Sunday, January 1, 2017

First Power 10 of 2017

As many have wildly anticipated, here are the only power rankings you need as you begin your new year.

10. Louisville - Trash offense, great defense. Lack of shooting prowess will be their undoing on some nights and in March.

9. Gonzaga - The Dawgs are favored in the rest of their games save a trip to St. Mary's. I don't think they'll go undefeated but I'm rooting for it just to see what the committee would do with them.

8. North Carolina - The loss at Georgia Tech is perplexing. Still, they're a top 10 defensive and offensive team. 

7. Purdue - They're a much better offensive team than past Boilermaker squads. One of three Big 14 title contenders.

6. Duke - Not concerned with a loss at Virginia Tech. Still the favorite to win it all in my mind but we'll have to see how the defense looks come March.

5. Kansas - Predictably boring and effective club. Will have a battle in a deep Big XII this year. 

4. Baylor - Find me a more impressive resume up to this point. This might be too low. 7th in both AdjustedD and AdjustedO.

3. West Virginia - The Mountaineees are 6th in AdjustedO, 5th in AdjustedD. They won at basketball hell, aka, Virginia. Only loss is to Temple, weirdly. Rest of the schedule is really bad. We'lllearn about them in the next month but I like this team.

2. Kentucky- Malik Monk is fun. Kentucky is playing at the 11th fastest pace in the land and has a Top 10 offense and defense. This could be a scary team come March, as scary as the '12 team.

1. Villanova - They probably notched the best win of the early season going into a rowdy Omaha to defeat previously unbeaten Creighton. Still don't have Phil Booth. Did you know, Nova went 38-3 in the calendar year of 2016.

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