College Basketball Week 9: 5 biggest takeaways

Here’s your weekly dive into what we took away from the last seven days of college hoops.

Week nine of college basketball provided plenty of drama. Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski announced he would take a leave of absence to have back surgery, Butler’s upset of Villanova made sure we would have a new No. 1 team for the first time in five weeks and Baylor continued to improve its excellent NCAA Tournament resume.

Here’s a look at what we learned from that a more.

1. The gap between Kentucky and the rest of the SEC seems very large

Outside of the Kentucky Wildcats, the Southeastern Conference isn’t exactly known for its basketball teams. Because the Wildcats are one of the college hoops’ blue bloods, there’s still reason to pay attention to the league every year. This season, though, it looks like Kentucky might just be a step above the rest by quite a margin.

In the last week, the Wildcats have dominated two mid-level SEC opponents, handling Texas A&M by 42 points and Arkansas by 26. Both games took place at Rupp Arena, so it’s fair to ask how this young Kentucky team will fare in a more hostile road environment against someone not named Mississippi, but it’s tougher to name a potential challenger for them in the conference.

The league’s two best teams not named Kentucky are likely the Florida Gators and the South Carolina Gamecocks. The Gators have lost all three of their games against quality opponents — Duke, Florida State and Gonzaga — this season, but they have a defense with plenty of length and a senior point guard who might be able to stand up to the pressure Kentucky throws at teams. South Carolina, meanwhile, has one of the top five defenses in the country and orients its offensive attack around stars PJ Dozier and Sindarius Thornwell.

Despite all of that, the Wildcats are still a cut above. Kentucky ranks as the most dominant team in the country, according to KenPom. The Wildcats’ adjusted efficiency margin, which measures how many points per 100 possessions a team outscores its opponents by and is adjusted for strength of schedule, is 31.32. That’s nearly a full three points higher than the second place team in the nation, eight points better than Florida and nearly double South Carolina.