Houston Remains Atop AP Poll, NCAA NET Rankings
If what transpired on Saturday is any indication of what could happen in the March Madness bracket, watch out.
No. 2 Alabama and No. 3 Kansas won by two and three points, No. 5 Purdue lost to Indiana for the second time this season and No. 6 Virginia lost again.
Fourth-ranked UCLA barely escaped a similar fate before beating Colorado by four points on Saturday.
The conference tournament season gets underway this week while some of the leagues wrap up the regular season.
Houston and Alabama remain first and second in the NCAA NET rankings as the Cougars and Crimson Tide are in line for No. 1 seeds in the March Madness bracket. Tennessee, which fell to 12th in the latest AP poll, is still sitting third in the NET rankings despite recent struggles.
Two teams from the West Coast Conference, three from the Big East and one each from the Mountain West and Conference USA come in before the first ACC team (Duke at No. 24) appears in the NET rankings.
In the Power-5 conference, Kansas leads Texas by one game in the Big 12, Purdue is up by two games on four teams in the Big Ten, one game separates the top four teams (Pittsburgh, Miami, Virginia and Clemson) in the ACC while Alabama leads Texas A&M by two games in the SEC. UCLA has already wrapped up the No. 1 seed for the upcoming Pac-12 tournament.
Looking at the Las Vegas odds, No. 1 Houston (+650) is favored to win the national title. The championship odds for Kansas moved from +1200 to +800. Alabama (+900) and UCLA (+1200) are the other top contenders.
Let’s check the latest college basketball news, stats, injury reports, and college basketball lines. We’ve got plenty of NCAA basketball picks for you to consider.
No Change at the Top
It was a wild Saturday as nine ranked teams lost while three others won one-possession games.
While conference seedings were certainly impacted by the surprising results, the top five teams in the Associated Press Top 25 poll remained the same.
Houston added one more first-place vote to remain first in the national poll. Alabama and Kansas barely escaped upset bids on Saturday to remain second and third in the poll followed by UCLA and Purdue.
Marquette, which won its last three games by one, two and six points, jumped up to No. 6 with Baylor going from ninth to seventh following its win over Texas.
Arizona and Texas only dropped one spot each despite losses on Saturday.
Virginia was the big loser, tumbling seven spots to No. 13 after back-to-back losses to unranked Boston College and North Carolina teams. It was the first win of the season for North Carolina against a Quad 1 team. Still, the 2022 national finalists are sitting at 47th in the NCAA NET rankings and that is very much on the wrong side of the bubble.
Pittsburgh, which now leads the ACC, moved into the poll at No. 25 with Iowa State falling out of the top 25. Pittsburgh leads all Division I men’s teams with a 20-8-1 record against the college basketball spreads.
Good to the Last Shot
Two of the most hard-to-fathom comebacks of the college season took place on the same day.
Miami led Florida State by 25 points and held a 23-point advantage at halftime against the Seminoles on Saturday. The Hurricanes, who were undefeated at home this season, were knocked out of first place in the ACC thanks to the second-half meltdown.
Florida State shot 68% from the field in the second half with Matthew Cleveland’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer lifting FSU to the 85-84 win. The Seminoles were listed by the sportsbook as 16½-point underdogs.
Matt did THAT 🫡#NewBlood | @MCleveland35 pic.twitter.com/ALbtXRcNav
— Florida State Men’s Basketball (@FSUHoops) February 26, 2023
Iowa trailed Michigan State by 13 points with 2:03 to play. The Hawkeyes had five 3-pointers in the final 39 seconds of the second half. Iowa had 17 points in the final minute to force overtime and then pulled away for the 112-106 win.
Bad Looks Abound
With all the remarkable finishes and stunning upsets last week, the two images drawing the most attention is the pat-down of Alabama freshman phenom Brandon Miller in the pregame introductions and Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery engaging in a long staredown with an official during the timeout after receiving a technical foul.
Alabama coach Nate Oats has seen his program in the news for more than the fact that the Crimson Tide is sitting on top of the SEC standings and he hasn’t said the proper things along the way. He did say that the pat-down will not be done again. Of course, it probably should have been addressed once it was reported that Miller returned a gun to former teammate Darius Miles. According to police reports, the gun was used in a murder.
Brandon Miller being introduced during the starting lineups pic.twitter.com/Fen0xT8V8L
— Ryan Hennessy (@RyanWVTM13) February 25, 2023
Miles is no longer with the Alabama program. Law enforcement officials said there is nothing that Miller can be charged with and Alabama is allowing Miller to play.
As for McCaffrey, it is not the first time his on-court antics have drawn attention. That move takes away from an incredible stretch for Iowa as the men’s team had the improbable comeback against Michigan State and the women’s team took down then-No. 2-ranked Indiana.
Get Ready For March Madness
There will be plenty of teams across the nation pulling for Houston to win the American Athletic Conference tournament title, either Gonzaga or SaintMary’s to take it all in the West Coast Conference, Florida Atlantic to came away with the Conference USA title, San Diego State to capture the Mountain West championship and nothing too crazy to transpire in the Big East tournament. There is plenty for those whobet online to ponder in the coming days.
Teams sitting on the bubble will start getting anxious if teams outside the Power-5 conferences that have done enough to secure spots in the March Madness bracket are forced to take up at-large bids rather than earning automatic spots into the NCAA Tournament.
Team of the Week
Arizona State Sun Devils
There are no lack of candidates. Arizona State gets the nod as Dexter Cambridge Jr. hit a 60-foot shot at the buzzer and Arizona State stunned rival Arizona 89-88.
Both teams shot over 50% in one of the most entertaining games of the season in the Pac-12.
Arizona State moved into sole possession of fourth place in the Pac-12 and served notice that it could be a dangerous team in the conference tournament.
Cambridge is averaging 16.6 points over the last five games as Arizona State is 4-1 in those games.
Things don’t get much easier with the Sun Devils wrapping up the regular season with games at No. 4 UCLA and Southern California.
The Shot Heard Around the State❕
Dez wins it from half court 🤯 pic.twitter.com/GyiGFm4Rbk
— Sun Devil MBB (@SunDevilHoops) February 25, 2023
Player of the Week
Jalen Hood-Schifino, Indiana Hoosiers
The spotlight was certainly not too much for the freshman as he had 35 points and seven rebounds to lead Indiana to the win over Big Ten-leading Purdue.
Hood-Schifino topped his previous season high of 33 against Northwestern as Indiana is in a four-way tie for second place in the Big Ten standings heading into the final week of the regular season. The win allowed Indiana to remain in the top 20 in the NCAA NET rankings.
Game of the Week
Kansas vs Texas
- Date, time (TV): Saturday, March 4, 4:00 p.m. ET (ESPN)
There are two matchups between top-10-ranked teams on Saturday. However, the showdown between UCLA and Arizona won’t be for a conference regular-season title. That could be the case, however, when the Jayhawks and Longhorns get together.
Kansas began its current six-game winning streak with an 88-80 win at home against Texas as freshman Gradey Dick led the way with 21 points.
Seedings for the Big 12 tournament and the March Madness bracket could be on the line when the teams meet in Austin.
