KenPom’s preseason rankings were posted a few days ago (sorry, baseball keeps happening), which means college basketball’s on its way. A couple quick hits, solely using our guiding star:
Who’s the best team in the country?
Gonzaga. Gonzaga was arguably better than Baylor last year (one game is not defining, though it was the championship and rightly counts as such). They’ve retooled. They’re likely the best this year.
Who are the final four favorites?
Behind Gonzaga come Michigan, Kansas, and Baylor, in order, but it’s tight. Illinois, Purdue, UCLA, Ohio State, Villanova, and Duke round out the top ten.
Who’s the most improved team in the country?
In terms of teams of tournament relevance, you could make a case for Kansas, who finished last year at 27th. Duke’s a big one, rising from 36th. Kentucky’s up from 49th to 17th. Michigan State’s up from 64th to 22nd. Notre Dame’s up from 85th to 27th, and since we’ve finally found a non-blue blood, we’ll stop now.
Who are the conference favorites?
In the Big Ten, Michigan’s the best team listed. In the Big 12, it’s Kansas. In the Pac-12, UCLA. In the Big East, Villanova. In the SEC, it’s Tennessee. In the ACC, it’s Duke. Some races are closer than others—Baylor’s on Kansas’s heels; Arkansas, Kentucky, and Alabama are all close to Tennessee; the Big Ten has a tight pack; the Pac-12, Big East, and ACC aren’t looking great beyond the front line—but that’s who we’ve got.
Which is the best conference?
By KenPom’s own conference rating, the Big Ten is the best, followed by the Big 12, SEC, Pac-12, and then the ACC and Big East. If you projected a tournament field from KenPom rankings and nothing else, you’d land with nine Big Ten teams, eight from the ACC, seven from the SEC, six from the Big 12, five from the Pac-12, four from the WCC, three from the Big East, and two from the AAC.
Who are the best mid-majors?
First, to nip something in the bud, we count a mid-major as a non-power six school that still has some resources, and a low-major as a tier below. Patriot League teams are low-majors. AAC teams are mid-majors. To us. We know others like to just ignore the linguistic requirements the prefix “mid” requires, and linguistically, that’s their prerogative (nothing has to mean anything, if you don’t want it to), but we recognize the existence of low-majors on this website.
Anyway, Gonzaga, of course, and then Houston (11th), Memphis (16th), St. Bonaventure (30th), Loyola (32nd), San Diego State (33rd), San Francisco (34th), BYU (38th), and Saint Mary’s (42nd) are the ones in tournament territory, with Nevada (49th) not far off and plenty of other mid-majors capable of competing.
Who’s the NIT favorite?
Without our model built, I can’t say, but I like a team like St. Bonaventure. Not a lot of meat on the schedule, tough-enough league with a tough-enough format to lose in the conference tournament, good-enough team to still win the NIT. The Bonnies. That’s who we’ll go with.
