College Basketball Couch Power 10 (Mar. 2nd)
- 3 days ago
- 5 min read
It took a buzzer-beating layup, but Miami (Ohio) kept their perfect season alive. Can they enter the postseason as the only undefeated team in America?
Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, humans and Duke fans. We did it. We made it to March.
College basketball's finest hour is nigh, as the one month a year that it indisputably takes center stage has commenced, and just two weeks from tomorrow, the finest postseason in all of sports will itself commence. Has that stopped the madness from getting started early? Hardly. For the second consecutive week, at the very time I was publishing my Power 10 last week, the Houston Cougars were busy losing a road game to a highly-ranked opponent who would then go on to lose over the weekend. This time, it was Kansas, who kept their daunting streak at Phog Allen Fieldhouse alive, but then would be blown out by Arizona over the weekend. The Jayhawks might find solace in the fact that they were one of just a whopping NINETEEN ranked teams to lose last week! This last week was more a result of big games than the prior ones though, with "only" 8 of those 19 coming to unranked teams. In the ACC, the two Tobacco Road powerhouses created some division within the conference, as Duke dismissed 2nd-best Virginia and North Carolina-- still without injured star Caleb Wilson --outbattled Louisville in a de facto war for "the ACC's 3rd team." We got plenty of separation in the Big Ten, as well, with Michigan, Nebraska and Michigan State all winning "all-Top 15" clashes. We got carnage in the bottom half of the Top 25 in particular, as BYU and Tennessee both were swept by two unranked opponents within a week, and Gonzaga and St. Louis both also dismissed by unranked conference rivals. The lone unbetean team, Miami of Ohio, almost met the same fate as their ranked mid-major peers: in a back-and-forth battle on the road at Western Michigan, it was a tie game headed for an extra period when Trey Perry's layup fell as the clock expired, giving the RedHawks the perfect record-salvaging win.
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. Arizona
Once again, you could make an argument for any of the Top 3 at the # 1 spot, and I wouldn't hold it against you. Arizona's record is identical to the others, but their strength of record is what still slots them ahead of Duke for me; their enormous win over a Kansas side (with Darryl Peterson, I might add) was the Wildcats' 14th (!!!!) quality win of year. They can get one more-- and also can clinch the Big 12 in the process --tonight with a win over Iowa State.
2. Duke
Duke, despite being the highest-ranked team in the land and the conventional prediction for top overall seed in a couple weeks, actually has an inferior strength of record to the other Big 3 teams. But of course, that neutral-site win over Michigan looms large, and this weekend's blowout over UVA cemented the Blue Devils as the best team in the ACC by a country mile. As I type, they're currently blowing the doors off NC State, too, so it doesn't seem their momentum stopping any time soon. They can put the perfect cherry on top of a near-perfect ACC season by avenging their lone conference loss this weekend against North Carolina.
3. Michigan
Despite slipping to # 3 after the Duke loss, Michigan do still possess the highest strength of the record in the land, with a 27-2 clip against the 2nd-hardest schedule in the country. I'm sure Dusty May and this team still believe in their hearts they're the best team, and they have good reason to; their blowout win on the road against Top 10 opponents Illinois reminded everyone just how good the Wolverines can be in their first high-quality showdown since the Duke game.
4. Connecticut
Connecticut had already responded well from the disappointing Creighton loss with a big win over Villanova last weekend, but the Huskies built on that and then some with an enormous 32-point win over St. John's, avenging one of their few losses. It's a fairly open race at the moment for that fourth 1-seed behind the clear Top 3, but UConn's 8-2 record in big games is hard to ignore, as is their head-to-head win over...
5. Florida
...Florida, who has continued their torrid form in SEC play. The reigning champs are one of the hottest teams in the country right now, with just 1 loss in the year 2026 after a sluggish non-conference start that included that loss to UConn. The Gators improved to 6-0 in games against ranked SEC opponents with a huge win over Arkansas, and are rounding into form in quite a similar fashion to last season.
6. Nebraska
After their highly-publicized 20-0 start, Nebraska's balloon lost some air as they lost 4 of their next 5. Hoiberg's Huskers are rediscovering their form right in time, though, with 4 straight wins since that last loss. Yes, those wins have come against easier competition in the Big Ten, although last week's road win over likely tournament team USC is a real feather in their cap.
7. Iowa State
The Cyclones recovered nicely from last weekend's BYU loss by notching a big road win over Utah on their way out of the state. However, for the second straight weekend, they followed that up with a weekend loss, this time at home to Texas Tech. Nobody's gonna hold losses to Tech (even sans their best player) and BYU over Iowa State long, but, especially for a team with a miserable non-conference schedule strength stat dogging them, it's bad timing to lose 2 out of 3 down the stretch, with a trip to Arizona tonight and a Big 12 and 1-seed battle ongoing.
8. Houston
Houston's brutal stretch continued early last week with that big loss at Kansas, their first 3-game slide in a decade. Still, as far as 3 straight losses go, @ Iowa State, vs. Arizona, and @ Kansas are far from inexplicable, and they finally ended the slump with emphasis in a 40-point win over Colorado this weekend.
9. Michigan State
It is March, after all, so should we really be surprised that "Mr. March" and Michigan State are back in a big way? Since their brutal blowout loss to Wisconsin, it's 4 straight wins for the Spartans, and all over potential-to-definite tournament teams. This week was especially eyebrow-raising though, as a road trip in the Hoosier State saw Tom Izzo's side knocking off Top 10 Purdue and blowing out bubble team Indiana. Don't look now, but with a Top 10 schedule strength, and the 6th-ranked strength of record, Sparty is playing for a 2-seed right now... and with a game against Michigan and the Big Ten tourney remaining, they might just have even loftier hopes.
10. Miami (Ohio)
Miami of Ohio kept their perfect season alive with two wins last week on the road at Eastern Michigan, then Western Michigan, the latter coming via buzzer-beater. Yes, their schedule's a joke!! Who cares!! They're 29-0!!! It's Miami-Ohio!! It's fun!! It's almost March!! And by the way, fuck you, Bruce Pearl!!!
Just missed: Alabama, Texas Tech, Gonzaga, Illinois, St. John's, Senior leader and Tar Heel icon Seth Trimble
BONUS!
Couch Regional Seeding
WEST (San Jose):
1. Arizona
2. Nebraska
3. Texas Tech
4. Gonzaga
EAST (Washington, D.C.):
1. Duke
2. Florida
3. Miami (Ohio)
4. St. John's
MIDWEST (Chicago):
1. Michigan
2. Iowa State
3. Michigan State
4. Illinois
SOUTH (Houston):
1. Connecticut
2. Houston
3. Alabama
4. North Carolina
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