College Basketball Couch Power 10 (March 6th)
In perhaps the biggest conference game of the season, Jaime Jaquez Jr. put the finishing touches on UCLA's Pac-12 title, 1-seed pursuit, and his own Player of the Year credentials.
Well, college basketball fans, you made it. It's March. It's arrived. The sadness you feel with the recognition that yesterday marked the end of the sport's regular season will, I'm sure, dissipate as soon as I issue the following reminders: it's conference tournament week!!! And in just eight days, March Madness will officially be underway!!!
We're oh-so-close to the greatest postseason in all of sports, and I can hardly wait. And I say that as a fan of the game, not as a biased fan of a certain underwhelming team who managed to get swept by their mediocre archrival this season who just desperately wants the pain to stop. But before the Big Dance well and truly kicks off, the college basketball gods gave us several more twists and turns. How could they not? We've been lucky enough to get a whole season of them.
This last week of the regular season arguably saved college basketbal''s best for last, serving up 17 losses by ranked teams in a 5-day stretch, with 11 of them coming to unranked opponents! Lest you think this chaos was confined to the bottom of the rankings or something, half of last week's Top 10 were those ranked victims. And that's to say nothing of the copious near-misses, such as #2 Kansas narrowly edging Texas Tech, or Purdue barely escaping Madison with a win. Madness down to the wire!
I've said it all along, I'll say it one last time: it's been a wild and unpredictable season. Despite this, I’ll try my hand at one more ranking of the top teams based on what they did this season:
1. Houston
Houston came perilously close to losing their last game of the regular season, but a Jamal Shead game winner gave them a road victory over tournament-bound Memphis. The Cougars now enter the postseason on an 11-game winning streak, with a 1-seed virtually guaranteed, and thanks to losses by other top teams, with the top overall seed very much in play.
2. UCLA
For a long time, I was confused by UCLA's high ranking, but they just kept winning while everyone else dropped games; the Bruins closed their season not only a 10-game winning streak, but having lost only twice since Thanksgiving. "Fine, but show me a quality win against a great team," I said. Well, UCLA followed up their demolition of an Arizona State team desperate for a win to get off the bubble by easing past #8 Arizona on Saturday to clinch the Pac-12 title. The Bruins are the class not only of the Pac-12, but of the West in general, and have done more than enough to convince me they deserve a 1-seed.
3. Kansas
Joe Lunardi, ESPN's bracketologist, responded to Kansas' season-ending loss to Texas by semi-apologetically moving them up to the top overall seed in the bracket. We don't do such 'moral victories' here at The Couch, so the Jayhawks fall in our rankings. Still, the reason Lunardi cited for moving them up to #1 overall is the same reason I'll use to justify only dropping them 1 spot in our Power 10: the defending champions' 1st-ranked scheduled strength in the country and eye-popping 15 quality wins mean that a season with 6 losses is really quite impressive, even when one of those losses is a blowout in the season finale. Regardless of the Big 12 tournament outcome this weekend, look for KU to once again be a top seed in the Big Dance.
4. Alabama
Alabama had been flirting with losses in just about every game the last couple weeks (pretty much since the story about star player Brandon Miller broke), and finally toppled over the edge in the last game of the season, a tough road game at Texas A&M. Still, given the Crimson Tide's Top 10-rated schedule, and 13 quality wins-- bested only by Kansas --they very likely have secured a 1-seed. The SEC tournament will likely feel more like an opportunity to rediscover their lethal form than a need to prove their top seed credentials.
5. Purdue
I was harsher than most pundits and pollsters on Purdue due to their late-season slide, so I need to give credit where due: the Boilermakers righted the ship just in time, closing their season with tough wins over Wisconsin and Illinois. This was no small feat, given both opponents are squarely on the bubble and would have loved a chance to boost their resume with a win over the Big Ten champions. Depending on Purdue's performance in Chicago this week, they remain very much in play for a 1-seed.
6. Marquette
Marquette dominated Butler, then survived a scare from St. John's to finish the season with 11 wins from their last 12, and secure their first Big East title in over a decade. Shaka Smart deserves a ton of credit for how quickly he's elevated this program, and the balanced Golden Eagles will be a tough out for any team this postseason.
7. Texas
It was a mixed bag for the Longhorns in the final week. They were felled on the road by a TCU team desperate to get back to winning ways, but avoided ending the season on a 3-game slide in a major way: by blowing out reigning champions and potential #1 overall team Kansas 75-59 on Senior Night. That big result was enough to secure 2nd place in a vaunted Big 12, which more than likely will also be enough to solidify at worst a 2-seed in March Madness, thanks to their 12 quality wins. This is an inspired group playing for interim coach Rodney Terry, and I guarantee Texas is a side nobody will want to see in their brackets.
8. Gonzaga
Gonzaga finished the season playing the way they hoped to play from the start. Their demolition of Chicago State marked 9 straight wins to close the season, and a 26-5 record that's good enough for a Top 10 'strength of record' bragging point. That is likely thanks both to some losses, competitive ones to Purdue, Texas and Baylor, that have all aged like a fine wine, and wins, such as Michigan State, Kentucky, Xavier and Alabama, that have aged even finer. As they kick off WCC tournament play tonight, the Zags will be hoping another conference title, which would likely involve another win over #15 Saint Mary's, might be enough to bump them up all the way to the 2-seed line.
9. Arizona
Not to go 'full Lunardi' here, but I'm bumping Arizona up a spot from last week despite the Wildcats' somewhat stumbling finish to the season. The loss at UCLA meant they not only finished a distant 2nd in the Pac-12 to the Bruins, but also finished losing two of their last three. Still, with as many other teams that lost in the final week, Zona's body of work on the whole regular season still compares pretty favorably. Yes, 4 of the 6 losses were near-inexplicable. But you have to imagine their 7-1 clip in 'big games' is going to grab the committee's attention even more so, with wins over UCLA, San Diego State, Indiana, Tennessee, and Creighton giving them several victories against teams likely to end up a Top 5 seed.
10. Miami
I'll say the same thing in our last Power 10 of the season that I did the first time Miami appeared on these rankings: y'all are sleepin' on the Canes. Of course, Miami did themselves no favors with the occasional perplexing loss in a historically weak ACC; there are still no words to describe that 25-point collapse to lowly Florida State two Saturdays ago. But still, that stunning, buzzer-beater loss was the lone blemish in The U's last 9 games of the season. They are a balanced, tough team who clinched their first ACC title in a decade by holding off a fellow experienced, balanced, tough team in Pittsburgh, and with six major wins in their pocket, will be a side nobody wants to face in the next couple weeks.
Just missed: Baylor, Connecticut, Kansas State, Xavier, Virginia, Armando Bacot's UNC career
BONUS!
Couch Regional Seeding
SOUTH (Louisville):
1. Houston
2. Texas
3. Miami
4. Kansas State
WEST (Las Vegas):
1. UCLA
2. Gonzaga
3. Arizona
4. San Diego State
MIDWEST (Kansas City):
1. Kansas
2. Marquette
3. Baylor
4. Xavier
EAST (New York City):
1. Alabama
2. Purdue
3. Connecticut
4. Virginia
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