Duke is the best team in the country.
That was the consensus heading into the season. And if you weren’t yet convinced, tonight’s win over Michigan State -- the Blue Devil’s second over a top six team -- probably pushed you over the edge.
A topic that never gets brought up, however, is who the worst team in the country is.
Well, maybe we won’t go there. Things can get kind of dicey in the nether regions of Division I.
We have, however, gotten quite a bit of early season returns for the worst major conference team in the country. The way I see it, there are currently fourthree candidates: Oregon State (3-3), DePaul (1-4), and Auburn (2-4).
Oregon State thrust themselves into this conversation tonight as they lost to Utah Valley. The Wolverines are an independent that came into the matchup with OSU without a D-I win this season. It wasn’t the Beaver’s first ugly loss, either. They’ve also dropped decisions to Seattle and Texas Southern.
But to be fair, the Beavers are not -- as of now -- below .500 and they are still waiting on Roberto Nelson to be cleared. Besides, they won at Howard. We all know what kind of powerhouses reside in the MEAC.
DePaul hasn’t fared much better this season. Their season opening, 114-81 win against Chicago State has quickly been forgotten as the Blue Demons have lost four straight, including games to Western Carolina and to Cal State Northridge by 22. But this is also a team adjusting to a new coaching style with Oliver Purnell. They were tied with Oklahoma State in the final minute before losing 60-56 and took Stanford to overtime. Neither of those teams have looked impressive, but a close loss to a high major cellar dweller is better than a close loss to a D-I cellar dweller.
Which brings us to Auburn.
The Tigers have been downright atrocious this season. They’ve lost to UNC-Asheville, Campbell, Jacksonville, and Samford. One of their wins came against Georgia Southwestern, which is not a D-I school. The other was a two point win over Middle Tennessee State in which Auburn had to come back from down 17 points.
Lest we forget that this Auburn team also lost an exhibition game to D-II Columbus State.
I think we have a winner here folks.
Say hello to your Auburn Tigers, the worst high-major team in the country.
New head coach Tony Barbee should have tons of fun rebuilding that program.
Others under consideration: Wake Forest, Iowa, Penn State, Alabama, Oklahoma, USC