College basketball rankings: Saint Mary's looks to stay hot as first showdown with Gonzaga looms ahead

College basketball rankings: Saint Mary’s looks to stay hot as first showdown with Gonzaga looms ahead

I spent a few minutes on Friday morning’s episode of the Eye On College Basketball podcast explaining how Saint Mary’s has been the best team in college basketball over the past month, according to BartTorvik.com.

The. Best. Team.

I assume most fans have no idea.

In that stretch, the Gaels are 8-0 and winning games by an average of 21.4 points. KenPom.com currently projects them to prevent Gonzaga from taking at least a share of the West Coast Conference title for the first time since 2012. It’s one of the more interesting developments in the sport, especially considering Saint Mary’s received zero votes in the preseason Associated Press Top 25 poll.

The body of work is lacking, though.

Despite incredibly strong computer numbers (Saint Mary’s is No. 3 at BartTorvik.com, No. 6 in the NET and Sagarin, No. 7 at KenPom.com and No. 9 at EvanMiya.com), the Gaels are only 1-2 in Quadrant 1 and in possession of a resume featuring two Quadrant 3 losses. I realize one has little to do with the other. Still, it’s interesting that this school with just one win over a top-55 KenPom team and two losses to sub-100 KenPom teams is now projected by KenPom to win an outright West Coast Conference title for the first time in more than a decade.

Saint Mary’s is No. 21 in Saturday morning’s updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings. The Gaels’ next game is Saturday night at BYU, where they’re listed as 6.5-point favorites. The first of two regular-season games with Gonzaga is scheduled for next Saturday night inside McKeon Pavilion.