Haven’t been watching college basketball all year? Want to get back into it before March Madness comes around? Here’s where the season stands so far and its big stories.
Big Ten Chaos
Michigan was pretty much dead in the water going into Big Ten play. The Wolverines had no quality wins and preseason All-American sophomore forward Mitch McGary is out indefinitely due to back surgery. Now, they sit in first place in the best conference in basketball. Wisconsin and Ohio State were undefeated, then combined to lose seven straight. Iowa is suddenly explosive, deep and rebound-smothering. Michigan State is a top-five team when healthy, but there are no “when-healthy” championships.
Freshmen Craze
This was supposed to be the year of the freshmen. Kansas' Andrew Wiggins, Kentucky's Julius Randle and Duke's Jabari Parker were supposed to be the best group of freshmen we’ll see in years. Kentucky’s recruiting class was supposed to be the best class since the Fab Five. Now? The big three have been pretty good, but nowhere near the monsters they were expected to be. Kentucky has disappointed since losing to Michigan State in early November. ESPN may have overhyped all of this.
Undefeated Wichita State
Every few years, we get that mid-major that plays well enough and has a bad enough schedule that we have to debate if it’ll go undefeated, and if it does, whether it should be a top seed. We went through this with Murray State a few years ago and now we get last year’s cinderella in the Shockers. They’d be ten-point underdogs against any other team in the top five, but undefeated is still a cool status so, hey, let's watch.
And now, here are my picks:
Player of the Year: Doug McDermott, Creighton
Are you ready for the NCAA National Player of the Year to be a white walk-on from Iowa playing for his dad’s mid-major team? I said, are you really ready? Because that is the trajectory we’re headed on unless someone like Arizona’s Nick Johnson or Oklahoma State’s Marcus Smart really gets it in gear. As it stands, McDermott’s a dream candidate. He scores 24.3 points per game for a team that would be terrible without him while playing for his father and is giving up his scholarship for a teammate—all things that make basketball writers feel so fuzzy inside.
Freshman of the Year: Tyler Ennis, Syracuse
A month ago, Parker looked like an unstoppable Mormon freight train that happened to score 27 points per game. Since then, he’s cooled down considerably and this race has widely opened. Ennis’ four-to-one assist-to-turnover ratio and status as the more important cog on a better team makes me think he’ll pull it out.
Coach of the Year: Sean Miller, Arizona
This guy has built something special in Tucson. He’s brought Arizona back to its old status of West Coast recruiting juggernaut, which has led to, for my money, the best group of starters in the country and what should be the overall No. 1 seed come March. It’s not often you see a traditional college basketball power brought to new heights.
Power Five Conference Champions: Arizona, Syracuse, Florida, Kansas, Michigan State
The above picks are in order of descending certainty. Arizona and Syracuse are the two best teams in the country, and play in pretty weak conferences. Arizona looks more talented, but Syracuse is more disciplined. Still, no reason has been given to doubt either of these squads.
For the SEC, it was always going to be a Florida-Kentucky fight. I’m going to go with the team that has improved more throughout the season and doesn’t look like its players all hate playing together whenever a little pressure comes their way.
Kansas has the highest ceiling in the country considering freshman center Joel Embiid and Wiggins could very well go 1-2 in the 2014 NBA Draft. The Jayhawks dropped a few too many non-conference games for comfort, but are now undefeated in conference and playing like the top-five team they were projected to be in preseason.
I basically picked Michigan State out of a hat.
What are your thoughts on the college basketball season so far? Who is your Player of the Year? Who will win the Big Ten conference? Email jfbaer@wisc.edu and let Jack know your picks.
