NCAA Basketball Roundtable: Is Villanova still the best team in Big East?

5. Which team is currently the biggest mystery to you and why?

Mauro

I have a couple but the team that has been the biggest mystery to me this year is Minnesota.  The Gophers have had a great start to the year but they are confusing just based on they don’t have the greatest talent in the world and they have zero depth and eventually, you would think they would fade.  Head coach Ben Johnson has done a fantastic job as the coach this year and has Minnesota playing with confidence. Hopefully, for the Gophers they can continue to play that way.

Burgess

One of the biggest mysteries for me so far is Minnesota. They were supposed to be really bad, but they haven’t been so far. I will be interested to see if they are a product of their schedule and catching Michigan at a good time, or is Ben Johnson building something a lot faster than anyone thought?

Melton

LSU. The Tigers are one of the few unbeatens left, but the quality of opponents hasn’t necessarily been the same as other Top 25 teams. LSU has potential, and we will see just how good they can be as six of their first seven SEC games come against ranked teams.

Heiser

I have zero clue what to make of LSU right now. The Tigers are undefeated, which is cool, but who have they played? Every performance metrics site you can find loves what they have done up to this point, but I’m not convinced they are for real. Their best win came against Wake Forest.

Obviously, you can only play the teams scheduled, but I am still quite confused. Are they really a top-20 side in the country? The Dec. 29 matchup against Auburn will answer a lot of questions.

Zacher

In the plethora of surprising and disappointing teams, I’m still trying to figure out if Iowa State’s undefeated start is just a fluke, or if the Cyclones are actually legit.  13.3% of their scoring returned from a team that won two games last season, and the Cyclones have a new head coach who was just average in two seasons at UNLV… and they’re now one of the best defensive teams in the country and are geared to eventually jump into the top 10.  That’s insane.

But I think the biggest question mark, for me, may be Texas Tech.  Mark Adams is doing an insanely great job in his first season at the helm, but the Red Raiders’ first six wins weren’t really over marquee teams.  Then they lost at Providence – a really good ball club – by four, but proceeded to take down Tennessee in one of the ugliest overtime games in the history of the game.

Texas Tech ranks in the top 40 in offensive and defensive efficiency, per KenPom – but I’m also someone who isn’t necessarily high on Tennessee, so it’s difficult for me to gauge how legitimate Texas Tech truly is.  December 18th’s duel against Gonzaga will be huge, and I think the Red Raiders have a legitimate chance to knock the Zags off.