This past weekend was one of the most crazy, memorable, and BEST weekends of college basketball we may ever have. Saturday marked the first time ever that the top six ranked teams in the AP Poll lost on the same day. At the end of the day, seven of the top ten had lost. Gonzaga, Arizona, Auburn, Purdue, Kansas, Kentucky, and Texas Tech all stumbled – and all on the road. It was absolute mayhem from noon to midnight.
Saturday wasn’t the only day of the week that had some action. On Monday, Baylor and Ohio State won in overtime against unranked teams. Tuesday, UConn fans stormed the court in a victory over top ten Villanova. Wednesday, Providence beat Xavier in a TRIPLE-overtime thriller. Thursday, USC had to go into double-overtime with 3 – 23 Oregon State, surviving by three points. And on Sunday we had a below .500 Maryland beat Ohio State by 15 points.
This sport never has a dull moment. The game is just as electric on the sidelines as it is on the court. Within a span of five days we had Michigan head coach Juwan Howard take a swing atWisconsin assistant coach Joe Krabbenhoft, UConn head coach Dan Hurley get ejected for his gestures to pump up the home crowd, and Illinois head coach Brad Underwood get tossed and went bonkers towards the referees.
With another week in the books, that means a new ranking for teams. This week was extra difficult to decipher where teams should be placed with most of the top teams falling. With that being said, it is hard to justify significantly dropping a team after losing a tough road conference game in a very tough environment.
Folks, if you think things are crazy now, you are in for a treat over the next two weeks before Selection Sunday!
1. Gonzaga Bulldogs 24 – 3 (13 – 1 WCC)
The Zags lost their first conference game since February 22, 2020 on Saturday night when Saint Mary’s beat the Bulldogs 67-57. Gonzaga averages roughly 88 points/game but were held in check most of the night scoring only 57, their lowest of the season.
The other top teams losing saved Gonzaga their No. 1 ranking in my book, but this team is easily a top 3 or 5 team on any given day.
Fun fact: Gonzaga hasn’t lost a home WCC game in over four years.
Current odds to win National Championship: +400
2. Duke Blue Devils 25 – 4 (15 – 3 ACC)
Duke was the highest AP-ranked team to win this past weekend as they stomped Syracuse in the Carrier Dome 97-72. The Blue Devils have won 11 of their last 12, with that only loss coming on a buzzer beater from Virginia.
The ACC is having their worst year in a long time, but Duke seems to be the saving grace of the league. We will see how this team can handle playing multiple days in a row in the ACC Tournament, that will show us if this team has a true shot at a National Championship.
Current odds to win National Championship: +1200
3. Arizona Wildcats 25 – 3 (15 – 2 Pac-12)
Out of all the upsets this week, Arizona losing was the most surprising to me. The Wildcats blew a five-point halftime lead to Colorado and ended up losing by 16.
Bennedict Mathurin, Arizona’s leading scorer, was shut out in the second half as Colorado outscored Arizona 47-26 after halftime. Big Man Christian Koloko was contained all game, scoring only four points and grabbing five rebounds.
Arizona is still in line for a 1-seed and eyeing a trip to New Orleans.
Current odds to win National Championship: +750
4. Baylor Bears 24 – 5 (12 – 4 Big 12)
Scott Drew’s Baylor Bears will not go down without a fight. The reigning National Champions have battled injuries throughout the season, yet here they are only a half-game out of first place in the Big 12.
On Saturday, Baylor battled back from an early deficit against Kansas and beat the Jayhawks 80-70 in Waco. Three weeks ago Kansas throttled Baylor 83-59, so to see Baylor get this win showed that the Bears are going to be a tough out in March.
Current odds to win National Championship: +1400
5. Auburn Tigers 25 – 4 (13 – 3 SEC)
After starting the season 22 – 1, the Tigers have lost three of their last six games. As of right now, Auburn is still in line to be a top seed in the NCAA Tournament but a potential matchup with Kentucky in the SEC Tournament might determine that.
Auburn scores nearly 80 points/game but in their last three losses they have been held to just 62 points twice, and 66 in regulation in their overtime loss to Arkansas three weeks ago.
Star freshman Jabari Smith has averaged 25 points/game in those losses, almost 10 more than his average. It seems like the potential NBA lottery pick has the ability to carry this team come March.
Current odds to win National Championship: +1300
6. Kentucky Wildcats 23 – 6 (12 – 4 SEC)
The last three losses for Kentucky have come on the road at Auburn, Tennessee, and Arkansas. I would argue there isn’t a team in the nation that would come out of that slate with three wins.
Big man Oscar Tshiebwe had 30 points and 18 rebounds on Saturday in Arkansas, but Kentucky couldn’t get over the hump losing 75-73. Kentucky scored their second basket of the game at the 12:39 mark in the first half and only had two points for almost six minutes to begin the game.
Kentucky will be looking to go to their fifth Final Four in the John Calipari era. The combination of Tshiebwe, TyTy Washington, Keion Brooks Jr., and Kellan Grady is more than enough to get them there.
Current odds to win National Championship: +700
7. Kansas Jayhawks 23 – 5 (12 – 3 Big 12)
Ochai Agbaji lead the Jayhawks with 27 points on Saturday night, but it wasn’t quite enough as Baylor won 80-70. It was difficult to drop Kansas in the rankings – a road loss against a top 10 team shouldn’t be a knock on a team – but Kansas seemed to let this one slip out of their hands. At one point in the first half Kansas doubled up on Baylor being up 26-13, but Baylor battled back to only be down one point at halftime.
Remy Martin returned to the rotation after being sidelined for nearly a month with an injury. If Martin can get fully healthy for the Big 12 and NCAA Tournament, Kansas’ backcourt is going to be difficult to handle in March.
Current odds to win National Championship: +1400
8. Purdue Boilermakers 24 – 5 (13 – 5 Big Ten)
The Boilermakers almost took Michigan State into overtime on Saturday, but Spartans guard Tyson Walker had other plans. Purdue lost 68-65 on Walker’s last second 3-pointer, giving Purdue their fifth loss of the season.
Zach Edey put up a career-high 25 points and Jaden Ivey added another 16, but the story of the game (and the year) for the Boilermakers was their defense. This team can not afford to struggle offensively like they did on Saturday with this defense. Purdue ranks 105th in Defensive Efficiency on KenPom and gives up nearly 70 points/game. When the offense is clicking, the defense can be more relaxed as Purdue averages about 81 points/game.
Current odds to win National Championship: +1300
9. Wisconsin Badgers 23 – 5 (14 – 4 Big Ten)
Wisconsin took a full game lead on Purdue and Illinois in the Big Ten standings over the weekend. The Badgers have won four straight leading into a huge matchup on Tuesday night against Purdue.
Johnny Davis should be towards the top of everyone’s Player of the Year lists as he is leading Wisconsin in scoring, rebounds, and assists. Davis is also one of only seven players from high-major schools to be averaging over 20 points/game.
Davis could become a household name across college basketball this March.
Current odds to win National Championship: +10000
10. Providence Friars 24 – 3 (14 – 2 Big East)
Nate Watson. Al Durham. Jared Bynum. AJ Reeves. All four average double-digits in scoring and all have plenty of experience. Bynum is the only junior of the group, the other three have 4+ years of Division I basketball.
Providence has already clinched their first-ever Big East regular season title in school history this year and are locked in to have their highest seed ever in the NCAA Tournament (Providence was a 5-seed in 2004).
Ed Cooley is giving a pretty good case to be Coach of the Year.
Current odds to win National Championship: +6000
11. Texas Tech Red Raiders 22 – 7 (11 – 5 Big 12)
Texas Tech gave up 69 points to TCU in each matchup this season, but in the first game Tech’s offense was on-point scoring 82 points. On Saturday, their offense was held to 66 points and gave TCU a huge victory on the bubble.
This defense is still elite and will give them a shot at beating any team in the nation.
Current odds to win National Championship: +2500
12. Villanova Wildcats 21 – 7 (14 – 4 Big East)
The Wildcats lost an electric game on Tuesday to UConn, their first loss to the Huskies since 2014. If Collin Gillespie wasn’t charged with an offensive foul with one second remaining, Villanova could have won, jumped up in the rankings, and could still have a share of the Big East title.
Current odds to win National Championship: +2400
13. Tennessee Volunteers 21 – 7 (12 – 4 SEC)
The Vols keep winning big games at home. They have now beat Kentucky and Auburn in consecutive weeks at Thompson-Boling Arena and have Arkansas coming to town this coming Saturday.
Tennessee seems to be getting hot at the right time.
Current odds to win National Championship: +4000
14. Arkansas Razorbacks 23 – 6 (12 – 4 SEC)
This team has been America’s darling for a little over a month now. Arkansas has won 13 of 14 and have defeated Auburn, Kentucky, and Tennessee over that span.
JD Notae dropped 30 points with 8 assists in the Hogs win over Kentucky on Saturday.
Current odds to win National Championship: +6000
15. USC Trojans 25 – 4 (14 – 4 Pac-12)
USC survived a scare up in Corvallis on Thursday as Oregon State took the Trojans to double-overtime. A loss like that easily could have bumped them down a seed line or two, but USC prevailed. A hungry Oregon Ducks team needing a big win on the bubble took USC to the wire as well, but the Trojans won by one point.
Current odds to win National Championship: +9500
16. Illinois Fighting Illini 20 – 8 (13 – 5 Big Ten)
Illinois has lost three of their last six but shut down Michigan on Sunday afternoon. Kofi Cockburn had 27 points, Alfonso Plummer had 26, but it was the last three by Trent Frazier that put the nail in the coffin as Illinois won a high-scoring contest over Michigan 93-85.
Illinois is still one of my dark horses to make the Final Four.
Current odds to win National Championship: +4000
17. Saint Mary’s Gaels 24 – 6 (12 – 3 WCC)
The Gael’s might have had the best win of the weekend in college basketball. The No. 1 team in the nation came to Moraga and Saint Mary’s completely shut down Gonzaga, winning 67-57. The 57 points by Gonzaga are the fewest scored in a game this season – pretty impressive by Saint Mary’s seeing how Gonzaga has scored 100+ five times so far.
Current odds to win National Championship: +10000
18. UCLA Bruins 21 – 6 (13 – 5 Pac-12)
UCLA had lost two straight road games before annihilating Oregon State 94-55 without leading scorer Johnny Juzang. The resume for the Bruins does tell you this team is a top 4 or 5 seed, but sometimes the eye test tells a different story.
The Bruins will play USC to end the regular season on Saturday, a win against the crosstown rival could spring a March run similar to last year.
Current odds to win National Championship: +2800
19. Houston Cougars 24 – 4 (13 – 2 American)
Quietly winning four games in a row, Houston has proved again why they are the class of the American Conference. A 14-point win over SMU cemented that as Fabian White Jr. led all scorers with 21 points while adding nine boards.
Current odds to win National Championship: +4000
20. UConn Huskies 21 – 7 (12 – 5 Big East)
Welcome back to the Big East, UConn. The Huskies win over Villanova sure felt like an old Big East game. It was physical, the crowd was amazing, and we had Dan Hurley get tossed… sounds like Big East basketball to me!
UConn has won five straight and will end the regular season at Creighton and home to DePaul. Don’t let the UConn faithful get too rowdy at the Big East Tournament.
Current odds to win National Championship: +6000
21. Ohio State Buckeyes 18 – 8 (11 – 6 Big Ten)
Maryland has some good wins this year, but this Ohio State team can’t lose to that Maryland team by 15 in their last game before March. Yes, it’s a road conference game. All of those are tough in their own way, but Maryland is now 6 – 12 in Big Ten play.
EJ Liddell runs Ohio State and was held to just 11 points, his lowest since a loss to Indiana on January 6.
Current odds to win National Championship: +8000
22. Texas Longhorns 21 – 8 (10 – 6 Big 12)
The Longhorns staved off a big comeback by West Virginia on Saturday and won 82-81. Timmy Allen, Marcus Carr, and Andrew Jones all average more than 10 points/game. Texas is hovering right around being a 4-seed at this moment, but to finish the regular season they will host Baylor and travel to Kansas. Winning those two games could be massive heading into the Big 12 Tournament.
Current odds to win National Championship: +6500
23. Murray State Racers 28 – 2 (18 – 0 OVC)
Murray State rallied late against Southeast Missouri State to keep their conference record perfect. The Racers should easily be a 5 or 6-seed on Selection Sunday. They rank 24th in NET and 26th in KenPom and haven’t lost since December 22 at Auburn.
Current odds to win National Championship: +15000
24. Alabama Crimson Tide 19 – 10 (9 – 7 SEC)
Want to find the most hot and cold team this season? Here ya go. Alabama started the year 14-9 overall and 4-4 in the SEC.
‘Bama has come together as of late, winning five of six and their last three losses have come from Auburn and twice to Kentucky. Nate Oats and his squad have the potential to make it to the Sweet 16, but Alabama has to show more consistency.
Current odds to win National Championship: +7000
25. Iowa Hawkeyes 20 – 8 (10 – 7 Big Ten)
Scoring 83.8 points/game, Iowa ranks 4th in the nation in scoring only behind offensive juggernauts Gonzaga, South Dakota State, and Arizona. The Hawkeyes are hot as of late winning six of their last seven games and averaging 88 points in those wins.
Keegan Murray is 4th in the nation in scoring with 23.2 points/game and is also the Hawkeyes leading rebounder.
Current odds to win National Championship: +12000