Baylor, Gonzaga, San Diego State and Kansas are all gunning for a title this season, and an argument could be made for all of them.
Cream of the crop: No. 1 seeds in college basketball all post glamourous resumés.
Over the past few weeks, we’ve started to get some separation at the top in college basketball, especially when it comes to sorting teams by résumé.
The 1-seeds, as it stands, are fairly clear-cut: Baylor, Gonzaga, San Diego State and Kansas. Combined, those four teams have lost one game in 2020, Kansas’ defeat to Baylor. They’re a combined 36-1 in that span.
Baylor is the best team in the country, both in terms of the eye test and résumé. The Bears have fallen once all season, and are a top-five defense and arguably the best perimeter group in the country.
Gonzaga has also lost just once, at the Battle 4 Atlantis the day after Thanksgiving. The Bulldogs have run roughshod over the West Coast Conference, with only two games decided by single digits.
San Diego State is the last unbeaten remaining in college basketball and are one of the best defensive teams in the country and have a legitimate All-America candidate in Malachi Flynn. A zero-loss San Diego State team is a surefire 1-seed.
Then there’s Kansas, which has three losses. There has been constant discussion about how there’s no dominant team in college basketball this season, but this Jayhawks’ adjusted efficiency margin would rank in the top three in all but two seasons in the KenPom era (since 2001-02).
Kansas also leads the nation in Quadrant 1 wins.
There’s still more than a month until conference tournaments start, and Louisville and Dayton are playing as well as anyone in the country right now, but the top-four teams in the rankings are in their own tier for now.
For the Baylor Bears (No. 1), Freddie Gillespie is one of the best stories in college basketball. For those who are unfamiliar, Gillespie started his career at Division III Carleton College — and played just four games during his freshman season.
Following his sophomore campaign, he transferred to Baylor and sat out as a walk-on before earning a scholarship for the 2018-19 season. Now, he’s averaging 10.1 points, 9.3 rebounds and 2.4 blocks and in his past seven games has averaged 12.7 points, 8.9 rebounds and 2.6 blocks — while shooting 64.3% from the field.
Gonzaga’s (No. 2) past two games — at Santa Clara and at San Francisco — were two of the Bulldogs’ worst offensive outings in several weeks. Not surprisingly, one of them came when Tillie played only nine minutes and the other came with Tillie sidelined.
With him out for the San Francisco game, Mark Few went with essentially a six-man rotation and Drew Timme getting most of Tillie’s vacated minutes. In just his second start of the season, Timme answered the call against the Dons, finishing with 19 points, four rebounds and three blocks.
Last week was supposed to be one of the San Diego State (No. 3) Aztecs’ tougher weeks remaining in the regular season: a road trip to The Pit, where New Mexico hadn’t lost all season, and a home date with Utah State.
In Albuquerque San Diego State won by 28, but Utah State did test the Aztecs. The Aggies went on a 19-3 run late in the first half and stayed in the game until a scoring drought in the final 10 minutes.
With the Kansas Jayhawks (No. 4) season entering its final regular-season month and discussions for season awards heating up, we should take a look at Devon Dotson’s candidacy to at least be in the discussion for the Wooden Award.
Dotson has came up big in some of the Jayhawks’ biggest wins, including 21 points Saturday against Texas Tech and 31 points against Dayton back in November. Dotson is No. 3 in KenPom’s Player of the Year rankings, top-10 in offensive box plus/minus and the only player in the country at least 5.0 adjusted points above replacement on both offense and defense at BartTorvik.com — one of just nine players in the past 12 seasons to hit that mark.
The Sports Baby's Blog 