By Aidan Joly
Heading into the Christmas break in college hoops, six teams remain undefeated: Michigan, Arizona, Iowa State, Vanderbilt, Nebraska and Miami Ohio.
The first three of that group are the top three teams in the country right now. Miami Ohio has benefitted playing largely a mix of non-Division I teams and teams ranked in the 300s in KenPom.
That leaves the other two – Vanderbilt and Nebraska, two of the sport’s biggest surprises of the season. How did each of them get here?
Let’s start with Vanderbilt.
Second-year coach Mark Byington has done a yeoman’s job of turning the dormant program around. He reached the second round of the NCAA tournament last year in year one and has an even better squad this time aroumd.
The Commodores have done it with a fantastic group on offense. Byington’s style of play has wielded excellent results from the likes of Duke Miles, who has quietly become one of the best players in the country to the tune of 17.1 points per game while dishing out nearly five assists per contest. He hits nearly half of his shots. Tyler Tanner has 15.4 PPG on 52% shooting. Tyler Nickel shoots 52%. Devin McGlockton shoots 60% and leads the team in rebounds.
Sensing a theme here?
Vanderbilt is one of the most efficient teams on offense in the nation with an effective field goal percentage that ranks in the top 10 in the country and is doing it with experienced players who know what they are doing. The Commodores rank in the top 10 in the country when it comes to Division I playing experience.
To note, Vandy is sixth in the country when it comes to field goal percentage inside the three-point line. It doesn’t take a lot of two-point shots, but when they do they go in.
Vanderbilt has scored at least 83 points in all but one of its games. It doesn’t play particularly quick – 44th in the nation when it comes to adjusted tempo, fast but not too fast – but when it gets the ball moving it takes shots with the best. The wins on its resume so far include UCF, VCU, Saint Mary’s, SMU, Memphis and Wake Forest.
Now, Vanderbilt has one more non-conference game before it moves into the SEC portion of the schedule, possibly the toughest conference in all of college basketball. Right now, it seems like the Commodores are the top jobber to Alabama to win the SEC.
Moving onto Nebraska.
The Cornhuskers are now 12-0 on the season and have won each of their first two Big Ten games, including an incredibly impressive road win over Illinois on Dec. 13. It doesn’t matter how the Illini are – going into Champaign and winning is one of the tougher things to do in all of college basketball.
Fred Hoiberg’s job had been in jeopardy for seemingly multiple years and it felt like he always did just enough to hang onto his gig. In his first four years in Lincoln he went 17-63 in Big Ten play. Most places, that will certainly get you canned.
Now, he has a squad full of guys who are having the best years of their career. Rienk Mast has returned after missing all of last season due to injury and has become one of the most important players in the Big Ten, to the tune of 17 PPG and nearly seven rebounds per game. Pryce Sandford at 16.3 PPG is not far behind him and has become an excellent option. Freshman Braden Frager is in double figures. Jamarques Lawrence has become an impact portal add. Sam Hoiberg and Berke Buyuktuncel are both playing their best basketball since they arrived in Lincoln.
The stars seem to be all aligning for the Cornhuskers. Multiple players having career years at the same time will do that. Dating back to last season Nebraska has the nation’s longest active win streak at 16 in a row and have wins over Oklahoma, New Mexico, Kansas State, Creighton, Wisconsin and the aforementioned Illinois during the 12-0 start.
One more non-conference game awaits them before resuming Big Ten play against Michigan State on Jan. 2.
Famously, Nebraska is the only power conference program in the country that has never won an NCAA tournament game. Does that have a chance at changing this year? It certainly has a lengthy path ahead of them but that path is getting shorter and shorter by the day.
Both of these teams have been big-time and unexpected storylines in college basketball. It will be very interesting and fun to see how the rest of their seasons play out.
AJ Hoops 