by Graham Skinker ’21

Obviously rankings aren’t everything, especially towards the beginning of the college basketball season. If a team is ranked top ten or top five in December it still carries weight but with conference play just beginning don’t let these ranking fool you. Some of the top ranked teams have yet to play good competition and some of the lower or unranked teams have had difficult schedules to start the season, resulting in a few losses. For a better sense of which teams will be around in the final rounds of the NCAA tournament here’s five under the radar contenders and three highly ranked pretenders.

Contenders:

#2 Gonzaga Bulldogs: Coming off a deep tournament run in the 2018-19 season, the Bulldogs came into the new season ranked eighth in the country. The Bulldogs started off strong winning their first eight games including a huge win over #11 Oregon. Currently, they sit at 10-1 with their one loss coming to #5 Michigan. The Bulldogs are getting production from up and down their lineup, including some solid numbers from the bench. The Bulldogs currently have five players averaging double figures and two more averaging just under ten. They are playing solid defense and currently averaging a whopping 86 points per game. Additionally, the Bulldogs are shooting an outstanding 50% from the field and 38% from three.

#5 Ohio State Buckeyes: Some people might see the #5 ranking and think how are they considered an under the radar contender? Well to start, Ohio State is widely known as a dominant football school and their men’s basketball program, which is often pretty competitive, is naturally overlooked. Ohio State came into the season ranked 18th in the country, which looking back now seems all too low, and since then they have been steamrolling the competition. They started off beating an always solid Cincinnati team and then obliterating the at the time 10th ranked Villanova Wildcats. Ohio State vaulted themselves into the top three with a massive win over the seventh ranked Tar Heels and then a 32-point dismantling of a Penn State team who recently knocked off #4 Maryland.

#8 Oregon Ducks: The Oregon Ducks came into the season with a lot of optimism coming off an amazing elite eight run last season. Their leading scorer, Payton Prichard chose to return for his junior season and they added some talented freshman led by 6 foot 11 inch center, N’Faly Dante. Oregon may be a little under the radar because they have already dropped two games early in the season and just based on record, this talented Ducks team may go overlooked. Don’t let their two early season losses fool you. Both of their losses were at the hands of top eight opponents and both were extremely tight games. They also have beaten two top 15 teams in Memphis and Seton Hall. The Ducks are currently shooting an amazing 40.5% from three as a team and are averaging almost 80 points a game. 

#10 Baylor Bears: The currently 10th ranked Bears came into the year ranked outside of the top 15 following a bit of a down year with a second round tournament loss to first-seeded Gonzaga. Baylor is one of the most pleasant surprises at this point in the season. The Bears have been tested through their first nine games, playing three top twenty teams. The Bears have showed up for those games going 3-0 and currently sitting at the top of the Big 12 at 8-1 with their only loss coming at the hands of a strong Washington team who has bounced in and out of the top 25 during the first month and a half of the season. The Bears are currently relying on guards Jared Butler and MaCio Teague to provide most of the scoring with the both of them averaging over 15 points per game.

#11 Memphis Tigers: Memphis came into the season with the #1 recruiting class in the country and a big name second year head coach in Penny Hardaway. They brought in huge recruits like James Wiseman, Precious Achiuwa and Boogie Ellis among others. The biggest early season story with Memphis is the Wiseman suspension. The NCAA found Wiseman guilty of violating policy and accepting money from Coach Hardaway in order for his family to be able to move to the city of Memphis. Wiseman is suspended for 12 games leaving him eligible to return for conference play in January. Memphis dropped an early game to Oregon but in the two game Wiseman has played in they have been dominant. They are currently averaging 82 points a game and shooting a solid 50% from the field as a team.

Pretenders:

#9 Virginia Cavaliers: The Cavaliers came into the season ranked 11th and with high hopes coming off their national championship run. However, UVA lost arguably its three best players in Kyle Guy, Ty Jerome and Deandre Hunter to the NBA and didn’t really add any top recruits. They started off the season strong but recently fell to a mediocre Purdue team by a large margin. As a result the Cavaliers dropped a few spots in the most current rankings. The Cavalier’s leading scorer, Mamadi Diakite, is only averaging 13 points and as a team they are shooting an abysmal 25% from three. Coach Tony Bennet’s teams are always fueled by defense and are always competitive, but look for Virginia to have an early tournament exit coming off their championship season.

#15 Michigan State Spartans: The Spartans entered the season with a ton of hype. The were ranked number one in the preseason AP poll coming off their Final Four run. The Spartans started off the season with a tough loss to #2 Kentucky and since then have dropped two more games to unranked Virginia Tech and 10th ranked Duke. Now, although two of their losses have come against top ten opponents, the Spartans just don’t seem to be able to live up to the preseason number one hype. Highly talented freshman Rocket Watts has played to his potential and is currently averaging a meager 6.5 ppg. The Spartans are also averaging nearly 12 turnovers a game and shooting a mediocre 33% from three.

Unranked North Carolina Tar Heels: The Tar Heels entered the 2019-20 season ranked ninth and to be honest it’s puzzling to what all the hype over this team has been about. They have dropped four of their last five and can’t seem to get any sort of scoring outside of Cole Anthony, who came in as the second ranked prospect in the nation and has lived up to his hype. Anthony is currently averaging 19 points and six rebounds a game, but the problem so far has been that Anthony hasn’t gotten much help. The second leading scorer for the Tar Heels is freshman Armando Bacot who is only averaging eleven points per game. Although Carolina has lost to three top ten opponents there doesn’t seem to be much that is going to change for the better for this team. Especially with the news that Cole Anthony recently suffered a knee injury which will sideline him for 4-6 weeks. Coach Roy Williams is going to have to get creative in order to keep this team afloat in a very tough Atlantic Coast Conference.