College Basketball Couch Power 10 (Feb. 18th)
Our first lead image for the Power 10 picks up where the 2020 season left off: with a Duke loss
Are you down right now? Stuck in the cold grey of February? Have the post-Valentine's blues? Maybe you're still hurt by football season ending with Alabama and Tom Brady winning yet again? Maybe you're beaten down by the seemingly never-ending pandemic? Well, here's a little something that might pick you up: we are ONE MONTH AWAY from March Madness.
If that doesn't excite you, well, you're not alone. There's a whole lot going on in the world right now, and it's hard to get excitement from college basketball. Hell, even if you're a college basketball fan, it's hard to get excitement from college basketball. The little-to-no fans, the frequent pauses for COVID outbreaks, the overall lack of quality play... I'll confess it's enough to have made me watch probably the least amount of basketball I've ever watched by this time of the year. But still, we're lucky enough to be able to watch sports without putting ourselves at risk, and if all goes well, in just one month, America's greatest postseason will come back, maybe even with (vaccinated) fans! In honor of that, it's time to unveil the 2020-21's first College Basketball Couch Power 10.
True to form for the last year, it's been a wild and unpredictable season. The world at large is so unpredictable that it's not even a given that we'll have a tournament this year. Despite this, I’ll do my best to rank the top teams based on what they’ve done to date:
1. Gonzaga
There's no question that Gonzaga, the preseason #1 team, has been the toast of college basketball to date. The Zags are 20-0, have an average margin of victory of 24 points, and fit the eye test, consistently playing attractive, effective basketball. Lest you start crying about the quality of the West Coast Conference, here are some non-conference opponents Gonzaga has beaten: Kansas, West Virginia, Iowa and Virginia. All were ranked in the Top 15 when they played, and only West Virginia avoided a blowout. This is an experienced, balanced team that comes into this season hellbent on proving a point after the COVID-19 cancellation last March robbed them of a very good chance at their first title ever. So far, they're looking the part of title winners again.
2. Baylor
The only team that could even have any argument for putting themselves above Gonzaga would have to be Baylor. The preseason #2 has also gone wire-to-wire in their position, and also come into this week undefeated and with an average margin of victory of 24 points. (In fact, if we want to get technical about it, their average win margin is .5 points higher than Gonzaga's.) Multiple COVID breaks have robbed the Bears of several opportunities to notch big wins, including a much-anticipated clash with Gonzaga, and Scott Drew is less proven as a coach than Mark Few. Still, in terms of talent and depth, they might actually have the highest ceiling in the nation, and that has been on display in dominant wins over Illinois, Texas, Kansas and Texas Tech.
3. Michigan
Michigan has certainly carved out a tier of their own at this point in the college basketball season. That tier is "clearly not as elite as Baylor or Gonzaga, but clearly better than everyone else." What Juwan Howard has done in just his 2nd season as Michigan's coach has been fantastic, transforming the Wolverines from 'solid Elite 8/Sweet 16 team' to a legitimate national contender who, other than a bizarre aberration at Minnesota, has a spotless record. Their toughness was epitomized in last weekend's win; coming off a 3-week break for COVID protocol was never going to be easy, particularly on the road against a ranked Wisconsin die looking for revenge. But Michigan rallied from a 14-point halftime deficit and outscored the Badgers 23-8 over the last 10 minutes of the game, taking a crucial step towards a Big Ten title.
4. Ohio State
In case you hadn't heard, the Big Ten is really good at basketball this year. And in fairness, that much was expected preseason, with 7 teams being ranked at the start of the season. What wasn't exactly expected was that archrivals Michigan and Ohio State, preseason #7 and #5 in the conference respectively, to be the toast of the vaunted Big Ten. But it's true, Ohio State probably has the best case to be the top team behind the Top 3. The Buckeyes, who returned the bulk of a solid if not spectacular team in 2020, have taken their lumps: a season sweep by Purdue and blowout loss to Minnesota, two mediocre teams, will not look good on their resumé. Neither will a loss to a bad Northwestern team. But winning 10 of their last 11, a stretch that includes victories over Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin and Rutgers, will do wonders for their confidence.
5. Illinois
In case you hadn't heard, the Big Ten is really good at basketball this year. Illinois represents the third Big Ten team in this Top 5. Unlike the two teams ahead of them, though, the Illini were expected to be a top-level contender this year. A preseason Top 10 team, they announced themselves early on with a blowout victory at Duke (which infamously inspired Coach K to call for the cancellation of the season). However, Duke's ensuing spiral and a stretch of Illini losses before the new year led to the emergence of several skeptics. O matter- buoyed by star player Kofi Cockburn, Illinois have righted the ship, winning 10 of their last 12, including a 3-1 record against ranked sides in that stretch.
6. Alabama
Is Alabama...a basketball school?! Yes, believe it or not, the national champions in college football are the toast of the SEC in basketball, too. So much so that they've teetered on the edge of a #1 seed in many bracket projections. Early in the season, it did not look like that would be the case at all, as the Tide stumbled through some bizarre losses... getting blown out by Stanford and Clemson? A home loss to Western Kentucky? But they have done a complete 180 since that point, winning 13 of their last 15 and running away with the lead in the SEC in the process. Their two stumbles have both come in recent weeks, but considering they were competitive road losses to ranked teams (Oklahoma and Missouri), I don't think it's time to bail on Nate Oats and co.
7. Florida State
Monday night's primetime matchup confirmed what I had kinda suspected for a while: Florida State is the best team in the ACC. The standings don't necessarily reflect that; preseason favorites (and the conference's premier program of late) Virginia technically still sit in the lead. But the defending champions took the Cavaliers to the woodshed on Monday, completely overpowering them on both ends of the floor en route to a 21-point win. Florida State in the last decade has carved out a reputation of being an extremely talented team that's good for a few inexplicable losses, and that's been no different this season. Losses to UCF and Georgia Tech wrinkle the brain. But in a year as bizarre as this-- the Seminoles have seen 5 games postponed or cancelled due to COVID --that is a little more palatable than usual. And as we saw against Virginia, and previously against Clemson, Louisville and Florida, when the 'Noles are up for it, there are few teams that can hang with them.
8. Houston
I'll confess, I haven't watched a second of Houston basketball this season. But what I know is that Kelvin Sampson has turned this program into a perennial contender, and this year appears to be no different, as the Cougars have jumped out to a 17-2 start. They don't have a strong schedule to write home about, but if you let their wild upset loss to East Carolina nullify their very impressive win over Texas Tech, their only blemish on the season is a last-second loss at Tulsa.
9. Villanova
Expectations were high for Jay Wright's squad coming into the year-- Villlanova were the only team not named Gonzaga or Baylor to receive 1st-place votes preseason. Knowing that, it's easy to accuse the Wildcats of not exactly meeting expectations thus far, but I don't know if that's fair. It's seemed Nova can't catch a break this year, or perhaps they've had too many breaks. They have seen a shocking 11 (!!!) games called off due to COVID outbreaks this season, including a series of 6 straight, and each forced hibernation seems to have come right as they were rounding into rhythm. Still, though losing 3 of their 16 games to date won't make them feel warm and fuzzy, notching wins over Texas, Arizona State and Seton Hall very well might.
10. Clemson
Is Clemson... a basketball school?! Yes, it's true, the nouveau riche college football mainstay has found success on the hardwood this year too, just like their peers Alabama. Admittedly, this is a bit of a bold ranking by myself, my first real deviation from the actual rankings: Clemson is currently unranked in both the AP and Coaches Polls. To be fair, that's likely because of the Tigers' harsh return from a COVID break, in which they not only lost 4 games out of 5, they lost them by an average of 24 points. Fair! They were miserable. But since that point, they've won 3 straight, including 2 over likely tournament teams, and it appears they're getting back to their early season form, in which they started 9-1. When you look at Clemson's full body of work: 13-5 with a Top 10 schedule strength, and wins over Alabama, Florida State, Louisville and Purdue? That's a Top 10 body of work in my eyes.
Just missed: USC, Virginia, Oklahoma, West Virginia, Texas, walking bucket K3rwin Walton
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