Auburn reigns amid Feast Week chaos

Good morning! We’re thankful for lots of things this year. Our subscribers, a great week of college hoops, and not having to sit next to Dan Hurley on UConn’s flight home from Maui.

Let’s dig in.

1. Is Auburn the nation’s No. 1 team?

Bruce Pearl and Auburn won the Maui Invitational after dominating Memphis 90-76 in Wednesday’s championship game. The No. 4 Tigers are 7-0, and have wins over No. 5 Iowa State, No. 6 Houston, No. 12 North Carolina, along with Memphis and Vermont, who are likely NCAA Tournament teams.

With that, the question is out there: is Auburn the best team in the country?

Several college basketball personalities sure think so. Jeff Goodman said the Tigers deserve the No. 1 spot with their resume. Brendan Marks agrees that they have a convincing case as the top team. And then there’s Ant Wright, who just flat out said Auburn is the best. Analytically, it now rings true. Auburn has (again) taken over Kenpom’s No. 1 overall spot with the No. 1 offense (124.9 rtg) and No. 5 defense (92.6 rtg).

And the After Dark crew all agree.

So… the answer is yes. The Tigers could have the best case right now. But don’t tell that to AP’s No. 1 overall team and undefeated Kansas, or 7-0 Tennessee, among other undefeated squads like Kentucky and Marquette.

For Auburn’s sake of the argument, though, it helps to have one of the best players in the country on your side. And Johni Broome has probably been the best to start the college basketball season. In the championship game vs. Memphis, Broome dropped this ridiculous stat line.

“I’ve always believed that the best player on the best team should be the MVP,” coach Bruce Pearl said on ESPN. “If our team continues to play well, [Broome] is absolutely in the conversation for Player of the Year. He effects the game on both ends. He’s in the best shape of his life, and so he’s able to play way more minutes, and we don’t take a ton of possessions off.”

In Maui, Broome averaged 21.7 points, 15.0 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 3.0 blocks per game while playing 100+ minutes across three days. It’s truly hard to not give him the nod for the best player in the country right now. And for Auburn as a whole, the best team.

“I’m just happy for these guys because these guys are loving playing together,” Pearl said. “They were never on the floor together very much in the last couple years, so it’s just incredible. They’ve got great chemistry. They trust each other.”

2. Another day, another Top 5 unbeaten team loses

The upsets during Feast Week keep on coming. This time, it was No. 3 Gonzaga falling to unranked West Virginia, 86-78 in the first round of the Battle 4 Atlantis.

Gonzaga is now the ninth top-25 team to go down since Monday and the fourth to an unranked opponent (UConn twice, Creighton to San Diego State, Indiana to Louisville and Texas A&M to Oregon).

So what happened?

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