The End Of An Era: There's Not A Big Ten Basketball Team In The Preseason Top-10 For The First Time Since 1977
Today is low key one of my favorite days because of the insane reaction to the preseason AP Top-25. I've said it numerous times and I'll always keep saying it. The AP poll is meaningless. In fact it's often wrong because you have people who don't watch a ton of games making decisions. That's how you end up with someone accidentally putting in Georgia instead of Gonzaga last year. It's how you end up with a massive difference between the AP Top-25 to the Barstool Sportsbook future odds to KenPom.
Now that said, the first release is always something that gets me going. It means we're close to the season and fans get their reps in of being batshit crazy. That said here it is:
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First off you might notice that Jim Boeheim's rant was nothing short of genius:
I obviously don't believe in only judging conferences on a single-elimination NCAA Tournament but that's not the point. The point is where the Big 10 stands this year. For the first time since 1977 there's not a Big 10 team in the top-10. Indiana is the highest ranked team at 13. Why does that matter? Because it's also the case in KenPom (released yesterday):
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I know the Big 10 has sucked in the NCAA Tournament because they haven't won in 2 decades. But it also looks weird because the Big 10 is often in the argument for best conference in America. This year we now have to have a different look on the Big 10. There's no dominant team - I actually think that about the country as a whole but that's a different blog. Out of all the Big 10 teams I like Illinois the most. They are set up for success the most based on roster build. Love that they got Terrence Shannon and can speed the game up without having to feed Kofi.
But here we are now. I'l have a full futures blog this week and some other projects as we get close to the season and throughout. But the fact is for now the Big 10 doesn't have a top-10 team for the first time since 1977. It sounds weird, but also weirdly right. Get me to the games now.
PS: 35 is the perfect age to start a TikTok, so I did it. Let's talk some overrated teams to start