NCAA Basketball: Winthrop, Kansas and Pittsburgh lead this week’s Mailbag

1. My take away from this week’s AP poll is, hasn’t any pollster watched Drake or Winthrop?  To think those two teams aren’t top 25 caliber is maddening to me.  Thoughts?– Matt Brown (@bracketbluster)

There are currently five undefeated teams in college basketball this season and four of the five have over 10 wins.  Gonzaga, Baylor, Winthrop, and Drake are those four teams and two of them in Winthrop and Drake are not ranked and likely one of them should be.  The Winthrop Eagles and the Drake Bulldogs are both good but one team has more of a case to be ranked than the other

There is a growing social media movement currently to rank Winthrop and at this point, there really is no excuse for why they are not ranked. The Eagles currently have the longest winning streak in the country at 20 games which dates back to last season.

Winthrop also has the nation’s career triple-double leader and current NCAA assist leader in Chandler Vaudrin and they are extremely deep and play 11 guys every single night.  Winthrop has been dominating their competition and as I mentioned in the mailbag last week they are likely to go undefeated heading into Selection Sunday.

Drake is playing really well and they are extremely well-coached. Head coach Darien DeVries has his Bulldogs sporting one of the best offenses at 84 points per game and best defenses only allowing 60   points per game, in the country right now.  The major difference between Drake and Winthrop is the conference Drake plays in.

The Missouri Valley Conference is tough at the top and while I want to say Drake should be ranked right now, the Bulldogs have not beaten anyone of note.  They do have a big showdown with Loyola-Chicago this weekend and if they can get through those games still undefeated then I will be the first to start the rank Drake movement.

So if these teams are some of the only undefeated in the country then why are they not ranked?  Well, to be honest, the AP voters are going to look at the conference the teams play in and decide that the Big South and the Missouri Valley are not good enough conferences to have any teams ranked.

The rankings should obviously be based on your overall season and how you fare against everyone else but the individuals ranking the teams are never going to see it that way.  They see names and conferences and don’t care about much else.  How else could they justify leaving Duke in the rankings this year for as long as they did?

The other reason these teams are not ranked is the lack of quality opponents.  The Big South is not going to provide Winthrop with much of a challenge at all and they should roll through the conference and tournament undefeated.  I can say with certainty that the big schools in their area know how good the Eagles are and wanted and want nothing to do with them.  Teams in the NCAA tournament will soon find out.  Winthrop did destroy Furman earlier this year and that will be their best win all season.

Drake on the other hand is a more interesting case as the Missouri Valley offers more in the way of competition with Loyola-Chicago and Bradley.  Drake also did beat a bad Kansas State team who should elevate their resume because of their conference affiliation.  If the Bulldogs can sweep the two-game set against Loyola then let’s go ahead and rank them.  Just remember if either of these teams doesn’t win their conference tournament regardless of the number of losses they will be NIT bound.

Patience everyone as rankings don’t matter these teams are both good enough to do a lot of damage in March and if they get there just sit back and enjoy the ride.  Each one of these schools would trade a second weekend run over being ranked any day.