One Surprisingly Good Team From Each Power 6 Conference (So Far)

The 2022-2023 College Basketball season is about a month old, and already there have been a ton of teams that have been much better than expectations. In today’s new era of the sport, which includes players entering the Transfer Portal at a rapid pace and coaches moving jobs at a frequent pace, there are more surprises that occur each and every day. While these teams have gotten off to great starts, the question is will they be able to maintain it? Or will things come crashing back to reality?

Big East: Marquette

It should have been extremely clear to everyone that Shaka Smart should never be doubted at his new home of Marquette. After a frustrating six-year stint as Head Coach of Texas that featured a handful of disappointing tournament results, Smart returned to his hometown state of Wisconsin and the fit has been perfect.

 Smart led the Golden Eagles into the 2022 NCAA Tournament, but lost of his top players in Justin Lewis and Darryl Morsell, after not necessarily adding a star from the Transfer Portal, the Golden Eagles had their fair share of doubters, considering they were voted into 9th place in the Preseason Big East Media Poll.

In a similar way to last season, Marquette was able to pick up a massive needle-moving resume win during non-conference play to give them momentum and confidence for the rest of the season. The Golden Eagles blew out the #12 ranked Baylor Bears 96-70 on November 29th, which is a great start for their NCAA Tournament resume. In addition, Marquette picked up a quality win over Utah, who currently looks like one of the better teams in the Pac 12 at the moment.

While Texas was not a fit at all for Shaka Smart, Marquette looks like Shaka Smart’s teams at VCU on steroids. Shaka’s defense focuses on forcing your opponent into as many mistakes as possible, and the personnel of this Marquette team is built perfectly to do that. With big versatile wings like Olivier-Maxmence Prosper and David Joplin combined with skilled offensive players like Tyler Kolek and Kam Jones, this Marquette team has the perfect balance of scoring and toughness to be a major factor in the Big East.

Big 12: Iowa State

In a similar way to Marquette, people should have learned to never doubt TJ Otzelberger and Iowa State last season. After only winning two games for the entirety of the 2021 season, Coach Otz led Iowa State to a Sweet 16 appearance last season in his first season in Ames. While not many saw it coming, Iowa State did have one of the better backcourt duos in all of College Basketball in Tyrese Hunter and Isaiah Brockington and neither player returned to Aimes for this season. In addition, Iowa State lost one of their top Transfer Portal adds in Jeremiah Williams for the entirety of the season with an Achilles injury suffered in the preseason.

 When Otzelberger was hired, what his resume didn’t show was how good of a fit he would be at Iowa State. An assistant in Ames, from 2006-2013 and 2015-2016, Otz knows the type of players it takes to succeed at Iowa State and the hire couldn’t have worked out for the better so far. At the PK85, Iowa State collected the first major signature win of the Otzelberger era, when they defeated #1 ranked North Carolina behind 31 points from Caleb Grill.

 Iowa State also became the first team to defeat St.Johns on Sunday, holding a potent Red Storm offense to only 60 points on 35% shooting from the field. St. Bonaventure transfer Jarren Holmes has become the go to guy for the Cyclones, averaging 14.8 points per game, while shooting 40% from three point range. The Cyclones do have a handful of players back from last year’s Sweet 16 team that gained valuable tournament experience including Caleb Grill, Gabe Kalscheur, Aljaz Kunc and Robert Jones. Otzelberger continues to do a great job with Iowa State and has emerged as one of the top young coaches in the country.

Pac 12: Utah

Craig Smith had a disappointing first season in Salt Lake City, as his Utes finished with a 11-20 overall record and an 11th place finish in the Pac 12 Conference. Heading into this season, Utah was projected to finish in 10th place in the league. Fast forward four weeks into the season, there haven’t been many bright spots in the Pac 12, but Utah is one of them.

The Utes collected their first signature win of the Craig Smith era last Thursday, when the #10 ranked Arizona Wildcats came to town and Utah outplayed them from start to finish. This was especially impressive, considering Arizona was fresh off a dominant three days at the Maui Invitational and looked like one of the best teams in the sport prior to this game.

Utah also picked up a massive victory on Sunday going on the road to Washington State and leaving Pullman with a 2-0 Pac-12 Conference record. The Utes trailed 58-52 with 2:56 remaining in the ball game, but Marco Anthony iced two clutch Free Throws with 6 seconds left to send the game to Overtime and the rest was history. This is Utah’s first 2-0 start in Pac-12 Conference play since 2018 and the Utes have the potential to be an NCAA Tournament team.

Big man Branden Carlson, has looked like one of the better players in the Pac 12 so far this season, averaging 13.4 points and 7.1 rebounds per game. In addition, Gabe Madsen has adjusted nicely in his second year in the program, shooting a ridiculous 42.1% from three-point range in Pac-12 play. Craig Smith did a great job at Utah State, securing the Mountain West Regular Season and Tournament Title in 2019 and another Mountain West Tournament Title in 2020. It would not be shocking in the least to see Utah have some serious success soon.

ACC: Virginia Tech

 While it isn’t entirely surprising that the team that won the ACC Tournament Title last season and was projected to finish in 7th place in the Preseason Poll is having a great start to the season, it is the way it has happened that comes as a surprise. Virginia Tech currently stands at 9-1 overall with their only loss of the season coming in a true road game in the Finals of the Charleston Classic against the hometown Charleston Cougars. The Hokies have collected victories over North Carolina and Dayton, who were both ranked in the preseason Top 25 poll.

 There were plenty of questions concerning how good this Hokies team would be, considering they barely made the NCAA Tournament last season after winning an ACC Tournament Title and lost a handful of guys from that team. The Hokies lost three of their top 5 scorers from last year’s team, but that is currently looking like a blessing in disguise. There are plenty of candidates that have seen major scoring improvements this season compared to last for Virginia Tech, which shows just how good of a coach and developer Mike Young really is.

 Primarily, Sean Pedulla who served a minor role as a backup Point Guard to Storm Murphy as a Freshman, has burst onto the scene as a Sophomore. After only averaging 5.4 points per game as a Freshman, Pedulla is now Virginia Tech’s leading scorer with 17.4 points and 3.9 assists per game. Pedulla is also shooting an extremely efficient 50% from the field. Veteran Justyn Mutts is also looking like the best we’ve seen in his 5-year College Career, averaging 13 points per game and shooting over 60% overall from the field.

 Virginia Tech made a great decision to hire Mike Young, in the Spring of 2019 following Buzz Williams’ departure and Young being very competitive with Wofford against Kentucky in the Round of 32. Despite making but not advancing in the NCAA Tournament the last two seasons, now might finally be the time for Young and the Hokies to make a deep run in March.

SEC: Mississippi State

Of the six new coaching hires made in the SEC this past offseason, there wasn’t a better fit with their new team than Chris Jans at Mississippi State. Jans led New Mexico State to 4 Western Athletic Conference Regular Season Titles during his 5-year run in Las Cruces. He then finally got over the hump last season, winning an NCAA Tournament game against UConn to advance to the Round of 32 for the first time in his coaching career.

What makes Mississippi State such a great fit for Jans, is the fact that he had a great ability to put together rosters of new players on the spot and find capable replacements in the Transfer Portal. It is very difficult to get some of the best High School players in the country to come to Starkville, Mississippi, but Jans has a long track record of getting the most out of talented players using their second chance.

The first key to Jans success so far this season, was retaining some of the core that Ben Howland had left over, which was a very talented group. One of them, Tolu Smith has developed into one of the better players in the SEC and is currently leading the Bulldogs scoring an average of 16.3 points per game. In addition, Oregon State transfer Dashawn Davis has burst onto the scene averaging just under 10 points per game, in addition to being one of the better, more versatile defenders in the country.

Mississippi State’s defense has been key to their great start so far this season, ranking 10th in the country in overall defensive efficiency. The Bulldogs have not given up more than 55 points so far this season and have still not lost a game. While the competition will get better starting with a neutral court game against Drake and the SEC Opener against Alabama, Mississippi State fans should be very excited about the future of the Chris Jans era in Starkville.

Big Ten: Maryland

There is only one answer for who has been the most surprisingly good team in the Big Ten to kick off the 2022-2023 season and that is Maryland. Kevin Willard’s Terps have played great to kick off his first season in College Park, as Maryland has started their season 8-1. Included in those victories are impressive efforts against likely NCAA Tournament teams in Illinois, Saint Louis and Miami (FL). While Mark Turgeon had a solid run as Maryland Head Coach, it was clear that both sides really needed a change and that became very apparent after Turgeon resigned less than two months into last season. .

Similar to many other coaches on this list, Willard was able to keep a handful of talented players from the previous regime including Donta Scott, Julian Reese and Hakeem Hart. Scott and Hart have been two of Maryland’s top three leading scores this season, alongside Charlotte Transfer Jahmir Young. Maryland has a legitimate argument to have the best starting 5 in the Big Ten alongside Georgetown Transfer and sharpshooter Donald Carey. The question will be if they can get enough bench production to really get this thing going?

Maryland has the potential to be one of the better coaching jobs in the country, considering its passionate fanbase, elite resources, and some of the best talent in the country nearby. If Willard is doing this in only his first season with not a ton of his players in house yet, you can only imagine what Maryland will look like when he really gets this thing rolling.