Top-ranked Auburn has two road games this week. The Tigers will be favored in both but could theoretically lose either. So, with this in mind, I asked Kyle Boone a question on Sunday’s episode of the Eye On College Basketball Podcast.
Here’s the question: Have we reached the point where Auburn, which is No. 1 in Monday morning’s updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings, could take a Quadrant 1 loss — which is what a loss at LSU on Wednesday or a loss at Ole Miss on Saturday would be, based on current projections — and still be worthy of the No. 1 ranking?
Boone said yes.
I agree.
Obviously, we could have a long debate about which team is college basketball’s best — Auburn, Duke, Houston, Iowa State or somebody else. — because best is a subjective term. But there’s really no debate about which team has college basketball’s top resume.
It’s Auburn by a lot.
The Tigers are 18-1 overall, 6-0 in the SEC and 11-1 in Quadrant 1. Do you realize how great 11-1 in Quadrant 1 is relative to the rest of the sport?
There’s not another team in the country with 11 Q1 wins. Or 10. Or nine. Oregon ranks second nationally in Q1 wins with eight — and nobody else has more than six. So, for the sake of the conversation, let’s say Auburn loses at LSU on Wednesday. If it were to happen, Bruce Pearl’s Tigers would still be 18-2 overall with an 11-2 record in Quadrant 1.
Duke is No. 2 in the Top 25 And 1.
Again, if Auburn loses at LSU on Wednesday, the Tigers (based on current projections) would still be 18-2 with an 11-2 record in Quadrant 1. At best, Duke, on Thursday morning, will also be 18-2 — but with only a 5-2 record in Quadrant 1. By my math, that means, even with a loss at LSU on Wednesday, No. 1 Auburn would have six more Q1 wins than No. 2 Duke and the same number of losses. Given that I’m always more or less trying to replicate the selection committee, and given that I believe every selection committee member with a brain would rank Auburn’s resume above Duke’s resume even after a hypothetical loss at LSU by Auburn (and, yes, even though Duke owns a December victory over Auburn at Cameron Indoor Stadium), I’m compelled to believe the Tigers are like a golfer with something like a 3-shot lead on the field. I wouldn’t advise them to put a tee shot in the rough, miss the green and bogey the next hole, so to speak. But even if they did, they’d still be ahead of everybody else.
That’s basically Auburn right now.
The Tigers have put together one of the best starts through 19 games in recent memory and are projected by KenPom.com to win the toughest league in the country by four games. That’s crazy and why Pearl taking Auburn to its second Final Four, or first ever national championship, is very much in play for the winningest coach in program history.
