Jay Bilas identifies Duke, Auburn as top two teams in college basketball

The college basketball season has around one month remaining before conference tournaments and the postseason tips off. With that, ESPN analyst Jay Bilas believes that it’s clear two teams are now ahead of the pack, pointing to the Duke Blue Devils and Auburn Tigers as the two best teams in the sport. In an appearance on Get Up Thursday morning, Bilas explained what makes these two teams special, starting with Duke.

“I think it’s Duke and Auburn and we’ll start with Duke,” Bilas said. “They’re young. Their best players are their youngest players, but they are big, they’re super athletic, and they’re excellent defensively. One of the things that’s impressed me most, especially with a young team, is how well their help side is positioned on defense and how well they talk, and when you’ve got Cooper Flagg that’s leading the way, they’re legit.”

Duke is now 21-3 on the season and 13-1 in ACC play. That puts the Blue Devils one game ahead of Clemson and Louisville in the conference standings with seven regular season games remaining, six of which are ACC games. All three of those losses are Quad 1 losses. Duke also has five Quad 1 wins and hasn’t lost a game to a team outside of Quad 1 all season.

Meanwhile, Auburn is 22-2 and 10-1 in SEC play, tied with Alabama for first in the conference standings. The Tigers will get the chance to play the Crimson Tide twice in their final seven games, including on Saturday, February 15th. Auburn also has a 13-2 record in Quad 1 games. They’re 9-0 against all other opponents.

“Auburn has been the most consistent at the highest level all season long,” Bilas said. “They’ve played arguably the toughest schedule in college basketball. Seems like every game they’ve played is a Quad 1 game, and they’ve performed really well against it. Their guards are excellent. They shoot it and they knock their free throws down, which is going to be really important in late-game situations, especially as we get into the NCAA Tournament.”

In the latest AP Poll, Auburn is the first-ranked team in the country while Duke is sitting in a tie for third. Then, in the latest bracketology from ESPN, both teams are listed as No. 1 seeds.

Interestingly, the two best teams in the country, according to Bilas, already played this season. In early December, Duke hosted Auburn for a game, which the Blue Devils won by six points. That was a part of the ACC/SEC challenge.