This has been a spectacular men's college basketball season. Generally, the players are better and more skilled than ever, and the schemes coaches are running are very creative and interesting. Overall, the game is in a good place. Could it be better? Absolutely, and we will get to some suggestions shortly. However, it is worth stating and celebrating that overall, things are good.
How good? The SEC is having a historically great season and stacks up as arguably the most powerful conference, top to bottom and relative to the field, that has ever been. That is not to say that Duke, Houston, Iowa State or some other team can't emerge as the best team and win the national championship, or that the Final Four and Elite Eight will be made up of only SEC teams. Nobody is saying that, and stating that the SEC is the best league (which it is) does not imply that every other league sucks. They do not.
We have seen spectacular performances and moments this season, both team and individual. Michigan State's Tom Izzo just passed former Indiana coach Bob Knight to become the Big Ten's all-time winningest coach. Izzo is a treasure of this game, as treasured a person as he is a winner and coach. Gonzaga leads the nation in assists at 20 per game and just set a record with 33 in a game. Zags point guard Ryan Nembhard is the nation's top dime-dropper, averaging 10 assists. Villanova's lefty big man Eric Dixon leads the nation in scoring, and Auburn's Johni Broome, Duke's Cooper Flagg and UAB's Yaxel Lendeborg each lead their respective teams in scoring, rebounding, assists and blocks. Broome and Flagg appear to be in a two-man race for national player of the year, and both play on title-contending teams. Rick Pitino has St. John's back in the national spotlight. Pat Kelsey has Louisville back in the AP Top 25, winning more games than the Cardinals won in the previous two seasons combined.
How can the game be better? By changing some of its archaic rules. First, men's college basketball needs to go to four 10-minute quarters. Right now, this is the only level of basketball in the entire world that does not have quarters. Should the men's college game finally join the rest of the world and go to quarters, team fouls will reset after the first and third quarters. That will result in fewer free throw attempts on common fouls.
Second, and perhaps most importantly, the rules committee needs to scrap the video replay rules altogether. Replay, as predicted by former Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany, is out of control and has become like kudzu -- an invasive, creeping weed. Replay reviews are too many and take too long, and they are unnecessary. Of course, we all want to get things right, but the ridiculous number of reviews are, quite frankly, a joke that ruin the flow of games both inside the arena and on television. The solution is simple: As done in the NBA, each coach should be allowed one challenge of an official's call. If that challenge is successful, the coach keeps that challenge (for a maximum of two challenges per game). If the first challenge is unsuccessful, there is no second challenge. In the men's college game, we live with officials' calls for 38 minutes, yet subject the teams and fans to seemingly endless scrutinizing of plays in the final two as if they were the Zapruder film. It is damaging to the game. There are so many ridiculous late reviews that timeouts are irrelevant. With a challenge system, gone will be the days where we review every goaltending or basket interference call (which are made just to be able to review them) and every late-game out-of-bounds call. Get off your collective backsides, rules committee, and do the right thing.
As the NCAA tournament approaches, many will focus upon the intensely formulaic assessment of teams by the selection committee and those that predict their obvious outcomes. Instead, it seems more useful and rational to focus on the play, strengths and weaknesses of these teams heading into Champ Week. Here is the definitive and unimpeachable ranking of the best teams across the men's college basketball landscape. As always, you're welcome.
1. Auburn Tigers
In beating Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Bruce Pearl became the first coach to win an AP No. 1 vs. No. 2 game with two different teams. And, he has a team now that can beat anybody and win the whole thing. Auburn has Johni Broome, but it also boasts a very strong and productive bench and a quartet of guards who can all shoot it from deep and knock down free throws. Denver Jones is one of the best on-ball defenders in the country, and did a fabulous job on Alabama's Mark Sears. Auburn is not only No. 1, it is the best team in the nation right now, and has played a hellacious schedule. This team is battle-tested.