Finals week: Early grades across the college basketball landscape
By Chris Stone
We’re nearly finished with college basketball’s non-conference slate, so it’s time to hand out some grades.
Finals week is always the slowest time of the college basketball season. It’s also a great time to dish out some grades for the year so far.
Conference play is only a few weeks away and most teams have nearly finished up their non-conference schedules, so we should have a pretty good idea of what to make of nearly every team in the country. Here’s a look at who’s impressed, who’s failed and who’s left us waiting for their late homework so far this season.
The As: You get a gold star!
Baylor Bears: After entering the season with zero votes in the AP Top 25, the Bears are now ranked fourth. Their resume, which includes wins over Louisville, Michigan State, Oregon and Xavier, would almost certainly land them on the one-seed line were Selection Sunday today. Manu Lecomte and Jo Lual-Acuil have proven to be impactful transfers while Johnathan Motley has emerged as a dominant presence on offense. In a season where it looked like it would be Kansas and everyone else in the Big 12, the Bears are causing everyone to rethink their expectations.
Luke Kennard and Amile Jefferson: Most of the hype coming into the season surrounding the Duke Blue Devils revolved around Grayson Allen and a top-tier recruiting class that figured to power the team in its pursuit of another national title. Instead, the Blue Devils have been driven by the unlikely duo of Luke Kennard and Amile Jefferson. Kennard was always a talented scorer, but he’s stepped up a level by averaging 22.5 points per 40 minutes while shooting 52.0 percent from the field. Jefferson, meanwhile, has become the defensive anchor that Duke missed last season, helping to contest shots in the paint and patrol the defensive glass.
More on the Blue Devils in a minute.
UCLA Bruins: Everyone knew that UCLA would be good this season, but it wasn’t exactly clear just how good it would be. Lonzo Ball, T.J. Leaf and Ike Anigbogu combined to give the Bruins a top 10 recruiting class and head coach Steve Alford brought back nearly 60 percent of the team’s minutes played from a season ago. So far, UCLA has showcased one of the nation’s best offenses highlighted by the team’s ability to share the ball and knock down jump shots from nearly every position. The Bruins own a road win against Kentucky in addition to quality wins over Michigan and Texas A&M. They’ve already got the look of a team that could make a run to the Final Four in March.