Kansas is No. 1 in Monday morning’s up to date CBS Sports activities High 25 And 1 every day faculty basketball rankings for the twenty ninth consecutive day to start out this season, which is outwardly complicated for some on condition that I noted on Friday’s Eye On College Basketball Podcast that Auburn at present has the game’s greatest physique of labor.
“Then why do you have got Kansas No. 1?”
Honest query.
Let me clarify: I’ve had Kansas No. 1 within the High 25 And 1 since April 19 — proper after the Jayhawks added Wisconsin switch AJ Storr to the roster. I saved them there all through the whole remainder of the preseason. And, 4 weeks into this season, KU has merely given me no motive to drop them from the highest spot whereas beginning 7-0 with victories over Duke, Michigan State and North Carolina.
“However I believed you mentioned Auburn has the game’s greatest resume?”
I did!
Now let me inform you how I can say that and do this, please: Sooner or later, we’ll attain a day within the season when all the nice groups could have good wins and a loss or two, and that is after I’ll flip to rating faculties largely based mostly on little greater than their our bodies of labor in an try to duplicate how the choice committee may be viewing issues on any given morning.
However we’re not there but.
My quickest rationalization is that if I believe, or anyone else thinks, a college is coming into the season as the game’s greatest group, there is no nice motive to maneuver off of that opinion till one thing occurs that compels you to take action. And, by way of the primary 4 weeks of this season, nothing has compelled me to maneuver undefeated Kansas from No. 1 — and I write that with an immense quantity of respect for what Auburn has completed whereas additionally beginning 7-0 with wins over Houston, Iowa State, Memphis and North Carolina. It is simply that the group I believed can be one of the best since April can be nonetheless undefeated.
So Bruce Pearl’s Tigers stay No. 2 within the High 25 And 1.
And if that rationalization would not make sense to you, do that one: The Celtics are the favourite to win the NBA title at +230, in accordance with FanDuel Sportsbook. So, for the sake of this dialog, let’s name Boston the NBA’s greatest group. Now think about if Boston obtained dropped into faculty basketball for some motive. For sure, I’d’ve ranked the Celtics No. 1 within the High 25 And 1 heading into the season, principally as a result of I simply assume faculty wings would actually battle with Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. Now think about if the Celtics opened the season with the identical first seven video games as Kansas and gained all of them by the identical margins.
You understand what that might imply?
It will imply that the Auburn Tigers, proper now, would have a greater physique of labor than the Boston Celtics based mostly on the primary seven video games that every group has performed — however would anyone query why, below these hypothetical circumstances, I would preserve Boston forward of Auburn?
After all not.
And that is all I am doing right here.
To be clear, no, I am not evaluating the Kansas Jayhawks to the Boston Celtics. That is foolish, clearly. All I am doing is emphasizing that, one month into this season, it is not a contradiction to acknowledge Auburn has the game’s greatest resume whereas standing by a perception that the also-undefeated group I believed can be the game’s greatest group — on this case, Kansas — remains to be the game’s greatest group.
(In case you do not perceive that, keep confused. I hand over.)
The excellent news is that this may all work itself out in time — maybe as early as Wednesday when each Kansas and Auburn play theoretical powerful street video games. The Jayhawks are at Creighton. The Tigers are at Duke. If considered one of them wins whereas the opposite loses, this Kansas-Auburn mini-debate will stop to exist. And if each occur to lose, which is certainly doable, then we’ll have a extremely fascinating dialogue Thursday morning about who ought to be No. 1.
High 25 And 1 rankings
