College Basketball's Elite

This year of college basketball has been crazy. Top teams have been dropping games each week. This past week, four of the top five teams in the nation have been upset. All of the these games have been on the road. There is not one top team in the nation or a select group. There is a surplus amount of teams that could say they are the best. I believe there are four teams that can consider themselves the best team in the nation.

Trey Burke and Tim Hardaway Jr
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The best conference in the nation is the Big Ten. They have many good teams. Two of them stand out as the best of the best. They are the Indiana Hoosiers and the Michigan Wolverines. Indiana was ranked number one at the start of the season has stayed in the top ten all year. They have two Wooden Award contenders in C Cody Zeller and G Victor Oladipo. Zeller is the best low-post player in the country. Oladipo is a great all-around player. Michigan is led by two guards, sophomore Trey Burke and junior Tim Hardaway Jr. Burke is also a Wooden Award contender and is arguably the best point guard in the nation. Hardaway Jr is a consistant wing player and always a threat to score 20+ points. The best qualities  these two teams have are that they have good role players and shoot a high percentage. Indiana has Jordan Hulls, Christian Watford, among others. Michigan has Glenn Robinson III and Nik Stauskas. Indiana and Michigan both shoot a very high percentage.

The Duke Blue Devils are a top team in Division I b-ball. As always, Coach Mike  Kryzewski has put a championship contender on the floor. The Blue Devils start with big-man Mason Plumlee. Plumlee averages a double-double per game with about 18 points and 10 rebounds per game. The Backcourt of Quinn Cook and Seth Curry is stout. Cook is a good passer-scorer and Curry is a lights-out shooter. A key piece to the puzzle is Ryan Kelly. The 6'11'' forward can stretch the floor with his outside shooting and can also rebound well. However, he is currently out with a foot injury. The Blue Devils are good without Kelly, but with him, they are a much better team.

Brandon Triche
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The Syracuse Orange are tops in the Big East and one of the top teams in the nation. They have players who are versatile and all have good skills. The team is led by senior guard Brandon Triche. Triche is a player who is just a great scorer and has improved every season at Syracuse. Michael Carter-Williams is an excellent facilitator who knows how to score. Forwards CJ Fair and James Southerland both are experienced, can score, and get boards. The Orange are definitely a team to watch out for. They have been flying under the radar for the last few weeks and will probably for a few more until the Big East tournament. By then, they could be the most productive team in the country.

These four teams may not be the best by the end of the season, but they stand out. Each team has a good nucleus of players who work well with each other. They all have good wins, and at the same time, some tough losses. Teams that are a tad below these four include: Kansas, Louisville, Michigan State, and Ohio State. As the last few tournaments have showed us, it doesn't matter if your the best or not. All that matters is how well you are playing.