Here is the plain text result:
Even SEC football is jealous of what SEC basketball is doing right now. The league went 14-1 this weekend and has been so dominant that you’re going to hear a lot of “The SEC is the first league to (fill in the blank)” for the next few months. My Top 25 ballot this week includes 10 SEC teams, with five in the top 10. Three others — Missouri, Arkansas and Texas — have arguments to be included. Just going by the numbers, Auburn could be the best team at this point of the season in the last decade.
How good has Auburn been? After running previously Top 25 Ohio State off the floor in a 91-53 win in Atlanta on Saturday, Auburn now has an efficiency margin of 35.01 at KenPom. KenPom has this fun sorting tool that allows you to see the ratings at any point in the season dating back to the 2011-12 season. Turns out, Auburn is his database’s best team on Dec. 15 in the last 14 seasons — by a lot.
Now, you’ll notice that the best team at this point in time doesn’t always win the national championship. Three of the last 14 teams that were No. 1 on Dec. 15 went on to win it all: 2011-12 Kentucky, 2017-18 Villanova and 2022-23 UConn. What we can assume is that Auburn is probably going to have a No. 1 seed; 2016-17 Duke is the only team with a plus-30 efficiency margin at this snapshot in time that did not end up a No. 1 seed.
You’ll also notice this year’s Tennessee and Duke teams are also in this top-10, which is another way of saying that in just about any other year, those teams would be No. 1 at this point.
So, Auburn has been really, really, ridiculously good this season. I’m not going to argue against anyone ranking Tennessee No. 1, especially after the Vols won at Illinois on Saturday. But the Tigers have been historically dominant so far.
The Vols started to close the resume gap with Auburn in a 66-64 win over the Illini in Champaign. The one thing Auburn is missing is an impressive road win. Technically, beating Houston in Houston didn’t count because the game was played at the Rockets’ arena.
Tennessee showed the value of a strong bench in its win at Illinois. Its best two players, Chaz Lanier and Zakai Zeigler, both fouled out. Zeigler barely played the second half. Starting center Felix Okpara was also limited to nine minutes because of foul trouble, and he just didn’t really fit in this game. The Vols still found a way, mostly because sixth man Jordan Gainey stepped up to score 23 points, including the buzzer-beating game winner.
The Jayhawks need to find ways to get the South Dakota State transfer 3-point looks because in games when he has attempted five or more 3s — which has happened against NC State, Furman, Oakland, North Carolina and Howard — he has shot a solid 15 of 36 from 3 and KU has an efficiency of 123.3 in those games. That’d be the sixth-best offense in college hoops.
Turns out the Huskies weren’t cooked. They now have three consecutive wins over top-40 KenPom teams (Baylor, Texas and Gonzaga), and that alone is Top 25 worthy. UConn is one of seven teams with at least three top 40 wins, joining Auburn (five wins), Marquette (four), Alabama (three), Kansas (three), Texas A&M (three) and Purdue (three).
Since the day after the Maui Invitational, UConn is the fifth-best team in college basketball, according to barttorvik.com. The schedule could also allow for the Huskies to keep climbing in the rankings over the next month-plus. They will likely be favored in their next 10 games. Credit to Dan Hurley and his players for turning things around so quickly. That Hurley swagger appears to be back.
No one in college basketball is better during the one or two seconds that a shot is in the air than Texas A&M. The Aggies, who are the best offensive rebounding team in the country, should be the betting favorite to remain in that spot all season.
Source link
