Pitchin with Pritch: College blue bloods struggling
Some of the Blue Bloods of College basketball are struggling somewhat during this not- so-normal year.
Duke, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Kansas might all be facing a year where they don’t make the field in the NCAA Tournament.
It would appear that this is just another odd happening that started in 2020 and is being carried over into 2021.
But it is February now and time to pay attention to what might be happening in big-time college basketball.
The season is being complicated by some of the same things the football season had to endure—dozens of postponed or canceled games and having some teams just disappear from playing for long stretches of time.
I read somewhere that some teams have played 19 games where American University has played four. Rhode Island has played 11 Atlantic-10 conference games and Saint Louis has played one.
Some of the sports writers have been honestly to the point of brutal with statements like Michigan State is awful and Kentucky is worse.
Kansas lost three conference games in a row and finally won over TCU to keep from losing four in a row, which a KU team hadn’t done in the last 32 years.
Kentucky has struggled all year long and their poor shooting and their tendency to turn the ball over way too much has them in danger of posting a losing season for the first time since 1988-89.
Michigan State had a comeback from a 20-day absence because of COVID-19 and was promptly slapped upside the head with a 67-37 loss to Rutgers, a team that had never beaten the Spartans.
North Carolina looks like a team that might be getting better as they have won six of their last seven to move up to the top four in the ACC, but there are many difficult games yet on the schedule.
KU looked as if they were making a move and then they went to Tennessee and as bad as hate to say it, were never in the game and I went to sleep in the second half.
Riveting game to say the least-No!
So, if this many Blue Bloods are stinking up the courts, who has the good teams?
That is pretty easy also—Gonzaga and Baylor.
These two teams have played with the most consistency, better shooting and good enough defense to go undefeated until this article.
Gonzaga is 17-0 and Baylor is 16-0 as I am putting this together.
In my opinion, Gonzaga is the best team in the nation at this point. They are the best offensive team in the NCAA. They are currently shooting 64% from two-point land and they hit an unbelievable 28/34 in their game against Pepperdine.
How will they handle the pressure when it gets down to win or go home time is yet to be seen. Gonzaga has been a pretty good program for a number of years now and they may just get it done this year. Baylor is a tough team mentally.
One weakness might be when the best 5 are on the floor, the team is short, height-wise and have a tendency to give up a lot of offensive rebounds.
A lot of basketball left at this level, but March Madness isn’t that far away, and it is the best time of the year in the sports world. Again, just my opinion!