Who Has the Best Starting 5 in College Basketball in 2016-17?
The Villanova Wildcats only really play seven guys and are No. 1 in the nation in all of the polls, so it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that the defending national champs sit atop our list of the best starting fives in men's college basketball for this season.
Quality of depth is one of the most important factors in evaluating college basketball teams, but what if we stripped away the benches and only looked at starting lineups? How do the nation's top teams stack up against each other without the luxury of reserves?
As it turns out, it doesn't change much for the best of the best. The top six teams on our list are each ranked No. 8 or better in the latest AP Top 25, and every team in the AP's top 15 is at least an honorable mention here.
But aside from Villanova at No. 1, the order is considerably different.
All facets of the game were considered for these rankings. Shooting, rebounding, defense, turnovers and experience were the primary areas evaluated, but we didn't go through and assign grades for each category or anything. It really boiled down to a gut feeling of which teams would win the most head-to-head, five-on-five battles.
Honorable Mentions
1 of 10
Wisconsin Badgers
Bronson Koenig, Zak Showalter, Vitto Brown, Nigel Hayes, Ethan Happ
The Badgers are the top dogs in the Big Ten right now, but where's the shooting? We've all praised Hayes for drastically reducing his three-point shooting (six total attempts in his last eight games), but at 35.1 percent, he entered Tuesday's game against the Indiana Hoosiers as the best perimeter shooter in the starting five.
Louisville Cardinals
Quentin Snider, Donovan Mitchell, Deng Adel, Jaylen Johnson, Mangok Mathiang
Like Wisconsin, this Louisville starting unit often cannot buy a bucket. The three best three-point shooters on the team are David Levitch, V.J. King and Ryan McMahon, and they all play sparingly off the bench. Moreover, Ray Spalding has been the most efficient player on the roster and possibly the best defender, but he has only started one game.
West Virginia Mountaineers
Jevon Carter, Daxter Miles Jr., Esa Ahmad, Nathan Adrian, Brandon Watkins
This is an outstanding turnover-forcing and offensive-rebounding unit, but much of what has made West Virginia so tough to beat in recent years is the fact it doesn't lose much potency by going to the bench. Reserves like Teyvon Myers, Tarik Phillip and Sagaba Konate are every bit as good as the starters.
Gonzaga Bulldogs
Josh Perkins, Nigel Williams-Goss, Jordan Mathews, Johnathan Williams III, Przemek Karnowski
Gonzaga is in the same boat as West Virginia. The starting five is great, but the primary eight is better. Zach Collins doesn't even start for this team, and he has already been the KenPom.com MVP in four games. He might be the best player on the roster. Killian Tillie and Silas Melson are also consistently crucial contributors off the bench.
Florida State Seminoles
Xavier Rathan-Mayes, Dwayne Bacon, Terance Mann, Jonathan Isaac, Michael Ojo
See: West Virginia and Gonzaga. In Florida State's most important game of the season (at Virginia), 11 guys played at least eight minutes, none of whom logged more than 28. Also, Ojo barely even qualifies as a starter, playing more than 17 minutes just once all season.
Creighton Bluejays
Mo Watson, Marcus Foster, Khyri Thomas, Cole Huff, Justin Patton
This team is a ton of fun to watch on offense, but it doesn't rebound or play much defense, outside of the occasional Thomas steal or Patton block. The Bluejays are also disturbingly anemic from the free-throw line for a team that shoots so well from everywhere else.
Butler Bulldogs
Tyler Lewis, Kamar Baldwin, Kelan Martin, Andrew Chrabascz, Tyler Wideman
This unit is simply too compartmentalized. Lewis gets the assists. Baldwin gets the steals. Martin scores the points. Wideman crashes the glass. When each guy is doing what he is supposed to do, Butler can be Final Four good. But it only takes one guy having an off night to throw off their entire rhythm, resulting in strange losses to Indiana State and St. John's.
Virginia Cavaliers
London Perrantes, Darius Thompson, Devon Hall, Isaiah Wilkins, Jack Salt
Until Tony Bennett actually puts his best player in the starting five, it's impossible to suggest this is one of the best units in the country. Even though Thompson has been struggling for more than a month, Kyle Guy is still inexplicably coming off the bench as a 58 percent three-point shooter.
9. Purdue Boilermakers
2 of 10
Starting Five: Carsen Edwards, P.J. Thompson, Dakota Mathias, Caleb Swanigan, Isaac Haas
With Vince Edwards coming off the bench and ranking third on the team in points and second in both rebounds and assists, it was tempting to leave Purdue in the honorable mentions with a few other teams that have insisted upon not starting their five best players.
However, even an imperfect group can look great with Caleb Swanigan at its disposal.
"Biggie" is averaging 18.5 points, 13.0 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game. He already has four games with at least 20 points and 20 rebounds—a feat that was accomplished just 23 times in the entire 2015-16 season and that only three other players have managed to do once this year. Guards like Luke Kennard, Frank Mason, Malik Monk and Lonzo Ball have been dominating the National Player of the Year conversation, but Swanigan needs to be one of the favorites moving forward.
But Purdue has proved plenty capable of losing games even with Swanigan playing well. In fact, he has averaged 20.7 points and 13.7 rebounds in the team's three losses. Instead, the problem in those games has been Dakota Mathias failing to make shots (1-of-8 from three-point range compared to 55.2 percent in Purdue's 12 wins) and Carsen Edwards playing miserably (O-rating below 60 in all three losses).
Until those guards can consistently perform at a high level, Purdue has (at best) the ninth-best starting five in the country and is unlikely to finish ahead of Wisconsin for the Big Ten title.
8. North Carolina Tar Heels
3 of 10
Starting Five: Joel Berry II, Kenny Williams, Justin Jackson, Isaiah Hicks, Kennedy Meeks
When fully healthy, North Carolina could be No. 1 on this list.
Joel Berry is one of the more underappreciated point guards in the country. Justin Jackson is finally living up to the hype that followed him out of high school. Kennedy Meeks is nearly averaging a double-double. And Isaiah Hicks—when he can stay out of foul trouble—is a great weapon in the paint.
The one weak link is Kenny Williams, who is shooting 15.0 percent from three-point range over his last six games. He got out to a hot start from the perimeter and was one heck of a fifth-best starter for the Tar Heels, but he has been more of a non-factor than an asset over the past few weeks. Case in point, he played 34 minutes in the 100-103 loss to Kentucky and only managed to attempt two shots.
If a guy is going to make that little of an impact on offense, he had better be one heck of a defender. That simply isn't the case with Williams, but it will be if and when Theo Pinson returns from the broken foot that has kept him sidelined for the entire season to date. In addition to doling out a bunch of assists, Pinson was North Carolina's best defensive wing last season and has been dearly missed.
Until he returns, though, this is merely a good starting five with the potential to be great. It's tough to make that argument just a few days after a 12-point loss to the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, but that game should go down in history as a curious outlier in an otherwise solid season.
.png?w=256 "NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament Championship")
7. Oregon Ducks
4 of 10
Starting Five: Payton Pritchard, Dylan Ennis, Tyler Dorsey, Dillon Brooks, Jordan Bell
I flirted with the idea of putting Oregon as high as No. 2 on this list, but that's a tough pill to swallow with Chris Boucher at least temporarily coming off the bench following his ankle sprain.
A shot-blocker with three-point range who rebounds well and doesn't commit turnovers, Boucher is arguably the most versatile player in the nation. However, Dana Altman's dilemma at this point is figuring out who to pull from the starting five to get that stud back in there for tip-offs.
It sure as heck won't be Dillon Brooks now that he's fully healthy and putting up 20 points in a game with regularity. And with the way Jordan Bell has been playing over the past four games (15.3 PPG, 8.3 RPG, 1.8 BPG), it wouldn't make any sense to yank him, either.
So pull a guard, right?
Which one, though? Tyler Dorsey and Dylan Ennis rank third and fourth on the team in scoring. Dorsey is the team's best perimeter weapon, and Ennis has been an excellent contributor in other areas (4.8 RPG, 3.3 APG, 1.1 SPG). But freshman Payton Pritchard has been on fire lately, too, averaging 5.5 assists per game and 4.0 assists per turnover over his last nine games and shooting 44.4 percent from three in the past five games.
Suffice it to say, there's a reason this team is on an 11-game winning streak and just won back-to-back games against previously undefeated opponents. Were this a ranking of the best six-man rotations in the country rather than just the starting fives, Oregon might have checked in at No. 1. The Ducks will have to settle for No. 8 instead, which is at least more respect than most of the AP voters are giving them.
6. Kentucky Wildcats
5 of 10
Starting Five: De'Aaron Fox, Malik Monk, Isaiah Briscoe, Wenyen Gabriel, Bam Adebayo
There's a lot to love about this group. Both De'Aaron Fox and Isaiah Briscoe have already recorded triple-doubles this season. Malik Monk is the best pure scorer in the country. And it appears Bam Adebayo is finally learning how to play and dominate without getting into foul trouble.
Aside from Monk, though, this is one of the worst shooting teams with a legitimate chance to win the national championship that we've ever seen.
Fox, Briscoe and Wenyen Gabriel are a combined 13-of-63 (20.6 percent) from beyond the arc and aren't good at "shooting" anything other than layups or dunks. Same goes for Adebayo, who has been a black hole at the free-throw line (3-of-14 in his last four games).
Based on sheer athleticism, the Wildcats can put up all sorts of points against most opponents. But elite defenses can slow them down by doing whatever it takes to neutralize Monk and limiting transition opportunities—as demonstrated by Louisville two weeks ago.
Fortunately, Kentucky is solid on defense in its own right, blocking a lot of shots and protecting the perimeter well enough to keep most opponents from making many triples. As things currently stand, though, this unit isn't quite good enough for the top five.
5. UCLA Bruins
6 of 10
Starting Five: Lonzo Ball, Bryce Alford, Isaac Hamilton, T.J. Leaf, Thomas Welsh
There is not a team in the country that is more enjoyable to watch than UCLA. The Bruins lack the fun nickname of iconic teams of yore, but they are to college basketball in 2016-17 what the Fab Five and Phi Slama Jama were decades ago. If this team is playing and you're not watching, you're missing out.
On the offensive side of the ball, the Bruins are nearly flawless. It'd be nice if Isaac Hamilton could snap out of the cold spell he has been in for the past five games—2-of-23 from three-point range—but even with all those recent misses, they're still comfortably leading the nation in adjusted offensive efficiency and effective field-goal percentage.
Lonzo Ball is everything we hoped he would be, T.J. Leaf is even better than advertised and Thomas Welsh has the most reliable mid-range jumper for a big man since Tim Duncan's days at Wake Forest. Bryce Alford was pretty much UCLA's entire offense last season, but this year's team is so good that his 16.3 points per game are flying well below the national radar.
But on defense, UCLA is average at best. Blame the pace of play all you want, but it's not a good thing the Bruins have already allowed two opponents to reach 50 points by halftime.
This puts them under something of a glass ceiling in which we know they're good enough on offense to outscore any team in the country, but it's hard to trust them to win the necessary six in a row to claim a national championship. That—combined with the fact that a big part of the reason they're so good is sixth man Aaron Holiday—was more than enough to separate the Bruins from the top four teams on this list.
4. Duke Blue Devils
7 of 10
Starting Five: Luke Kennard, Grayson Allen, Matt Jones, Jayson Tatum, Amile Jefferson
Yes, we're counting Grayson Allen as a starter even though he remains suspended indefinitely. But even if you want to replace him with either Frank Jackson or Harry Giles, Duke's ranking on this list wouldn't change much. That's the luxury of having multiple McDonald's All-Americans on the bench.
It's also the benefit of having a trio like Luke Kennard, Jayson Tatum and Amile Jefferson.
All three are legitimate candidates for ACC Player of the Year, as it's tough to decide which one has actually been Duke's most valuable player. Kennard is averaging an incredible 21.4 points and 6.0 rebounds per game, but where would this team be without Jefferson's contributions and tireless efforts in the paint? And now that he's fully healthy, Tatum is already looking like more of an impact stretch 4 than Justise Winslow was two years ago.
Once the preseason National Player of the Year stops tripping people and gets back on the court to stay, that's one heck of a four out of five in this starting lineup.
But wherefore art thou, Matt Jones?
Duke's senior leader has been a huge asset on defense, but the Blue Devils might as well be playing four-on-five on offense when he's in the game. Jones is shooting 36.7 percent from the field, 30.2 percent from three-point range and 63.6 percent from the free-throw line. And while the team continues to search for an answer at point guard, Jones is only averaging 2.3 assists per game. After scoring in double figures in each of his first seven games, he has failed to do so in each of his last seven.
3. Baylor Bears
8 of 10
Starting Five: Manu Lecomte, Al Freeman, Ish Wainright, Johnathan Motley, Jo Lual-Acuil
If you're still trying to get used to seeing Baylor as one of the best teams in the country, catch up already. Save for a little bit of trouble on the defensive glass—hardly uncommon for shot-blocking teams—the Bears have been outstanding on both ends of the floor.
Manu Lecomte and Ish Wainright have quietly become an elite two-way, combo-guard backcourt, averaging a combined 17.6 points, 7.9 assists and 3.0 steals per game. Al Freeman has emerged as a lights-out shooter. And Jo Lual-Acuil is one of the best junior college transfers in history, blocking 3.8 shots per game while also making 62.8 percent of his own attempts.
The biggest piece of the puzzle, though, is Johnathan Motley.
Motley has actually been a bit less efficient as a scorer this season than he was last year, but he has transformed from a part-time, third-best option to Baylor's piece de resistance. He is leading the team in points and rebounds, is their second-best shot-blocker and has even become a surprising source of assists, doling out 2.2 dimes per game.
Perhaps most noteworthy (and least quantifiable) is Motley has developed a knack for asserting his dominance early and often. It isn't maintained for anywhere near as long as, say, Caleb Swanigan's, but when Motley wants to establish he can take a game over, he does. In marquee games against Xavier, Oregon and Oklahoma, he had multiple buckets and multiple rebounds before the first media timeout. That sets the stage for the rest of the game and the rest of the team, and it's a big part of why Baylor is still undefeated.
2. Kansas Jayhawks
9 of 10
Starting Five: Frank Mason III, Devonte' Graham, Svi Mykhailiuk, Josh Jackson, Landen Lucas
It's not the exact starting five we were expecting before the season began, but it's dominant all the same.
Frank Mason III, Devonte' Graham and Josh Jackson were always going to be starters and were anticipated to become the best backcourt trio in the nation. Guilty as charged. Much has been made in recent weeks about Jackson's inability to shoot the ball, but those three entered Tuesday night's rivalry game against Kansas State averaging 47.0 points per game. Mason has been on fire all season long, while Graham remains one of the most underappreciated players in the nation for a second consecutive year.
Landen Lucas was also an expected starter, though he did lose that title for a few weeks and only got it back after Udoka Azubuike was lost for the season to a wrist injury. Over the past four games, though, Lucas has averaged 9.8 points and 11.0 rebounds per game. His continued presence on the glass is a must if Kansas is going to win a 13th straight Big 12 title.
The surprise of the bunch is Svi Mykhailiuk. Between his hot shooting and Carlton Bragg Jr. playing his way out of a job in less than two weeks, Mykhailiuk has not only become a starter, but one of the most important assets for the Jayhawks. The Ukrainian sniper has scored in double figures in seven consecutive games, shooting nearly 50 percent from beyond the arc for more than a month.
Much like Villanova in the No. 1 spot, this is a seven-man rotation right now. Jackson fouled out in just 12 minutes in KU's Big 12 opener, and Bill Self still never went more than two deep into his bench. As a result, the starting five for this team does more than just about any other team in the nation.
1. Villanova Wildcats
10 of 10
Starting Five: Jalen Brunson, Kris Jenkins, Josh Hart, Mikal Bridges, Darryl Reynolds
The craziest part of Villanova's 14-0 record is this is only three-fifths of the starting five the Wildcats were supposed to have. In a perfect world, Omari Spellman would have been cleared to play by the NCAA, and Phil Booth wouldn't have missed the past 11 games with a knee injury.
However, Mikal Bridges and Darryl Reynolds have turned out to be one hell of a backup plan. Both guys have been outrageously efficient, respectively ranking 14th and eighth nationally in true shooting percentage.
That duo doesn't take a ton of shots, but when they do, they're usually wide open because A) Villanova spreads the floor as well as any team in the country and B) Josh Hart, Kris Jenkins and Jalen Brunson are the main problems opposing teams are worried about.
Hart was great last year, but he has been an unstoppable freight train this season, averaging 20.3 points, 6.8 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game while improving his field-goal percentage from 51.3 to 56.3. He scored at least 16 points in every game in December, including the 37-point masterpiece against Notre Dame that will go down as his most-mentioned performance in all subsequent Player of the Year conversations.
Meanwhile, that guy who made the most memorable shot in national championship history has also gotten better, as Jenkins' three-point percentage has improved from 38.6 to 41.1.
But Brunson has been the biggest key to Villanova's early success. If the Wildcats were going to struggle, it was going to be because they missed the veteran leadership of Ryan Arcidiacono. Rather, Brunson has been just as good as "Arch" ever was, if not better. The sophomore is shooting 43.8 percent from three-point range and has been even more efficient with his drives and pull-ups, connecting on 58.0 percent of two-point attempts.
Early on in the season, it's customary to spend most of the time talking about freshmen, breakout players and surprise programs. Now that we're getting into the meat of conference play, expect to see more stories about Villanova's dominance and its chances of repeating as national champions.
Stats current through start of play Tuesday, Jan. 3, and are courtesy of KenPom.com and Sports Reference. Recruiting information is courtesy of Scout.
Kerry Miller covers college basketball for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @kerrancejames.
.png?w=480 "NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament Championship")
.jpg?w=600 "Colts Release Kenny Moore")
