College basketball: Are San Diego State, Dayton serious March Madness players?

College basketball has a pair of underdogs in San Diego State and Dayton in the Top 10, but are these teams legit contenders or pretenders?

Tri-State Hoopla

Once upon a time, the Northeast was the mecca of basketball; specifically, the tri-state area (New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania). This translated to the college game as teams like St. Johns, Seton Hall, Temple, and others were routinely among some of the top teams in the nation. In the past few years that hasn’t really been the case — outside of Villanova’s strong run to end the previous decade.

However, the states were still producing highly capable and skilled players, it was just that they were no longer choosing to stay close to home. New Jersey lost Kyrie Irving and Karl-Anthony Towns to other states. New York saw Cole Anthony leave for Tobacco Road and is losing another talented pair (R.J. Davis and Adrian Griffin Jr.) to the Carolina’s as well. Mo Bamba, Cam Reddish and Lonnie Walker all left Philly for other areas too.

This year has seen a resurgence from three programs that were long thought to have no shot of making noise in the basketball ranks. Seton Hall, Penn State and Rutgers are currently ranked 10th, 24th and 25th respectively in the latest Associated Press Top 25 Poll.

Throw in Jay Wright’s Wildcats at 8th and the tri-state area teams — don’t sleep on the Johnnies — are gaining momentum once again. Getting these schools to continue to operate at a high level going forward will mean a lot to the college basketball landscape.

In order to do that, each program must capitalize on the incredible seasons they are currently having. The talent is there for the picking but now some of these in-state schools might pose a bigger threat to the blue bloods across the country than they did previously.

Flyers, Aztecs, Bears…Oh My!

Coming into this season everyone kept mentioning how wide-open things were in college basketball. Even though the Michigan State Spartans began the year as the clear-cut preseason favorite, everyone agreed that there was no superteam waiting in the wings this year. What we couldn’t have predicted are the teams that would swoop in to fill the void left from their not being one powerhouse program.

The Baylor Bears are currently the best team in the country. San Diego State is the saving grace of California hoops. Dayton might have the National Player of the Year in Obi Toppin. These three teams have crashed the top 10 party and have shown no signs of going home anytime soon.

Of the three, Baylor faces the toughest road ahead. The Big 12 features two other ranked teams Kansas (third) and West Virginia (12th) and also has last year’s national runner-up Texas Tech. With the conference having a true round-robin schedule that means the Bears will cross paths with each of these teams again and would likely face off against one a third time in a potential conference championship game.

Given the amount of turnover we’ve had with the number one spot, it seems to be only a matter of time before Baylor gives it up. If Dayton and San Diego State continue to win and win convincingly, what’s to stop voters from placing either of them at the top of the rankings going forward?

Maize and Blues

The Michigan Wolverines got off to one of the best starts in program history this year. They won their first eight games. They beat two top-10 opponents (North Carolina and Gonzaga) in back-to-back games to win the Battle 4 Atlantis — where the previous two NCAA champions had won the same tournament to begin their seasons — and first-year head coach, Juwan Howard, broke out his infamous cabbage patch dance again.

However, since their scorching hot beginning, the team has drastically cooled off of late. They are 3-8 in their last 11 games and have lost five of their last six games. The latest coming off a buzzer-beating layup against Illinois.

Just as things seemed unable to get any worse, the team has announced that it will be suspending starting point guard, Zavier Simpson for their game tonight against Nebraska. The only word for why the team is sitting Simpson is that he violated team rules. Simpson has long been considered the team’s leader and it isn’t a good look for anyone involved that disciplinary actions were taken. Howard needs to right his ship quickly if he wants the folks in Ann Arbor to continue to shower him with love, praise and affection.

Help is on the way next season as he’s secured one of the top recruiting classes but this program doesn’t want to hear about the future, they want their wins and they need them now.

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