Twelve teams from last week’s rankings lost in either the final week of regular season play or conference tournament play. Here’s how it shakes down.
1. Ohio State – The Buckeyes rank in the top ten for FG%, 3Pt.% and scoring defense.
2. Kansas – The Jayhawks are #1 in FG%.
3. Pittsburgh – The Panthers rank second in rebound margin at 10.9.
4. Notre Dame – The total is worth more than the sum of the parts.
5. Duke – Can the Blue Devils find an inside presence in March?
6. Texas – The Longhorns are tenth in the nation with 807 free throw attempts.
7. BYU – Suddenly everyone realizes the value of Brandon Davies.
8. San Diego St. – Can the Aztecs earn a #1 seed?
9. North Carolina – Tell me again why it took so long to put Kendall Marshall at the point.
10. Kentucky – The Wildcats have beaten two ranked teams and won at Tennessee in their last three contests.
11. Purdue – The Boilermakers looked average in a loss to Iowa.
12. Florida – The Gators solved the riddle of winning at Vanderbilt.
13. Wisconsin – The Badgers play the rest of the season away from the Kohl Center.
14. Louisville – Earned a double bye in the Big East tournament.
15. Syracuse – Winners of five in a row, are the Orange catching their stride at the right time?
16. St. John’s – The Johnnies have exceeded expectations.
17. Arizona – Rebounded from a pair of losses by trimming Oregon and Oregon State.
18. Xavier – Took the regular season Atlantic 10 crown.
19. Georgetown – Streakiest team in the nation? Started the season winning eight in a row. Later lost four of five. Then rattled off another eight victories. Now mired in three-game downturn.
20. Texas A&M – The Aggies finished the regular season tied for third in the Big12 with Kansas State.
21. UConn – The Huskies have lost four of five.
22. Temple – The Owls are getting healthy just in time for the post season.
23. Utah St. – The Aggies have lost one game in the last three months.
24. Kansas St. – The Wildcats have taken six straight including three over ranked teams.
25. Gonzaga – Just in case you forgot about the Bulldogs.
I know they beat Duke in Chapel Hill, BUT they beat the Dukies soundly and the Tarheels are looking downright scarey right now. And as you aptly point out, Casey, effectively solving the point guard riddle is at the heart of their resurgence. We’ll see how the ACC tournament goes, but I’m starting to be quite impressed with UNC.
Texas still up there at #6, huh? Not seeing that right now.
Folks in the media are starting to talk up Notre Dame as a potential #1 seed and obviously, Casey, you are somewhat buying into that … at the moment … by putting them at #4. Personally, I have some reservations. Objectively, the way they came back from 5-7 point deficit and gutted out that win at UConn after Hansbrough fouled out with 8 mins left was quite encouraging, but I still have doubts as to whether they’re REALLY a Top 8-10 team in the nation. Remember … all 5 of their losses have been by double digits. A team like ND that relies sooooo much on shooting well from the perimeter AND doesn’t have much intimidating presence down low will have to be near perfect to survive NCAA tourney games if the shooting slumps for a half or so. Now if they go and win two or three BE tournament games this week, I’ll probably buy into the concept. I suppose by playing GREAT team D, they can probably squeek by. Anyway, I don’t want to detract from the fact that we’re even talking about this … 3 months ago, I never dreamt the Irish would be in ANY discussion about #1 or #2 seeds. Great season! May it continue to be great!
I’m assuming this list is satirical or comical in some way. If not – What an outright horrible list. Just awful.
Ohio State looks like a legit 1-seed to me. I guess Kansas might be, but I haven’t seen them play as mush as OSU. If Carolina gets a 1-seed, I will puke (which, by the way, I did after seeing this absolutely atrocious listing). Other than that, count me in the minority that says Notre Dame is hands down a #1 seed. I understand they have their weaknesses, but who’se exposed them lately? They’ve rattled off 11 of their last 12 and still beat UCONN with their best player fouling out with 8 minutes to go. They seem like the consummate team right now.
So that leaves one more 1 seed? I think it might come down to conference tourneys, which I also think may affect the Irish. If Duke can win the ACC, it goes to them. Same goes for Texas winning the Big 12 or Pitt possibly winning the Big East. Should all 4 teams crap out in their tourneys and SDSU wins it all, I’d give it to them. Or BYU if they win it, but I don’t know if anyone is beating SDSU in the conference now with Davies gone.
Anyway – Confusing I know, but my response in relation to this listing of top collegiate basketball teams must seem like a Pulitzer.
Rey
I am working on getting sponsorship from Philips Milk of Magnesia.
For Big 10 fans, here’s a good synopsis of who’s on the NCAA bubble … or not.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/college/chi-110306-big-ten-bubble-teams,0,6305478.story
Uh … for what it’s worth … I kinda think that once you get your 13th loss, you’re done. Unless of course you win your conference tournament. At some point , though, we gotta stop talking about SOS and what a nice coach he is and start talking about WINS! Wins THIS year! Call me “old school”, but after 12 or 13 losses out of 30 games, nobody should be allowed to even talk about being in the NCAA field of 64 … er uh … 68. Can we please preserve some shred of quality to this whole thing????
Casey —
You had to see this coming … Ben Hansbrough was selected as the Big East Player of the Year. Surely the BE POY deserves a spot on one of the All-Casey teams … don’t ya think??? 😉
Mike Brey was voted BE Coach of the Year (his 3rd time … not bad). Last, but certainly not least, Tim Abromaitis was selected as the BE Scholar-Athlete of the year … I think for the 2nd time.
All this is great, BUT … this is THE YEAR that ND needs to do something here in post-season play worthy of it’s lofty team ranking. Win at least two games in the BE tournament and then go out and make AT LEAST the Sweet 16 in the Big Dance. Anything less will be disappointing in some ways.
Geez … Villanova sure crashed with that upset loss to USF last night. They’ll need some luck to be invited to the field of 68.
This is the second year in a row that Villanova has folded down the stretch: https://pickinsplinters.com/2010/03/08/personal-fouls-and-the-sliding-fortunes-of-the-villanova-wildcats/
I’m surprised by the Wildcats’ tailspin.
Hansbrough doesn’t need a spot on the All-Casey team because he is already on yours. 🙂
Au contraire, mon amie. Nobody cares about the All-Wall Team! All-Casey is where the status and panache are. Without All-Casey designation, you might as well be nominated by the Elkhart Truth … nobody will notice.
Pitt’s loss to UConn may cost them a #1 seed, but we’ll have to see how the rest of the week plays out in all these tourneys. Here’s hoping ND avoids the same result vs Cinci.