Kansas basketball being first in the AP Poll doesn’t matter
In the latest AP Poll, Kansas basketball was named the number one team in the country. Here’s why that doesn’t matter.
College basketball has been wild this season. In the past week alone, four out of the top five teams lost, and #1 teams have been going down left and right. Now, Kansas basketball is in possession of the “cursed” ranking.
Here’s the thing though, this isn’t football and curses aren’t real.
The rankings don’t really matter in basketball, especially this early in the season. Rather than looking at the poll as an order of best teams in the country, it’s more appropriate to look at it as an indicator of current success.
Kansas basketball is on a nine-game win streak, and while they’ve improved, nothing drastic has changed with this team since they started the streak. Could they have been number one in the nation at multiple times during this current winning streak? Probably, but it’s more about having the right combination of teams lose than it is about getting an impressive win.
Kansas was the only top-five team not to lose this week, so naturally, Kansas becomes the logical choice to become first. But what about Duke or Gonzaga? Could Kansas beat them on a neutral court right now?
Those games would probably be 50/50, which only leads to the fact that the polls just don’t really matter right now. Any of the top ten teams can beat each other any time, anywhere because there aren’t any clear frontrunners this season.
So while it’s cool to be the number one team in the land, it should be taken with a grain of salt. There’s a lot of basketball to be played this season, and the Jayhawks don’t have any more “easy” games this season.
KU HOOPS. Top ten Jayhawks of the decade. light
From now on, Kansas basketball’s opponents come exclusively from top-tier conferences. There’s not an easy game on the Jayhawks’ schedule the rest of the season, and it’ll be telling on just how good this team really is.
Kansas will get their next big test this Saturday on the road against #18 Villanova. The game is scheduled for 11 AM (CT) and set to be broadcast on FOX.