KenPom updated yesterday and that means college basketball is right around the corner. What can we learn? Well, not much other than what leagues look potentially good, mediocre or bad. Let’s start with the teams.
The Top 10 looks familiar. Gonzaga, Michigan, Kansas, Baylor and Illinois are your top 5. Illinois surprises me but Cockburn, Curbelo and Frazier are a good 3 to start with. The top 10 is rounded out by Purdue, UCLA, Ohio State, Villanova and Duke. The rest of the top 20 has the usual suspects. Texas Tech at 12 with a new coach will be interesting and Memphis at 16 will be as well. Put up or shut up time for Penny. Maryland is 18 and Mark Turgeon needs some March success. At least in October, it looks like this team has a chance.
An astute reader would not the proliferation of Big 14 teams. There are 7 of them in the top 30 and Indiana is knocking at the door at 31. The league is going to be a bloodbath. I believe Michigan will be the team to cut down the nets next April to end the embarrassing stretch of no national champs at 21 years.
The ACC appears in for another down season. Duke checks in at 10 but you have to go to 24 for the next team in FSU and Notre Dame is the only other top 30 team at 27. Even KenPom darling Virginia is 45.
Something else that caught my attention was the WCC coming in at 7 in conference rankings. The 6th rated league as of pre-season is the Big East which is actually closer to then number 1 Big 14 than the 7 WCC but the league might be worth some late nights this winter. Sadly, it also shows how much of an uphill fight mid-majors have today. Still, it’s ahead of the American.
A deeper dive into the WCC shows the Zags at 1, no surprise but you also have San Fran at 34, BYU at 38 and St. Mary’s at 42. LMU is 69, so 4 Top-100 teams. What it should provide at the very least is some tougher games for Gonzaga to prep them for March in conference. I don’t suspect they’ll make it through the league unscathed this year.
The season inches closer and it should be a fascinating year with all the changes and a sense of normalcy.
