Dom's CBB Top 25 (1/19/21)

Team That Is Going To Win The National Championship
I'm convinced this is one of the best college basketball teams of the past decade.  Gonzaga has a top three coach in the sport (Mark Few), multiple NBA Draft lottery picks (Jalen Suggs and Corey Kispert), and the best backup point guard in the country (Andrew Nembhard).  Zags are one of the taller teams in the country with good length all over the floor, including Drew Timme down low who can score efficiently and rim protect.  The play extremely fast and want to boat race every team to 85+ points.  Even the slowest tempo team in the country, Virginia, could not control the pace of the game as they let the Zags score 98 on them - nearly double the 50 points Virginia just held Clemson to this weekend.
1. Gonzaga

National Championship Contenders
The only other team I can realistically see winning it all is Baylor, who just took care of Kansas at home last night rather easily.  Baylor is top five (out of 347 active Div I teams) in a number of statistical categories including 3-point percentage, offensive rebounding percentage, and opponent turnover percentage.  They have elite offense and elite defense.  They have experience.  However, they do lack size and may be a bit too dependent on 3-point shots. I'm not 100% convinced they have the coach either.  Scott Drew has never won the Big 12 and never made a Final Four... this seems like it has to be the year he gets over both of those hurdles.
2. Baylor

Final Four Contenders
The surprise in this group is probably Alabama.  To me, in the past month they have absolutely been playing like a top ten team.  Herb Jones once again is playing through injury and playing well.  The big guy is seemingly indestructible.  Jaden Shackelford and John Petty lead one of the best back courts in the nation. The Tide are destroying SEC teams at home and on the road right now.  Coach Nate Oats has his guys playing team ball and if they get past LSU in Baton Rouge, they may be in the midst of a lengthy winning streak.
3. Texas
4. Villanova
5. Iowa
6. Tennessee
7. Michigan
8. Alabama
9. Wisconsin
10. Houston

Really Good Teams
It seems like any one of these teams can make a jump into the top ten.  They're close, but just aren't consistent enough... yet.
11. Kansas
12. Creighton
13. Saint Louis
14. Ohio State
15. Texas Tech
16. Florida State

Best Of The Rest
These teams seem able to beat almost anybody on any given night.  They also can slip up easily.  I wouldn't be surprised to see any one of them drop out of my rankings or make a push into the top 15 in the next week or two.
17. Xavier
18. LSU
19. Virginia Tech
20. Virginia
21. Minnesota
22. UCLA
23. Oklahoma State
24. Colorado
25. USC

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