As a general sports fan, I enjoy college basketball and the craziness that March Madness brings, along with no one knowing what is going to happen next. However, during the regular season, I would like to see some sort of consistency as far as the top teams playing like they are a top team. We as fans have not gotten that this year.
Preseason Hype
In every college sport you get the AP Preseason Top 25, and everyone has teams that people think are ranked too high or too low. This year seemed to miss on most of their preseason predictions, though. Sure, you can say the people who pick the Top 25 are stupid–which I have said many times–but in this case, I don’t blame them for missing so badly because no one anticipated this chaos. Here is a list of some of the noteworthy teams in the preseason and where they are now
- Arizona was #3 in the preseason, now ranked #14
- Kentucky was #5 in the preseason, now unranked
- Florida was #8 in the preseason, now unranked
- USC was #10 in the preseason, now unranked
- West Virginia was #11 in the preseason, now #21
- Miami was #13 in the preseason, now unranked
- Notre Dame was #14 in the preseason, now unranked
- Minnesota was #15 in the preseason, now unranked
- Louisville was #16 in the preseason, now unranked
So to sum up, three teams in the preseason top 10 are now unranked. To compare to the previous five seasons, only twice (2012 and 2014) did more than one team finish unranked after being a preseason Top 10. Add the fact that a large portion of the preseason teams ranked 11-16 have also not fared well either, even if some of them have struggled with injuries or scandal.
Top 10 Struggles
Being ranked in the Top 10 seems more like a punishment than a reward this year. Just in the month of February alone, there have been three Top 10 teams fall on the same day on four separate occasions.
Honestly, I don’t know what else to say about this. If you can somehow find a way to spin this as a good thing I will be impressed by your efforts but also laugh as well because it is simply not true.
Good teams are at a premium
Just going by losses alone, you can tell that being ranked anywhere from 11-25 doesn’t mean that much. Below is a list of the number of teams with three losses or less compared to previous years.
2017-2018: 3
2016-2017: 7
2015-2016: 2
2014-2015: 9
2013-2014: 8
2012-2013: 6
2011-2012: 4
2010-2011: 6
So outside of 2015, this has been the least amount of teams we have seen with three losses or less at this point of the season since the start of 2010. Again, not saying this means we are in a down year with this alone, but with all the other events that have been unfolding, it certainly blurs the line.
There is hope
With all the negativity in this article I will shine some light. There is one good thing from all the inconsistency we have seen this year. March Madness is sure to be absolutely insane. Last year was pretty vanilla as far as March Madness goes–only one game went into OT and one game had a buzzer beater for the win. Both were in the same game. Now, we can make up for the lack of excitement from last year. Teams who failed to live up to the hype will have a chip on their shoulder. Cinderella teams will no doubt try to take advantage of the down year and make some crazy upsets. If I can get a fun and exciting March, then all will be forgiven.
