Matt McCullers
Last week, college basketball commentator and analyst Jay Bilas made this statement: none of the teams this year are as good as the top five from last year (this top five consists of Wisconsin, Kentucky, Duke, Arizona, and Virginia). Normally, I agree with Jay Bilas. He is by far my favorite commentator and he has an incredible knowledge of college hoops (despite attending that evil university). No offense Jay, but you’re dead wrong. I‘d let it slide if it were mentioned casually once or twice but you keep on talking about it and it’s driving me nuts.
So yeah, I can see why Mr. Bilas has come up with this opinion. I think it mainly originates from the fact that the best team in college hoops is not ranked #1 – Michigan State is. This is probably one of the weakest top teams I have seen in my lifetime. No offense Tom Izzo, you’re an excellent coach but this team does not deserve to be in this spot. This is kind of weird because Michigan State is NEVER the top ranked team and this is not Izzo’s most talented team either. Don’t get me wrong, they have been quite successful but a lot of that success has come from the fact that the Spartans are that middle-of-the-road team that no one sees coming. They had a nice comeback win over Kansas, but they did not have control of that game until the final ten minutes. Denzel Valentine has been doing extraordinarily well, but he’ll have a bad game and this team is not good enough to win without him playing at the level he’s playing right now.
The best team in the country right now and a team that could easily fit in with last year’s top five is North Carolina. Yeah, so I go to the school but trust me I’m not being as biased as you think. This team has completely changed since Marcus Paige came back…completely changed. That win over Maryland said it all. I had never seen a team shoot so well beyond the arc as the Terps did in the 2nd half of that game, and the Tar Heels responded beautifully. Furthermore, the Heels can shoot the three consistently well now – which is a factor in their game that certainly was lacking. This squad is dangerously good and is one of the deepest, most versatile Tar Heel teams I have ever seen. I don’t know what you’re talking about Jay, but last year’s Tar Heel team nearly beat Wisconsin and Duke and also beat Virginia (these are some of those “top five teams” from last year)…and they’re twice as good this year.
Moreover, Bilas has such an opinion because Kentucky had a bad loss to a mediocre UCLA team. It’s true that this Wildcat team is not as good as last year’s but give them a shot, there’s still a lot of season left. Kansas is pretty darn good, and they just got better now that freshman big-man Check Diallo is eligible to play. This year’s Jayhawk team easily could have slipped into the top five last year. And what about the Oklahoma Sooners? They just embarrassed a good Villanova team this week winning 78-55. This team has an offense whose production is comparable to teams like Duke and Arizona last year.
The point is, it’s a little too early to be drawing conclusions like that Jay. So what if the rankings this year are a little obscure and some really good teams got really unlucky? That’s the nature of the game. Remember, it doesn’t matter how you start, it matters how you finish and there will be at least one team that will finish as well or better than one of those teams from last year.
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