Hard to believe we're nearly a month into the season and it's been full of some really good basketball. Hopefully, that holds through the remainder of the season. Doubt it can top yetserday in college football but that's almost impossible.
It's hard to rank conferences at this point. The ACC has had some close calls and bad losses but is it a bad conference? Let's take a quick look at KenPom's Top 40 heading into play today by conference:
1. ACC (7 teams):
Pitt leads the charge at 4 with Clemson at 28 and FSU at 34 as the surprises. I highly doubt Clemson stays in the Top 40 but I expect FSU will. Pittsburgh has always done well in these rankings so this isn't a surprise. They not hold the mantle of the ACC version of Wisconsin. Duke checks in at 27 and given their early struggles, that looks correct to me. Maryland is on the fringe and will be a very good team and a tough team in conference play.
2. B1G (6 teams):
The B1G has 3 teams in the top 10, no surprise as based on results, the B1G has been the best conference to the naked eye this year. Indiana at 29 is maybe the only slight surprise but they've gotten a lot of nice play from their youngsters. Will be worth a follow through conference play, even with the Crean factor. Though Iowa lost to Villanova last night at the Battle of Atlantis, I can see a team with a ceiling of a 2 or 3 seed.
3. (TIE w/4 teams): The American; Big 12; A-10:
Louisville is the top dog despite its loss to North Carolina and the rest of the Amercan teams are the usual suspects with Memphis, UConn and Cincinnati. Big 12 has two top-10 teams in Oklahoma State and Kansas. Those two matchups between those two ought to be must-see TV. The A-10 continues to be impressive. St. Louis and VCU are joined by UMass and Dayton. I really liked UMass heading into the season and should have stuck with them. Dayton has a good slate of wins thus far. I'll take a better look at these 4 tomorrow.
6. (TIE w 3/teams): Pac-12; WCC; SEC; Big East:
Before we declare the Pac-12 back, let's see how things play out. Arizona looks the part of a title contender but how's the rest of the conference? UCLA checks in at 22, Oregon at 35. Too early to draw a conclusion and I think Oregon is a real good team but how good is the rest of the league? The WCC checks in with 3 teams but I think only BYU and Gonzaga are tournament teams. Top 3 in the SEC are no surprise with Kentucky, Florida and Tennessee. The Big East has been okay so far with 3 teams in the Top 25. Villanova has been the most impressive winning the Battle of Atlantis, beating Iowa and Kansas. Their win over Towson is a good win, too. Creighton is 17 with Georgetown at 24.
The rest include Harvard (IVY) at 31, Wichita State (Valley) at 15 & San Diego State (MWC) at 40. Harvard has a chance to be a sleeper Sweet 16 type team this year though college basketball people already know this.
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