The Bilas Index: The best 68 men's basketball teams in 2025-26 - ESPN

Now that football takes a break from its weekly competition, those irrationally obsessed with the sadistic ground acquisition game can turn their attention spans toward the objectively beautiful, balletic, organic, improvisational and creative game of basketball — just as it heads toward the meat of conference play and into the NCAA tournament.

To the truly evolved, the preference for athletes who play both offense and defense continuously — without breaks or committee meetings between plays — is clear and unmistakable. We, the basketball literati and hoop-educated, understand that structured forces lining up on «both sides of the ball» while their commanders sit in booths overlooking the battlefield, barking orders at their subordinates in the trenches, is rather Neanderthal, yet we welcome all to our better and more civilized game.

Those of us who have been immersed in this beautiful game all along don't need to be now reminded, as football fans do, that something more exciting, strategically complicated and satisfying has been occurring all the while. Basketball, after all, is the true metaphor for the best of American life: freedom with structure, individual achievement with the overall, common objective in mind, with skill, creativity and feel leading the way.

For those who missed the first portion of basketball season, we feel for you, for you have missed one of the best seasons in recent memory. Quality of play and scoring have never been higher, there is an unusual feeling of parity beyond the top tier of teams and, while the game is as old and experienced as it has been in a long, long time, the best players are teenagers. This freshman class is uber-talented at the top, and there is unprecedented depth of truly