NCAA Basketball: Top 25 team backcourts for 2021-22 season
By Ian Mumm
As much fun as it was to witness frontcourt players like Gonzaga’s Drew Timme, Iowa’s Luka Garza and USC’s Evan Mobley dominate the game, the 2020-21 NCAA Basketball season again confirmed college basketball is run by guards.
The NCAA Basketball national title matchup between eventual winner Baylor and Gonzaga was heavily controlled by the play of the backcourts and many of those players were selected highly in this year’s recent NBA Draft.
It only takes a short glance towards the NBA ranks to verify that the game has changed in favor of perimeter shooting further and further away from the basket increasing the responsibility and impact of guards to win games.
Related Story. Top 25 team frontcourts for 2021-22 season. light
There won’t be a shortage of frontcourt stars again this season with Timme and his new Gonzaga teammate Chet Holmgren, Illinois big man Kofi Cockburn and Purdue’s Trevion Williams set to tear the rims off backboards.
However, these players are much harder to come across in the national landscape, and guards are counted on in every conference to control the flow of the game. In fact, many projections surrounding national title contenders relate to the status of revamped backcourts this season.
Can Villanova make a tournament run with floor general Collin Gillespie back for another season? How much will Kansas and Texas rebound after revitalizing their stable of guards? Can blue-bloods Duke, Kentucky, and North Carolina find success after faltering last season with shaky guard play? Here’s a look at the 25 best backcourts in the nation.