March Madness Hopefuls

It has been a season marked by upsets, a rotation of No. 1 teams and seemingly no clear-cut favorites moving forward. Over the past few weeks, we’ve started to get some separation at the top. 

The 1-seeds, as it stands, are fairly clear-cut: Baylor, Gonzaga, San Diego State and Kansas. Combined, those four teams have lost one game since the calendar turned to 2020, Kansas’ defeat to Baylor. They’re a combined 36-1 in that span.  

Baylor is the best team in the country, in my opinion, both in terms of the eye test and résumé. The Bears have fallen once all season, a three-point loss to Washington in Alaska in a game Baylor led for nearly its entirety. The Bears have a top-five defense and arguably the best perimeter group in the country. 

Gonzaga has also lost just once, at the Battle 4 Atlantis the day after Thanksgiving. The Bulldogs have run roughshod over the West Coast Conference, with only two games decided by single digits.  

San Diego State is the last unbeaten remaining in college basketball, and I think the Aztecs will enter the NCAA tournament without a loss. The Aztecs are one of the best defensive teams in the country and have a legitimate All-America candidate in Malachi Flynn.  

Then there’s Kansas, which has three losses — but is atop most metric-based rankings. There has been constant discussion about how there’s no dominant team in college basketball this season, but this Jayhawks’ adjusted efficiency margin would rank in the top three in all but two seasons in the KenPom era (since 2001-02). They would be considered the No. 1 team in a couple of those seasons, too. Kansas leads the nation in Quadrant 1 wins, too. 

For the Baylor Bears (No. 1), Freddie Gillespie is one of the best stories in college basketball. For those who are unfamiliar, Gillespie started his career at Division III Carleton College — and played just four games during his freshman season. Following his sophomore campaign, he transferred to Baylor and sat out as a walk-on before earning a scholarship for the 2018-19 season. Now, he’s averaging 10.1 points, 9.3 rebounds and 2.4 blocks and has been terrific over his past seven games. During that stretch, Gillespie is averaging 12.7 points, 8.9 rebounds and 2.6 blocks — while shooting 64.3% from the field. 

Gonzaga’s (No. 2) past two games — at Santa Clara and at San Francisco — were two of the Bulldogs’ worst offensive outings in several weeks. Not surprisingly, one of them came when Killian Tillie played only nine minutes and the other came with Tillie sidelined. There’s no definitive timetable for Tillie’s return, but the Zags need him healthy for the NCAA tournament.  

Meanwhile, last week was supposed to be one of the San Diego State (No. 3) Aztecs’ tougher weeks remaining in the regular season: a road trip to The Pit, where New Mexico hadn’t lost all season, and a home date with Utah State, the second-best team in the Mountain West. The trip to Albuquerque was a cakewalk, with San Diego State rolling by 28. But Utah State did test the Aztecs. The Aggies went on a 19-3 run late in the first half and stayed in the game until a scoring drought in the final 10 minutes.  

And with the Kansas Jayhawks (No. 4) season entering its final regular-season month and discussions for the Wooden Award, Coach of the Year, Freshman of the Year, etc., heating up, I thought we should take a look at Devon Dotson’s candidacy to at least be in the discussion for the Wooden Award. He has certainly struggled in Kansas’ three losses, averaging 13.7 points, 3.3 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 3.7 turnovers and shooting 38.9% from the field. But Dotson has also come up big in some of the Jayhawks’ biggest wins, including 21 points Saturday against Texas Tech and 31 points against Dayton back in November.  
 

Hello, I’m Seth Marceau and a senior here at Southern. I am studying Journalism with a cognate in Sport’s Management. I have played sports for most of my life and follow most sports very passionately. My favorite sports are Football and Basketball and my favorite teams are the New York Giants and the Indiana Pacers. My favorite players are Saquon Barkley and Victor Oladipo. I love these players because they constantly give back to their communities and are very talented. Barkley is the future for the Giants and shows promise in helping them retain a winning season once again. Oladipo was traded to the Pacers in 2017 and took over superstar Paul George’s regime by making the All-Star team and was Most Improved Player that year.