Week 4: Digesting Feast Week + Look-Ahead to Inter-Conference “Challenge” Week
HELLLLLLOOOOOO my friends in College Basketball,
Are you feeling as full as I am? Holy hell, what an unbelievable, insane Feast Week full of entertaining, competitive games. I’m more full than the Burmese Pythons that eat alligators whole in those Nat Geo youtube videos - that’s a perfect analogy for me trying to keep up with Feast Week 2024.
We’ll get into all the most important results and stories, but I just wanted to start this newsletter by reviewing a few of the biggest headlines from the past week. Auburn and Kansas should unanimously be considered the two best teams in the country. Auburn won a stacked Maui Invitational, and Kansas handed Duke their second loss to remain undefeated. UCONN lost 3 games in a row in Maui, but is somehow in the Top 25, ranked ahead of Dayton who beat them by 18 in their most recent game (they won’t be in the BB Top 40, and we didn’t have them ranked #2, credit to us)??? Creighton took a tumble after losing 3 straight while their 3 best players dealt with health issues. Houston and Arizona both lost two more games this week, a surprising and disappointing result for each of those teams as well as the Big 12. Duke’s loss to Kansas and UNC’s 2 losses to Auburn and Michigan State in the Maui (moreso the latter of the 2) were a tough look for the ACC. Indiana was a VERY big loser last week after getting pummeled by Louisville, then soundly beaten again by Gonzaga…get ready to learn LinkedIn, Mike Woodson. Oregon and Oklahoma both rise significantly after winning their respective high-profile 3-game MTE’s: the Players Era and the Battle 4 Atlantis. And West Virginia, Louisville, Arizona State, San Diego State, and several other schools are riding the momentum of impressive wins.
Oh, and if you thought there would be a post-Feast-Week lull in the college hoops calendar to allow the teams (and fans) to recover before getting back to big-time matchups…you thought wrong. We’ve got another strong slate ahead this week, starting Tuesday night. Go for some long walks, get some exercise in, pop some Tums and/or Pepto, whatever you need to do - because we’re about to be gorging ourselves on college basketball again very soon.
Auburn won the Maui Invitational, and added 3 more incredibly impressive wins to what is now the best resume in college basketball. Bruce Pearl’s Auburn Tigers rallied from an 18 point deficit to defeat #5 Iowa State, beat #12 UNC 85-72, then cruised through Memphis 90-76 in the title game to win the best early season MTE in basketball. Auburn’s style can be defined in one word: toughness. The play isn’t always pretty, but this team manages to hustle, and scratch and claw their way to victories even when they’re not playing incredibly well. They looked DOA in the first half against Iowa State, but they managed to score 50 pts in the second half against one of the best defenses in the country, putting them in position to win on a Johni Broome putback with 1 second remaining. Speaking of Mr. Broome, he’s becoming one of the leaders in the national player of the year conversation - which makes sense, considering he’s averaging 20.7 points (on ~60% shooting), 13 rebounds, and 3 blocks per game. The Tigers face another big test on Wednesday, playing Duke at Cameron Indoor. This will very possibly be the game of the week - Duke matches up with Auburn as well as any team in terms of length, athleticism, and defensive prowess…but most of Auburn’s players have much more experience and might be stronger / tougher. I think I may pick Duke to hand Auburn their first loss…
UCONN has now lost its only 3 games vs. Top 300 opponents, its defense has been much worse than the last two seasons, and Dan Hurley is acting like a crybaby loser. And I’m really close to removing “acting like” from the last phrase in that sentence. Hurley’s winless week was set in motion late in the first game against Memphis, when Liam McNeeley was called for an over-the-back foul on an offensive rebound and putback that would’ve put the Huskies up 2 with 40 seconds to play. Hurley had a toddler tantrum reaction to the questionable call, resulting in a technical, which gave Memphis 4 free throws - a six point swing. After watching his postgame presser, we’re going to start a new segment called “Dan Hurley’s Loser Press Conference Quotes”. This week, we have several viable candidates:
When asked about the over-the-back foul call: “There was a player on Memphis that made a half-ass effort to rebound that basketball and Liam McNeeley high-pointed that rebound”
He continued: “I've never seen the one ref before. I didn't even know he was a college ref and then I'm familiar with the other two, so I'm not surprised.”
When asked if he thought his technical foul was part of why they lost: "I think it was the s----y calls," he told CBS Sports. "I would expect to come to play in an event, and I don't know too many back-to-back national championship teams that get that type of a whistle."
Unprompted, just Dan being sore several days later: "I'm not doing another three-game MTE again. Moving forward, we will only play home-and-home games or single-game events... I don't think I'll ever do a three-game MTE again. There's zero chance I ever do that again." EDITOR’S NOTE: BracketBound strongly condemns any and all Maui Invitational slander, and calls for a formal apology from Coach Dan Hurley
Look, I know the guy has won back-to-back titles, and I know that college basketball needs a villain in the absence of Coach K and Hollywood couldn’t write in a better character than Hurley, but is this guy SERIOUS?! Grow up dude. It’s one thing to be a fiery, hothead coach who draws a technical foul for having a meltdown, and then continues to vent in the press conference. But there’s a thin line between that and “crybaby loser” when you insult opposing players, insult the officiating crew (not just the calls, but saying you’re not surprised the calls were bad based on the personnel), admit your own entitlement based on recent success, and then say you’re not doing three-game MTE’s ever again without offering any explanation. Dan Hurley isn’t just a villain, he is now unlikable. Bad call or not, that kind of behavior, in-game and in the postgame presser, is inexcusably immature and just plain pathetic. I usually try to stay mostly objective and not pass too much judgment, but I’m issuing BracketBound’s first ever “dislike” rating: I dislike Dan Hurley. Maybe it’s karma that Hurley & UCONN lost to Colorado (ranked 79th in KenPom AFTER their victory) 73-72 the next day, then were blown out by Dayton in the last place game, 85-67 the day after that. Their non-con resume is currently useless, with only 3 more opportunities ahead to earn quality wins before Big East league play begins: Baylor on Wednesday, Texas on Sunday, and Gonzaga on Dec 14th. We’ll see how these coming games go - it’s certainly possible that it was just a bad week and UCONN can still win the Big East, but they don’t look like a Top 40 team to me right now.
3. Kansas won another close game over Duke - Bill Self adds to his remarkable record vs. blue blood opponents. The Jayhawks are undefeated at 7-0 after defeating the Blue Devils in the Terry’s Chocolate Vegas Showdown. Kansas took a big lead early, up as many as 13 points in the first half, but Duke worked its way back into the game behind Tyrese Proctor’s incredible shooting night. Proctor hit 5/7 from deep - Duke hit 11/26 threes total (42.3%) but Knueppel (0/8) and Gillis (1/5) had uncharacteristically cold days from downtown. Upperclassmen Sion James and Maliq Brown combined for 18 pts (5/5 FGs) on a night when the freshmen faltered. Still, it took a well-rounded effort by several Kansas players to beat Duke - 6 players scored 8+ points - but the standout performances came from DaJuan Harris (14 pts on 6/10 FG, 9 ast, 3 stl), KJ Adams (3 steals + 3 blocks) who locked up Cooper Flagg for most of the game, and Flory Bidunga who pulled down 8 rebounds and played great interior defense after Hunter Dickinson was ejected for kicking Maliq Brown. On that topic…Hunter was a disappointment on what could’ve been a big night for him. He already has a reputation for scuffling with opposing players and taking dirty shots sometimes, stuff like this just pushes him further towards Grayson Allen status. Brown was getting up in his grill all game, trying to force him into bad decisions, and it worked. Hunter responded by taking bad shots, turning the ball over, and getting ejected for very stupidly kicking Brown after drawing a foul against him. He won that play, and he still managed to screw it up. Part of me thinks “shame on Hunter” for taking himself out of a game when his team needed him, but the other part thinks that may have been a net-positive for Kansas on a night when Dickinson was more of a detriment than an asset. Anyway, Dickinson’s absence opened things up for Flagg (who scored 2 pts in the 1H) in the lane, but Kansas managed to trade baskets with Duke until the end of the game. Kon Knueppel had a chance to give Duke the lead with under 15 seconds to go, but was stonewalled in the lane by Adams and Bidunga, forcing a turnover that turned into Rylan Griffen free throws, putting the Jayhawks up 3. Knueppel had another look to tie the game with under 2 seconds to go, and it rimmed out, handing Kansas a narrow victory. My big takeaway(s) for Kansas: they CAN beat more talented teams with good game planning and execution. They shot well from 3, hit 11/12 free throws, outrebounded Duke, and slowed down their best player on defense. But it took a lot of those things to go right for them to win, and Hunter still almost screwed it up. He has to be a better leader for KU to be a title contender. My big takeaway(s) for Duke: they’re still talented enough to beat anyone, but they lost to another MUCH more experienced blue blood team because of poor execution late in the game. They’ll probably get better, but Scheyer needs to be more hands-on (and just better) in these situations when relying on such young players. It’s also worth noting that Self has won 5 of his last 6 games against the Blue Devils.
4. Oregon pulls off the upset over Alabama to win the Players Era Festival Championship! After a seemingly slow start to the season that featured an OT win over Portland and a 78-75 comeback win over (bad) rival Oregon State, the Ducks rattled off 3 fantastic victories in a row in Vegas to win the first ever Players Era Festival! Dana Altman’s team defeated #20 Texas A&M, San Diego State, and #9 Alabama in the course of a week to take a big leap up the standings. The Ducks have a very balanced team, with six players averaging 9+ points per game, led by senior center Nate Bittle (14.6 ppg) and senior wing TJ Bamba (13 ppg). But any of those six guys - including Jackson Shelstad, Keeshawn Barthelemy, Jadrian Tracey, and Stanford transfer forward Brandon Angel - can get hot and rack up buckets when the team needs it. This team could end up being a good story - Bittle and Barthelemy were both injured last season, while Bamba, Angel, and Supreme Cook were on *not great* teams that didn’t reach the NCAA Tournament. Altman has done a good job building around key returning players by assembling an experienced, talented roster via the transfer portal and getting them ready to compete very early on this season. Keep an eye on the Ducks - there may be a chance they sweep Big Ten football AND basketball titles in their first year in the conference.
5. Oklahoma won the Battle 4 Atlantis??? To quote Shaq: I’m sorry Oklahoma, I wasn’t familiar with your game. I probably would have ranked Oklahoma 5th among the B4A field before Feast Week. The wins weren’t necessarily convincing, but wins are wins, so we pay respect to the Sooners for their body of work, which looks MUCH better after last week. After barely beating - and nearly blowing a lead to - a struggling Providence team 79-77 in Round 1, OU kept it rolling with an 82-77 upset win over Arizona. The Sooners took a 3-2 lead two minutes into the game, and never trailed again. Oklahoma capped off their successful Feast Week with an impressive win in a back-and-forth game against the Louisville Cardinals. Senior wing Jalon Moore (18.4 ppg) and freshman guard Jeremiah Fears (16.9 ppg) are the top scorers on the team, both outperforming expectations thus far - Moore is averaging 7 more points than last season, and Fears is playing like one of the best freshmen in the country. Transfers Kobe Elvis (from Dayton) and Duke Miles (from High Point) have also been really good and stepped up in multiple games as well. As we mentioned at the beginning of the season, Porter Moser desperately needs a successful season, and he couldn’t have asked for a better start to make that happen.
6. Purdue beat Ole Miss 80-78 in the Rady Children’s Championship on a last second putback layup by Myles Colvin. The game-winner capped off a career-high 20 pts on the day for Colvin, a very encouraging development for a Purdue team that is looking for more consistent scoring outside its Top 3 players (TKR, Loyer, Smith). Colvin was one of four players to score more than 2 pts for Purdue that day. The Boilermakers also beat NC State in the first game of the 4-team tournament - only five Purdue players scored more than 3 pts in that game.
7. Houston’s non-con is a lost cause. I’ll spare you the “we have a problem” pun - but it’s true, Houston’s struggling. The Coogs are 4-3, with their 3 losses coming against their only notable non-con opponents. With Butler as the only remaining household name on the non-con schedule, it looks like Kelvin Sampson’s team is going to have to make up some serious ground in Big 12 play to earn anything higher than a 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament. But seeding aside, the best win Houston has is over Notre Dame (without its best player). Sure, their last two losses vs. San Diego State and Alabama came in OT, and their 3rd was a 5 pt loss to Auburn…but I wouldn’t take much comfort in continuing to lose close games if I was a UH fan. I think this team is really missing Jamal Shead. The offense hasn’t been great - interestingly, the team is 6th in the country in 3pt FG% (42.5% - which is insane), but is 312th in 3PA / FGA, and 301st in the country in 2pt FG%. LJ Cryer (Houston’s leading scorer) is only shooting 37% from the field and 33% from 3, which isn’t good…in fact, those figures would be his career worst in each category, if they hold. I’m sure Houston will improve and start winning some important games eventually, but I’m not very bullish on them overall - I think they’re trending towards the downside case I outlined at the beginning of the year.
8. West Virginia might be good - and this Darian DeVries guy might be a good coach. The Mountaineers - picked to finish 13/16 in the Big 12 preseason standings - just won 2 out of 3 (beating Gonzaga and Arizona, dropping to Louisville), playing in 3 consecutive OT games in 3 days. We knew Tucker DeVries would probably be good, and he is: he’s averaging almost 15 points per game and shooting 47% from 3. But Javon Small, the transfer point guard from in-conference foe Oklahoma State, looks like one of the best guards in the Big 12. He’s averaging 19 points per game, shooting 44% FG and 41% from 3. He had 31 pts in WVU’s massive win over Gonzaga, which was one of the most shocking results of Feast Week and the entire season to this point, and may have changed the trajectory of this team’s season. Mountaineers, you officially have our attention.
9. Mike Woodson is nearing Kyle Neptune status - I think he’s probably toast. In Indiana’s two biggest games of the season thus far, the Hoosiers lost 89-61 against an unranked Louisville team, then followed that up with an 89-73 loss to Gonzaga the next day. Both losses are embarrassing, but the Louisville game was particularly dreadful. The team wasn’t even trying on the defensive end by the second half - they gave up 57% shooting (71% from 2, 37% from 3). Indiana’s guards accounted for zero points in the first half, and only finished with 10 pts on the day. The hard part of the Hoosiers’ non-con schedule is over, and their best win is at home vs. South Carolina, who likely won’t make the NCAA Tournament. The Big Ten also may not be that good this year, so IU will likely have to finish near the top of it to qualify for an at-large tournament bid - and based on the last week’s worth of evidence, I don’t know how likely that is to happen. I wouldn’t have them in the Top 8 of the Big Ten right now.
10. Illinois got a big Thanksgiving Day 90-77 win over Arkansas in the Ivisic Bowl, and Jon Rothstein made Kasparas Jakucionis try a turkey leg. Tomislav Ivisic of Illinois scored 21 points (6/9 from 3) and pulled down 10 rebounds in this game against his twin brother Zvonimir Ivisic of Arkansas, who had 13 points and 6 rebounds. Kasparas Jakucionis led Illinois with 23 points, and Kylan Boswell added 18 points of his own. The Illini torched the hawgs from downtown, hitting 15/31 threes, while Arkansas only hit 5/17 from beyond the arc. Adou Thiero led all scorers with 26 points, and freshman Billy Richmond had a decent game with 12 points, but everyone else disappointed. Boogie Fland shot 2/12 from the field (missing all 3 of his shots from deep), and Johnell Davis only had 3 pts on 1/3 shooting in 32 mins. Not a good showing for Calipari and his Razorbacks.
Other Games & Off The Court Happenings:
Clemson won the Sunshine Slam with big back-to-back wins against San Francisco and Penn State. The Tigers are 7-1, and have a huge game this week against Kentucky. Chase Hunter has been a stud for Clemson, averaging 16.4 ppg on 51% shooting (46.5% from 3).
Xavier might be a fraud. The Musketeers got their asses kicked 78-53 by Michigan last Wednesday, and barely snuck away with a win over South Carolina State, who is ranked 283rd in KenPom. They turn the ball over a LOT, and they’re also giving up a ton of threes.
Creighton snapped their 3-game skid, and should have better games ahead of them once they’re fully healthy. Creighton lost 3 straight games to Nebraska, San Diego State, and Texas A&M. The Jays were at full strength for most of the Nebraska game, they just got beat. But they were missing some key players in the last 3 games: Steven Ashworth was absent for the SDSU beatdown (71-53) in the first round of the Players Era, and Ryan Kalkbrenner was out for the Notre Dame game with a lower body injury. Pop Isaacs was also very ill for at least one of the games, apparently. The good news is that Ashworth was able to return after missing just one game, and that Kalkbrenner’s injury isn’t a long term issue, per Coach Greg McDermott. We’ll see if he’s able to play against Kansas this week…
The Gators are for real. Florida is 8-0, and although they’ve yet to play a Top 50 team (per KenPom), they’re beating the hell out of everyone. Their smallest margin of victory is 13, against in-state rival Florida State. The Gators won the ESPN Events Invitational last week after whoopin’ Wake Forest 75-58 and absolutely demolishing Wichita State 88-51. Walter Clayton Jr. (17.4 ppg) and Alijah Martin (15.1 ppg) are ballin’ out.
Arizona looks even worse than expected. The Wildcats are 3-4 after losing Games 2 and 3 of the Battle 4 Atlantis, against Oklahoma (82-77) and West Virginia (83-76). They’ve yet to secure a Top 100 victory, and will only have one opportunity to do so - against UCLA a week from Saturday - before Big 12 play begins.
But Arizona State looks good! The Sun Devils won the Acrisure Classic with close wins over New Mexico (85-82) and Saint Mary’s (68-64), both of whom could be NCAA Tournament teams. They’re 7-1 with two more somewhat impressive wins over Grand Canyon and Santa Clara, and their only loss coming in a close game at Gonzaga. Freshman Joson Sanon has been a very pleasant surprise for Bobby Hurley - he’s averaging over 15 ppg, and shooting 53% from distance. Who would’ve thought ASU would look better than their in-state rival…
Butler got a big win over Mississippi State. After a devastating buy-game loss at home to Austin Peay, Thad Matta’s Bulldogs have bounced back in a big way. They beat SMU a few weeks ago, and just beat Northwestern and Mississippi State to win the Arizona Tip-Off. Butler is a strange team - they shoot the 3 really well (42.7%, 5th in the country), they have a Top 5 defense by effective FG%, but they get absolutely dominated in the turnover battle. They’re 303rd in turnover rate on offense, and they’re one of the 10 worst teams in the country at forcing turnovers on defense. They’ve got a big game on Saturday against Houston, who also shoots the 3 really well and plays damn good defense - we’ll see if they can keep the momentum going, but I don’t love their chances.
Mid-Major Update - we’ve still got some undefeated teams! Most notably, Utah State and UC Irvine. Utah State is 7-0 with three straight Top 100 wins over Iowa, then St. Bonaventure and North Texas in the NIT Tip-Off. First year Head Coach Jerrod Calhoun has his team looking good! UC Irvine hasn’t played as tough of a schedule, but their defense is rated #8 in the country. The big remaining games on their schedule are Oregon State next week, and notable conference opponents UC San Diego and UC Santa Barbara twice each during the regular season…but otherwise, the schedule isn’t that tough. So we officially have the Anteaters on #UndefeatedWatch.
Aaron Bradshaw is out indefinitely for Ohio State. The Columbus Dispatch reported last week that Bradshaw was under investigation for a “possible domestic incident”, and that he’s not participating in team activities. We’ll keep you posted on any updates - as of now, all we know is that this will be a big loss for the Buckeyes as long as he’s out.
UPCOMING SLATE: Big 12 / Big East Battle, ACC / SEC Challenge, Big 12 / SEC Challenge, and Big Ten play all begin this week!
Monday, Dec 2
Washington State @ Nevada (if you really need something to watch)
Tuesday, Dec 3
Cincinnati @ Villanova
Arkansas @ Miami
Northwestern @ Iowa
Santa Clara @ McNeese State
Notre Dame @ Georgia
Cal @ Mizzou
South Carolina @ Boston College
Princeton @ Saint Joseph’s
Syracuse @ Tennessee
BYU @ Providence
Michigan @ Wisconsin
Wake Forest @ Texas A&M
Ole Miss @ Louisville
Georgia Tech @ OU
Florida State @ LSU
Kentucky @ Clemson
UW @ UCLA
Wednesday, Dec 4
Baylor @ UCONN
Ohio State @ Maryland
Alabama @ UNC
UVA @ Florida
Marquette @ Iowa State
Kansas @ Creighton
Michigan State @ Minnesota
Auburn @ Duke
DePaul @ Texas Tech
Texas @ NC State
Vanderbilt @ Virginia Tech
Oregon @ USC
Thursday, Dec 5
Purdue @ Penn State
Xavier @ TCU
SLU @ San Francisco
Friday, Dec 6
Georgetown @ West Virginia
Illinois @ Northwestern
Saturday, Dec 7
Kansas State @ Saint Joseph’s
Syracuse @ Notre Dame
Clemson @ Miami
Boston College @ Wake Forest
Rutgers @ Ohio State
Nebraska @ Michigan State
South Florida @ Loyola Chicago
Wisconsin @ Marquette
Georgia Tech @ North Carolina
Pitt @ Virginia Tech
Vermont @ Yale
Iowa @ Michigan
UVA @ SMU
UNLV @ Creighton
Florida State @ NC State
Stanford @ Cal
Boise State @ Washington State
Butler @ Houston
USC @ UW
SMC @ Utah
Colorado State @ Colorado
Kentucky @ Gonzaga
Sunday, Dec 8
Maryland @ Purdue
Vanderbilt @ TCU
Kansas @ Mizzou
Texas A&M @ Texas Tech
UCONN @ Texas
Duke @ Louisville
UCLA @ Oregon
Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday are all packed with fun matchups this week, which we of course love to see. Let me share some thoughts to get you prepped for these games:
Tuesday:
Cincinnati plays their first game against a real opponent (if you can call Villanova that right now). Give me Cincy in that one.
Arkansas really needs to beat Miami on the road. If Miami pulls off the upset, sound the alarm bells for the hawgs.
Michigan @ Wisconsin should be a great game. Michigan has looked much better since their loss to Wake - the defense is legit. John Tonje and John Blackwell have been phenomenal for the Badgers, who are abnormally good on offense this year. Wisconsin takes good care of the ball while the Wolverines do not - give me Wisconsin at Kohl Center.
Kentucky plays its first true road game at Clemson. Both teams shoot the 3 really well, but interestingly Kentucky is one of the fastest offensive teams and Clemson slows down offenses better than almost anyone in the country. The Tigers will need to disrupt UK’s offensive flow to have a chance - I still like Kentucky to win.
Wednesday:
Dan Hurley’s Huskies get another shot at a good opponent with Baylor coming to town. These teams’ analytical profiles are almost identical in certain ways - both have great offenses, both defenses are *not great*, and they both play a pretty slow style this year. I think UCONN gets right at home, especially if Edgecombe is questionable to play.
Alabama @ UNC - Tar Heels fans get a chance to avenge their Sweet 16 loss to Nate Oats and the Tide. Another matchup of very similar teams who are a lot better at scoring than defending, but these teams want to play FAST. The first team to 100 points will win this one - both are coming off losses, so both will be motivated to get back in the W column. Alabama has been the better team this season, but I’m going to take the home team in this one, especially with Latrell Wrightsell Jr. likely out with an injury from the Oregon game, and Chris Youngblood likely sitting until the following game.
Give me Iowa State over Marquette at home. This is going to be a very high level basketball game, for which I am VERY excited, but Iowa State is very hard to beat in Ames. I think it’ll be close because Kam Jones will be the best player on the court, but Iowa State’s offense is much better so far this season, and I don’t know if Marquette will be able to keep up.
I’ll take Kansas over Creighton, even in Omaha. If Kalkbrenner wasn’t dealing with a leg injury, I might take the Jays, but the Jayhawks are just deeper.
Give me Duke to finally win a big game over Auburn at Cameron! I talked about this game earlier in the blog - I think Duke matches up well with Auburn, better than most teams anyway. I think Duke’s depth is better, their backcourt can out-play Auburn’s, and Flagg should be able to draw some fouls against Chaney and Broome with a favorable home whistle.
Saturday
I’ll take Marquette to get a big bounce-back win at home over Wisconsin, who could be in a big let-down spot if they beat Michigan. The Golden Eagles’ offense is similarly good to the Badgers’ - but their defense is much better.
Kentucky vs. Gonzaga in Seattle - this is going to be another very aesthetically pleasing, high scoring game between two of the best offenses in college basketball. Graham Ike vs. Amari Williams is going to be a BATTLE, and I’m here for it. I’ll take Gonzaga to hand Kentucky their first (close) loss in their home state.
Sunday
Texas A&M travels to Lubbock to face their former conference foes, the Red Raiders. I think Tech wins with their superior offensive firepower.
UCLA travels to Eugene to play the (potentially still undefeated) Ducks! Tuesday’s game against Washington will be a good temperature check for the Bruins, but I think I like Oregon to win this one unless UCLA just absolutely shuts them down defensively. While Mick Cronin’s team hasn’t won a meaningful game, they do have a Top 5 defense and are #1 in the country at turning opposing teams over.
And last but not least, The BracketBound Top 40 Teams That Matter:
National Title Favorites
1. Auburn
2. Kansas
Serious Final Four Contenders
3. Tennessee
4. Iowa State
5. Kentucky
6. Marquette
7. Florida
8. Gonzaga
9. Alabama
10. Purdue
11. Duke
Could Make a Final Four (and Beat Most Teams on a Good Day)
12. Oregon
13. Wisconsin
14. Memphis
15. Oklahoma
16. Cincinnati
17. Pitt
18. San Diego State
19. Houston
20. Illinois
21. Baylor
Could Make an Elite Eight Run, but Probably Not Make a Final Four
22. Michigan State
23. Clemson
24. Texas A&M
25. Louisville
26. West Virginia
27. Arizona State
28. Utah State
29. Ole Miss
30. North Carolina
31. Dayton
Should Make the Tournament, but Sweet Sixteen is the Ceiling
32. Nevada
33. Saint Mary’s
34. Mississippi State
35. Butler
36. Drake
37. Vanderbilt
38. Michigan
39. Ohio State
40. Maryland
Honorable Mention: St. John’s, Texas Tech, Texas, UCLA, BYU, Arizona, UCONN, Nebraska, Arkansas, LSU, and Undefeated UC Irvine (The Anteaters!!!)
That’s it for this week! Thanks again for reading the newsletter - hope you all had a great, relaxing long weekend with family & friends. And I hope you’re ready for another big week of college hoops. You may be able to coast at work until the holidays and the turn of the year, but there’s still plenty of good college basketball between now and January, so let’s stay alert. Thanks again, enjoy this week’s slate, and see you next week!
Humbly Yours,
BracketBound