— SEC
Right now, ESPN has 13 of 16 SEC teams getting into the NCAA Tournament.
South Carolina is 9-3, #65 on kenpom.com they’re the lowest-rated SEC team.
John Calipari’s first Arkansas team is 10-2, but against schedule #233.
Kentucky, in Mark Pope’s first season, is 10-2 against schedule #65.
Conference play hasn’t started yet, so once teams start losing, things will change, but right now, this is far and away the best league in the country.
— There are four unbeaten teams left: Florida, Oklahoma, Tennessee from the SEC and Drake from the MVC.
Bracketology has Drake as an 11-seed, meaning they better win Arch Madness to get into the NCAA Tournament, but not bad for a team with four starters who were playing for a D-2 team last season.
— Big X
Arizona is 6-5; 0-5 vs top 100 teams, 6-0 vs everyone else; they’ve played schedule #53.
Bracketology has 8 of 16 teams in the Field of 68.
Cincinnati is 10-1, with the #5 eFG% defense, but against schedule #299.
Iowa State’s only loss was 83-81 to Auburn; they’re shooting 60.5% inside the arc.
— Big 18
UCLA and USC are in the same league as Rutgers and Maryland; the over-educated morons who run college sports have outdone themselves with all this shuffling.
Bracketology has 10 of 18 Big 18 teams getting in the NCAAs; KenPom has six of their teams in the top 25.
All 18 teams have played two conference games already; 12 of the 18 teams split their games. It isn’t obvious who the best teams are, unlike the SEC, where Auburn, Florida, Tennessee have stood out so far.
— Big East
Seton Hall, Villanova seem to be down; Georgetown is better. UConn, Marquette and St John’s look like the three best teams, at this early point in the season.
ESPN has only three Big East teams in the Tournament; they had only three in last year’s event, their lowest amount in the last 25 years.
— ACC
KenPom has ACC as the #5 conference; they haven’t finished higher than 5th since 2020.
There are 18 teams in ACC now, with Cal,Stanford, SMU joining; lot of long road trips.
North Carolina is off to a 7-5 start, 2-5 vs top 100 teams.
Duke is 10-2, losing to Kansas/Kentucky; their best player is a freshman.
Right now, ESPN has five teams in the field of 68.
— Mountain West
San Diego State is 8-2, Utah State 11-1; they appear to be the best teams so far.
Decent depth though; Boise State, New Mexico, UNLV and Colorado State are capable.
ESPN has only two Mountain West teams in the field of 68.
— Famous birthdays, December 26
Carlton Fisk, 77
Chris Chambliss, 76
Ozzie Smith, 70
Storm Davis, 63
Tim Legler, 58
Omar Infante, 43
Trevor Siemian, 33
Hogan Harris, 28
— West Coast
Addition of Oregon State/Washington State for this year/next year will help this league, then the bottom will fall out when Gonzaga bolts in two years, and Beavers/Coogs go back to the Pac-12.
This year, Gonzaga/Saint Mary’s are two best teams, with San Francisco, Oregon State, Santa Clara and Wazzu adding quality depth.
Bottom of the league isn’t so great right now; ESPN has Gonzaga/Saint Mary’s in the NCAA’s, but that could change.
— Atlantic 15
Dayton, VCU and St Bonaventure appear to be the best teams. Richmond/UMass are down, Loyola Chicago just had a rough 0-3 trip to Hawai’i.
Archie Miller has Rhode Island at 11-1, but they’ve played schedule #323.
A-15 could be a one-bid league for second time in three years; last time they had more than two teams in NCAAs was 2018.
— Charlotte 94, Murray State 90, 2OT
This game, played very late Monday night, ended around 12:45am Tuesday here in Las Vegas, which means if I was home, it would’ve been almost 4am, which is awesome, kind of like the old ESPN Basketball Marathon they used to have in November every year.
Two ordinary teams played their butts off for three hours; fun to watch
Charlotte was 34-36 on the foul line.
Murray State led by 10 with 6:19 left in regulation.
Five players fouled out.
— Missouri Valley
Only once since 2016 has the Valley not been a one-bid league; Arch Madness is what matters.
KenPom.com has #72 Bradley as the highest-ranked team right now.
That said, ESPN has two MVC teams in the field of 68 right now, because Drake is 11-0- they have Indiana State as the other team in right now.
It is still December; a lot will change between now and Selection Sunday.
— It needs to be said here that the transfer portal has made the sport more top-heavy; every kid at a mid-major who makes two layups in a row thinks he belongs in the NBA. The rich steal from the not-rich, just like baseball. Can’t be a lot of fun being a mid-major head coach.
— Big West
Cal-San Diego is 11-2, including beating three eastern mid-majors at a tournament in Florida; the Tritons are forcing turnovers 24.4% of the time, #4 in country.
Since 2014, Cal-Irvine is 140-41 in Big West games, but they’ve only made the NCAA’s twice during that time- they upset K-State in the first round in 2019. Anteaters always play good defense; success in the conference tournament has been more challenging.
— Southern
Furman is ranked #113 by KenPom; they’re highest-ranked team in SoCon right now, two years after upsetting Virginia in the NCAAs.
10-3 Samford seems like their biggest challenger right now; they’re shooting 39.6% on the arc (#18) getting 42% of their points on the arc (#8)
