College Basketball Couch Power 10 (Feb. 27th)
Duke was 1 of 11 ranked teams that lost to an unranked opponent last week, although you probably wouldn't know it, as their loss received .5% the amount of coverage Wake Forest's ensuing court-storming did
Welcome back, college basketball fans! Thanks to it being a #leapyear we've got two more days remaining in February instead of the usual one. But although March is delayed by 24 more hours, the inevitable will still happen: this is the last time you'll hear from me until college basketball's biggest month.
We're in the penultimate week of the regular season now (and in fact, for teams in a select few conferences, the last week), so you would assume the picture of who the best is, who the contenders and pretenders are, who will win the major conferences, etc. would all be coming into shape. But beloveds, that's why this sports' postseason is nicknamed March Madness and not March Mundanity. The craziness never stops! The very night I published my Power 10 last week, in which I had lauded Connecticut for avoiding the upset bug that had befallen their title-contender peers, and making a statement with a blowout win over Marquette, the Huskies...lost for the first time since before Christmas, and lost bigly at Creighton. That very same night, after I justified ranking Baylor ahead of several of their Big 12 foes, they went and lost to one of those Big 12 foes, BYU. And those were just the Top 10 teams on Tuesday night! From there over the course of the week, we saw 15 more ranked teams losing, and ALL BUT FOUR of them to unranked opponents. We're two weeks away from conference tournaments, and the percentage of ranked losses that are forced by unranked teams is only increasing. Madness!!
True to form for the last few years in college basketball, it's been a wild and unpredictable season. Despite this, I’ll try my hand at ranking the top teams based on what they’ve done to date:
1. Purdue
Purdue didn't exactly face stiff competition this week in order to reclaim their #1 spot, making easy work of Rutgers and Michigan, two of the worst teams in the Big Ten. But it was the exact bounceback the Boilermakers needed after their stunning loss to Ohio State, and coupled with UConn's big loss, they once again own the #1 strength of record in the country.
2. Houston
Yesterday, Houston ascended to the top of the AP Poll for the first time all season, and it's not hard to see why! Though their big win over #6 Iowa State came before the last Couch Power 10, it didn't come before the last AP Poll, which means their poll week consisted of wins over two Top 10 teams in the Cyclones and Baylor, with Purdue and UCoon both stumbling in recent weeks. Their inferior schedule strength keeps them slightly behind Purdue for me, but their performances since the disappointing loss at Kansas have helped convince me this team is legit.
3. Connecticut
I should have known better than to sing any team's praises an excessive amount this season; it completely tracks that UConn suffered their first loss in 15 games-- and in major fashion --the very night I declared them the undisputed in America. The humbling at Creighton does little to jeopardize the Huskies' standing for a Big East title and a 1-seed, but it does knock them back down to #3 in a hotly contested three-way horserace for #1 and perhaps even more significantly, serves as a reminder that absolutely nobody is invincible as we approach March.
4. Marquette
Coming off an absolute humiliation at Connecticut, Marquette needed a big response this week, and they got it, beating up on a mediocre Xavier team and awful DePaul team by a combined margin of 58 points. I can't blame people for souring on the Golden Eagles after UConn pantsed them by 30+ points, but it still seems like too many are forgetting their Top 5 record strength and head-to-head win over Kansas.
5. Kansas
But speaking of Kansas! I think it's safe to say the Jayhawks are back on track. In the two Saturday games they've played since their embarrassment at Texas Tech, KU has beaten the two Red River Rivals by a combined30 points. They're still looking up at Houston atop the Big XII standings, but it's not an insurmountable gap, and Bill Self might just be rounding his squad into form right at the perfect time.
6. North Carolina
For the first time since Christmas Break, North Carolina went a full week between games. The gap was clearly needed, as they avoided a 4th straight Tuesday night loss, but rather were able to focus solely on Saturday's big clash. Look, I've always thought Virginia was a paper tiger, and I think that's bearing out to be true; but the fact of the matter is, the 'Hoos were the 2nd-placed team in the ACC and John Paul Jones Arena is somewhere Carolina hadn't won since yours truly was in high school. So the Heels' incredibly ugly, yet wholly comfortable 54-44 win felt incredibly cathartic, as did most of last night's quick turnaround against Miami in which RJ Davis set a school record with 42 points...and then came the last few minutes. As they have already done so many times already this season, the Tar Heels came perilously close to blowing their win in stunning fashion. Like they so often have, they managed to escape with a win, but this flirting with disaster act is one that should be cut out before March, which is fast approaching.
7. Tennessee
Tennessee is another team that people kind of seem to forget is in serious contention for a 1-seed. I suppose in fairness the Vols haven't played a ranked opponent since beating Kentucky over 3 weeks ago, and also lost to an unranked opponent in that stretch. But they avenged that loss this weekend by pasting Texas A&M, their third win in the last four games by 25+ points, and when all is said and done, this is still a team that leads the SEC and can lay claim to one of the better resumés in the country, thanks to 6 wins from 10 'big games,' and a Top 20 schedule strength.
8. Iowa State
I was very rude to Iowa State last week, denying them admission to the Couch Power 10 a mere 24 hours after the AP ranked them 6th in the country. But the hairs I was splitting in the Big XII race have become less necessary to split. While several of their conference foes stumbled this last week, the Cyclones had only a routine win over West Virginia to worry about. And in taking care of the Mountaineers, they preserved a Top 10 strength of record, a 21-6 tally on the year (as good as any power conference team not ranked in the Top 3), and a whopping 9 quality wins.
9. Arizona
See, I was finally on the Arizona train, too, and then the Wildcats had to turn around and let me down. It's not that a last-minute loss to Washington State is a bad thing; the Cougars are the real deal, their shock loss to Arizona State notwithstanding, and now own a share of the Pac-12 lead. It's more the fact that Wazzu had already beaten them this season, AND this game was in Tucson, where Arizona had yet to lose this season. Dropping a big game at home, especially to an underdog that's already dealt you one loss this season can damage a team's psyche at the worst time. Zona turned it around with a big win over Washington on Sunday, but with a less-than-stellar strength of schedule and so many teams jostling for that last 1-seed, they really have no room for error in this final stretch.
10. South Carolina
Just as quickly as they left, South Carolina are back! After making a shock debut in the Power 10 two weeks ago, the Gamecocks instantly were annihilated by Auburn and then lost at home to a middling LSU team. Call it the "Couch Curse." But! Lamont Paris, in his continued bid for National Coach of the Year, rallied the troops to a big road win against a solid tournament team in Ole Miss over the weekend, and the 'Cocks still sit primed to do some damage in March, with a very good record and just 1 game behind the SEC lead.
Just missed: Alabama, Baylor, Illinois, Dook, Auburn, that baaaaad man R.J. MF Davis
BONUS!
Couch Regional Seeding
MIDWEST (Detroit):
1. Purdue
2. Iowa State
3. Alabama
4. Dayton
SOUTH (Dallas):
1. Houston
2. Tennessee
3. Baylor
4. Illinois
EAST (Boston):
1. Connecticut
2. North Carolina
3. South Carolina
4. Duke
WEST (Los Angeles):
1. Marquette
2. Kansas
3. Arizona
4. Auburn
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