1 Thing Every Top 25 College Basketball Team Is Thankful For
The holiday season is upon us, a time for people to reflect on what they have and how grateful they are for those things. This applies to college basketball teams as much as it does for anything else, because they've benefited from plenty of good fortune in their own ways.
Using the latest Associated Press Top 25 as a guide, we've picked out something each of the top teams in the country is most thankful for as they set about playing the 2016-17 season.
No. 25 (tie) Michigan
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Strong foul shooting
Each of Michigan's games to this point have been decided by at least 12 points, so foul shooting hasn't played a significant role in an outcome. But based on how Michigan has fared at the free-throw line in 2016-17, if there is a tight game later on, it won't have to worry about giving away points.
The Wolverines are shooting 82.2 percent from the line, which ranked fourth in Division I entering Friday. Their worst free-throw effort came in Wednesday's 61-46 loss at South Carolina, but they still made 24 of 32 attempts compared to just 10 of 52 field goals.
It's a team-wide effort at the line, with five of the top six scorers making at least 78.6 percent of their free throws. Derrick Walton, averaging a team-best 14.2 points per game, is 19-of-20 after shooting 81.3 percent last season.
No. 25 (tie) Florida State
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A potent offense
Florida State lost for the first time on Thursday, falling 89-86 to Temple in the NIT Season Tip-Off in New York City. That's the fewest points the Seminoles (4-1) have managed this season, having come in averaging 96.8 points and reaching 100 in a pair of games.
The 'Noles averaged 78 points per game last season in going 20-14 but lost potent scorer Malik Beasley to the NBA. No bother, as Dwayne Bacon (18.4) has picked up some of that slack, as have fellow guards Terance Mann (9.8) and Xavier Rathan-Mayes (9.8), with Mann shooting 62.5 percent.
An extra boost has come from freshman forward Jonathan Isaac, who had 19 points against Temple and is averaging 15.4 points on 56.9 percent shooting. He's also been FSU's top three-point shooter, making nine of 20 attempts so far.
No. 24 Michigan State
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Miles Bridges
Michigan State was going to put a lot on the shoulders of one of its highest-rated freshmen in school history even before two forwards got injured during the preseason. With neither Ben Carter nor Gavin Schilling likely to return anytime soon, the Spartans have become even more dependent on the 6'7" Miles Bridges.
So far, that's led the wing to put up big numbers but also make quite a few mistakes, which you'd expect from someone thrown into the fire with the schedule the Spartans (3-3) have faced so far. Thursday's 73-58 loss to No. 20 Baylor in the Battle 4 Atlantis was their third against a ranked team already after opening against Arizona and Kentucky.
Bridges had 15 points on 7-of-11 shooting with five rebounds and three blocks against Baylor, while the rest of the team was 15-of-40 from the field. He also had three of MSU's 14 turnovers, and for the season, he's committed a team-high 22 turnovers, but that's along with 16.8 points, 9.5 rebounds and 1.7 blocks per game.
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No. 23 Rhode Island
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E.C. Matthews
Rhode Island's play early this season affirms the expectation it will make the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1999. A 10-point loss to Duke last Sunday didn't do anything to change this opinion, and the Rams remain ranked after not being in the Top 25 since January 2008.
Many thought the Rams would go dancing last season, but when E.C. Matthews was injured only a few minutes into the first game, every expectation went out the window.
Rhode Island still won 17 games, but that was down from the 23 it had in Matthews' sophomore year. However, as Bleacher Report's Kerry Miller noted, "11 of those losses were by a margin of six points or fewer, so it's not crazy to think they could have won 28 games at full strength."
The 6'5" guard has picked up where he left off. He's scoring 17.4 points per game on 55.4 percent shooting, and he's made 10 of 21 three-pointers. Three other Ram players are averaging double figures, but Matthews remains the integral piece that was missing in 2015-16 and should be the difference this time around.
No. 22 Texas
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Further challenges
When the top five scorers and seven of nine players in the rotation are freshmen and sophomores, some early struggles are to be expected. And a 3-0 start against weak competition didn't properly prepare Texas for tougher games this week, which resulted in double-digit losses to Northwestern and Colorado in the Legends Classic.
Coach Shaka Smart's young team looked like it against those power-conference opponents, shooting 37 percent and getting out-rebounded each game while allowing 16 three-pointers.
Thankfully, Texas won't be lacking for similar challenges ahead of the arduous Big 12 schedule. The Longhorns host Alabama, visit No. 25 Michigan and face Arkansas in Houston over the next three weeks, games that will prove more valuable than those against Texas-Arlington, UAB and Kent State.
No. 21 Iowa State
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Monte Morris
How nice must it be, as an Iowa State player, to know that all it takes to have a scoring opportunity is to get open. After that, Monte Morris will take care of the rest.
Morris is all but certain to end his career with the best assist-to-turnover ratio in NCAA history. He has three of the six best single-season ratios ever, including 4.79 as a freshman in 2013-14 that was the record until Oregon's Casey Benson had a 4.88 ratio last season. This year, Morris has 25 assists with just four turnovers.
Two of those came in Thursday's 73-71 win over Indiana State at the AdvoCare Invitational, a game in which the 6'2" senior had only one assist but had 20 points and nine rebounds.
Morris is averaging a team-best 19 points per game for the Cyclones (4-0) and also contributes 6.3 assists per game.
No. 20 Baylor
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Team rebounding
He's no longer with the team, but back in March, former Baylor star Taurean Prince was famously asked how the Bears were out-rebounded by Yale during their first-round NCAA tournament upset. Prince gave the perfect response, politely explaining how rebounding works and that Yale did that better and more often than Baylor.
That was one of only six games in 2015-16 in which the Bears didn't win the rebounding battle, and not surprisingly, they were 1-5 in those games, including their four March losses.
This season, Baylor has out-rebounded all five opponents, leading to wins each time. It held a 36-27 advantage on the boards (including 9-3 in offensive rebounds) in Thursday's 73-58 win over No. 24 Michigan State in the Battle 4 Atlantis.
Baylor lost some strong rebounders from last season in Prince and Rico Gathers, but everyone is filling that void. Junior college transfer Jo Lual-Acuil Jr. is pulling down 8.4 rebounds per game, while Johnathan Motley is averaging 7.3 and Ishmail Wainright is averaging 6.0.
No. 19 West Virginia
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Chaos
Playing against West Virginia is like trying to dribble during an earthquake and pass inside a tornado. The Mountaineers make everything difficult for their opponents when they have the ball, constantly reaching for the ball and forcing them into mistakes all over the court.
West Virginia forced 24 Illinois turnovers in an 89-57 win on Thursday in the NIT Season Tip-Off, 15 of those the result of steals, and turned those 24 takeaways into 34 points, according to StatBroadcast.com. That gives the Mountaineers 56 swipes in four games, all wins by at least 28 points, and they're forcing 26.3 turnovers per game.
Junior guard Jevon Carter leads the team with 15 steals, while senior guard Tarik Phillip has six steals and nine other players have at least three. That includes junior guard Daxter Miles, who averaged 1.4 steals per game in 2015-16 and was making his season debut Thursday after missing the first three games because of injury.
No. 18 Syracuse
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Zone defense
Jim Boeheim has never been tempted to see if he could coach in the NBA despite such massive success at the college level. Among the reasons for this might be that for most of his coaching career, the pro game didn't allow most aspects of the zone defense that has been his calling card at Syracuse.
The zone has been as synonymous with Boeheim's teams as the school's unique Orange nickname. With a lineup that is loaded with long and lean players who can cover a lot of ground when spaced properly, Syracuse has always dared opponents to shoot over it or risk getting the ball taken away from trying to drive into the zone.
Though Syracuse has gone to a man defense on occasion this season, don't expect that to become a habit. Not when the zone has held opponents to 52.5 points per game during a 4-0 start and has allowed no more than 65.1 points per game in any of the previous six seasons.
No. 17 Purdue
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Caleb Swanigan
It's rare when a talented freshman whom NBA scouts are interested in decides to hold off on a pro career to play in college a little longer. Purdue would have learned to get by without Caleb Swanigan this season, but it's sure glad it doesn't have to worry about doing that for another year.
The 6'9", 260-pound sophomore is off to a strong start in 2016-17 with 18.2 points, 11.8 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game. He's shooting 56.9 percent, way up from his 46.1 percent rate as a freshman, and has made five of eight three-pointers to keep defenses honest.
Swanigan and 7'2" Isaac Haas are making for an impossible duo to deal with down low, and they're why the Boilermakers are 4-1 with a Cancun Challenge title and the only blemish a three-point loss to defending national champion Villanova. Swanigan had 20 points on 8-of-13 shooting with eight rebounds and four assists in that game.
No. 16 Wisconsin
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Interchangeable parts
Wisconsin has the luxury of bringing back its entire starting lineup from last year's team, which got hot and reached the Sweet 16 after struggling during the first half of 2015-16. The Badgers comprised 30 percent of the Big Ten's preseason all-conference team, with senior forward Nigel Hayes pegged as the Player of the Year.
All told, the Badgers returned their top 10 scorers, and that's enabled them to go incredibly deep onto the bench with experienced players. Through six games, nine players are logging at least 10 minutes per game, and eight of them were part of last season's rotation. Only freshman guard D'Mitrik Trice, playing 14.8 minutes per game, is considered a newcomer.
While Hayes, senior guards Bronson Koenig and Zak Showalter, senior forward Vitto Brown and sophomore forward Ethan Happ have started every game, they've accounted for only 64.5 percent of the minutes. Wisconsin's bench is providing 16.7 points and 14.5 rebounds per game.
No. 15 Saint Mary's
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Australia
While fellow West Coast Conference team Gonzaga has managed to work its way onto the short lists of some top prep prospects in recent years, Saint Mary's remains like most mid-major programs that have to search far and wide to find players to fill their rosters. But there's one place—an entire country, actually—where the Gaels have a distinct recruiting advantage over nearly everyone else.
The current roster features seven players from Down Under, a group that includes leading scorer Jock Landale as well as top assist man Emmett Naar. Aussies have accounted for 61.9 percent of the Gaels' scoring and 60.1 percent of their rebounds during a 4-0 start.
Australia has been providing coach Randy Bennett with players throughout his 16 seasons at Saint Mary's, with notables such as Patty Mills and Matthew Dellavedova going on to the NBA.
No. 14 UCLA
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Lonzo Ball
UCLA finished below .500 and was just 6-12 in the Pac-12 last season, results that aren't befitting of the most successful program in college basketball history. Fans wanted coach Steve Alford gone, but the school had faith he was the right man to guide the 2016-17 team.
It also knew Alford had a superstar on his way to campus in Lonzo Ball, who arrived with a ton of hype and so far has done nothing to indicate he wasn't deserving.
The 6'6" freshman guard had 18 points and 11 assists in UCLA's 99-77 win over Portland Thursday at the Wooden Legacy. The Bruins (5-0) are scoring 104.4 points per game, and Ball has been the catalyst of this offensive surge, both with his scoring and floor vision that have resulted in 16.6 points and 9.4 assists per game.
Ball has made everyone else around him better, most notably allowing Bryce Alford to go from the point to off the ball, where he can be more of a shooter. Alford has responded by making 17 of 32 three-pointers after shooting 36.7 percent last season.
No. 13 Oregon
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Dillon Brooks' return
Oregon's 4-2 start isn't what you'd expect from a team that was picked to win the Pac-12 and began the year with its highest preseason ranking (fifth) in school history. Then again, the Ducks didn't plan to not have their most dynamic player for the first three games and for limited minutes since his return.
Dillon Brooks underwent offseason foot surgery that delayed the start of his junior year to this past Monday, when he had nine points in 13 minutes in a loss to Georgetown. He scored 17 in 25 minutes against Tennessee and then had nine in 18 minutes against Connecticut, but he looked like someone who hadn't played in a while.
After shooting 47 percent last year, the 6'5" Brooks has made only 43.5 percent of his shots so far, and his turnover rate has risen from 13.6 to 16.6 percent. As he gets more games under his belt, though, expect Brooks to return to his old form and be the all-around player who helped Oregon win conference regular season and tournament titles and get to the Elite Eight.
No. 12 Creighton
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Frontcourt depth
Creighton won the Paradise Jam tournament in the U.S. Virgin Islands on Monday, and assuming it beats Loyola (Maryland) on Saturday, the Blue Jays (5-0) could find themselves ranked in the Top 10 for the first time since February 2014. How long they stay unbeaten and highly ranked will depend on how they deal with losing senior center Zach Hanson for the foreseeable future.
According to the school, Hanson suffered torn ligaments and a tendon in his left ankle and could be out several months. The injury happened during Monday's victory over Ole Miss, during which Hanson had two points and three rebounds in 10 minutes.
Hanson was averaging a career-best 8.0 points and 3.2 rebounds this season, shooting 68 percent and providing valuable minutes off the bench. He'll be missed, but Creighton isn't in dire straits in the frontcourt because it still has senior Cole Huff, junior Toby Hegner and redshirt freshman Justin Patton. That trio has combined for 28 points and 11.4 rebounds per game on 57.1 percent shooting.
The loss of Hanson could also mean 6'9" freshman Martin Krampelj, who has 12 points and nine rebounds in 19 minutes of action, could get more into the mix.
No. 11 Gonzaga
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Transfers
Gonzaga is no slouch on the recruiting trail, as can be seen by coach Mark Few signing the No. 16 recruiting class for this season. But the meat of this team is built on talent that started out somewhere else in Division I but at some point decided the Bulldogs were a better fit.
Senior guard Jordan Mathews is a graduate transfer who played three seasons at California before coming to Gonzaga this summer. Junior guard Nigel Williams-Goss played two years at Washington and junior forward Johnathan Williams III spent two seasons with Missouri before both joined the program last season, sitting out a year before becoming eligible in 2016-17.
That trio has started each game for Gonzaga, which is 4-0 after beating Quinnipiac 82-62 Thursday at the AdvoCare Invitational. Mathews, Williams and Williams-Goss combined for 31 points, 14 rebounds, nine assists and three steals.
Gonzaga's transfers have accounted for 37.2 percent of the scoring, 32.8 percent of the rebounding and 50 percent of the assists.
No. 10 Louisville
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Defensive intensity
Louisville's offense remains a work in progress after five games of the 2016-17 season, but this was to be expected with the Cardinals losing their top three scorers from the previous year. There's been no such developmental delay on the defensive end; if anything, they're looking better than the unit that allowed 61.1 points per game last season.
The Cardinals shot only 36.5 percent in Thursday's 62-52 win over Wichita State in the Battle 4 Atlantis semifinals, but they held Wichita to 31.6 percent from the field and just 6-of-22 on three-pointers. The Shockers were shooting 50.7 percent overall, 41.1 percent from outside and scoring 91 points per game during a 5-0 start.
Louisville is now 5-0 despite two woeful shooting performances in as many games. It made only 29.6 percent in Wednesday's overtime win against Old Dominion but held the Monarchs to 37.9 percent.
To date, Louisville's opponents are shooting 31.6 percent and scoring 55 points per game.
No. 9 Xavier
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An accurate scouting report
One of the toughest aspects of the early part of a college basketball schedule is not knowing much about opponents. Unlike in league play, where the foes are more familiar and it becomes easier to scout what they're good at, in the first month or two, every opponent is its own unique challenge to deal with.
Yet Xavier (5-0) is benefiting from a strange scheduling quirk that has it facing the same team in consecutive games. The Musketeers' next game on Saturday is at home against Northern Iowa, whom they beat 67-59 last Sunday in the finals of the Tire Pros Invitational in Orlando, Florida.
That win came after Xavier was able to watch the Panthers in person during the early rounds of that tournament, meaning it has three strong pieces of data to use to put together a game plan. And since neither team will have played again since then, it's less likely Northern Iowa will have made any major changes to its style of play.
No. 8 Arizona
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Good ball-handlers
Turnovers were an issue at times last season for Arizona, and this was evident during the Wildcats' first-round NCAA tournament loss to Wichita State when they gave the ball away 19 times. That was the fifth occasion they turned it over at least 19 times in 2015-16.
So far, an emphasis on being more careful with the ball has shown. Through its first five games, Arizona (5-0) was averaging 10.4 turnovers, down from 12.9 last season. Prior to Thursday's 69-61 win over Santa Clara in the Las Vegas Invitational, Arizona's turnover rate had dipped from 15.8 percent to 12.8 to rank 21st in Division I.
None of the Wildcats' eight rotation players has turned it over more than 12 times, and starting point guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright has a 4-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio. Not wasting possessions has been critical for a thin Arizona team that has lost two players to knee injuries, while sophomore guard Allonzo Trier has been held out of action for unspecified reasons.
No. 7 Virginia
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Patience
A reduced shot clock starting in 2015-16 was meant to improve production in college basketball, putting a premium on teams that took good shots and didn't need a lot of time to find one. Yet Virginia continues to be among the most efficient teams in Division I despite playing at the hoops version of a snail's pace.
The Cavaliers' games average only 61.3 possessions per 40 minutes, giving them the second-slowest pace in the country. But their offensive rating of 122.4, which is 11th in the country, shows they make the most of their chances, and their second-ranked defensive rating (63.3) means they keep opponents from doing much when they have the ball.
To play at such a pace, and do it well, requires immense patience. Virginia has to constantly deal with opponents trying to speed things up and avoid falling into that trap, and that's paid off in the form of 89 wins the previous three seasons and a 4-0 start in 2016-17. In those wins, the Cavaliers have held foes to 38.8 points per game and 28.9 percent shooting, forcing turnovers more than 23 percent of the time.
No. 6 Duke
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Stamina
There's no rest for the weary, certainly not for Duke's talented but overworked players this season. Due to injuries to freshmen forwards Marques Bolden, Harry Giles and Jayson Tatum, the rest of the Blue Devils have been logging a ton of minutes so far this season.
Duke has five players who have averaged at least 29.5 minutes per game so far, with guards Matt Jones (36.5) and Luke Kennard (35.8) rarely sitting down. Only sophomore forward Chase Jeter, getting 15.5 minutes per game, is seeing notable time outside of that group, but most of it came when he was starting in place of freshman guard Frank Jackson.
And Duke has managed to go 5-1 with its only loss to Kansas on a last-second shot.
But this is nothing new for Jones, Kennard and junior guard Grayson Allen, who went through pretty much the same thing in 2015-16 when Amile Jefferson suffered a season-ending foot injury in December and Jeter wasn't trusted to play meaningful minutes. Allen logged 36.6 minutes per game, while Jones was at 31.8 and Kennard 26.7 (though he averaged 35 during Duke's final six contests).
No. 5 Kansas
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Two point guards
Any challenges Kansas may face during the 2016-17 season won't be due to a lack of headiness and experience in the backcourt. The Jayhawks have the great fortune of possessing not one, but two veteran point guards who would start on almost any other team in the country.
Senior Frank Mason III and junior Devonte' Graham are combining for 36 points, 7.4 rebounds, 9.6 assists and 3.2 steals per game. They're shooting 47.3 percent overall and have turned it over a mere 23 times in 359 minutes of action, with only four giveaways in 76 minutes in the season-opening overtime loss to Indiana and five in 75 minutes in a win over Duke.
Though each has logged a ton of minutes so far, they're both capable of handling things on their own if the other needs rest or experiences foul trouble. That's why coach Bill Self doesn't have to worry if one struggles since there's a backup plan already in place.
No. 4 North Carolina
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Experience
Freshman superstars are great, but there's nothing more valuable for college basketball teams than players who have been through the fire before and know what to expect as the games get tougher. Just ask North Carolina, which is among the most veteran teams in Division I despite losing two key seniors from a team that made the national championship game last season.
The Tar Heels start two seniors and either two or three juniors, depending on if they go with Nate Britt or sophomore Kenny Williams at the 2. Britt, point guard Joel Berry II and forwards Isaiah Hicks, Justin Jackson and Kennedy Meeks were all integral parts of UNC's NCAA tournament run last season, and that experience should prove valuable in 2016-17 as well.
UNC has benefited from not losing players early to the NBA draft, which last happened when J.P. Tokoto turned pro after his junior year in 2014-15. Every player coach Roy Williams has signed since the 2013 recruiting class is still part of the program.
No. 3 Indiana
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No road games until January
Being among the most successful programs in college basketball history, not to mention one of the most popular, comes with plenty of perks. One of those is the ability to put together the preseason schedule however you see fit, which in the case of Indiana usually means playing as many home games as possible.
Since 2010, the Hoosiers have only played seven true non-league road games, with most of those coming as part of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, where they have no say in who or where they play. This year, Indiana's only road game prior to Big Ten play came on Tuesday, when it played at IPFW as part of the Indiana Classic, and though almost all the fans were wearing red, the Hoosiers lost 71-68 in overtime.
Indiana's last nonconference road win came in November 2011, when it won at North Carolina State, and since then, it's lost at Syracuse (2013) and Duke (2015). There won't be any more such trips before the Hoosiers (3-1) begin Big Ten competition, with their remaining nonconference matchups either at Assembly Hall or in Indianapolis for neutral-site games against Butler and Louisville.
No. 2 Villanova
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Memories
Villanova is the defending national champion, and no one can take that away from the Wildcats. Even if they end up falling short of repeating, as every other college basketball title winner has since Florida went back-to-back in 2006 and 2007, that won't change what happened last March and April.
The 77-74 victory over North Carolina was arguably one of the best championship games in NCAA tournament history, and not just because Kris Jenkins drained a three-pointer at the buzzer for the win. Villanova was strong throughout the tourney, blowing out its first three opponents before knocking off No. 1 seed Kansas in the Elite Eight, then easily dispatching Oklahoma and star Buddy Hield thanks to a balanced and veteran lineup.
Quite a few players from that team are back for Villanova, which is looking just as good so far this season. It's sitting at 6-0 (which puts its win streak at 12 games) with a strong victory at 17th-ranked Purdue and the Charleston Classic championship.
No. 1 Kentucky
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Fans who travel
Big Blue Nation is everywhere and never fails to make its presence known wherever Kentucky is playing. Not just inside Rupp Arena, where the Wildcats regularly pack the 23,500-seat arena for their games, but all over the country.
Kentucky had the most fans of any of the four teams at the Champions Classic in New York City on Nov. 15, and nearly every person in attendance for Monday's Atlantis Showcase against Arizona State in the Bahamas will be wearing blue. You can expect the same when the Wildcats play Hofstra in Brooklyn on Dec. 11 and face North Carolina in Las Vegas on Dec. 17, not to mention sizable fan representation when they visit SEC opponents in January and February.
Maybe the only game this season when Kentucky won't be able to hear a lot of its fans is the Dec. 21 clash at in-state rival Louisville.
All statistics courtesy of Sports-Reference.com unless otherwise noted. All recruiting information courtesy of Scout unless otherwise noted.
Follow Brian J. Pedersen on Twitter at @realBJP.
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