Table of Contents
Super Saturday
College basketball, unlike college football, is a sport that fans are constantly spoiled by. It can be easy to miss a ranked matchup here and there, especially early in the season with the NFL and NBA in full swing. But this past Saturday was a treat for college basketball fans. Davidson played #1 Purdue tough on the road, eventually losing 69-61. #5 Houston made a statement in Charlottesville, taking care of #2 Virginia. #15 Gonzaga took down #4 Alabama on the road in a shootout, 100-90. #9 Arizona snuck away with a win at home against #6 Tennessee. Should I keep going? I’m going to anyway. #8 Kansas obliterated #14 Indiana in a blue-blood battle, 84-62. #16 UCLA took a win in the Garden over #13 Kentucky. North Carolina won an OT thriller against #23 Ohio State.
The bottom line is that the casual fan doesn’t know how good they have it with college basketball. Every week, there are multiple ranked matchups, and often top-10 matchups. We consistently get to see the best of the best going at it, whether that’s within their own conference, classic rivalry games, in these awesome conference showdowns, or in the occasional pre/mid-season showcase. If you were looking for time to start tuning in and getting some prep work done for your March Madness brackets, now is the time.
Keeping an eye on the Mid-Majors
For the sake of my own sanity, we’ll keep Houston and Gonzaga out of this discussion. I don’t have the energy to debate whether or not Gonzaga is a mid-major right now.
Every year, there are a handful of mid-majors that make noise in the tournament. These aren’t exactly Cinderellas, but you won’t hear their names called out in the highlights too often unless they have an elite NBA draft talent or pull off a major upset. This season, two teams to keep an eye on out west are San Diego State and New Mexico. The Aztecs are a well-known name at this point, thanks in part to Kawhi Leonard and their countless quality NCAA tournament runs, but this season they’re playing quality basketball. Their three losses come at the hands of Arizona, Arkansas, and Saint Mary’s, two of which are currently top-10 teams. They boast quality wins over Ohio State, BYU, and Stanford, and KenPom currently has them sitting at 25 in his rankings thanks to their strength of schedule. They may be in the middle of a tough Mountain West conference, but expect them to continue to make noise and compete with New Mexico for that title.
Staying out west, New Mexico has been on a somewhat surprising tear. Led by coach Richard Pitino, yes, that Pitino, they’re currently 11-0 and atop the Mountain West conference. Pitino was able to notch a victory over his dad, Rick, beating Iona last week. They may not have the strength of schedule prowess that SDSU does, but the Mountain West is competitive enough that the record is impressive. This is a team to watch as they continue into conference play.
