Set conference tournament brackets are being released, the group of teams in the running for the four No. 1 seeds is dwindling and the CBS college hoops theme is blaring from televisions across the country.
The 5 biggest winners and losers from a wild Saturday in college hoops
The most wonderful time of the year has arrived. Welcome to March.
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We made it, guys. Welcome to March.
The madness is rounding into form thanks a wild final day of February which saw some major upsets, several games with huge bubble ramifications and even a couple of conference championships decided. Let’s look at the teams that really helped and hurt themselves for the coming weeks.
SATURDAY’S 5 BIGGEST WINNERS
Wichita State
For a while now, one of the most predictable March storylines has been "Wichita State does what it couldn't do as an undefeated No. 1 seed and makes it to the tournament's second weekend." The Shockers might not be as complete a team as they were a season ago with Cleanthony Early, but they still have one of the nation's five best backcourts, and are fully capable of making a run that is more 2013 than 2014 if they get the right draw (yo committee, feel free to publicly apologize for last year by giving Gregg Marshall's team DePaul in round one).
That potential for a deep run was on full display Saturday, when most of the college hoops world was watching the Shockers dismantle Northern Iowa to win their second straight outright Missouri Valley title. Heading into 2013-14, just one team in the previous 27 years of play in the Valley had finished the regular season with fewer than two league losses. Wichita State is now 35-1 in the conference since then. Pretty unreal.
Of course that one loss was a defeat at Northern Iowa which was every bit as one-sided as Saturday’s game at Charles Koch Arena. Here’s hoping we get a neutral court classic in the championship game of Arch Madness in six days.
Arizona
Sean Miller’s team might not be able to wow you by blowing opponents out the way Kentucky and Duke can, but they simply don’t let other teams pull away. That’s a good thing since there isn’t a group in the country that is better in the final five minutes than the Wildcats. Arizona has now clinched at least a share of the Pac-12 title with that exact type of win at Utah Saturday night. They’re also now right in the mix for a No. 1 seed, and if that falls through, would seem to be a lock to be the No. 2 seed close to home out West.
BYU
The Cougars got the win they absolutely had to have in order to push themselves onto the right side of the bubble by snapping Gonzaga's 41-game home winning streak and beating a top-three opponent for the first time since knocking off No. 2 UCLA in 1981. The performance also drummed up some much-deserved national love for Kyle Collinsworth, who remains shockingly underappreciated despite his status as the first player in Division I history to record five triple-doubles in a single season.
Been sayin’ it for a few years now, but let’s go ahead and just give BYU an automatic bye into the First Four at the beginning of every season. It’ll make the bracket easier to fill out and probably cut down on travel costs for a lot of people. Plus, they’re entertaining.
Villanova
Say hello to the team now in the driver's seat to be the No. 1 seed out West. The Wildcats cleared their biggest remaining regular season hurdle by using a masterful second-half performance to pull off a 78-66 win at Xavier. Taking care of business against Creighton and St. John's before avoiding a 2014-ish early exit at the Big East Tournament should result in Jay Wright and company earning a top seed for just the second time in program history.
Boise State
Sweeping San Diego State in the Mountain West happens about as often as a local newspaper's comment section stays on topic, but that's exactly the task that Boise State was able to complete Saturday evening. The Broncos, who began league play 0-3 after losing star guard Anthony Drmic for the season Dec. 30, are now a pair of wins away from both solidifying their case for NCAA Tournament inclusion and becoming one of the conference's more improbable league champions.
Five more teams that are going to have a good Sunday:
Kentucky - played a ranked team for the first time since Dec. 27 and treated them like they’ve been treating everybody else.
St. John’s - Steve Lavin’s bubble team pulled off a dominating 81-70 win over Georgetown.
Dayton - won at No. 22 VCU to stay in a tie for first place in the A-10.
Tulsa - a gutty overtime win at Memphis might be enough to move Frank Haith’s team into the field of 68 if the tournament started today.
Baylor - the Bears have won four in a row after beating No. 20 West Virginia by 12 and could be the Big 12’s hottest team heading into the league tournament
SATURDAY’S 5 BIGGEST LOSERS
Gonzaga
The dreams of a No. 1 seed are gone, and the talk of being “overrated” and “destined to lose in the first weekend” has never been louder. On top of that reality is the fact BYU also ended the nation’s longest home winning streak at 41 games. Mark Few and company have a big week ahead of them if they want to stay on the two line and have a chance (if Arizona can move up to a No. 1 seed) to stay out West.
Miami
The Hurricanes, who entered Saturday planted squarely on the bubble, lost to North Carolina. They don't have another game against a ranked opponent before the ACC Tournament, and they might not have a healthy star point guard Angel Rodriguez, who has a sprained right wrist. Miami plays at Pitt Wednesday in what almost feels like an NCAA Tournament elimination game, before closing the regular season at Virginia Tech Saturday. Winning both of those will get Jim Larranaga's team to 20 wins overall and a 10-8 mark in the league. That should give them a chance heading into Greensboro, but without a win over the Heels Saturday, they're still going to need to beat one of the league's five top dogs in order to feel safe on Selection Sunday.
Texas
The proverbial "season-saving" moment was there for Texas, which led No. 8 Kansas for the first 13 minutes of the second half and had a chance to steal the game in the closing seconds. But a controversial no-call on an Isaiah Taylor drive sealed the deal for the Longhorns, who have now lost four in a row and are on the wrong side of virtually every Bracketologists' bubble.
There is no such thing as a “must-win” regular season game when it comes to college basketball in March (never let anyone tell you differently), unless it’s a game a team needs to win in order to qualify for its conference tournament. That said, it’s hard to envision any scenario in which Texas earns an at-large bid without beating Baylor, suddenly the Big 12’s hottest team, at home Monday.
NC State
NC State and the bubble are like those two friends you had who dated in high school, did the right thing and broke up before college, but now it’s junior year and they still refuse to stop casually hooking up and start committing to other people. Just when you think it’s going to stop -- “yeah, the Pack beat Louisville and North Carolina on the road, I think things are going really well” -- something like Saturday -- “what do you know, the Pack got drunk and lost to Boston College by 16 and, of course, the bubble was in its room when I came in this morning” -- goes down.
When the time comes to get hitched, do us all a favor and get it done quietly at the courthouse. No one wants to come to that “celebration” and pretend like we’re happy for you two. You’re both settling.
VCU
For years, the selection committee has stressed the fact that it re-evaluates teams that have lost players to injury, suspension, or what have you. Basically, a team can have an overall resume of a No. 3 seed, but if it’s played poorly since losing a player to a season-ending injury in, say, early February, then it’s probably going to be placed at least one or two lines lower.
Such is the case with VCU, which slipped to 4-5 without Briante Weber following Saturday's home loss to Dayton. The Rams are still safely in the field of 68, but in the last three or four weeks, they've gone from legitimate Final Four threat to a squad that looks like it could be destined for an 8/9 death game. Toss in the fact that Saturday's loss all but guaranteed that Shaka Smart's stigma of having never won a regular season conference title will be sticking around for another year, and March is starting on an awfully sour note in Richmond.
Five more teams who will have a bad Sunday:
Iowa State - The Cyclones have dropped two in a row they didn’t expect to lose after a gut-wrenching 70-69 setback at K-State.
Oklahoma State - A 63-62 loss at Texas Tech isn’t convincing anyone that you don’t want to have a stressful Selection Sunday.
High Point - A triple OT loss at Charleston Southern forced the Panthers to settle for a share of the Big South regular season crown.
Florida Gulf Coast - Saturday’s loss to Jacksonville was Dunk City’s second straight to end the regular season and cost them a share of A-Sun title. The two teams will meet again in the first round of the league tournament.
Ole Miss - A 10-point loss at LSU will make for a final week of the regular season that could be more stressful than Andy Kennedy would prefer.
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