Takeaways from Feast Week

With college basketball's Feast Week wrapping up, here are my thoughts and opinions from the best teams and players that played this past week. I will be focusing on the top teams and most impactful games of the week, hitting major points that affect rankings and how teams will rise and fall throughout the remainder of the year.

Let's start on Monday when the first of many tournaments started. The first of the games was #8 Auburn vs Xavier. What I learned from this game is that the two guards for Auburn in Jared Harper and Bryce Brown makeup one of the most dynamic and efficient backcourts I've seen so far this year. Their ability to create their own shots and score from almost anywhere on the court, despite their size, is a huge plus to Auburn's offense. They won 2 out of 3 games in their tournament,losing to top ranked Duke by 6 on Tuesday and beating an unranked Arizona team by 16 Wednesday. With all that in mind, I'm still not sold on them staying in the top 10 for the remainder of the year.

Next, I want to take a look at this star-studded Duke team full of freshman. After smashing UK during the Champions Classic at the beginning of the season, they haven't really been tested until this past week. Cruising past a decent SDSU team, then playing #8 Auburn on Monday (which I just talked about previously, so I won't spend much time on it), they looked pretty good, but not as good as everyone is making them out to be. They had trouble on the defensive end stopping the dynamic duo in Auburn's backcourt, and were pretty well matched in transition, which made for an offensive game between the two. Wednesday was by far their toughest challenge yet when they played third ranked Gonzaga, led by rising star Rui Hachimura. It came down to the last second, but I believe in the end they were lacking the experience to take care of business and win the game. Being from Kentucky, I think this Duke team highly resembles most UK teams in the past years: young and highly talented, but the majority of their freshman will be gone after their required year in college. Do I think they will stay in the top 10 all season? Yes, more likely than not. Will they be good enough come March to win the national championship? Honestly, no, but we'll see.

Next on the list, #7 UNC. For starters, coming into Feast Week, UNC had beat nobody worth mentioning. Undefeated? Yes. Challenging? Not even close. So there wasn't much to go on besides the two games they played last week. First up, Texas. An unranked Texas team facing #7 UNC who looked good on paper was probably UNC favored for everyone except Texas fans. However, Texas gave UNC a wake up call. Specifically, Kerwin Roach gave UNC a wake up call, scoring 32 points, a career-high. Second game of the week was vs #17 UCLA, who got beat by 20 by 11th ranked Michigan State. UNC beat UCLA by 16, so I'm not sure whether to say UNC learned from their mistakes and rebounded with a solid win, or if UCLA is just underperforming early in the season. I think with the experience and talent of UNC, they will not fall out of the rankings at any point this season and will probably make it to the second weekend of the NCAA tournament. As for now, they need to get ready for conference play or they could be in some serious trouble.

Another team that has been performing pretty well is #11 Michigan State. After losing by 5 to Kansas the first game of the season, they have coasted up until this point, as most teams have done. Their first game vs #17 UCLA was not very close for the majority of the game, ending up with a 20 point win. Their next game was against a surging Texas team who had just upset #7 UNC. As much as I would've liked to see MSU vs UNC, this game was very exciting to watch. From a 19 point deficit early in the first half, Michigan State came back to beat Texas, relying on their size and experience to get it done. Led by Joshua Langford and Cassius Winston, who combined for 49 of their 78 points, MSU made the second half count with the comeback win by 10. Although UCLA looked shaky at best and a rising Texas team upset a top 10 UNC, I think Michigan State will be in the top 10 for the majority of the season and will be a solid contender to win the championship.

The last team that performed well this past week I'm going to discuss is second ranked Kansas. After beating a solid Michigan State team at the beginning of the season, they started their week playing Marquette. Marquette wasn't much of a challenge, beating them by 9, but their second game versus #5 Tennessee was the definition of a challenge. It was close the whole game with both teams in foul trouble and star center Udoka Azubuike fouling out with about 6 or 7 minutes still left on the clock. It took 5 minutes of extra time for Kansas to finally come out with the win. LaGerald Vick came up big in their win, only scoring 15 points, but most of them coming in crunch time to keep Tennessee from pulling away late in the game. So far, they look like one of the top contenders to win the national championship in May.

One team that I think is hard to get a good read on, and that probably won't change all season, is Nevada. Now, when I hear or think of Nevada basketball, I don't think powerhouse. I don't think top team in the country. I don't think contender in the national championship. But maybe I should start thinking that because they are ranked 6th in the country. Personally, I'm baffled and confused immensely by their ranking. They are above elite programs such as UNC, UK, Michigan, and Michigan State. I haven't watched them play all season, or really at all that I can remember, so maybe I'm missing something. However, looking at their schedule, their recruiting class,and their performance last season, nothing demands them to be a top 10 team. With only one ESPN 100 recruit coming into the season and absolutely ZERO ranked opponents on their schedule, in a weak conference, I just don't understand their ranking as #6. Top 25, sure. Top 15, I can live with it. But looking at how competitive this season is becoming already, before December, I don't think their top 10 rank is justifiable.

Teams to be on the lookout for: Texas, UNC, Kansas, Gonzaga, Michigan State, Virginia, Auburn, Tennessee, Michigan, and Florida State.

Teams to be concerned about: Duke, UK, Mississippi State, UCLA, Villanova, Wisconsin, and Louisville.

My top 10:

1. Kansas

2.Gonzaga

3. Virginia

4. Duke

5. Michigan

6. Auburn

7.. Tennessee

8. Michigan State

9. UK

10. UNC