NCAA Basketball: Gonzaga exposed, DePaul unbeaten among key takeaways
Teams that can win a title
As AP Poll ranked teams fall to unranked teams and the AP Poll becomes less of an authority and more of a suggestion, the idea of any team winning a National title enters the realm of possibility. With Duke defeating Gonzaga and Gonzaga defeating Texas and UCLA and with UCLA defeating Villanova while Kansas, Memphis, and Alabama having lost to unranked teams when, you add Purdue and Baylor into the mix – who have yet to falter – there are a number of teams in the top-10 that can win a national title. The question remains, why limit ourselves to the top-10?
As week 4 is ushered in, the top teams are Duke, Gonzaga, Purdue, Baylor, and Kansas, the AP Poll will have them in a different order and with UCLA, but that is beside the point. When week 3 ends there is no point in discussing a team unless they can compete with Gonzaga and Duke and two teams outside of the top-10 that can, are Michigan and Arizona.
Michigan was the preseason favorite to win the Big Ten and a week 1 AP top-5 team, losses to Seton Hall and Arizona have the Wolverines as the week 3 No.20 ranked team. Regardless of those losses, the Wolverines have the roster to compete with Chet Holmgren and Drew Timme, Paulo Banchero and Mark Williams, or Zach Edey and Trevion Williams.
Hunter Dickenson and Moussa Diabate may not play together, but that is only because they have not had to, those two, however, can go up against the frontcourt tandems of Gonzaga and Duke while having the all-around size to spare in Caleb Houston and Brandon Johns.
Another team that is currently – but not for long – outside the top -10 that can compete with the best in the nation are the Arizona Wildcats. It begins in the frontcourt as well, with defensive specialist 7’1 Christian Koloko and 6’11 Azuolas Tubelis along with Gonzaga transfer 7’0 Oumar Ballo coming off the bench. Then of course when you have Kerr Kriisa and Dalen Terry in the backcourt with Benedict Mathurin rounding out the starting line-up, it will not be long until the Arizona Wildcats no longer qualify as a team outside the top-10.