It has been a season marked by upsets, a rotation of No. 1 teams and seemingly no clear-cut favorites moving forward. But over the past few weeks, we’ve started to get some separation at the top, especially when it comes to sorting teams by résumé.
The 1-seeds are clear-cut: Baylor, Gonzaga, San Diego State and Kansas. Combined, those four teams have lost one game since the calendar turned to 2020 – Kansas’ defeat to Baylor. They’re a combined 36-1 in that span. They’re the top four teams in the NET rankings, four of the top five at KenPom, the top four in ESPN’s Strength of Record metrics and the top four of the AP poll.
Baylor is the best team in the country, both in terms of the eye test and résumé. The Bears have fallen once all season, a three-point loss to Washington in a game Baylor led for nearly its entirety. The Bears have a top-five defense and arguably the best perimeter group in the country.
Gonzaga has also lost just once. The Bulldogs have run over the West Coast Conference, with only two games decided by single digits. One factor moving forward for them is the availability of Killian Tillie.
San Diego State is the last unbeaten remaining in college basketball. The Aztecs are one of the best defensive teams in the country and have a legitimate All-America candidate in Malachi Flynn.
Then there’s Kansas, which has three losses — but is atop most metric-based rankings. There has been constant discussion about how there’s no dominant team in college basketball this season, but this Jayhawks’ adjusted efficiency margin ranks in the top three in all but two seasons in the KenPom era.
There’s still more than a month until conference tournaments start, and Louisville and Dayton are playing as well as anyone in the country right now — and the metrics still love Duke — but the top-four teams in the rankings are in their own tier for now.
For Baylor, Freddie Gillespie is one of the best stories in college basketball. Gillespie started his career at Division III Carleton College — and played just four games during his freshman season. Following his sophomore campaign, he transferred to Baylor and sat out as a walk-on before earning a scholarship for the 2018-19 season. Now, he’s averaging 10.1 points, 9.3 rebounds and 2.4 blocks and has been terrific over his past seven games. During that stretch, Gillespie is averaging 12.7 points, 8.9 rebounds and 2.6 blocks — while shooting 64.3% from the field.
Gonzaga’s past two games were two of their worst offensive outings in several weeks. Not surprisingly, one of them came when Tillie played only nine minutes and the other came with Tillie sidelined. With him out for the San Francisco game, Mark Few went with essentially a six-man rotation and Drew Timme getting most of Tillie’s vacated minutes. In just his second start of the season, Timme answered the call, finishing with 19 points, four rebounds and three blocks.
Meanwhile, last week was supposed to be one of the San Diego State’s tougher weeks remaining in the regular season: a road trip to New Mexico where they haven’t lost all season, and a home date with Utah State. The trip to Albuquerque was a cakewalk, with San Diego State rolling by 28. But Utah State did test the Aztecs. The Aggies went on a 19-3 run late in the first half and stayed in the game until a scoring drought in the final 10 minutes. San Diego State didn’t have trouble scoring against Utah State as the Aggies shot 42.9% from 3.
And with the Kansas’ season entering its final month and discussions for awards heating up, look at Devon Dotson’s candidacy to at least be in the discussion for the Wooden Award. Dotson has come up big in some of the Jayhawks’ biggest wins, including 21 points Saturday against Texas Tech and 31 points against Dayton back in November. Dotson is top-10 in offensive box plus/minus and the only player in the country at least 5.0 adjusted points above replacement on both offense and defense.
Tapper's Take 