College Basketball Couch Power 10 (Mar. 9th)
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Arizona ends the regular season as our top-ranked team as it asserted its dominance over Iowa State, and really, the rest of the big 12 down the stretch. Can the Wildcats finally snap their tournament bugaboo this year?
Well, it’s hard to believe we’re here, but just like that, another regular season of college basketball is in the books. With the last slew of games being completed yesterday, we’re officially into the postseason. March Madness won’t begin in earnest until a week from tomorrow, but this week is arguably the most chaotic and entertaining of all, as every single member of all 31 conferences play in their conference tournaments, chasing their dream of crashing the ultimate tournament, the Big Dance.
As we shift into postseason mode, we’ll take one more look at the favorites, the contenders, and the dark horses for the greatest postseason in American sports. But the last week of the season saw plenty more eyebrow-raising moments that could give us some insight for our brackets. One week ago, shortly after I published the penultimate Power 10, Arizona spanked Iowa State in a crucial conference clash between two Top 6 teams. One night later, we were treated to yet another turbulent Tuesday, as four different ranked teams fell to unranked opponents. Top 10 Nebraska got blown out by 20 by bubble team UCLA, TCU scored yet another Top 15 victory on the road at Texas Tech, SEC runners-up Alabama couldn’t match their football team’s feat and fell on the road at Georgia, and Bobby Hurley led Arizona State to a shocker over Kansas in what could have been his last home game in the desert. # 23 Vanderbilt very nearly became the 5th victim, getting taken to overtime by unranked Ole Miss, but pulled it out, which served them well as they also survived Saturday’s Volunteer State rivalry showdown with # 24 Tennessee. Saturday also had its own dose of chaos: my beloved North Carolina suffered a brutal 1-2 punch with the news that star Caleb Wilson would miss the rest of the season and not 24 hours later, a big loss to archrivals Duke. UConn were stunned at Marquette, leaving the entirety of the Big Ten title to St. John’s. Wisconsin again stunned a ranked opponent in Purdue, and St. Louis got absolutely shellacked by unranked George Mason. In between Turbulent Tuesday and Separation Saturday, the nation’s lone unbeaten faced two stern tests, but Miami-Ohio survived in their home finale as Toledo’s dying shot rimmed out, and two days later won an overtime thriller at in-state rivals Ohio to seal the all-elusive 31-0 season. And yesterday, just as they will this Sunday, the Big Ten took center stage, first with Nebraska narrowly avoiding a second upset by an unranked team on the week and beating Iowa in overtime. Later, in an all-Top 10 clash between Michigan and Michigan State, the Big Ten champion Wolverines completed the season sweep and staked their claim as title favorites in an all-time great edition the rivalry.
Folks, there’s only one word that can sum up all the shifts and moves, the fits and starts in the month-plus since the 2026 Couch Power 10 debuted: madness. ’Tis the season. Let’s get festive, shall we?
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 one last time at ranking the top teams based on what they’ve done to date:
1. Arizona
Duke will finish the regular season as the near-unanimous # 1 team, and I bet if you polled most college basketball fans for who they thought the best team was, the most common answer besides Duke would be Michigan. Yet it's Arizona who closes out the season as The Couch Power 10's # 1 team, for the same reason the Wildcats have been in this spot for two weeks before this: they pass the eye test as well as any team (as evidenced by the 16-point beatdown over a Top 10 Iowa State team), their record in big games slightly edges Michigan's, and their strength of schedule and strength of record slightly edges Duke's.
2. Duke
The Blue Devils finish the season not just as one of the best teams in the country, but arguably one of the hottest as well, winning every single game since that buzzer-beater defeat in Chapel Hill one month ago, and for the most part, barely breaking a sweat doing so. Even if it's just an objective and not at all biased truth that their revenge win over North Carolina doesn't count given the absence of Caleb Wilson, finishing the season with a sweep of the two Triangle rivals-- both tournament teams and ACC Top 5 finishers --by an average of 22 points should send a shiver down any future opponents' spines. Barring a big upset in the ACC tournament (and perhaps even WITH one), Jon Scheyer's squad is likely headed for the top overall seed on Sunday.
3. Michigan
It's so weird to rank this team at # 3 when just about every time I watch them play, I think they're the best team in the country; certainly that was my conclusion as I watched them assert control over a very good Michigan State team down the stretch as the Spartans were playing for revenge and better Big Ten seeding. Such is the quality at the top of the rankings this year, and my deference to head-to-head which prevents me from ranking the Wolverines ahead of their still-recent vanquishers Duke. But make no mistake: this team has all the parts of a title winner, and nobody will want to be in their region next week.
4. Connecticut
UConn's shock loss to Marquette didn't just cost them the Big East title, it also jeopardized their standing for the last 1-seed, for which there's going to be an almighty battle now. This is where that non-conference slate comes in clutch for Dan Hurley's Huskies; I truly believe the Gators are the better team right now, so much so that I almost broke my own head-to-head rule and ranked them higher. But current form aside, Connecticut has the superior record, played the harder non-conference schedule, and beat the defending champs when they met on the court. I'm not at the point where I feel I can overlook that.
5. Florida
Florida have been one of the best teams in the country in the calendar year 2026, and that continued all the way to the end, with a 34-point win over Mississippi State in the home finale, and a comfortable win in Rupp Arena to close out the year. A second straight SEC tournament title could see them stealing the 1-seed in the South, and it would be hard to argue against it if so. That now-bizarre January loss to Auburn is their sole blemish since the holiday season, and 3 of their other 5 losses came to current Top 5 teams.
6. Houston
Nobody would have expected Baylor or Oklahoma State to cause Houston much trouble and sure enough, other than a close first half in Stillwater, the Cougars were not bothered. Kelvin Sampson's team has responded well to that 3-game slide a couple weeks back, and seem to have righted the ship heading into the postseason. A run in the Big 12 tournament, and who knows... a 1-seed in the South Regional (played in Houston) could be up for grabs.
7. Nebraska
Nebraska's last week of the season was far from their best: losing to an unranked team by 20, and then being taken to overtime by another is not the strongest way to close out the season. Still, it was a very strong season, and the final week difficulties could be significantly chalked up to the fact that they were playing two bubble teams in desperate search of a crucial resume-building win. Fred Hoiberg led these Cornhuskers to one of their finest seasons in history, and with a 25-6 record against a Top 50 schedule (and a 2nd-place finish in the deepest league in the country), they are absolutely in the conversation for a Top 2 seed.
8. Michigan State
Similar to both the Duke-Michigan and UConn-Florida conundrums above, I definitely believe Michigan State is the better team than Nebraska at this point-- and they've played the tougher schedule, to boot. But with the Cornhuskers holding both the superior record and the head-to-head advantage, # 8 is the ceiling right now for Tom Izzo's team. Still, as Michigan saw for the first 35 minutes in Ann Arbor on Sunday, this is a team nobody will want to see in their bracket. The Spartans rounded into form quite nicely down the stretch of a brutal Big Ten slate, and with 11 quality wins against the 12th-ranked schedule in America, they won't fear anyone in the postseason.
9. Alabama
This is a bit of an odd week for Alabama to make their basketball Power 10 debut, and I don't just mean because it's the last week of the season: the 8-loss Tide had been on the outside looking in all year, and in a week in which they lose to unranked Georgia, NOW they make their move? I know. It's weird. But look, it was carnage for every team ranked below 4th this last week, and when all the dust settles, we're left looking at a team that played the hardest schedule in America and finished with 23 wins and 2nd place in the SEC. That's a very good season for Nate Oats and co., and the Crimson Tide will be a tough out for anyone in March.
10. Miami (Ohio)
Miami of Ohio kept their perfect season alive with two wins last week in the final second. Yes, their schedule's a joke!! Who cares!! They finished 31-0!!! It's Miami-Ohio!! It's amazing!! It's March!!!
Just missed: Iowa State, St. John's, Gonzaga, Illinois, Virginia, fallen soldier Caleb Wilson 😔✊
BONUS!
Final Couch Regional Seeding
WEST (San Jose):
1. Arizona
2. Nebraska
3. Iowa State
4. Gonzaga
EAST (Washington, D.C.):
1. Duke
2. Michigan State
3. St. John's
4. Virginia
MIDWEST (Chicago):
1. Michigan
2. Houston
3. Miami (Ohio)
4. Illinois
SOUTH (Houston):
1. Connecticut
2. Florida
3. Alabama
4. Vanderbilt
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