth. Unfortunately for those of you who are suddenly getting excited at all this NBA talk, allow me to shift gears for a moment (or the entirety of this blog post).
The NBA may be producing more exciting basketball, but nothing gets my blood pumping like some good 'ol college hoops. The current landscape of the NCAA to casual fans could essentially be summed up in two words: Kentucky Wildcats. While this is actually an almost-fair general assessment of college basketball right now, there is much more to the sport right now than the behemoths in Lexington. And I'm here to bring them to you.
Let's stop kidding ourselves, the ACC is the best conference in college basketball
Apologies to the surging B1G (more on some of these teams coming up) and the Big 12 (more on all these teams coming up), but nothing is topping ACC basketball right now. As of Friday afternoon, Virginia sits atop the standings, with Notre Dame knocking on the door. Rounding out this Murderer's Row is Louisville, UNC, and Duke. Perusing through the rest of the conference, Miami is solid, Pitt is always hanging around, and hey, look! Syracuse has self-imposed a postseason ban effective for this season! Whoa, where did that come from?! This is terrible news mostly because now we won't be treated to any vintage Jim Boeheim explosions this March. Oh well.
Back to teams actually eligible to go Dancing, Notre Dame is currently enjoying its best season since the halcyon days of the legendary Luke Harangody. I'm sure Irish fans would almost consider this blasphemous, but I'm going to go ahead and say this ND team has more talent. Jerian Grant is a straight-up college superstar, Pat Connaughton is carrying the Harangody-Jack Cooley-Tim Abromaitis torch for Undersized White Guy Who Is Immeasurably Tough And Possesses A High Basketball IQ And Oh Look Now He's Making Threes (Abromaitis was actually the only one before Connaughton who exemplified that last part; Harangody and Cooley weren't much of 3-point shooters), Demetrius Jackson is an impact player in the backcourt, all while Zach Auguste basically single-handedly holds down the middle. Simply put, the Irish are for real, just in case their statement-making win over the Dukies didn't convince you. Elsewhere in the conference, Louisville is always a threat to make an Elite Eight run, UNC is a Marcus Paige-takeover away from being a true contender, and Duke, well, they're Duke.
Despite all of this, Virgina is the crown jewel of this conference. The starting 5 is just as terrifying on defense and terrifyingly efficient on offense as last year, even without the 2014's runner-up White Guy Who Everyone Actually Completely Respects, Joe Harris (the winner was Wisconsin's Frank Kaminksy). By the way, 2015's candidates are Northern Iowa's Seth Tuttle, Wichita State's Ron Baker, Gonzaga's Kevin Pangos (who's been in college for about 9 years; could be a blog post about this concept coming soon), and Iowa's Aaron White. Current front-runner has to be Aaron White as a result of 1) his name 2) that picture I linked to. I digress. Back to Virginia, I have them slotted as a Final Four team as of today and I don't expect that to change either. That's all I have to say about that.
B1G and Big 12 are polar opposites
Simply to avoid an opening paragraph where I beat around the bush about what that subtitle implies, all I mean is that the B1G is noticeably top-heavy with a couple possibly-elite teams, while the Big 12 is the deepest conference in the country, yet contains no team that looks like a true contender. Wisconsin is the obvious choice to make a deep tourney run, but look closer and you'll see that Maryland has quietly built itself an extremely impressive squad. Melo Trimble, behind Ohio State's D'Angelo Russell, is the best freshman in the conference and he has teamed with Dez Wells and Jake Layman to take the B1G by storm in the Terrapins' first year in the conference.
After those two, the B1G begins to look quite bleak. Sparty is experiencing a rare down year, as the defections of Gary Harris, Adriean Payne, and Keith Appling were just too much for Tom Izzo to replace. Indiana and Ohio State are two talented but flawed teams that have the makings of one-and-done teams in March. Purdue won't be making much noise either, and Michigan lost to NJIT. Wisconsin and Maryland are really the only teams from the B1G that you should keep an eye on.
With your other eye, just try to figure out what the hell is going on in the Big 12. 6 out of the 10 teams are currently ranked in the Top 25 (though my self-destructing Texas Longhorns are sure to fall out on Sunday), and the last place team in the conference sports a record of 14-8. In terms of sheer quantity of competitive teams, the Big 12 has no equal this year. However, this does not mean that this year's NCAA Tournament is going to be run by the conference. In fact, my bold prediction of the day is that no Big 12 team even makes it to the Sweet 16.
Well, kinda. I wouldn't be surprised if Kansas or Iowa State squeaked there way in there. Never doubt Bill Self, especially now that he has ultra-athletic freshman Kelly Oubre going, and if you listen closely, you can hear the sound of nets ripping in Ames, Iowa as the Cyclones spend 2 hours of practice time shooting 3's. But certainly no Elite Eight for either team. I need to work on being more "bold" with my bold predictions.
Kentucky still reigns supreme
It has truly become too cliché to discuss Kentucky in relation to the rest of college basketball at this point. There is nothing left that can be said about this team that hasn't already been said. So instead of droning on about everything you have already heard about the monstrous front line, the X-factor ability of the Harrison twins, and the emergence of pint-sized freshman point guard Tyler Ulis, I'll just give you two under-discussed tidbits about the Wildcats.
First, what's the deal with Devin Booker? Kentucky's deadliest sharpshooter is also their most perplexing case of "What race is he?" And Kentucky does have other ambiguously ethnic players, like Karl-Anthony Towns (half-black, half-Dominican). But Booker is on a different level. At first glance, he seems like he's got that whole Blake Griffin-Deron Williams type of half-black, half-white lightskin going on. But then you keep inspecting and it looks like there could easily be some Asian thrown in there, maybe something of Philippine origin? No matter what he is (because it really doesn't matter), he's become my personal favorite Wildcat because of his lack of a conscience when hoisting up triples coupled with the fact that nearly half of the 3's he shoots end up going in the basket.
Secondly, first half, UCLA game. 'Nuff said.
Final Thoughts
Sorry to the Pac-12, who I gave zero love to in this post. Shoutout to Stanley Johnson for being the realest freshman out there. Another shoutout to Delon Wright for possibly being the premier stat-sheet-stuffing player in the country. If the Utes go anywhere this year, it's going to be because of him.
Biggest shoutout to the best in the college-basketball-writing business right now, Mark Titus. You are certainly not reading this right now, but I don't take it personally.
Finally, here is my current Elite Eight-and-on prediction. Every time I write a college basketball post (hopefully it will be at least semi-frequently), I will give the 8 teams who I think will make it to the Elite Eight, and then pit those teams against each other to determine my champion. Naturally, the 8 teams as well as the champion very well could and likely will change as the season progresses. Also, I am just randomly sorting the 8 teams into 4 different regions. I have no logic for why each team is playing each other. Without further ado, here's what I got. Thanks for reading:
Kentucky Duke
Kentucky
Kentucky
Utah Virginia
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