A prevailing storyline of the last several college basketball seasons has been what #1 Kansas has accomplished under head coach Bill Self. The Jayhawks are in the midst of a run where they have won (or shared) 11 consecutive Big 12 regular season titles, and his group took an enormous step toward its 12th in a row on Saturday with a 76-72 victory at #3 Oklahoma. This season’s team has been characterized as a well-balanced unit and that was on full display as sophomore guard Devonte’ Graham led the way with 26 points while harassing National Player of the Year front-runner Buddy Hield. The victory did not effectively hand Kansas the conference title, as it is still tied with #11 West Virginia atop the league standings, but it did prove (once again) that the Jayhawks are capable of grabbing monstrous conference road wins with trips to #25 Texas and Baylor ahead. This week’s Quick N’ Dirty after the jump.
Quick N’ Dirty Analysis.
- #2 Villanova still earned a majority of #1 votes. The Wildcats ended up in the second-ranked spot this week, but three of our five pollsters put Jay Wright’s squad at #1 in their polls (one pollster ranking Villanova #8 dropped its overall ranking considerably). Villanova did not have its most difficult week of the season in earning wins over Big East cellar dwellers DePaul and St. John’s, but it does deserve some credit for avoiding a disastrous loss. The Wildcats will step out of Big East play when they “travel” to Big 5 rival Temple on Wednesday. Temple has already earned home victories over #22 SMU and Connecticut this season, so Villanova should remain on notice heading across town.
- #15 Duke has rebounded nicely. Duke entered February with a 4-4 ACC record and outside the Top 25 for the first time since the 2006-07 season. Since then, the Blue Devils have run off four consecutive victories, culminating last week with impressive home victories over #21 Louisville and #6 Virginia. Mike Krzyzewski’s team faces a monster week ahead of it, though, as Duke heads to Chapel Hill on Wednesday to take on arch-rival North Carolina before heading to #21 Louisville on Saturday. While Duke pushing to 8-4 in ACC play has been impressive, grabbing a victory in one (or both) of this week’s upcoming games will be a monumental accomplishment.
- #23 Wisconsin entering the RTC25 is an unexpected turn of events. When Bo Ryan retired as head coach of Wisconsin on December 15, the Badgers were just 7-5. When the Badgers lost at Northwestern on January 12, they fell to 9-9. Since that defeat in Evanston, though, interim head coach Greg Gard has led Wisconsin to seven straight Big Ten victories. The most impressive of that run came on Saturday when the Badgers dominated #8 Maryland in College Park throughout a 70-57 win. The schedule gets a bit hairy for Wisconsin down the stretch with road games against #4 Michigan State, #7 Iowa, and #16 Purdue, but the fact that the Badgers are considered a potential NCAA Tournament team is a credit to what Gard has has accomplished in his short time running the show in Madison.
Game of the Week. #5 North Carolina vs. #15 Duke. College basketball’s best rivalry takes center stage on Wednesday night in Chapel Hill, and this game will certainly factor in the ACC standings as the Tar Heels are in first place and the 8-4 Blue Devils are two games back and looking to make a late season charge. An item to keep an eye on here will be what Duke’s interior players — still without injured forward Amile Jefferson — can do to keep North Carolina post players Kennedy Meeks and Brice Johnson from dominating the interior.
Keep Tabs On. #11 West Virginia vs. #25 Texas; #14 Iowa State vs. Baylor; #17 Dayton vs. Saint Joseph’s; #2 Villanova vs. Temple; #9 Xavier vs. Providence; #15 Duke vs. #21 Louisville; #5 North Carolina vs. #10 Miami (FL); #3 Oklahoma vs. #11 West Virginia; #12 Kentucky vs. Texas A&M; #16 Purdue vs. #19 Indiana; #8 Maryland vs. Michigan.
Conference Call. ACC (6), Big Ten (6), Big 12 (5), Pac-12 (2), Big East (2), SEC (1), AAC (1), Atlantic 10 (1), Missouri Valley (1).