By Aidan Joly
This is March.
There is much to discuss heading into March, probably too much to talk about in one post. But, here are my biggest talking points heading into the last week-plus of the regular season as well as tournament season.
How does the Big 12 perform?
The Big 12 has been the best conference in college basketball all season and is likely to send eight or nine teams to the tournament, many of them as top seeds.
In this week’s rankings, the Big 12 has three teams in the top 10 and four in the top 15, headlined by Houston at No. 1 in the country this week.
How will the league perform in March? Houston has proven itself as a national championship contender, while Iowa State has a real chance to make a deep run in the tournament. Kansas has been hit or miss all season, but surely could find lightning in a bottle and make a deep run, almost just as easily as it could flame out in the first weekend. Baylor has been one of the most consistent teams in the nation all season as well.
BYU, TCU, Texas Tech and Oklahoma are also all likely to be in the tournament. The conference tournament in Kansas City will be a lot of fun, as will seeing how this league does on the national scale.
How many Mountain West teams get in?
The Mountain West has been one of the best leagues in the country all season and could send up to six teams to the NCAA tournament.
The top six teams in the league have cannibalized each other all season long, meanwhile a seventh team in UNLV is starting to flex its muscles a little bit. It might not be enough for the Runnin’ Rebels to make the tournament, but it’s just another team that is a threat in the league tournament.
Utah State and San Diego State have been the best teams in the league, while New Mexico could be a team that makes a surprise deep run in the tournament. Boise State, Nevada and Colorado State all deserve to make noise in March as well.
In theory, all six should get in. We’ll see how it goes there.
Does Tennessee join the list of top teams?
Houston, Purdue and UConn have been seen as the three best teams in America all season, but Tennessee has seemingly been waiting in the wings all season.
The Vols are the SEC’s best team, sitting at the top of the league with a record of 12-3 in conference play and 22-6 overall. Dalton Knecht has been one of the best players in the country all season as well. The Vols are one game into a four-game gauntlet to end the regular season. They beat Auburn on Wednesday, and are set to go on the road to face Alabama on Saturday, then play at South Carolina on Wednesday before closing out the regular season on Mar. 9 at home against Kentucky.
The chance is really there for Tennessee to grab that last 1-seed. If they can do that, a deep March run is surely in the cards. Can they do it?
The bubble
The bubble is all over the place this season. There are multiple Big East teams on the bubble with Seton Hall, Providence, Villanova and St. John’s, a Red Storm team that looked dead two weeks ago only to carve an opening to potentially make the tournament.
Pac 12 teams in Colorado and Utah are still on the bubble as that league could have anywhere from two bids to four bids.
One big bubble story has been Texas A&M. The Aggies looked pretty safe a few weeks ago, but the team has collapsed in recent weeks and now are on the outside looking in. It’s a similar story with Ole Miss, which has lots of wins but not the quality ones that are needed to get into the dance.
Iowa and Kansas State are probably on the outside looking in, but Iowa has been trending in the right direction the past few weeks. ACC squads in Virginia and Wake Forest are safe now.
Gonzaga is probably safe now too, picking up its second Quad 1 win against San Francisco in what was technically a road game on Thursday night. The Zags were playing for their season on Thursday night and knew it.
Who wins the race in the WCC?
Speaking of Gonzaga, the Zags are sitting in second place in the WCC with a league record of 13-2, outdone by the undefeated Saint Mary’s, which is 15-0 in league play
The Gaels have locked up the regular season title despite the fact the two will face each other on Saturday night in the regular season finale, but the WCC tournament in Las Vegas is a different story, with the two on a collision course to see each other in the league title game.
Gonzaga helped its at-large chances in a big way with Thursday night’s win, but won’t feel 100% safe if it does not get the WCC’s auto-bid.
Who is the National Player of the Year?
Purdue’s Zach Edey remains the favorite to repeat as the National Player of the Year. He has surely earned it, averaging 23.7 points and 11.8 rebounds per game for a Boilermaker team that is one of the top contenders to win the national title.
Still, some players have a case. North Carolina’s RJ Davis is one of them, averaging 21.7 points per game and makes just over 41% of his threes for a UNC team that is in the top 10 in the country.
Dalton Knecht, who was mentioned earlier, has been one of the best players in the country for Tennessee. Kansas’ Hunter Dickinson deserves a shoutout too and is the best player in the Big 12. Duke’s Kyle Filipowski has been good too.
Still, it is tough to see any of these guys passing Edey, who was the favorite at the start of the season and has not been passed by anyone.
Coaching carousel
The coaching carousel is already underway, with DePaul parting ways with Tony Stubblefield in January amidst a terrible season. Stubblefield was fired with DePaul at 3-15 on the season. Interim coach Matt Brady has yet to win a game in 10 tries.
Meanwhile, Ohio State fired Chris Holtmann in February with the Buckeyes at 14-11. Interim coach Jake Diebler has done a good job since as the Buckeyes are 3-1 since he has taken over, with wins against Purdue, Michigan State (on the road) and Nebraska. Diebler isn’t a serious candidate for the full-time gig, but should get looks at Midwest mid-majors.
The Ohio State job could lead to a domino effect across the country. As for other jobs, Louisville is sure to open, while Washington and Stanford seem likely to open. Michigan, Oklahoma State, Arizona State, Vanderbilt and more could open.
Other big jobs such as Villanova, Indiana and USC have a chance to open, but it seems unlikely.
Also, the West Virginia job is still technically open. WVU still has not decided what it will do with interim coach Josh Eilert.
It could be a busy carousel.
Does UConn repeat as national champions or does someone else cut down the nets?
College basketball has not seen a repeat national champion since Florida went back-to-back in 2006 and 2007.
UConn seems to be one of the best candidates in recent memory to snap that drought. Again, the Huskies have consistently been one of the top teams in the country, with a high-powered offense led by Tristen Newton, Cam Spencer, Alex Karaban and Donovan Clingan.
After losing some key contributors from last year’s title team, the Huskies have not missed a beat this year, sitting at 25-3 and 15-2 in Big East play.
Purdue, Houston and more will be trying to take the Huskies down, but UConn does have a real shot to cut down the nets for the second year in a row.
Will they do it? We’ll see.
AJ Hoops 