Now That Football Is Over, Sit Back And Start Watching College Hoops Because Every Single Day Is Pure Chaos
I wanted to take a moment to talk about college basketball. I tend to write this blog every year on this day because this is the time where everyone truly turns their attention to college basketball. Football is over. You can only read so many mock drafts and prepare for the offseason. Now there are actual games. There's just a couple weeks left in the regular season before conference tournaments.
Let me tell you. It's a season full of chaos. I won't say it's awesome because my team sucks, but it's pure chaos. Every night there are upsets. Every night there is some court storm that feels completely legit. Note, I don't care about court storms because college kids should be able to do whatever the hell they want. If they want to rush the court go ahead.
Take a look at this weekend alone. Purdue the No. 1 team lost right before the Super Bowl to Northwestern. Perhaps more shocking is the fact Northwestern is actually good this year. Maybe not good, but respectable? Respectable enough to be on a pretty clear path to make their second NCAA Tournament ever. On Saturday look at the top-25. No. 4 Arizona lost to Stanford. No. 6 Tennessee lost to Missouri. No. 11 Iowa State lost to Oklahoma State. No. 12 Kansas State lost to Texas Tech. No. 20 Providence lost to St. John's. No. 24 Rutgers lost to Illinois. Not only do those numbers look weird next to the majority of those teams, but these are all unranked wins. Sure, the top-25 is dumb, but it's a good look at the anarchy this year.
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Shit, this graphic might sum it up best:
Not sure CBS knows what blue blood is, but those teams are all struggling. Kentucky, Duke and UNC all stink. Meanwhile you have Pitt tied for the lead in the ACC. Pitt! The Big East is a crazy race for the lead between Marquette, Creighton, Xavier and Providence. Nova nowhere to be found. UConn, once considered the best team in the country, nowhere to be found. Shit, the MWC is currently rated above the ACC on KenPom if that is your sort of thing.
It's by far the most entertaining regular season I can remember in a long time because every team is vulnerable. Shit, even Bama, who is my pick for the best team in the country if everyone is at their peak, lost to Oklahoma by 24 a couple weeks ago. All that means is the rest of this regular season is going to be chaotic before perhaps the weirdest NCAA Tournament yet.
I truly mean that. When we talk about weird tournaments the 2014 one comes up all the time. A title game between a 7 and 8 seeds. You had an 11 seed in the Elite Eight. The Sweet 16 had two 11 seeds and a 10 seed. It was just mayhem everywhere outside of the West region. This year has a bunch of teams bunched together. The gap from the top team to about the 30th team really isn't that much. It truly feels like 11 or 12 teams can win in March. Shit, even a team like Baylor, is flying under the radar because their defense stinks but they just got JTT back.
I say it all the time. The two things in college basketball that draw people in are 1) a historically great team/player. We don't have that this year. Zach Edey is awesome, but people aren't jumping to the channel to watch him. Same with Brandon Miller. 2) Anarchy. That's what we have. Every night there's going to be some top ranked team losing.
So, turn the page from football. We have a hell of a season.