Read The Athletic’s latest college basketball power rankings.
So, it’s gonna be that kind of season, huh?
For the third straight week, these Power Rankings have a new No. 1 team. (Welcome to the club, Arizona!) But the churn isn’t just atop our rankings; it’s throughout, as now — a reasonable five-ish weeks into the season — we can put to bed any premature preseason expectations and actually look at results. Michigan State? Maybe just not that good! Duke? Treading water, but hardly looking like a national title contender. That’s how you end up with, as of this writing, at least 11 games where unranked teams beat ranked ones by double-digits. The good news, though, is that we might finally be close to some clarity. Per ESPN’s John Gasaway, each of the last 19 national champions was ranked in the top 12 of the AP’s sixth weekly poll.
AP’s Week 6 poll excels at spotting champions because:
Preseason whiffs often corrected by now.
Correct preseason evaluations stay sticky all season.
Statistical weight of what hoops analysts in white lab coats term The UConn Trajectory. https://t.co/z4fvd41LWG
— John Gasaway (@JohnGasaway) December 13, 2023
So, fans of Arizona, Kansas, Purdue, Houston, UConn, Baylor, Marquette, Creighton, North Carolina, Gonzaga, Oklahoma, and Tennessee: Rejoice!
Another reason to celebrate, even if your team isn’t on that list? This weekend — Saturday, in particular — features one of the great college basketball schedules of the entire season. If you have plans Saturday, well … maybe cash in your holiday flake card, and park yourself on the nearest couch or hightop bar stool. On Saturday alone, we’ve got (deep breath) Kansas–Indiana, Baylor-Michigan State, Texas A&M-Houston, Clemson–Memphis, North Carolina-Kentucky, Alabama-Creighton, and the granddaddy game of them all, Arizona-Purdue. OK, exhale.
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Let’s dive in, while we can … until this weekend’s monster slate once again shreds these rankings:
1. Arizona (8-0)
Last week: No. 3
We here at Power Rankings, Inc. aren’t so much behind the times as we are patient. AP voters had already anointed Tommy Lloyd’s team the best in the country, but we needed a slightly larger sample size. Until this week, after all, the Wildcats had only played two top-100 teams — at Duke, vs. Michigan State — and neither of those wins have exactly aged magnificently. (We didn’t intend for the 4-5 Spartans to catch so many strays, we promise, but when you have the worst start of any preseason top-5 team in the last 40 years … it’s not exactly undeserved.) Arizona vs. Wisconsin, then, would be the test. The Wildcats versus, arguably, the best team they’ve seen all season.
About that.
This was not a game; this was a nationally-televised beatdown, 98-73, a 40-minute showcase of the country’s best, most balanced team. Arizona averaged 1.29 PPP against a Badgers group that, per KenPom, is top-30 nationally in adjusted defensive efficiency and length. All five of Arizona’s starters scored in double figures, which they now average for the season. In eight games, six different players have led or tied for the team lead in scoring. Arizona is the only team with a top-5 adjusted offense and defense per KenPom’s rankings. The only reason why the Wildcats might not have staying power in this spot is their schedule; their next three games are against a trio of top-20 KenPom teams: Purdue, Alabama, and Florida Atlantic, all on (somewhat) neutral courts. It’s probably unfair to expect anyone to get through a gauntlet like that untouched, but if any team could … — Brendan Marks
2. Connecticut (9-1)
Last week: 1
Don’t think of this as a demotion, because it’s not. If anything, this is more 1A and 1B, Arizona and Connecticut, our clear-cut two best teams in the country. We’d take either on a neutral court against any team in America — and hopefully, come March, we’ll get the Goliaths going head-to-head.
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For the moment, though, can we put some respect on Tristen Newton’s name? My goodness. The East Carolina transfer was a nice piece on UConn’s title team last season — if you consider 19 points, 10 rebounds, four assists, and two steals in the national championship game “nice” — but he’s in full-blown superstar mode now, and currently slots fifth in KenPom’s too-early Player of the Year rankings. (Ahead of the likes of Kansas big Hunter Dickinson and Marquette point guard/god Tyler Kolek. Eyes emoji.) Newton’s raw stat line is mighty impressive — 17 points, 7.2 rebounds, 6.1 assists, and 1.5 steals per game — but especially so considering he’s stepped into an expanded role in light of his teammates’ injuries. Five-star freshman guard Stephon Castle’s knee injury cost him three weeks of action — including the Huskies’ only loss of the season, against Kansas in Allen Fieldhouse — and he’s only averaged 14.5 minutes in his two games since returning. Center Donovan Clingan, normally among the best bigs in the nation and a veritable lottery pick, hasn’t quite looked himself after an offseason foot sprain. Rutgers transfer Cam Spencer was, notably, battling turf toe on both feet in that Kansas loss; it was one of just three games this season he’s been under 46 percent from the floor. (Spencer, by the way, has more games shooting above 60 percent overall — five — than he does games under 50 percent — four. Wild.)
Dan Hurley on Tristen Newton.
— Matt Norlander (@MattNorlander) December 2, 2023
All of which is to say, the fact that Newton is playing like an All-American in spite of *gestures wildly* all that is borderline unfair. Give the man his flowers. — Marks
3. Kansas (9-1)
Last week: 2
Ah, yes. Putting ourselves back in our commenters’ line of fire, for ranking UConn above the only team to beat it. We get it. But you’re upset about being third, in the nation, one of the — according to ESPN’s aforementioned stat — 12 teams with a legitimate shot to win the national title? C’mon.
So consider the following an olive branch: We are not, as a college basketball community, talking enough about Kansas’ defense. Let’s remedy that. When Bill Self landed Dickinson this summer, to go along with returners Dajuan Harris Jr., KJ Adams, and Kevin McCullar Jr., the assumption was that KU’s offense would be practically unguardable. (Which, yeah. Averaging 1.018 PPP, in the 92nd percentile nationally? That’ll do.) But defensively, is there a team as tested and proven as the Jayhawks are already? Kansas has played three top-15 offenses — UConn (No. 4), Marquette (No. 11), and Kentucky (No. 14) — and a fourth in the top-50, Tennessee, and held three of the four under their season-long PPP averages. (Marquette, Kansas’ lone loss this season, was the exception.) We’d wager no team in the country has a defensive perimeter tandem as good as Harris and McCullar, a key reason behind KU’s seventh-ranked adjusted defensive efficiency. The switching the Jayhawks showcased against UConn was a work of art, and, frankly, something we’re not sure that any other team in the country has the personnel to execute.
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So while we remain somewhat concerned about Kansas’ depth beyond its Big Four, it’s tough to dock the Jayhawks when they’re guarding like they have been. Some free gambling advice you didn’t ask for — and that we are in no way responsible for, should it backfire: Whatever the over/under is on Indiana points scored on Saturday, slam the under. You’re welcome. — Marks
4. Purdue (9-1)
Last week: 4
Considering we have *checks calendar* another four months of debating if Purdue’s guards are good enough, can we consider something more unique? Something truly rare? Something we, no kidding, might not see the rest of this season?
Zach Edey facing a legitimate challenge.
Because that’s what Arizona’s frontcourt is. Fun trivia question: When was the last time a team held Edey to single digits? That would be … Iowa, back on Jan. 27 … of 2022. You’re reading that correctly; it’s been almost two calendar years since a team held the 7-foot-4 Canadian under 10 points. But could Arizona? It seems laughable, almost rude to even consider, but we will.
Oumar Ballo, all 7 feet and 260 (generously-listed) pounds of him, is the most physical big man Purdue has seen this season, and we say that with no disrespect to Gonzaga’s Graham Ike, or Marquette’s Oso Ighodaro. Ballo is just a different animal in the low post, one of the few players experienced and strong enough to reasonably compete with Edey, who is averaging an unreal 10.6 fouls drawn per 40 minutes, according to KenPom. (And if officials were calling every foul committed against Edey, it might be more like 15 per 40.) It isn’t just Ballo, though; Arizona freshman Motiejus Krivas — whom his coach almost solely refers to by last name — is among the bigger backup centers in the country, at a hulking 7-foot-2 and 260 pounds. Normally, Edey feasts once he gets a team’s primary big or two into foul trouble, but the Wildcats can just take out one giant and replace him with another, if that’s what it comes to. And Edey might just do his normal thing — drop something like 28 points, 16 rebounds, a couple deflating blocks — and render this whole point moot. But that the question is worth asking shows just how good a game this should be. — Marks
5. Baylor (9-0)
Last week: 6
What looked like a potentially season-defining stretch in the preseason — versus Michigan State in Detroit, versus Duke in Madison Square Garden — has been tampered down some. But apart from Baylor’s season-opening win over Auburn, these next two games should tell us the most about the Bears before conference play gets underway. Not to throw around the title of “Most Fun Offense” willy-nilly — we’ve previously ordained both Kentucky and BYU, only for their offenses to look decidedly less fun in subsequent losses — but Scott Drew’s team has a legitimate claim. The Bears have KenPom’s No. 2 adjusted offensive efficiency, primarily for two reasons: They shoot the lights out, and on the rare chance they do miss, they usually get the offensive rebound.
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About that shooting. You don’t get to be the best 3-point shooting side in the country — Baylor makes 46.1 percent of its 3s, almost a full four percentage points better than second-place Miami (42.3) — without having multiple marksmen, which Drew’s team does. Leading the way is Toledo transfer RayJ Dennis, who has made 47.8 percent from deep this season, but the Bears have four other dudes above 37 percent, too: Jalen Bridges (47.2 percent), Langston Love (46.2), stud freshman Ja’ Kobe Walter (40.9) — get to know the name if you don’t already — and VCU transfer Jaden Nunn (38.9). The even trickier thing is that all five guys take at least 2.5 3-pointers per game, so “taking one away” doesn’t do much. And then, on the rare off night when Baylor’s shooters are mortal and not human flamethrowers, the team collects 40.2 percent of its offensive rebounds, the sixth-best mark in the country. Much of the credit there belongs to reclassified freshman big Yves Missi, who is No. 6 nationally in offensive rebounding percentage. But this week will test Drew’s blueprint. — Marks
6. Marquette (8-2)
Last week: 5
The Golden Eagles’ nonconference gauntlet is mostly done — six top-50 opponents, four of them top-20, in the span of seven games — and Shaka Smart has to feel pretty pleased about where his team sits. Things haven’t been perfect — our concerns about Marquette’s rebounding, which is sub-250 nationally both offensively and defensively, haven’t entirely dissipated — but not only did Smart’s team emerge with wins over Illinois, Kansas, UCLA, and Texas, but it bounced back exceedingly well from losses to Purdue and rival Wisconsin. (See: the absolute smackdown over Texas we referenced last week, in the Shaka Bowl. Ouchie.)
What has to be as encouraging as anything for Smart, on the brink of Big East play, is Tyler Kolek’s return to form. This week? Oh, Kolek just averaged a tidy 22.5 points, 7.5 rebounds, 6.5 assists, and 2.5 steals per game — while also going a perfect 6-of-6 at the free-throw line — in a very loud reminder to the country that he’s still as good as any guard out there. When he’s on like that offensively, not many teams can hang with Marquette. And while we’re at it, let’s give Kolek a little defensive shout-out, too, since he’s fouling at the lowest rate of his career — just 0.9 fouls committed per 40 minutes, per KenPom, the 19th-best rate nationally and fourth-best among all high-major players. — Marks
7. Houston (10-0)
Last week: 7
We applaud the Cougars, holders of the nation’s longest winning streak, for their staunch efforts so far this season — shocker: they’re No. 1 in KenPom’s adjusted defensive efficiency ratings, and not particularly close to No. 2 Arizona — but this is about as high as we can move Houston for the time being. Why? Kelvin Sampson’s team still, somehow, this deep into December, hasn’t played a top-25 opponent. In fact, Houston has only played two top-50 teams — a 10-point neutral-court win over Utah, and a six-point road win at Xavier — compared to three outside the top 250. No offense to Jackson State, but, uh, that’s not really moving the needle here, especially not given some of the aforementioned nonconference wins Houston’s peers have accrued.
Saturday, then, is what we’ve been waiting for: a real, honest-to-goodness, top-25(ish) opponent. Never mind that Texas A&M has lost three of its last five — they were all to respectable teams: Florida Atlantic, Virginia, and Memphis — and instead focus on the fact that the Cougars’ top-ranked defense will finally face a top-10 offense. If Sampson’s squad smothers the Aggies like it has the directional schools it has faced, then don’t worry; Houston will more than receive its due boost in our next iteration. — Marks
8. Clemson (9-0)
Last week: 15
In the spirit of transparency, we have a confession: We assumed Clemson would’ve lost by now, even if we believed the Tigers had top-4 potential in the ACC this season. At Alabama? At Pitt to open ACC play? Home versus rival South Carolina, and then against TCU in Toronto? (If you are a Clemson fan and traveled to that game, please, please, please let us know in the comments. We’re fascinated by what compelled you.) Surely there would be a slip-up, if not a few, in that mix. Yet all Clemson has done is keep winning — not always in the prettiest fashion, but results nonetheless. We have to respect it. Welcome to the top 10.
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The way Brad Brownell was talking about star big man P.J. Hall — the sneaky frontrunner for ACC Player of the Year right now, and fourth in KenPom’s Player of the Year rankings — and Syracuse transfer Joe Girard this offseason, you’d have thought they were the modern-day version of Dirk Nowitzki and Steve Nash. They’re not, obviously but … you can kinda understand why he was so excited, right? Either Hall or Girard was Clemson’s MVP in its first seven games — Hall five times, Girard twice — and in the two games since, they’ve still been very solid. In wins over South Carolina and TCU, Hall averaged 15.5 points, seven rebounds, 3.5 blocks, and 2.5 assists, and Girard averaged 16.5 points, six rebounds, and 3.5 assists. They may not get the publicity other duos do nationally, but they’re up there in terms of the most effective guard-big pairings in the sport. Next up for the orange Tigers? The blue Tigers of Memphis, in another game that Clemson could reasonably lose … or win, and continue to prove they’re among the nation’s most underrated teams. — Marks
9. Oklahoma (9-0)
Last week: Not ranked
From the founders of “If you thought Clemson in the top 10 was a surprise,” we give you … the Sooners! Porter Moser has very quietly built a stout defense in Norman, which has been key to his team’s undefeated start and four top-60 wins (over USC, Providence, Arkansas, and Iowa). Per KenPom, Oklahoma is sixth nationally in effective field-goal percentage allowed, and fifth in 3-point defense; OU’s opponents make just 25.7 percent of their 3s — although, if we’re being honest, the case is still out on how much of that is Oklahoma’s proficiency vs. its opponents’ streaky shooting. (None of those top-60 opponents are in the top 100 in 3-point shooting, and Iowa and Providence are outside of the top 150.) Still, you can only play who’s on your schedule, and Oklahoma hasn’t stumbled yet, which counts for something against quality competition.
And for the optimists — read: OU fans — out there, this team does bring to mind another recent contemporary: Moser’s 2020-21 Loyola Chicago squad that made the Final Four. The comparison is actually kinda freaky:
- 2021 Loyola Chicago: 41st in adjusted offensive efficiency, second in adjusted defensive efficiency, 10th in effective field goal percentage, and fifth in 2-point percentage.
- 2023-24 Oklahoma: 36th in adjusted offensive efficiency, 12th in adjusted defensive efficiency, 13th in effective field goal percentage, and ninth in 2-point percentage.
The biggest differences are that this Oklahoma team — at least so far — has defended the 3 at a much higher level than those Ramblers did, whereas that Loyola Chicago team was much better on the offensive glass. We’ll soon learn just how legit these Sooners are, though; a Jumpman Invitational contest vs. North Carolina awaits next Wednesday in Charlotte, a de facto home game for the Tar Heels. — Marks
10. Virginia (8-1)
Last week: 13
Not that Tony Bennett needs — or would even accept — any adulation, but what he’s done with this particular Virginia team should put him amongst the early frontrunners for Coach of the Year. (We said early. Chill.) Bennett entered this season with as much uncertainty surrounding his program in probably a decade, and all he’s done is get the Cavaliers back to their elite defensive ways. Not to belabor last week’s point, but we’ll give you the KenPom Cliffs Notes; UVa is fifth in adjusted defensive efficiency, first in effective field-goal percentage allowed, fourth in 2-point defense, seventh in 3-point defense, first in block percentage, and sixth in steal percentage. Suffocating stuff. Frankly, there’s just something comforting about Bennett — who has been wandering in the murky waters of mid defense the last three seasons — getting back to his roots.
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And at the center of it all is a guy who college (and NBA) fans should probably imprint to memory: Ryan Dunn. At 6-foot-8 and 216 pounds, with athleticism in spades, Dunn has been considered — at least by Virginia fans — to be on a De’Andre Hunter-like trajectory since he got to Charlottesville. But in becoming college basketball’s most versatile defender, he’s more than carving out a name for himself. Per Synergy, Dunn allows just 0.417 PPP to be scored on him, which is in the 97th percentile nationally; even if those defensive metrics aren’t perfect measures, opposing players are shooting just 14.3 percent when Dunn is their primary defender. He is the spin cycle, possessing the dizzying ability to somehow rank top-15 nationally in both block and steal percentage. (He is, unsurprisingly, tied for the shortest high-major player in the top 15.) He has five games already (out of nine) with at least two blocks and two steals. There will be more. — Marks
11. Illinois (7-2)
Last week: 9
In advance of this weekend’s surefire anarchy, we’d like to introduce a concept we hope all fan bases can get behind: Sometimes, good teams lose to other good teams. A novel concept!
And our test case for that philosophy this weekend is none other than the Fighting Illini, whose loss to Tennessee on Saturday — on the road, at that — is nothing to be ashamed of. Would we think more highly of Illinois if it had beaten either of the top 10 teams on its conference schedule? Of course. But an 18-point road beatdown over Rutgers and a nine-point neutral-site win over Florida Atlantic in MSG — sneakily one of the more enjoyable games of this young season — still has us believing in Illinois. Some impressive metrics — Illinois is one of just 11 teams with a top-25 adjusted offensive and defensive efficiency, per KenPom — don’t hurt, either. And lastly, we have to give some love up to Terrence Shannon Jr. The 6-foot-6 super senior is third in KenPom’s Player of the Year rankings, and for good reason; he’s third amongst high-major players in points per game (21.7), behind only Edey (24.8) and Pittsburgh’s Blake Hinson (21.9). No other player on Brad Underwood’s team averages even 12 points per game. And while points aren’t the end-all, be-all in terms of evaluating basketball players, they are necessary to, uh, win games. Double whammy, because Shannon does both. — Marks
12. BYU (9-1)
Last week: 11
We’re comfortable with calling a four-point loss on the road against top-40 rival Utah a blip, a bump in the road, nothing to freak out about. That was the first game all season the Cougars failed to make 10-plus 3-pointers. It was by far the worst-shooting performance of the year by one of the best-shooting teams in the country, just 7 of 30 from deep. When you attempt almost half your shots from beyond the arc, you’re probably going to lose on those cold winter nights. But BYU got back to the business of bombing teams out of the gym Wednesday against Denver, splashing a dozen more 3s on the way to a blowout win.
Former Texas A&M and Arkansas wing Jaxson Robinson continues to make his case as the best sixth man in America. He’s yet to start a game this season and averages just 23 minutes per game, but he dropped 28 points and hit 8 of 16 3s off the bench against Denver. Robinson leads the Cougars in scoring (18 ppg) and leads the Big 12 in made 3s (36) at a 44.4 percent clip. Mark Pope’s fun-and-gun squad has three more games that should be gimmes — if those exist anymore in this bonkers college basketball landscape — before Cincinnati visits on Jan. 6 and a trip to Baylor on Jan. 9 to kick off a welcome-to-the-big-leagues tour. — Kyle Tucker
13. Tennessee (7-3)
Last week: NR
Really, the three-loss Volunteers? Yes, really, the three-loss Vols. They lost to three very good teams — Purdue, Kansas, UNC — in a row, all away from home, and had a shot in all of them. OK, maybe not so much in Chapel Hill, but even in that one, they cut a 24-point deficit to six in the final two minutes. They’ve also smoked Syracuse on a neutral court, won by 10 at Wisconsin (a team that’s beaten Virginia and Marquette) and just took down a hot Illinois team in Knoxville. UT has a top-five defense, rarely turns it over on offense and is starting to get comfortable with Northern Colorado transfer Dalton Knecht as the go-to scorer in big games. He dropped 24 at Wisconsin, 37 at UNC, 21 against the Illini.
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Rick Barnes needs veteran guards Santiago Vescovi and Zakai Zeigler to play like their old selves, and there have been some recent signs of them turning a corner. Vescovi, who has just seemed off most of the season so far, was terrific against Illinois: 12 points, nine rebounds, three assists, two steals, zero turnovers and good defense against star Terrence Shannon Jr., who made just 5 of 16 shots. Zeigler, an All-SEC guard coming off an ACL injury late last season, has 24 assists and only seven turnovers the last four games. Even better for the Vols? Former top-50 recruit Jonas Aidoo is really starting to play like it as a junior. He had 29 and 11 Tuesday night against Georgia Southern and the 6-foot-11, 240-pound center is averaging 16.2 points, 8.2 boards and 1.8 blocks over the last five games. — Tucker
14. Memphis (7-2)
Last week: NR
Does Penny Hardaway have the most experienced team in college basketball history? With the midseason addition of Kansas State transfer Nae’Qwan Tomlin, who started every game for an Elite Eight team last season, the Tigers’ top eight players are all at least 22 years old — average age: 23 — with a combined 712 career Division I games played, 375 starts, 15,772 minutes played and 6,929 points scored heading into this week. How many teams have ever had four 1,000-point scorers on the roster together? Hardaway has done it through the portal. There’s Malcolm Dandridge, one of his earliest recruits who has stuck around, and then seven transfers: Tomlin, David Jones (DePaul/St. John’s), 25-year-old Jahvon Quinerly (Villanova/Alabama), Caleb Mills (Houston/Florida State), Jaykwon Walton (Georgia/Wichita State), Nick Jourdain (Temple) and former McDonald’s All-American turned journeyman Jordan Brown (Nevada/Arizona/Louisiana), whose status with the team is something of a mystery right now.
Even if Brown ultimately leaves, the Tigers are going to remain super old, and a very tough out. They’ve already won at Missouri, beaten Michigan and Arkansas on a neutral court, and last week won at VCU and Texas A&M. With home games against Clemson and Virginia in the next week, Memphis could secure one of the best collections of nonconference wins in the country. — Tucker
15. Colorado State (9-1)
Last week: 14
On its face, a loss to Saint Mary’s on Saturday is … not great. No disrespect intended, but this season’s Gaels haven’t been as strong as Randy Bennett’s last two teams — which finished 17th and 13th in KenPom’s year-end efficiency rankings, respectively — and sit just 5-5, with a sub-100 offense and a home loss to Weber State, KenPom’s 124th-ranked team. For CSU, it’s not a bad loss, but it certainly doesn’t help the resume, either.
So, why only a one-slot drop? We’re taking into account that the Rams weren’t full strength, and going out on a limb a little bit in giving them the benefit of the doubt. Both Josiah Strong — an eight-game starter and the team’s fifth-leading scorer — and Jalen Lake — who dropped 21 points, including three 3s, in the Rams’ five-point home win over Colorado — missed the Saint Mary’s game with injuries. (It was the second straight contest the pair has missed, too; they also didn’t play against Denver on Dec. 6.) Those are key pieces, even if coach Niko Medved’s rotation does run up to 10 deep. So what we’re saying is, we still really like CSU, which has KenPom’s ninth-best adjusted offensive efficiency … when fully healthy. (Although, at least aesthetically speaking, it’s easy to “really like” any team with the fifth-best effective field-goal percentage in the nation —59.3 percent — one that also makes the seventh-most 2s and has the 17th-best turnover rate.) Get those two guys back, let senior guard Isaiah Stevens keep cooking — he is a phenomenal passer, who in nine games has three points-assists double-doubles (!!) plus another nine-assist night — and the Rams should be just fine. — Marks
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16. Indiana State (9-1)
Last week: NR
It was only a matter of time before the Sycamores made an appearance here in our “Spotlight On The Sneaky Mid-Major” slot in the rankings. Josh Schertz’s team, which won 23 games a year ago, leads the nation in effective field-goal percentage (.617) and ranks fifth in 3-point percentage (.412) and sixth in 2-point percentage (.616). They take 46 percent of their shots and get 38 percent of their points from beyond the arc. In short, it’s quite a fun offense to watch, and it’s yielding results. ISU’s only loss was at Alabama, but there are also already five wins away from home — most by a comfortable margin. Oh, and think it can’t get worse for Michigan State? Well, the Sycamores and Spartans have their most anticipated meeting since the 1979 national championship game coming up on Dec. 30.
College Jokic plays at Indiana State
— Hoop Herald (@TheHoopHerald) December 12, 2023
There are a ton of interesting guys on this roster. Southern Indiana transfer Isaiah Swope and South Florida transfer Ryan Conwell rank first and second in the Missouri Valley in made 3s while shooting 45 and 43 percent from deep, respectively. Swope averages 19.7 points and 2.2 steals, Conwell averages 15.2 points and 5.1 boards and former Bradley transfer Jayson Kent (13.1 and 7.2) leads the league in 2-point percentage. But the name you really need to know, the player you absolutely must see to believe, is sophomore sensation Robbie Avila, a 6-10, 240-pound unicorn with a soft middle, goofy grin and goggles. His looks are deceiving, as Avila does it all for the Sycamores: 16.6 points, 5.9 boards, 3.8 assists, 10 of 25 from deep. He led the MVC in offensive rating last season and is fourth this year in box plus/minus, sixth in true shooting. To watch him is to love him. – Tucker
Also thinking about: Ole Miss (9-0), because the Rebels already have two road wins, beat Memphis and could, thanks to a soft schedule, actually get to 13-0 before the SEC gauntlet begins Jan. 6 at Tennessee. Then we’ll know how legit Chris Beard’s team is, but the turnaround is already impressive, considering they could surpass last year’s win total (12) before league play. … Grand Canyon (8-1), whose only loss is to way-better-than-expected South Carolina, because the Antelopes took down San Diego State and won at Liberty last week. A good team, great home-court advantage and exceedingly manageable WAC schedule mean Bryce Drew’s team could run up a gaudy record. … Saint Joseph’s (8-2), because even though we’re still not sure how the Hawks lost to Texas A&M=Commerce, they’ve been excellent ever since. They took Kentucky to OT at Rupp Arena, won at Villanova and whacked previously unbeaten Princeton. And they’re fun, attempting 25-plus 3s in 9 of 10 games. …Gonzaga (8-2), which has the opportunity to make a statement Friday vs. UConn, but currently does a lot of things well without doing anything excellently. The Creighton version of Ryan Nembhard is in there somewhere, we know it, but opportunities are running out for that guy to prove himself. … Kentucky and North Carolina (both 7-2), who conveniently play Saturday in Atlanta and, aside from having diametrically opposite coaches — imagine Hubert Davis and John Calipari having dinner together; where would they even go? — play similar styles. Both have top-15 offenses and middling defenses, so expect a track meet (and take the over). It’s a Power Rankings play-in game!
(Top photo of Oklahoma’s Rivaldo Soares: Joey Johnson / AP)