LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- We’ve wobbled into the final week of the college basketball regular season, and I’m still asking the question that dominated November:
Is college hoops bad or balanced?
Is college basketball bad or balanced this season?
With the ACC, Big Ten and SEC all missing from the Top 5 in the college basketball poll, is the game having an off year or experiencing more parity than usual?
My choice is bad, which has led to balanced. And I wonder if we also suffer from a case of brand name bias.
I’ve leaned bad over balanced since November when Michigan State and its point guard, Cassius Winston, were nearly unanimous picks as the best team and best player in the nation.
The Spartans are a fine squad, even though they have lost nine games. I understand why everybody, including me, voted them preseason No. 1.
They toppled Duke and Zion Williamson to sneak into the Final Four last season and brought back three starters. They expected to Joshua Langford to heal and give them another 5-star in their starting lineup. Tom Izzo is forever, right?
I’ll repeat what I said in November: If you made a list of the five best teams Izzo has built in East Lansing, this team would not make the list.
Winston is a splendid player. He’s not one of the five best players Izzo has developed at State. Nobody would hyperventilate if Winston slipped outside the first round of the 2020 NBA Draft. In fact, in his latest mock draft for The Athletic, Sam Vecenie ranked Winston the No. 33 overall prospect as well as the 14th best guard.
That’s your college basketball preseason player of the year?
So it goes.
Bad or balanced?
“Bad,” one Division I head coach told me in a text message.
“No one can play offense. Look at the number of games played in the 50s. It’s unreal. No good bigs ... It’s rare for a team to have a good big (man) and good shooting.”
Not so fast.
“Balanced,” another former Division I head coach wrote in a rebuttal message.
“No real greatness.”
I believe CBS analyst Clark Kellogg said it well when he talked about the Big Ten, the league ranked the best in most computer formulas. Kellogg said the Big Ten had many 4-star teams, a chunk of 3-star teams and no 5-star teams. Sort of like the national scene. Every Sunday when I finalize my ballot for the AP Top 25, I find more examples of mediocrity.
I’ve been an occasional voter for more than three decades and handled the job the last eight seasons. I have never encountered a situation like the one I encountered Sunday:
The four teams ranked No. 19-22 in last week’s Top 25 played eight games and lost eight games last week. Michigan, Colorado, West Virginia and Texas each lost twice.
Each lost at least once to an unranked opponent.
Never seen that.
Here is another thing I cannot remember happening:
Three teams from outside the Atlantic Coast, Southeastern, Big Ten, Big East, Big 12 and Pac-12 conferences are ranked in the current AP Top 5: Dayton, Gonzaga and San Diego State.
San Diego State and guard KJ Feagin (10) are one of three teams outside the power conferences ranked in the top five in the AP college basketball poll. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
Gonzaga was ranked No. 8 in the preseason poll. Dayton received one vote. SDSU did not get any votes.
I checked the final AP Top 25 polls through the 2003 season. None of those 17 regular seasons ended with three teams from outside the six primary conferences ranked in the Top 5. Only two of those 17 seasons had as many as two teams outside the big six leagues in the final Top 25.
If the current rankings hold, this will be the first season since 2014 to end without an Atlantic Coast Conference team in the Top Five.
“Gonzaga is a Power 5 program, they’re just not in a Power 5 league,” one coach said. “There isn’t one thing they don’t do or have that the Power 5 programs have.”
Except complete name recognition.
That’s another reason this season tilts toward bad more than balanced.
North Carolina will miss the NCAA Tournament. Ditto for Syracuse. UConn won four national titles from 1999-2014. Don’t look for the Huskies in March. Notre Dame sits on the wrong side of the bubble.
Virginia, the defending national champs, has scrambled into position for a seven-seed.
UCLA, Indiana, Florida, Arkansas and others with national championships are looking for a favorable bounce or two.
Duke will not sweat making the tournament, but the Blue Devils will sweat the first weekend. The Blue Devils have transformed from a team ranked No. 1 to a team that has lost five games to unranked opponents.
Bad or balanced?
It’s certainly been the theme of this college basketball season.
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