Sports
College basketball rankings: Tennessee, Oklahoma and Clemson are on the way up – The Athletic
NCAAM
In this week’s Top 25, the top seven remain unchanged, but there’s a lot of movement elsewhere. Five of the bottom six teams last week all lost, and all but one got the boot.
Your weekly friendly reminder: The setup of this season’s Top 25 is that I’ll give nuggets on an unspecified number of teams each week. So if a team appears in the table but not the text below, that’s why.
Arizona had the highest points per possession (1.29) against Wisconsin’s defense in Saturday’s 98-73 win of any Badgers opponent over the last six seasons. The Wildcats now have two of the most impressive performances all season, winning at Cameron Indoor earlier this year and then steamrolling Wisconsin. It was the start of one of the most challenging four-game, nonconference stretches in the country. Next up is a game against Purdue in Indianapolis, then Alabama in Phoenix and Florida Atlantic in Las Vegas. If any team is built to face Zach Edey, it’s the Cats and their two 7-footers. Starting center Oumar Ballo is committing just 2.8 fouls per 40 minutes and splits time with freshman Motiejus Krivas.
Advertisement
The challenge of playing Edey without fouling continued on Saturday with Alabama as the latest victim. Edey fouled out two Bama bigs and made all 11 of his free throws on his way to 35 points. How rare is it for someone so big to have that kind of day at the stripe?
Since 2010-11, Edey became just the fifth center taller than 7 feet to have a perfect game at the line attempting at least 10 free throws. The 7-foot-4 Edey is the tallest to accomplish such a feat. Add it to the list of incredible Edey accomplishments.
Marquette’s offense was out of sorts in the loss to Wisconsin a week ago, and Tyler Kolek just didn’t look like himself in that game. The Badgers threw some different ball-screen coverages at him, including going way under on some exchanges:
Kolek is usually decisive in his reads, but there was some hesitancy — almost surprise — in how they guarded him.
Shaka Smart wisely opened Wednesday night’s game against Texas with a ball screen for Kolek. Texas went under, and:
Kolek was aggressive from the jump and in attack mode. He finished with 28 points and six assists against the Longhorns. He followed that up with 17 points and seven assists in a 78-59 win over Notre Dame on Saturday. Kolek and the Golden Eagles have their swag back.
Mizzou tried to ignore KJ Adams on Saturday, and it didn’t work so well. Adams chilling in the short corner and sneaking behind the defense is becoming a money play for the Jayhawks.
Adams is scoring 5.2 points per game off cuts, second-best in the country, per Synergy. The Jayhawks lead college basketball in points off cuts at 14.9 per game.
Advertisement
One reason to fear the Huskies is their offense has been elite so far — third in efficiency — and they’re not even shooting it well yet. The looks are great too. They attempt 15.3 unguarded catch-and-shoot jumpers per game, which is the most in college basketball, and they’re shooting 34.6 percent on those attempts, per Synergy. Last season they made those unguarded shots at a 39.2 percent clip.
Baylor point guard RayJ Dennis is only 6-foot-2 but plays bigger than that, and one area where his size helps him is throwing lobs. Baylor loves for its guards to look for the roller, and Dennis is really good at this:
Scott Drew also loves designing alley-oop plays, and Dennis delivers with touch and accuracy:
In Tuesday’s win against Seton Hall, Dennis delivered two alley-oop passes, and three of his seven assists went for dunks. Out of his 59 assists this year, 16 of those have set up dunks and 15 have been alley-oop passes. This isn’t a statistic anyone tracks, but I’d bet Dennis leads the country in alley-oop assists.
Creighton’s defense is one of extremes. The Bluejays rank dead last in turnover rate, first in free-throw rate and first in 3-point rate. They’re also fifth in assist rate. So they don’t gamble, don’t foul and run teams off the 3-point line, forcing opponents to take contested jumpers. It’s working. They’re eighth in adjusted defensive efficiency at KenPom.
Santiago Vescovi was Tennessee’s leading scorer last season, and he’s been a low-usage player for the Volunteers so far this season with the offense going through Dalton Knecht. But the Vols need more than just Knecht, and Vescovi played more like his last-season self again in an 86-79 win over Illinois on Saturday. He filled the stat sheet with 12 points, nine boards and three assists, including this dime:
With Zakai Zeigler appearing healthier every game, Tennessee is starting to look like the SEC favorite again.
Advertisement
It’s hard to see anyone challenging Edey for national Player of the Year or Big Ten Player of the Year, but Terrence Shannon Jr. would have a chance to sweep those awards most years with the way he’s playing. Shannon is averaging 21.7 points per game with 50.8/42.4/79.4 shooting splits.
The Sooners were picked 11th in our preseason Big 12 media poll, and here they sit No. 11 in this national poll a month into the season after convincing wins over Providence and Arkansas last week. Porter Moser has five transfers in his rotation, led by Javian McCollum. The Sienna transfer is averaging 14.9 points per game and has been one of the best off-the-bounce shooters in the country. It’s not cool what he did to Providence’s Josh Oduro last week.
Vladislav Goldin is one of the best off-hand shooters in the country. Goldin is 11-of-12 on left-handed hook shots this season. He’s not bad with his dominant hand either, making 7-of-11 righty hooks. The ability to go to either shoulder at his size (7-1) with such a high release point on his hook makes it almost unguardable.
Goldin was good last year, but he’s arguably one of the most improved bigs offensively this year. He’s averaging 29.6 points per 40 — up from 19.4 last season — and he’s been incredibly efficient, shooting 73.7 percent from the field and drawing seven fouls per 40. His free-throw percentage is also up from 59.1 percent to 69.4. In 19 minutes against the Illini, he scored 23 points and the Owls were plus-eight. If you’re looking for a reason why FAU is even better this season, it’s Goldin.
If there’s a difference between the Hubert Davis-era Tar Heels and the Roy Williams-era Heels on the defensive end it’s that under Williams, UNC turned its opponents over at a higher rate. Davis’s first two teams ranked 356th and 344th, respectively, in turnover rate. This one is better, ranking 238th on Sunday afternoon, but now that the competition is improving, it’s back to more of the same. In the last five games against all high-major opponents, the Tar Heels have forced just 53 turnovers in 368 possessions. That’s a 14.4 turnover rate, which is a sub-300 number. Next up is Kentucky, which is one of the best teams in the country at not turning it over.
Clemson and Creighton are the only teams in these rankings with two true road wins against high-majors. The Tigers won at Alabama and Pitt. They’re also 4-0 against high-majors. If they can win at Memphis on Saturday, they should enter 2024 undefeated. They’ve still got a ways to go to make school history. The 2006-07 Tigers started 17-0 and were the last unbeaten team in college hoops that year. That team then lost nine of its next 11 and ended up in the NIT. This one doesn’t feel like a tease.
Kentucky’s 7-foot-1 center Aaron Bradshaw is now part of the rotation, playing 29 minutes on Saturday in the win at Penn. The numbers were good — 17 points and 11 rebounds — but most promising was this little sequence here:
It appears that Bradshaw, who also made a 3-pointer, can be part of the fun-and-gun style that’s made Kentucky so enjoyable to watch thus far.
Advertisement
The Cougars’ reliance on the 3-ball finally cost them, as they made just 7-of-30 long balls in their first loss of the season against Utah. But they still crushed on the glass — grabbing 17 offensive rebounds — and the season-long numbers suggest this is still a team to bet on.
The Buffaloes smoked Miami 90-63 on Sunday, and they did so without star freshman Cody Williams, who missed the game with a wrist injury. Colorado has one of the best offenses in the country, led by the three-headed monster of KJ Simpson, Tristan Da Silva and Williams. The two veterans combined for 42 points against the Hurricanes.
The Tigers have played two games on floors with the NBA 3-point line this season and freshman guard Aden Holloway’s nine 3-pointers in those games all came beyond the NBA line. Holloway is 9-of-16 from 3 in those two games and 11-of-35 in Auburn’s other six games. Bruce Pearl should paint the NBA line at Neville Arena immediately.
The Dukes have not played a KenPom top-100 team since beating Michigan State in overtime on opening night, and Appalachian State is the only top-100 team left on the schedule. But the winning and their metrics make them deserving of Top 25 status. Using Bart Torvik’s tool that takes preseason bias out of the equation, James Madison has been the 24th-best team in college hoops.
Dropped out: Texas A&M, Ohio State, Miami, TCU
Keeping an eye on: Indiana State, Utah, Ole Miss, Memphis, Alabama, South Carolina, Duke, Grand Canyon
(Photo of Tennessee’s Jahmai Mashack and Josiah-Jordan James: Eakin Howard / Getty Images)
Subscribe to The Athletic for in-depth coverage of your favorite players, teams, leagues and clubs. Try a week on us.
C.J. Moore, a staff writer for The Athletic, has been on the college basketball beat since 2011. He has worked at Bleacher Report as the site’s national college basketball writer and also covered the sport for CBSSports.com and Basketball Prospectus. He is the coauthor of “Beyond the Streak,” a behind-the-scenes look at Kansas basketball’s record-setting Big 12 title run. Follow CJ on Twitter @cjmoorehoops
