“This team is the team to beat."
"They will be a favorite come March.”
Time and time again during the NCAA men’s basketball season, fans are made aware of the favorites - those teams that consistently win the tough games and stay at the top of their conference all season. While there is certainly talent in college basketball this year and some strong title contenders, there is no defined “top dog,” and the best teams are consistently losing easy games.
Quick. Who was the top team in the Atlantic Coast Conference before Saturday? Few might have realized the 5-0 conference record of the University of Miami (Fl.) Hurricanes was the ACC’s best.
The Duke University Blue Devils might be the No. 1 team in the nation according to the Associated Press poll, but they still are not the best in their own conference. The 2012-13 Duke team is not as dominant as some recent teams, as shown by their loss to North Carolina State University in Raleigh on January 12th and then a 27-point blowout loss to the Hurricanes Jan. 23.
That loss is one of many by top 10 teams since Jan. 10. Then-No. 4 University of Arizona got the party started by dropping a 70-66 decision at the University of Oregon. That loss left a pair of unbeaten teams left - the aforementioned Blue Devils and the University of Michigan Wolverines. As luck would have it, Duke lost on Jan. 12 and Michigan felt lonely as the only unbeaten team. To rectify their problem, the Wolverines went out and were defeated by archrival Ohio State University, 56-53, the very next day.
It’s not like NC State and Ohio State are bad teams, but NC State did follow up their big win with a road loss at the University of Maryland and a choke job for the ages at Wake Forest University on Tuesday night.
The losses continued with the No. 2 University of Indiana’s home loss to the University of Wisconsin on Jan. 15, and a pair of Saturday matchups - Syracuse University defeating new No. 1 University of Louisville, and No. 8 Gonzaga University going to No. 10 Butler University and literally throwing the game away on an errant inbound pass.
Louisville, having dropped to No. 5, seemed to enjoy losing so much that they traveled to Philadelphia on Tuesday night and missed a boatload (12) of free throws to hand Villanova University a 73-64 win. After a 53-51 loss to Georgetown University Saturday, the Cardinals have lost 3-of-3 since reaching No. 1 on Jan. 14.
The bottom line here is that Syracuse and Kansas are the only current top five teams without a recent loss. Are they the best teams in the country? Probably not, they have weaknesses. Kansas is young and Syracuse is bound to lose again in the last go-round of the physical Big East Conference.
What about Duke? Was the State loss a fluke? (Hey, that rhymes!) Only time will tell. The Blue Devils could wind up making another run at glory come March.
So, if you are a college basketball team wanting to go to Atlanta and win a championship this year, step right up. The door is wide open.