In the wake of a upset-filled week in which top-ranked Duke was pounded by 27 points, No. 5 Louisville dropped a pair of games to unranked foes and 12 other ranked teams suffered at least one loss, only a few elite teams emerged unscathed. Three of those are the most likely candidates to take over the top spot in the polls from the Blue Devils on Monday. The most obvious candidates are the nation's lone one-loss teams, Michigan and Kansas, which both won a pair of games apiece with ease this week. The Wolverines outclassed Purdue in Ann Arbor and Illinois in Champaign, while the Jayhawks turned back Kansas State on the road and Oklahoma in Lawrence. If there is a contender for the No. 1 spot among the two-loss powerhouses, it's probably Florida, darlings of the tempo-free statistics crowd. The Gators haven't beaten too many elite foes and they've suffered narrow losses to Arizona in Tucson and Kansas State in Kansas City, but they've dominated the teams they have beaten in a way nobody else has. Their average margin of victory in six SEC games is 26.5 points, which is part of the reason they're No. 1 in the KenPom rankings and in the top five nationally in both points per possession scored and surrendered.
No comments:
Post a Comment