College basketball power rankings: Is BYU for real?

College basketball power rankings: Is BYU for real?

Brendan Marks and Kyle Tucker
Jan 4, 2024

Duquesne upset BYU in the 2024 NCAA Tournament Round of 62. Follow live coverage of the rest of the 2024 men’s NCAA Tournament first round.

Happy New Year, all, and welcome back! Power Rankings, Inc. took last week off for some much-needed holiday family time — definitely not to indulge in copious amounts of food and booze, nope, not us — but that doesn’t mean we stopped following all the college hoops action.

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And all things considered? It was, relatively speaking, not the craziest two-week stretch of the season. Although, in the context of this tumultuous season — one where AP Top-25 spots are about as stable as frosting-less gingerbread houses — that’s not saying much. Florida Atlantic outlasted Arizona in a double-OT epic … only to turn around and lose to Florida Gulf Coast. UConn officially shut down star center Donovan Clingan for about a month, while he recovers from a tendon injury in his right foot. Virginia got smacked — by 22! — by five-win Notre Dame, and Kenny Payne is still — at least as of this writing — the head coach at Louisville. Zach Edey shot a 3, in a real, actual game! Who are we kidding? Plenty happened.

One disclaimer, before you dive in: Now two months into the season, we’ve got enough of a sample size that we reset the deck, so to speak. Dropped some teams — through no fault of their own — whom we’re less inspired by. Added others who intrigue us, or who have the potential to. Remember that this isn’t necessarily the teams with the 16 best resumes in the country; it’s the 16 teams — or 15, plus one plucky mid-major — we feel the best about in that particular week. Very scientific, we know. If you’re upset… well, just know that this weekend’s jam-packed conference slate is guaranteed to change things. Probably many things. And with that, off we go:

go-deeper

GO DEEPER

Bracket Watch: The incredible shrinking ACC

1. Purdue (13-1)

Last week: 1

Not only are the Boilermakers the lone team in college basketball with a top-five offensive and defensive efficiency rating, but the other four teams with a top-five offense rank No. 23, No. 69, No. 70 and No. 79 defensively. BYU and Arizona are the only other teams that rank top-10 in both. Purdue’s jump is a significant one from 93rd in defensive efficiency two years ago to 24th last season, and now fifth. Because Edey is an unstoppable force of nature and guards Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer have become increasingly dangerous in the backcourt, our eyeballs tell us the computers are correct in their assessment of the offensive firepower. But is this defense real?

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Returning a bunch of veterans helps, but so does adding Southern Illinois transfer Lance Jones, a two-time Missouri Valley All-Defense selection who led that league in steals the last two years. It’s readily apparent already that Jones was the perfect piece to add. There is, however, one other thing we must consider about the defensive uptick: luck. Many believe that 3-point defense is essentially just that, a crapshoot, and opponents’ 3-point struggles have been a major part of the equation so far. Only three teams have made more than eight 3s in a game against the Boilermakers – and not for lack of trying, as opponents are averaging almost 26 3-point attempts. Only four teams have shot better than 30 percent from deep against them and opponents’ season percentage is 28.1 percent.

 (Source: CBB Analytics)

Is Purdue actually good at deterring 3-point shooters or have the opponents just been really bad at making them – or both? Only two of the first 14 opponents ranked top-50 in 3-point percentage and 10 opponents ranked 150th or worse. Will these numbers hold up in the heart of Big Ten play? – Kyle Tucker

2. Houston (13-0)

Last week: 3

Sure, we could write hundreds of words about how suffocating Houston’s defense is… or we could just show you this:

The only thing that chart doesn’t do is place Houston’s defense (so far) in any sort of historical context. For that, we turn to CJ Moore, who noted the following in his weekly top-25: Houston — at least right now — is ranked first nationally in effective field-goal defense and defensive turnover percentage. No team in the KenPom era, dating back 24 seasons, has finished the season No. 1 in both. (That makes some sense, given their sometimes-contradictory natures.) Only 10 teams during that stretch have finished top-10 in both categories, and only one of those (2014 Louisville) has been a high-major side. All of which is a long way of saying, Houston is trending toward historical defensive aptitude, even given its lackluster — read: sub-200 nationally — strength of schedule. (To you schedule haters, welcome to conference play… and hopefully the end of those arguments.) We in particular are intrigued by the unofficial Cougar Bowl on Jan. 23, when Kelvin Sampson’s red Cougars (Houston) take on Mark Pope’s blue/white Cougars (BYU) and their top-10 offense. Winner gets more than just the mascot, too; that’s the type of win the selection committee holds dear when selecting No. 1 seeds. — Brendan Marks

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3. Kansas (12-1)

Last week: 4

What the NCAA really should’ve investigated Bill Self for is where he hides the Star Player Incubator that clearly exists somewhere on the Kansas campus. Or maybe it’s just something in the water, since Lawrence is the actual cradle of college basketball. However he keeps doing it — slow-cooking these stars, unleashing them on an unsuspecting public year after year — Self certainly has done it yet again with Kevin McCullar Jr. The fifth-year super senior has more than doubled his scoring from the first four seasons and 112 games of his career. He averaged 9.3 points in that time, first at Texas Tech and last year at KU. This season, it’s 20.4 points, 6.9 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 1.6 steals.

Per Sports Reference, only three previous Division I players over the last 30 years have posted such robust and well-rounded stat lines as that. They include Penny Hardaway and former national player of the year Evan Turner. – Tucker

4. Marquette (11-3)

Last week: 6

It’s an unconventional accomplishment, but a worthwhile one all the same — so congrats, Marquette, on officially finishing the 2023 calendar year undefeated at home. Hang the banner! (Please don’t actually.) To get there wasn’t easy, either; the Golden Eagles overcame a freezing-cold shooting start against a top-3 Big East team in Creighton — upside-wise, at least — and instead gritted out a win by forcing, then converting on, turnovers. Credit also goes to sophomore Sean Jones, for posting a career-best 15 points and keeping Marquette in a game where neither Tyler Kolek nor Oso Ighodaro had their best stuff. (Side note: Creighton’s perimeter trio of Trey Alexander, Steven Ashworth, and Baylor Scheierman combined for 11 of the Bluejays’ 18 turnovers, and as has become clear this season, Creighton’s fate any given night hinges on those three.)

But why Marquette’s home record — the team is 36-4 at home under Shaka Smart — is so imperative is because, as we all do when the calendar flips, you have to look ahead. In what will assuredly be a close battle for the Big East regular-season title, guess where four of Marquette’s final six games will be played? You guessed it: at home — including Connecticut the first week of March, in a game that could very well decide who wins the conference. We will be watching: for the basketball, of course, but also to see if referees are still letting Smart play “help defense” by then. — Marks

 Freshman Stephon Castle is healthy and producing for UConn. (Rich Schultz / Getty Images)

5. Connecticut (12-2)

Last week: 5

The Huskies can’t seem to all be healthy at the same time, but the beauty of the deep and talented roster Dan Hurley has assembled is, most nights, they don’t all need to be. So 7-foot-2 Donovan Clingan is out again, this time for maybe three or four weeks recovering from a foot injury? Well, five-star freshman Stephon Castle is rounding into form — after his own injury — just in the nick of time. Castle had 14 points and seven assists in a rout of DePaul on Tuesday. Cam Spencer and Alex Karaban combined for 37 points in that game.

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To be clear, UConn badly wants and needs Clingan back, but a small-ball version of these Huskies is mighty intriguing, too. Karaban at the five? Very interesting. Also notable: Per EvanMiya.com, out of every two-man combination in the country (minimum 200 possessions on the floor together), Spencer and Castle are the second-most efficient duo in college basketball, while Karaban and Castle are 11th. Expand that to three-man combos and the Spencer, Castle, Karaban trio ranks third among groups with at least 150 possessions together.

Hurley said this week that his defense must “take a major step up from here on out or else we will not be contenders in anything; we’ll be pretenders.” But in reality, he’s got a top-25 defense and one of the hardest-to-guard offenses in America. The Huskies rank fourth in adjusted offensive efficiency and 10th in halfcourt scoring efficiency. All that and we still don’t even know what a full-strength version of this team looks like. – Tucker

6. Kentucky (10-2)

Last week: 7

By now, we’ve established that John Calipari’s revamped offense is legitimately potent and, apparently, permanent. Kentucky ranks No. 3 nationally in 3-point percentage, No. 4 in turnover percentage, No. 8 in adjusted offensive efficiency — with four guys who’ve made at least 16 3s at a clip of 38 percent or better. Illinois State coach Ryan Pedon, a former Ohio State assistant who has paid close attention to UK for years, said after giving up 96 points at Rupp Arena last week: “This is a different brand of basketball.”

But have we all become so enamored of that offensive evolution that we’re overlooking significant issues elsewhere? And can an elite offense overcome a just-OK defensive and rebounding team? With Oscar Tshiebwe gone, Kentucky went from No. 1 in offensive rebound percentage and No. 2 in rebound margin last season to 232nd and 176th in those categories this season. “Part of defense is rebounding,” Calipari said after Illinois State grabbed 24 offensive boards against UK. “I can’t remember one of my teams in 15 years giving up 24 offensive rebounds.”

After the shocking home loss to UNC Wilmington earlier this season, he correctly pointed out that despite his team’s offensive firepower, “There are games you’re not going to make shots (so) you’ve got to rebound and defend.”

Right now, Kentucky ranks 53rd nationally in defensive efficiency and 209th in points per possession allowed in halfcourt defense. It is in just the 27th percentile, per Synergy, in defending a pick-and-roll ballhandler, in just the 15th percentile defending post-ups. Sophomore Adou Thiero did not hesitate last week when asked what Calipari is focused on heading into SEC play: “Defense. Defense. That’s the main focus, trying to get our defense to be elite. It’s all right now, it’s getting the job done, but we gotta get it to that next level.”

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Conventional wisdom says you need a top-20 offense and defense to make a serious run at the national championship — but Miami broke some norms last season, crashing the Final Four with a top-10 O and a defense that finished 99th. San Diego State did the opposite, reaching the title game with a top-five D and an offense that finished 75th. Duke in 2022 and UCLA in 2021 made Final Fours with elite offenses and sub-40 defenses. So it’s not a dealbreaker, necessarily, but no doubt Calipari would like to see that number improve. — Tucker

7. Arizona (10-3)

Last week: 2

For the basketball-starved among us over the holiday break, let us not forget the gift that was Arizona’s double-overtime loss to Florida Atlantic. What. A. Game. We can’t watch every college contest, much as we’d like to, but we’ll easily put that one in the top 10 of the season so far. Maybe top five. (Others that come to mind immediately: Duke-Arizona in Cameron Indoor Stadium, Marquette-Purdue in Hawaii, Kansas-UConn in Allen Fieldhouse, and Kentucky-Kansas in Chicago.) The duel between Caleb Love at his best — despite him inevitably missing a potential game-winning 3 — and FAU guard Johnell Davis, who scored 35 points despite taking 27 (!!) shots, was a thing of beauty. No points docked for losing an epic like that, one we’d gladly take again in the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament.

But Stanford was a different matter. The kind of game you don’t think much about, then see the result and viscerally react: “Huh… What happened there?” The Wildcats allowed 100 points in 75 possessions, looking nothing like the top-10 adjusted defensive team it has been, per KenPom, all season. But we’re not forgetting this is the same team that beat Duke on the road and Michigan State — which looks surprisingly capable of late, who’d have guessed it — on a neutral court, before drubbing Wisconsin at home and outlasting Alabama in nearby Phoenix. Arizona is still good. Like, really good, probably. But after that kind of head-scratching loss, dropping Tommy Lloyd’s team from unquestioned top-three status feels only fair. — Marks

8. BYU (12-1)

Last week: 10

The computers don’t seem to care that the Cougars — No. 2 in the NET, No. 4 in KenPom, No. 5 at Bart Torvik — ain’t played nobody. (Even though 9 of 12 wins have come against sub-150 KenPom teams, they actually have played somebody. The win over San Diego State is doing a lot of lifting, but beating Arizona State by 28 and NC State comfortably on a neutral court is not nothing.) The schedule-strength critics — whose case has some merit after four straight wins by an average of 29 points against teams ranked in the 200s — will either be vindicated or silenced soon. The brutal Big 12 is coming. In the next three weeks, Mark Pope’s team will play at Baylor, home against Iowa State, at Texas Tech and home against Houston. Six of BYU’s next seven games are against the KenPom top 40.

Human doubters will have answers about this team’s legitimacy in a hurry. But why do the machines believe so much in BYU without more body of work against high-level competition? Maybe because BYU is a machine, so they’re kindred circuits. Both eyeballs and math align on this fact: the Cougars are spectacular offensively, ranking top-six nationally in adjusted efficiency, effective field-goal percentage, assist rate, percentage of shots from 3-point range and points from 3s. But if you think this is just a bunch of long bombers, think again. They also rank seventh nationally in 2-point percentage and almost never get their shot blocked. Here’s a good summary of why:

I mean, come on. That’s art. – Tucker

9. Memphis (11-2)

Last week: 8

Penny Hardaway’s Tigers are almost the opposite of BYU. The computers don’t love them, despite the fact they’ve beaten Missouri, Michigan, Arkansas, VCU, Texas A&M, Clemson and Virginia, all but two of those away from home. Failing to bury sub-200 teams Vanderbilt and Austin Peay over the holidays didn’t help, but this feels like a case where results ought to outweigh style points. We also have to consider how radically different Memphis might be now with midseason Kansas State transfer Nae’Qwan Tomlin. He appears to be a game-changer.

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In just his second game with the Tigers, the springy 6-foot-10 Tomlin delivered 15 points, 15 rebounds and three blocks in just 23 minutes. He had (by far) the best plus/minus (+19) for Memphis. That’s quite a trade-deadline acquisition for a team that was already one of the most experienced in college basketball and boasts the AAC’s leading scorer in David Jones (21.2 ppg). There is also ample runway for Hardaway to fully integrate Tomlin into this team, considering the two meetings with league favorite Florida Atlantic aren’t until Feb. 25 and March 9, with a whole bunch of sub-100 opponents between now and then. — Tucker

10. Tennessee (10-3)

Last week: 9

Welcome back, Zakai Zeigler. It feels safe to declare the pint-sized junior point guard with a Zach Edey-sized heart fully recovered from the ACL injury he suffered just 10 months ago. After a slow start to this season, Zeigler is off and running now: 16.7 points, 5.7 assists, 3.0 steals and 10 of 22 from 3-point range over the last three games. Over the last seven games: 41 assists, 16 steals, 15 made 3s, only 11 turnovers. It’s a huge development for a Tennessee team that looks plenty equipped to contend for another SEC championship under Rick Barnes, who won the regular season in 2018 and the league tournament in 2022.

Just how important was it for Zeigler to shake off any post-injury rust? The Volunteers are 20-1 in his career when he has three-plus steals in a game. They’re 14-2 when he makes at least three 3-pointers. And they’re 23-4 when he has five-plus assists. Tennessee has a ton of nice pieces — and an elite defense (again) — but the 5-foot-9 kid from New York is the one who can tie it all together. – Tucker

11. Auburn (11-2)

Last week: 11

Have we mentioned how wild it is that Bruce Pearl’s top 10 guys have all played in every game and all average between 15 and 23 minutes? Senior KD Johnson, who averaged 28 minutes his first season at Auburn, is happily accepting 17 this season. Denver Jones, who averaged 33 minutes at FIU last season, is good with 21 this season with the Tigers. One night, Johni Broome will drop 30 and 13 on Virginia Tech; the next, Jaylin Williams puts 24, 7 and 6 on Indiana; or five-star freshman Aden Holloway will make 17 of 30 3-pointers against the first five high-major opponents he faces. Until last week, Auburn had a top-15 offense nationally and the No. 4 scoring offense in the SEC … but not one player among the league’s top 10 scorers. Now that ridiculous depth gets put to a serious test right out of the chute in SEC play, at Arkansas on Saturday.

*scheduled tweet*

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Johni Broome highlights 📼 pic.twitter.com/4yp81nbotp

— Auburn Basketball (@AuburnMBB) January 3, 2024

As nice as it is to share the load, and to be able to wear down opponents with the sheer volume of able bodies you can throw at them, sometimes it also helps to have an actual star. Right on time, then, Broome appears poised to take up that role. He’s been a man on fire the last three games, averaging 19.3 points, 11.0 rebounds and 3.3 blocks while making 20 of 24 2-point shots. The 6-foot-10 center also sank three 3-pointers in a win over Penn on Tuesday, and he’s beginning to look like an All-SEC player. Surround a guy like that with nine unselfish teammates who can all hoop, and you’re onto something. Pearl certainly is. – Tucker

12. North Carolina (10-3)

Last week: 12

Not to completely ignore UNC’s win at Pittsburgh on Tuesday — the sort of ugly, grind-it-out game last season’s Tar Heels likely would have (and in fact, did) lose — but there’s a more pressing matter we’d like to address: RJ Davis. By “only” scoring 15 against the Panthers, on a 6-of-16 shooting night that would only be considered off for the nation’s best scorers, Davis’ incredible streak of scoring 20-plus points ended at eight games. But still. The last UNC player to have that kind of consistent scoring run? Some dude named Hansbrough about 15 years ago. *best possible Larry David voice* Pretty, pretty, pretty good. His heat map, per CBB Analytics, shows how he’s doing it … although it’s more like a scorching map, given Davis’ across-the-board shooting success:

 (Source: CBB Analytics)

Davis takes the 11th-highest percentage of his team’s shots of all high-major players, per KenPom; that’s a higher rate than former backcourt mate Caleb Love ever had … except Davis, obviously, is doing so with admirable efficiency. He’s now hitting a career-best 39.6 percent of his 3s for the season, but over UNC’s last 10 games, he’s up to 42.3 percent. And amongst players attempting at least seven 3s per game, per CBB Analytics, Davis has the fifth-best 3-point percentage and sixth-best true shooting percentage in the nation. The raw stats — he’s tied for the second-most points scored this season, trailing only Purdue’s Edey — are impressive, but Davis isn’t just stat-padding; he’s scoring effectively in ways that contribute to UNC winning. All due respect to Tyler Kolek, Tristen Newton, and the other elite guards out there, but Davis is building as impressive an All-America campaign as any of them. — Marks

 Isaiah Stevens might be the best point guard in college basketball. (Isaiah J. Downing / USA Today)

13. Colorado State (13-1)

Last week: Not ranked

Trivia time: Who is the only player in college basketball this season, per Sports Reference, with multiple games of 15-plus points and 10-plus assists? That would be Colorado State guard Isaiah Stevens, who has three — and also, not coincidentally, a legitimate claim as the nation’s best point guard.

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A fifth-year senior, Stevens’ counting stats — 17.4 points, 7.4 assists, 2.9 rebounds, and 1.5 steals per game — are plenty overwhelming. But he’s coming by those gaudy numbers efficiently, too; he’s currently hitting 84.6 percent of his free throws and 40 percent of his 3s. And while that 15-10 threshold is arbitrary, clearly to prove a point about Stephens’ impact, if you drop those qualifiers juuuuust a little bit — to, say, 15-plus points and eight-plus assists — then you realize just how consistently excellent he’s been. Not only has Stevens posted a line of at least 15 and 8 in six of the Rams’ 14 games this season — again, more than any player in the country — but he’s done so in the biggest moments: 18 and 8 against feistier-than-expected Boston College; another 20 and 11 against rival Colorado, a top-25 side in its own right; and most recently, against 12-2 New Mexico on Tuesday, 18 and 8 (including a perfect 7-of-7 from the line, three steals, and two rebounds). And all that is without mentioning how he completely dominated in CSU’s best win of the season, a 21-point neutral-site beatdown over Creighton: 20 points on 9-of-16 shooting, seven assists, six rebounds, one steal, and only one turnover. In Mountain West terms, he’s been every bit as good as Malachi Flynn was in 2019-20, when San Diego State went 30-2. Sadly, we never got to see how far Flynn would take that group … but here’s guessing nobody will want to see Niko Medved’s Rams come March. — Marks

14. San Diego State (12-2)

Last week: NR

We still remember back in the preseason, fresh off that shiny national championship game appearance, when San Diego State … did not appear in The Athletic’s top 25. It drew some ire, to say it mildly. Convention said that Brian Dutcher, SDSU’s longtime coach, has more than earned the benefit of the doubt, that — at the very least — he’ll produce a top-25 defense year after year. Which, fair. But reality was, the Aztecs lost their best offensive player (Matt Bradley), their most versatile defender (Keshad Johnson, who is crushing it at Arizona), and their best rim protector (Nathan Mensah) from last season’s Final Four squad. Doubts were realistic, even if that angered Aztecs fans.

But we’ve seen enough to rectify any real or perceived slight, even if the AP voters still need some more convincing. (Gonzaga, which has no great wins this season and lost to the Aztecs at home last week, is still ranked over San Diego State … how?) So welcome back, Aztecs. Dutcher’s team has looked as good as was reasonably expected, with another top-20 defense and an offense that is still figuring things out. But we’d be remiss not to mention 6-foot-9 center Jaedon LeDee, last season’s sixth man who is currently making his star turn. Or, rather, his supernova turn; LeDee — who has the chiseled build of a marble statue come alive — went from averaging 7.9 points and 5.3 rebounds per game last season to 21.5 points and 9.2 rebounds per game, heading into Wednesday’s game against Fresno State. LeDee scored 21 points on 9-of-12 shooting in the blowout win over the Bulldogs. LeDee is third in KenPom’s too-early national player of the year rankings, is 17th nationally in fouls drawn per 40 minutes and is hitting free-throws at a 76 percent clip. There’s no reason to think LeDee will slow down anytime soon, even considering that the Mountain West — potentially a five-bid league this season — features five other teams with top-75 defenses. Dude’s a stud. And Dutcher’s a stud. Woohoo, two MWC teams in our top 15! — Marks

15. Duke (10-3)

Last week: 15

In the spirit of spotlighting highly effective senior guards from Tobacco Road, may we present Jeremy Roach? You know, the dude who’s been through as much in his Duke career — short of winning a national title — as maybe any Blue Devil ever? If that sounds farcical, it’s not. Roach’s career road map, for the unfamiliar. A former five-star recruit (shocker), who started 18 games as a freshman on the worst Duke team since 1995, one of only two Mike Krzyzewski-coached teams since 1983 to miss the NCAA Tournament. As a sophomore on Krzyzewski’s final squad, Roach was a sometimes-starter who only re-earned his role in the NCAA Tournament … and then willed Duke to wins against Michigan State and Texas Tech, before ultimately succumbing to rival UNC in the teams’ only NCAA Tournament meeting. And then Coach K retired, and Roach was one of just two holdovers — and the lone captain — on Jon Scheyer’s first squad, which won the ACC championship last season. OK. Caught up. Proceed.

Roach has been a career 10-ish point-per-game scorer, a career 33-ish percent shooter from 3 … until now. Now he’s going full supernova. All Roach did in Duke’s 20-point win over Syracuse on Tuesday, the team’s fifth straight? Score 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting, make both his 3-pointers — including one to spur Duke’s decisive 16-4 second-half run — and also notch four rebounds, two assists, and two steals. That’s becoming a normal stat line for him, as he’s quickly ventured into “Senior Year Quinn Cook” territory. Roach is making 48.8 percent of his 3s this season — the ninth-best mark amongst all high-major players — while turning the ball over at the lowest rate of his career. He’ll probably never get his shine this season playing on the same team as Kyle Filipowski — who also is putting up All-America numbers — and Tyrese Proctor, but we’re trying to get him there. As good as those other two guys are, Duke the last two seasons has largely gone where Roach takes them. — Marks

go-deeper

GO DEEPER

Duke checks all the boxes in 20-point win over Syracuse

16. McNeese State (11-2)

Last week: NR

Whatever the video budget is for McNeese State’s men’s basketball department, it’s not enough. Double it. Triple it. Because the creative folks who dreamt up and brought this video to life more than deserve it:

Willy The Kid is free👀#BayouBandits | #GeauxPokes pic.twitter.com/CvCFJODzrM

— McNeese Men’s Basketball (@McNeeseMBB) December 11, 2023

“Willy the Kid,” in this case, is embattled coach Will Wade, formerly of LSU and now in his first season leading the Cowboys. The full Wade saga is a bit long and complicated, but here’s the CliffsNotes version: LSU fired him in March 2022, days before the NCAA Tournament — a strong-ass move if we’ve ever seen one — after receiving a notice of allegations detailing significant misconduct throughout Wade’s tenure. McNeese waited a year to hire Wade — who, from a strictly basketball perspective, has a 207-98 career record and five NCAA Tournament appearances — but three months after his hiring, the NCAA’s IARP suspended him for the first 10 games of this season as punishment. Wade, long described as an “outlaw” in college basketball circles, leaned all the way into his reputation. (That McNeese’s mascot is the Cowboys is a convenient alignment, in corporate speak.)

While Wade was out, McNeese played — no disrespect intended — one of the most comically easy and absurd schedules we’ve ever seen. Look at these opponents:

Biblical Studies? Mississippi University for Women? (No, your eyes aren’t mistaking you; that’s a real, honest-to-goodness, very nice 69-point win by a Division I college team.) Now Wade is back, though — an electric storyline in and of itself — and after McNeese’s road win over Michigan, it’s officially time to give the #BayouBandits a shoutout in our spot normally reserved for an interesting mid-major. The Cowboys turn the ball over less than any team in America, per KenPom, while also shooting 41 percent from 3 as a team, the sixth-best mark in the sport.

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Key to McNeese’s success, beyond Wade, has been senior guard and TCU transfer Shahada Wells, whose 30-point, 10-rebound, six-assist, five-steal performance against the Wolverines deservedly earned him multiple national player of the week awards. Can McNeese keep this going? It’s the only team in the Southland with a winning record currently, so, consider the Cowboys the favorites. All things considered, regardless of how you feel about Wade, his team is one that no high-major is going to want to see come March … and if we get more excuses to repost that ridiculous video, then we aren’t complaining. — Marks

Also thinking about: If Florida Atlantic (11-3) doesn’t have the strangest resume in the country — hello, Villanova! — then it’s right up there. Nonconference, neutral-site wins over Texas A&M and Arizona will age like a fine cabernet; befuddling losses to Bryant and Florida Gulf Coast will age like milk. Dusty May’s Owls are 6-1 against KenPom top-100 teams, yet 2-2 against sub-150 teams. Make it make sense! … Ole Miss (13-0), in no way a metrics darling — 80th on KenPom, with neither offensive nor defensive efficiency in the top 50 — but somehow still undefeated. Is Saturday’s conference opener at Tennessee validation, or a crushing return to reality? We’re expecting the latter. … Illinois (11-2), which has won two straight and looked quite capable — especially Tuesday’s 30-point blowout over a not-bad Northwestern team — since Terrence Shannon Jr.’s indefinite suspension. Marcus Domask deserves some flowers for dropping his second 30-piece in the span of six games. … Right when we were starting to trust you, Clemson (11-2), this? Letting Miami run amok, like some trampoline-basketball halftime show? P.J. Hall remains on our midseason All-America lists, but on nights like Wednesday when he fouls out — despite posting 17 points and six rebounds, although also four turnovers — it’s gonna be tough sledding for Brad Brownell’s team … Oklahoma (12-1) and Iowa State (11-2) conveniently play Saturday, and we would just love to know if either of these teams is legit. Both have similar profiles — solid (as in top-20) defenses, questionable offenses, abysmal schedules — but between them, just one top-50 win nationally: OU over Providence in Norman. By next week, we’ll know if either deserved this mention.

(Top photo of Spencer Johnson: Chris Gardner / Getty Images)

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