He's got hair. And he's considerably more willing to adapt his scheme to fit his personnel. Loved GK but damn, that dude was rigid.
Rank your current top 10…
- Thread starter AuHoosier420
- Start date
Nope. Gene didn't reach the Sweet 16 until his 8th season. And Painter didn't inherit a team coming off a Final Four. He inherited a shit show.
GK also had three 1 seeds and only once reached the Elite Eight. He absolutely underachieved in the tournament. In aggregate, Painter's teams have played to their seed.
Last edited:
That’s a fair argument. I would correct you on the term shit show however. A shit show is a program that has missed the tournament for 15 straight seasons. A team that just had its point guard arrested for point shaving. A team that had every player from its two previous signing classes all gone within 6 months of arriving. Painter on the other hand did take over for a program and coach that won 6 conference titles.
Honestly, I think most people do a mix of best resumes combined with who we think the best teams are. If I'm looking at the 10 best resumes, mine might look something like this:
1. Baylor
2. Auburn
3. LSU
4. USC
5. Wisconsin
6. Gonzaga
7. Purdue
8. Kansas
9. Michigan State
10.Iowa State
Under consideration: Providence, Duke, UCLA, Arizona
Those resumes hardly reflect who the actual 10 best teams are, which I believe is what the polls should do. Obviously merit plays a part in it, but you also have to consider margin of victory and defeat (which is why Auburn never cracked the top 10 a few years back, even though they started out 22-2), eye test, metrics, how a team is progressing, injuries, etc.
I don't think LSU, or USC, or Wisconsin are top 5 teams. I could buy top 10, just feel like top 5 teams should be national title contenders, and I don't see any of those three as contenders. Also, I don't believe Iowa State is a top 10 team. Their offense simply isn't good enough.
If Providence wasn't blown out by Virginia and Marquette, they could possibly have a top 5 resume. They're 14-2, 4-1 in Quad games, and they have 4 really good wins - two on the road against Wisconsin and UConn, and two at home against Texas Tech and Seton Hall. Resume actually looks really good. Yet in spite of that, the highest they're ranked by any voter is 15th.
Am I overvaluing Kentucky? Perhaps. They've had some close losses, played really well in all the other games, and clearly have an abundance of talent.
Here is my question. If you replaced the Kentucky name on the jersey right now with say Georgia do you have that exact team and resume ranked in the top 10?
Well, he inherited a team that won 7 games the year prior and then he lost his two best players early in the season. That may be a lesser shit show but it's still a shit show IMO.
Very good question. If cal was the coach at uga and the had the recent success of uk and the same talented roster, sure. But last year also proved hes not infallible.
But ill give it to you, thats a very tough question to answer, and applies even moreso in football imo bc they only play 12 or so reg season games.
But much like Alabama in football, its alot easier to give teams like uk/duke/kansas and even gonzaga/baylor the benefit of the doubt bc more times than not they are FF contenders. (I know no one can compare to the run bama is on even with last nights loss)
It’ applies in basketball and football. Duke, Kansas, North Carolina, Kentucky always get the benefit of the doubt in the polls. Their histories dictate it. Just like Alabama, Ohio st. Oklahoma, etc. do in football.
You don't know me well enough if you think my default is to give the storied program the benefit of the doubt.
I was championing the 2020 Dayton squad all season long as a Final Four contender.
I've criticized all of the blue blood programs, multiple times. But, I'll also compliment the blue bloods, if I like what I see, even if it's UNC. I picked USC to beat Kansas in the 2021 tournament; also picked Auburn to beat KU in the 2019 tournament. Thought both KU teams were a little overvalued. I didn't rank Kentucky in my preseason top 10 last season, unlike the actual polls.
Ur absolutely right, but their recent success makes it alot easier to give them that benefit. I dont think historical success plays into it much, no one over values us/louisville, uconn, or indiana in the polls bc we/they have multiple titles in their history
Kentucky is in the same position, with the exception of scheduling, Cal hits with every new team. Inability to close out games. I think this team will do just fine barring no more bad luck with players like at LSU. We've been in all the games we've lost to the final minutes, and 2 of those we should have won. But we've gone through this so many years with Cal, its more of a norm. This team is more mature, even Washington as a frosh, than any team we've had. They learn quick overall pretty with a good basketball IQ. We're turning it over at lower rate than usual, definitely great assist and rebounding team as well as being one of the best conditioned teams in the country. We have the number 2 in the country in assists, number 1 in rebounds, and number 1 in scoring margin I believe. And we're 12th in defensive efficently.
So we've got the numbers so far trending to a good march run.
So we've got the numbers so far trending to a good march run.
Forget resumes. There is not seven teams ahead of this Auburn team on the eye-test alone.
Your responding to a poster that would take Chet holmgren in the draft over Jabari smith.
Honestly, I don't see a better team than Auburn out there. I make a point to watch west coast games. KU is good, AU is the team to beat. BFDB
As a neutral gator fan, I agree. This team may be the best team this century.
I just can’t help it. BRUCE is the best team in the conference, thus the nation.
Wow. When was the last time IU played in the big dance?
Painter's changed over the last 4-5 years. Purdue's style is much much different from the biginning of Painters career at Purdue. I think you're on a hot take here. Keady very rarely had teams this offensively capable. It's becoming more of a regular thing under Painter.
Yeah, it's a WW thing. For some reason everyone thinks LSU is the only one that pays for players. Now that NIL is in it's a done deal.
Have you actually looked at Auburn's schedule? Geeze.
Auburn beat little blind sisters of the poor.
Auburn has played a tougher schedule than Kentucky and we stroked a team by 15 that beat Kentucky. Cute little win by Uk today at home. Won’t be the same next Saturday
Tennessee has been offensively challenged all season. Tennessee also hasn’t beat Auburn in 6 years. Outside of that yes it was impressive
It was more impressive to me because Tennessee is great on defense usually and had a really good game on offense. They didn’t play bad at all. And Kentucky still blew them away
Kentucky did look impressive but this season Kentucky has looked totally different at home verses on the road
I didn't see much of it, but the numbers alone were impressive. Not sure what to make of Kentucky, other than they obviously have a lot of potential. But we knew there was plenty of talent there.
Top 10 should be:
1. Auburn
2. gonzaga
3. Arizona
4.Duke
5. Baylor
6. Wisconsin
7. Purdue
8. Kentucky
9. Ucla
10. Kansas
I've seen all of these teams play multiple times. I think your top 10 is about right. I'd probably tweak the order a little bit. But, it's close to what mine would look like. I think 9 of the teams listed could be considered title contenders. Don't know about Wisconsin. Guess it's hard to fault them, though, when they keep winning big-time contests.
Similar threads
