Starting Five: Non-Conference Review Edition

1. Oklahoma State's Marcus Smart exploded out of the blocks but has since cooled off a bit.  He's still playing excellent basketball - putting up 12 points, 6 rebounds, and 5 assists per game.  In the meantime, UNLV's Anthony Bennett has caught and passed Smart in the race to be crowned the nation's best freshman.  Bennett is doing his best Larry Johnson impression in Vegas (averaging 19.2 points and 8.8 boards per contest) and is the main reason the Rebels have been able to withstand Mike Moser's recent absence due to injury.  Kansas' Ben McLemore also has passed up Smart but trails Bennett for now.

2. In the National Player of the Year race, Doug McDermott gets my vote through the first third of the season.  An argument can certainly be made for Duke's Mason Plumlee, but I would argue that the Blue Devils' big man is surrounded by far more talent than the Bluejays' forward and is asked to do less.  McDermott's numbers are impressive (23.5 points and 7.0 rebounds per game), but his headiness and ability to lift his teammates' level of play have been even more important.  McDermott has been pretty flawless thus far, but there's still plenty of basketball to be played.  

3. The Defensive Player of the Year race is more of a landslide at this point, as Jeff Withey shot-blocking has the Jayhawks looking like a contender.  Withey is currently second in the country (after freshman Chris Obekpa of St. John's) at 4.9 blocks per game, but that really doesn't account for all of the shots he's altering.  Shout out to LSU's Anthony Hickey for leading the nation in steals per game.

4. At this point in the season, my All-American ballot would look like this - Trey Burke (Michigan), Isaiah Canaan (Murray State), Russ Smith (Louisville), Doug McDermott (Creighton), and Mason Plumlee (Duke).  My second team is as follows: C.J. McCollum (Lehigh), Nate Wolters (South Dakota State), Brandon Paul (Illinois), Tony Bennett, (UNLV), Jeff Withey (Kansas).  All of these guys were on my radar to start the season, but I wouldn't have believed it if you had told me before the season started that the Plumlee the Middle or Russdiculous would be in the running for All-American honors.

5. RBP's preseason Final Four was Louisville, Indiana, Syracuse, and Kentucky with the Cardinals winning a National Championship.  At this point, RBP's revised Final Four is as follows - Louisville, Indiana, Michigan, and Florida.  We're sticking with Rick Pitino's squad, though our faith had wavered a bit in Gorgui Dieng's absence and in light of Indiana's improved defense.  However, with Dieng's return and the Hoosiers' tendency to play to the level of their competition, we're sticking with our original pick at this early juncture.