pre feast week burner rankings
welcome back to the burner blog. i am just a normal guy who watches a ton of sports, and i have a lot of takes and just looking for a place to let those takes get out there. i am not going to use capital letters so if you don’t like that i do not care.
one of the most glorious weeks of the year is upon us.
feast week.
college basketball sickos (me) live for this week.
it’s also time for me to update my rankings. i understand why they update the ap poll every week. i really do. people need things to talk about and the media needs to feel like they make a difference.
to me, it’s a bit ridiculous to move a team up or down based on one or two games. we know in college basketball that the best team in the country is going to lose at some point. why would we automatically drop them down when they do? they lost a game. so what. it happens.
which is why last year, even after losses, i kept the baby blue devils at the top. i still think they were the best team in the sport as i sit here and type this. the best team doesn’t always win the national championship in men’s college basketball. it’s a really hard tournament to win!
here are the updated burner top 10 as we head into feast week.
- houston (preseason — 2)
‘burner, how?’
because i’m terrified of this team. they truly haven’t looked all that great. they barely won a sloppy game against a not awesome auburn team which is what everyone will point to.
but how great can this team be? national champion great. kelvin’s teams usually have a lot more roster/minute continuity coming into the season. i think that’s why they haven’t put it all together yet. not only that, but some of the new guys are freshmen. it’s been pretty hard to get on the court early on for houston over the last handful of years. this freshman class they have looks every bit of legit.
i really can’t believe we let kelvin sampson get a couple of lottery picks in one recruiting class. he did it right in front of our eyes too. why didn’t all of the other teams in the country band together and stop that from happening?
we’ve all seen what kelvin can do with under recruited guys. now he gets these guys? i’m truly terrified.
2. duke (preseason — 4)
jon scheyer is really good at his job as i’ve said before. he did it again. he built a true contender. i really like this team on the defensive end. they’re an absolutely huge team again, just like they were last year. they have positional size/length everywhere and have plenty of post depth to run out there and eat fouls. their defensive floor will make them a very consistent team all year. they will be able to rely on cam boozer as a playmaker for them on most nights, but i would love to see more out of their guards in that area. if i had a knock on them, that would be it. i don’t necessarily think they NEED that to be a true contender. luckily for them, cam boozer plays like a veteran and can carry the load.
3. arizona (preseason — honorable mention)
they have the best ‘resume’ in the country to this point. i think talking about ‘resume’ at this point in the season is completely asinine, because we don’t even know if those wins will carry any actual weight once we get to march. but i do have to give credit where it’s due. not only do they have a few seemingly impressive wins early this season, they look like a roster that will compete for it all.
they have elite guard play, shooters all over the place and we already know who they have in that front court. you need obvious nba talent to win the national championship, and the wildcats check the boxes.
also, anyone that will try and say ‘tommy lloyd is a choker! he can’t win the big one!’ — i only have two words for you — shut up.
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tommy lloyd has done nothing but win in his four (4) years as a head coach. do you all remember how long it took guys like roy williams and jay wright to break through? probably not, because it doesn’t fit your narrative.
4. purdue (preseason — 1)
they haven’t necessarily done anything wrong to drop 3 spots from the preseason. it’s not anything personal. i just like those teams more.
do i worry about the lack of nba talent on purdue’s roster that i have mentioned many times? yes. but i still think this team is going to be really really really good. offensively they won’t struggle all that often. braden smith? still himself. trey kaufman-renn? still himself. fletcher loyer (elite role player)? still himself. i also like the improvements i’ve seen from c.j. cox and omer mayer. in the exhibition game, mayer looked like he wasn’t ready. now he looks like someone they will be able to count on. they do need to improve on the defensive end, but so do a lot of teams this early in the season.
5. uconn (preseason — 6)
my biggest question for them: who is the guy? is it going to be solo ball? is it going to be silas demary? is it going to be alex karaban? once they find that out, we will know a lot more. i was really impressed with how easily they dominated a shorthanded byu (until the end). even though they lost, i thought there were plenty of positives to take away from the arizona game. they aren’t whole right now and once they are, they will run away with the (shitty) big east. dan hurley still raises the ceiling of any team he coaches.
6. byu (preseason — 3)
i am banking on the duo of a.j. dybantsa and richie saunders making them an elite team. that duo is as good as there is in the country. i also do believe in kevin young as a coach. i was technically higher on them in the preseason than i am right now, but as i mentioned with purdue, that has more to do with the other teams climbing than it does with me disliking byu. dybantsa nearly single-handedly brought them back against uconn with both keita and kennard davis out. i am definitely #monitoring the kennard davis situation as well. that will definitely impact the ceiling of this team.
7. florida (preseason — 8)
the frontcourt is going to carry them to plenty of wins and plenty of consistency. but if they’re going to raise their ceiling to repeating as national champions, they’re going to need to see HUGE jumps from xavian lee. they have some big time early december matchups against uconn and duke, all eyes will be on xavian lee.
8. louisville (preseason — 10)
i was high on them way back when they got their guys in the portal, and i will continue to be high on them because of the guard play. if we know anything, it’s that guards win in march. these louisville guards are for real. i will be curious to see how they look when shots aren’t falling. can the frontcourt pick up the slack? that was sort of the case against cincinnati but nothing fell for them either. pat kelsey is doing a good job getting louisville back in the mix!
9. illinois (preseason — honorable mention)
they looked so stinky against alabama. i really wanted to rank them higher but i simply couldn’t after i watched them get absolutely dismantled by nate oats in the second half (good coach). i still believe in brad underwood and the fighting illini! i had them on my radar going into the season and i see the vision. i can see it. illinois is talented enough to be a true contender. they have it all. we just have to not repeat that second half of the bama game.
10. gonzaga (preseason — unranked)
i want to personally apologize to mark few for not even having them in my honorable mentions before the season. that is on me. do you like experience? if the answer is yes, you’ll love gonzaga this season. they have a few opportunities to announce their presence with authority over the next few weeks. then they will do what they usually do and run away with their conference (probably zero losses).
honorable mentions:
alabama — nate oats forced me to do it. i didn’t believe in them and i still won’t believe in the frontcourt. but you have to believe in labaron philon. that kid is special.
michigan — they haven’t played as well as i expected them to but they’re still an extremely high ceiling team. i wish their non conference schedule was a little tougher, but i think dusty will have them in the mix at the top of the big ten still (2nd best league).
kentucky — yes, i’m serious. they look like an absolute mess right now (lost two games to two good teams). mark pope probably hasn’t slept in weeks. i’m still not selling them (yet). last year pope did pretty well with a worse roster. once they get healthy (if they get healthy) and if he can push the right buttons, they’ll be able to compete at the highest level. it also could completely implode and force mark pope into a psychiatric ward, but i’m not giving up on them yet!
happy feast week to all and thank you for reading this edition of the #burnerrankings.
