Those 40-0 T-shirts 🦹haven’t been sent to third-world countries yet.
Kentucky enters the final three weeks of the regular season undefeated, equaling the best start in its glorious program’s history of 25-0, set by the 1953-54 team. John Calipari’s Wildcats are the heavy favorites to win it all in Indianapolis come April, their size, depth and long line of NBA prospects swallowing the sp✅ort whole.
But there are contenders out there, teams that could stand in the way. Top-ranked Ke♈ntucky’s biggest threat may not be who you would expec𝄹t.
Gonzaga
The Bulldogs are at the top of the list, arguably coach Mark Few’s best team, featuring one of the country’s biggest — and most talented — front lines cap🅠able of matching Kentucky’s army of shot-blocking NBA prospects.
Third-ranked Gonzaga can go 7-foot-1, 6-foot-10, 6-foot-10 up front, with Przemek Karnowski, Domantas꧒ Sabonis — the talented freshman son of the former NBA center Arvydas Sabonis — and sharpshooter Kyle Wiltjer.
Wiltjer, most importantly, is one of the nation’s top 3-point shoot💯ing forwards, and the Kentucky transfer would force the Wildcats bigs such𒁃 as Karl-Anthony Towns and Willie Cauley-Stein to leave the paint, where they are a force.
This team, on its wa🎃y to a 17th straight NCAA Tournamen✨t, is a perfect blend of experience and youth, inside power and perimeter finesse, able to play multiple styles depending on its opponent. The Zags are a treasure to watch offensively, averaging 79.8 points per game (12th in the country), 16.8 assists (12th) and shooting an NCAA-leading 52 percent.
While some may discredit Gonzaga because of its soft conference —✤ the West Coast Conference is unlikely to receive more than one bid to the NCAA Tournament unless the Zags slip up in the conference tournament — it has beaten four top-50 teams in the NCAA’s RPI index, and No. 25 SMU. Gonzaga’s lone loss was a three-point overtime defeat at No. 7 Arizona.
“They’re a better offensive team and Kentucky is a vast൲ly superior defensive team,” ESPN analyst Jay Bilas said. “They’re going to be able to battle [inside]. 🀅They do have some big guys. Their big guys aren’t quite as super athletic as Kentucky’s, but it would be a helluva game. Kentucky is more athletic, they’re bigger and they’re deeper, but Gonzaga is very deep and impressive.
“They🌳’re as good as they’ve been in a long, long time.”
Wisconsin
Like Gonzaga, Wisconsin would prove difficult for Kentucky because of its style. Bo Ryan’s team wouldn’t try to go through the Wildcats — they would attempt to go around th𓂃em, spread the floor and outthink Calipari’s young studs.
It nearly worked last year,🙈 with Wisconsin coming within an Aaron Harrison maℱde 3-pointer in the national semifinals. And, yes, while Kentucky is different — Towns and freshmen guards Tyler Ulis and Devon Booker weren’t on that team — Wisconsin is also better. Wisconsin forward Frank Kaminsky, a National Player of the Year candidate, would be a matchup problem because of his perimeter ability and high basketball IQ.
Duke
Jahlil O𓃲kafor against Towns, Cauley-Stein and Dakari Johnson would be must-see. Duke’s freshman phenom is one of the few bigs who could — and would — do 🅠damage in the paint against Kentucky. Throw in Duke’s offensive firepower, 3-point potency and the Blue Devils could derail Kentucky’s perfect season.
Kansas
Yes, Kentuck♎y destroyed Kansas on Nov. 18, winning by 32. But that waꦑs a different Kansas team.
Freshmen for♑wards Cliff Alexander and Kelly Oubre Jr. weren’t ready for a game of that magnitude against such a high-level opponent. The Jayhawks have the size — led by junior Perry Ellis and the development of Alexander and Oubre — to at least challenge the Wildcats in the paint. Few teams can say that.
Game of the Week
No. 12 North Carolina at No. 4 Duke, Wednesday at 9 p.m.
The Tobacco Road rivals head into their first showdown this season headed in opposite directions. Duke has looked like a national championship contender, winning five straight games and eight of its past nine. North Carolina, meanwhile💫, has dropped three of four, including Saturday’s dismal 13-point defeat at mediocre Pittsburgh. The Tar Heelܫs’ defense is a sieve — allowing 68.3 points per game, 233rd in the nation — which will be a major problem against Duke, one of the country’s most explosive scoring teams, averaging 80.3 points a contest.
Stock Watch — Up
Larry Brown
Remember when SMU was going to crumble amidst the controversy of an NCAA investigation, the midse🧸ason loss of two players — Keith Frazier was ruled ineligibl🔜e and Justin Martin left the program to turn pro — and assistant coach Ulric Maligi taking a leave of absence? Nobody bothered to tell Larry Brown his season was over. The legendary coach has the 25th-ranked Mustangs positioned nicely at 21-5 overall, all alone atop the AAC, winners of 11-of-12 after their 18-point decimation of UConn Saturday night in Dallas.
Villanova
The Wildcats own the new Big East. After Saturday’s impressive win at No. 18 Butler, Jay Wright’s team is in complete🔯 control of the league, two games up on the second-place Bulldogs with six gꦰames to play, on its way to a second straight regular-season crown. Consider this stat: sixth-ranked Villanova is 26-5 against Big East foes since the creation of the new conference last season. Of their 10 wins this year in conference, nine have come by double-figures. The Wildcats aren’t just getting by — they are dominating.
Stock Watch — Down
Pac-12 higher-ups
For the mere suggestion Pac-12 presidents and chancellors se💞nt to their Power Five colleagues last May to make freshmen ineligible as part of a 10-point list for NCAA reform, as reported by CBS Sports. In 1972, the NCAA changed the rule making freshmen eligible to♈ compete. Is making money off these kids not enough? If this ever went through — and it won’t, because money is all that matters to those in power in college athletics — it would destroy college basketball as we know it. Virtually every top 100 recruit would go overseas or play in the NBA D-League rather than sit out a year.
Frank Martin
The rebuilding process is taking its time at Sout🧔h Carolina. Martin led Kansas State to four NCAA Tournament berths in five years, but he’s already three seasons in with t🌠he Gamecocks and he’s done very little: Two losing seasons and a .500 record this season, second-to-last in the average-at-best SEC after South Carolina was embarrassed Saturday at No. 1 Kentucky, losing by 34 points.
Super 16
A prediction of the top four seeds in the NCAA Tournament (listed in order)
1. Kentucky, Wisconsin, Gonzaga, Duke
2. Villanova, Virginia, Arizona, Kansas
3. Northern Iowa, Utah, Iowa State, Wichita State
4. Baylor, Butler, Louisville, Notre Dame