NCAA Basketball: 10 biggest takeaways from opening week of 2021-22 season

Only Syracuse can stop Gonzaga

There may be a hint of hyperbole in that headline, but it is to make a point. The point is not that Syracuse is good enough to beat the Gonzaga Bulldogs but to state, the only way to beat Gonzaga will be to play zone and there is no team with a better zone than a Jim Boeheim-coached team. In order to establish just how good Gonzaga is, it has to be stated that on Saturday Night, Texas never had a chance to win and that is not hyperbole.

This is not to say that Gonzaga is twelve points better than every team ranked worse than the No. 5 Texas was at. Basketball is all about match-ups and Texas is unable to match up versus Gonzaga. The same, however, can be said about almost every top 5 team to some degree in the Busting Brackets latest top-25 power rankings.

For No.2 UCLA even if Cody Riley was not injured, it would be difficult for Coach Cronin to play Riley alongside Myles Johnson in order to match up with Drew Timme and Chet Holmgren. If Coach Cronin were to do that, he would miss out on the scoring of Jaime Jaquez or the all-around contributions of Jules Bernard.

The Kansas Jayhawks at No. 3 have David McCormack to guard a post player but becomes vulnerable to the dribble drive the further he gets from the basket and then the question is how successful can Jalen Wilson be.

Hunter Dickinson is not great at defending the perimeter and Brandon Johns gives up some height at 6’8 but has the size at 240 pounds. The Duke Blue Devils might be the team that can match up with Gonzaga the best with Malik Williams on the inside and Paolo Banchero.

Teams will either half to sit back in a zone to double team all post entry passes and hope the Bulldogs continue to shoot under 33 percent from beyond the arc. Or, a team needs an almost seven-footer who is talented enough offensively that Holmgren has to sub out for a better perimeter defender.