Zach Hayes is an editor, contributor and bracketologist for Rush the Court.

As the calendar flips from February to March and the college basketball world rejoices at the prospect of another rapidly approaching NCAA Tournament, it’s time to take stock as to where the top teams around the country stand. When the long-awaited tournament does commence, the path to glory evolves into a narrative predicated on matchups rather than rankings, so allow this to serve as more of a final snapshot as the regular season winds to a conclusion. Who is peaking at the right time? Whose style of play translates best into the grind of March? What perceived flaws could derail a run deep into March? Let’s begin with the team most currently resembling a seemingly unflappable juggernaut:

The Spartans crack the top 5 in the latest rankings

1. Kentucky (28-1, 14-0)

Locating a potentially fatal weakness in a team one buzzer-beater away from an undefeated record isn’t an easy task. Freshman point guard Marquis Teague, much like his predecessors at the position under John Calipari, has improved substantially throughout the season, posting 52 assists compared to 21 turnovers in his last nine SEC games. Their athleticism will render even the best man-to-man defense ineffective and the combination of Doron Lamb and Darius Miller can make shots over any zone look. Kentucky also boasts arguably the best perimeter defender in the country in Michael Kidd-Gilchrist – whom Calipari utilized to suffocate Dee Bost in the second half of their comeback win in Starkville – and the best post defender in National POY frontrunner Anthony Davis (4.8 blocks per game and countless other alterations and denials). If there’s one nitpick it’s the fact Kentucky rates #84 in the country in three-point defense and rarely forces turnovers defensively; if Teague reverts to his sloppy ways, Lamb/Miller have an off-shooting night against a zone and a team is able to make jump shots over their length, Kentucky could slip in a one-and-done scenario.

2. Syracuse (29-1, 16-1)

The Orange still only have one blemish on their resume – a blowout loss at Notre Dame without indispensable center Fab Melo – but they haven’t exactly been blowing away the opposition the last few weeks, edging West Virginia, Georgetown, Louisville and Connecticut by three points or less and barely getting by both USF and Rutgers with late runs. There’s room for improvement, especially on the offensive boards where opponents are snagging 38.3 percent of available misses, one of the drawbacks of playing every possession in a zone defense where no specific man is assigned to keep off the glass. They compensate for plenty of those second-chance points with the best zone defense Jim Boeheim has employed in recent memory and a capacity to convert a Dion Waiters steal (tenth in steal percentage) or a Melo swat (fifth in block percentage) into a transition opportunity where the Orange excel. Their enviable depth also allows Boeheim to shuffle in and out as many as ten different players depending on opposing personnel, foul trouble, the flow of the game and Scoop Jardine’s focus level.

3. Kansas (25-5, 15-2)

Thomas Robinson deservedly receives most of the accolades, but Tyshawn Taylor’s been the best at his position in the Big 12 since conference play began. He’s a matchup nightmare for opposing point guards because of his size, strong frame, quick first step and blazing end-to-end speed. Taylor is also efficient shooting the basketball from both inside (51 percent) and outside (44 percent) the arc while correcting his career-long battle with turnovers, committing just six or more in a game just twice during Big 12 play. With Elijah Johnson taking on more of a distributing role, Travis Releford as a glue guy defender and zero guard depth on the roster, the much-maligned Taylor has had to shoulder a heavy load and is a gigantic reason why Kansas continued their incredible streak of eight consecutive conference titles. Robinson and Taylor will pack a punch, but their prospects in March may come down to whether Jeff Withey can provide a third scoring option and Connor Teahan hits outside shots off the bench. Withey injured his ankle and played just nine minutes against Missouri, a loss that won’t be absorbed so easily in the NCAA Tournament against a bigger frontline.

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Like it or not, we’re going to keep doing these things, so here’s our fourth installment of the RTC Podcast. In this week’s episode, we jump right into the brutally competitive Big Ten race, discuss what might have been the game of the year between Missouri and Kansas, debate the value of great sixth men, and rant about some of the most trite phrases we’ll hear about the NCAA Tournament bracket over the next 12 days. Give us a listen!

1. The big news yesterday was in fact no news, but instead the upcoming piece by George Dohrmann on UCLA in this week’s Sports Illustrated. While most of the attention on the piece has been centered on reports of drug use at the school, which has been met by yawns by the non-media, but there are also supposedly reports of “abuse” that could paint a very bad picture of beleaguered coach Ben Howland. While Howland has what could be a phenomenal incoming class coming in, it will be interesting to see how bad this story makes Howland and the school look and if it brings more negative stories to the surface. [Ed. Note: The post is now available on SI’s iPad app and the Zip file for the article can be downloaded and viewed without an iPad or an SI subscription. Thanks to Jeff Eisenberg for pointing this out.]
2. In a bad relationship that one side wants to get out of? In many cases it will cost you some money to do so and for Texas A&M and Missouri that will be the case as the two schools will pay the Big 12 $12.4 million each to leave the conference and join the SEC in July. Fortunately, this settlement appears to have been much less contentious than for the Big East. While we have not found any articles explaining it, we would love to hear the rationale for the different departure fees especially for the two schools that left the Big 12 after last season.
3. ESPN GameDay will be at the Duke–North Carolina game, but one media “outlet” will not be there as Grantland, the pet project of Bill Simmons, was denied a media credential. Normally, this would not be a major issue as many non-mainstream media outlets get denied, but Simmons, who has over 1.6 million Twitter followers, tweeted out his displeasure with Duke and essentially declared a Twitter war with them, which will probably last until the next Blake Griffin dunk.
4. We still are not sure exactly what impermissible travel benefits the family of Reggie Johnson took that led to his suspension over the weekend, but the Miami center was reinstated yesterday. Johnson, who claimed to have no knowledge of these benefits, was only held out one game (a huge win over FSU) and will be allowed to return with the understanding that he will repay the value of the benefits to a charity. Johnson’s return gives the Hurricanes their best big man back in time for the North Carolina State game, but more importantly should serve as a significant booster for their NCAA Tournament chances.
5. Can rushing the court cost a team the game? Apparently it can as it cost Delaware State when their fans prematurely rushed the court and the team was charged with a technical foul for a delay of game giving Morgan State two free throws which they made to win by one point. We have not seen video of this, but as the article points out the officials may have erred here based on the NCAA’s rulebook and precedent from earlier this season where officials during the Creighton-Long Beach State situation handled a similar situation completely differently and in our opinion in a much better manner.

Evan Jacoby is a regular contributor for RTC. You can find him @evanjacoby on Twitter. Night Line will run on weeknights during the season, highlighting a major storyline development from that day’s games.

Just when we thought the Big Ten pecking order was clearly established, Tuesday night’s action had to throw us all off a bit. Michigan State, already having clinched at least a share of the Big Ten regular season title, was dominated from the start and dropped a road game at Indiana, 70-55, in front of another raucous Bloomington crowd. The win gave Tom Crean and the Hoosiers their third win over a top five opponent this season, just the fourth time a team has done that in the past decade. With wins over No. 1 Kentucky, then-No. 2 Ohio State, and now No. 5 Michigan State, the Hoosiers have proven that their balanced attack can lead to elite results. But Tuesday’s win reverberated all the way to Columbus and Ann Arbor as well in that the Big Ten race now gets very interesting.

Indiana Soared to a Big Victory on Tuesday Night (Getty Images/A. Lyons)

Before touching on what this win means for IU, it’s necessary to look at the impact Tuesday’s result could have for the Big Ten as a whole. A Michigan State win would have clinched the conference regular season title and enhanced their chance for a #1 seed, but the Spartans got thumped and dropped to 13-4 in conference. Now, Ohio State and Michigan both again sit just one game back of first place. Both teams play their remaining two games away from home, but if they do in fact handle business on the road then we will be looking at a three-way tie for the Big Ten title. If the Buckeyes can defeat Northwestern on Wednesday night, then Sunday afternoon’s game between OSU and MSU looms especially large. A win by Ohio State would give them a share of the Big Ten title, and it would be difficult for the Selection Committee to have Michigan State ranked higher on the NCAA Tournament S-Curve having lost two straight games and carrying a worse overall record. The game will be played in East Lansing, so Michigan State can end all such speculation by notching a win, a Big Ten title, and a great opportunity at a #1 seed. Of course, nothing has been going as planned this season, so you’ll just have to stay tuned in to see what happens the rest of the way.

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Evan Jacoby is a regular contributor for RTC. You can find him @evanjacoby on Twitter. TT4 will cover four selected teams of interest – Syracuse, Indiana, Murray State, and UNLV – by tracking their ups, downs, and exciting developments throughout the course of the season.

The final week of the regular season is upon us. One of our teams, Murray State, even begins its postseason as the Ohio Valley Conference tournament begins later in the week. This is a crucial time for teams to build confidence and polish their resumes heading into the NCAA Tournament. Let’s take a look at how all of our teams are playing right now as they head into the home stretch.

UNLV Runnin’ Rebels

Anthony Marshall and UNLV Are Locked In Again (Las Vegas Sun/S. Morris)

• Trending UP Because… – After dropping two in a row, the Rebels recovered nicely with back-to-back double digit wins in the past seven days. More importantly, their top conference competitor lost both its games, setting up for a crazy finish to this season. UNLV (24-6, 8-4 MW) is tied with New Mexico and San Diego State atop the Mountain West with just two games to play. The Runnin’ Rebs have still lost three straight road games and will look to end that streak when they head to Colorado State on Wednesday.
• This Week’s Key Cog – Chace Stanback. The swingman led the team in scoring in both wins last week, averaging 20.0 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 2.5 steals per game. The senior shot a fantastic 9-13 from three-point range in the victories.
• Play of the Week – After a turnover, Anthony Marshall misses the layup but Mike Moser finishes strong with a putback jam against Boise State on Wednesday.
• Talking Point – Coach Dave Rice on getting the win over Air Force on Saturday: “It was very important to us to get our swagger back. Our swagger is our defensive intensity.”
• Handicapping the Race – Who’s going to win the Mountain West? The Rebels have a tough draw down the stretch with bubble team Colorado State on the road, followed by Wyoming at home in the season finale, a team they lost to earlier this season. New Mexico, meanwhile, gets two home games against the bottom feeders of the conference.
• Stats Central – UNLV’s average scoring margin of +19.4 points in home games this year ranks 11^th in the country. But its road margin is just +2.0, hence the 6-6 record in true road games this season.
• What’s Next? – As mentioned, the Rebels take a trip to Colorado State on Wednesday (10:00 PM ET, CBS Sports Network) before drawing Wyoming at home on Saturday (10:00 PM ET, The Mountain) to finish their regular season.

Murray State Racers

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The first night of Championship Fortnight went off without a hitch, as the Big South Tournament began its opening round Monday with Radford and Gardner-Webb the first victims of elimination through tournament action (grayed out below). Four more teams will be knocked out tonight as the Horizon League tips off its tournament at various home sites.

One programming note since we received a methodology question yesterday. Since Cornell, Columbia, Brown and Dartmouth were already mathematically eliminated from the Ivy League’s regular season “tournament,” those four teams were excluded originally along with several other ineligible schools (due to APR, transitional, etc.). With no automatic bid to the NCAA in place, we decided to provide the remaining Great West Conference schools and Independent teams the courtesy of staying in the CoM until their regular seasons were complete. As such, we also eliminated Cal State Bakersfield in this version.

Brendon Mulvihill is an RTC contributor. You can find him @themulv on Twitter. See bottom of the post for the Official RTC Star System.

We are counting down until March as the college hoops frenzy begins to build. Tonight the Michigan State Spartans look to clinch an improbable Big Ten regular season title and some teams in question look for answers in the SEC.

#4 Michigan State at #21 Indiana – 7:00PM EST on ESPN HD (****)

• With a win tonight, Michigan State would clinch the Big Ten regular season title and a possible number one seed in the NCAA Tournament. The Spartans are playing extremely strong basketball heading into March having won seven games in a row. Over the last 10 games, only Minnesota was able to shoot above 50% eFG against Tom Izzo and company. Keep a close eye on how Sparty defends Indiana’s two-point shooting specifically Cody Zeller. While Indiana is one of the top three-point shooting teams in the nation, they do not take many from downtown and their offense depends quite heavily on the free throw line. If Michigan State is playing strong interior defense without fouling, the Hoosiers will have a tough time winning this game.

Tom Izzo goes for another regular season Big Ten title tonight.

• It will be important for Indiana to establish Zeller early by feeding the post. Additionally, the guards need to drive the ball to the net to create fouls or easy three-point opportunities on the drive and kick. Look to see if Indiana can create turnovers. Michigan State has had some trouble with turnovers including a turnover rate of 28% in their last game against Nebraska. While that game was a complete blow out, Indiana’s offense can make a team pay for such mistakes. The Hoosiers are 3-7 when creating turnovers on less than 18% of opponents possessions, so it’s an extremely important stat to watch during the game.
• This game will be won in the paint. Michigan State throws Draymond Green, Adreian Payne, and Derrick Nix at Zeller. The trio held Zeller to 4 points and 4 rebounds in 23 minutes of action in the Spartans victory over the Hoosiers in late December. Zeller is going to have to have a much bigger game in order to take this one from the Spartans.

Jesse Baumgartner is an RTC columnist. His Love/Hate column will publish each week throughout the season. In this piece he’ll review the five things he loved and hated about the previous seven days of college basketball.

Five Things I Loved This Week

I LOVED….Kansas and Missouri making a play for Game of the Year. I still think you can’t top the North Carolina/Duke game, but for momentum swings and quality, Saturday’s game in Lawrence was right up there. I don’t know if I’m more impressed with how well Missouri played in a ridiculously hostile environment, or that Kansas found a way to win after getting down big. Either way, I think I like both teams’ Final Four prospects better after that one.

I LOVED….Pat Knight’s rant. No, it probably wasn’t the best choice of words or the most thought-out statement. But you have to love when coaches just say what’s on their mind and don’t give the usual coach-speak BS. Fans love getting an unfiltered view, and Pat did his dad proud with that sound-off.

I LOVED….trying to figure out what UConn can even do to make the NCAA Tournament. They’re 17-11 and 7-9 in the Big East, with games against Providence and Pittsburgh left. They’ve beaten Florida State, Harvard, St. John’s and Notre Dame as far as OK wins go. Outside of winning the Big East Tourney, obviously (which started last season’s title run), I’d say Jim Calhoun’s underachieving group has to win out and win two games in MSG – maybe three. Any guesses?

I LOVED….wondering if Georgetown has found its happy place. I seriously haven’t thought about the Hoyas for more than five seconds all year, and it usually consists of – “Is it February yet? OK, they’re finished.” But here they are with just six losses and in the Top 10 as we get set to enter into March. Perhaps GU has lowered our late-season expectations so much that they’ve finally stopped pressing?

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1. In an interesting twist, Mississippi State had been relatively quiet for a few weeks. Sure, their team was falling apart on the court, but at least they were not imploding off of it like they have done quite frequently recently. That all changed yesterday when star forward Arnett Moultrie told a reporter that he did not think that the team was tough enough to bounce back from their five-game losing streak. While we tend to agree with Moultrie’s assessment it is shocking that Moultrie would come out and say that publicly although maybe we should not be so surprised when none of his teammates have come out and challenged that assertion even anonymously.
2. While most of the nation (or at least the college basketball-watching part) watched the last regular season Border War game for the foreseeable, former Kansas star Marcus Morris watched the game in Lawrence. Following the Jayhawks remarkable comeback, Morris reportedly went to a local Lawrence bar where he was cited for his involvement in a fight well after midnight. The fight reportedly involved another man at the bar and an employee, who was punched at least twice. The details on what actually occurred are hard to find right now, but Morris will be due back in a Lawrence court on March 20, which will fall on the Tuesday in between the opening and second weekend of the NCAA Tournament.
3. Gregg Doyel is known for going after hot-button topics and yesterday he took on another one as he defended the coaching ability of John Calipari. It might sound like a ridiculous topic to even discuss and some might even argue that Doyel is essentially building up a straw man just to knock him down, but apparently there are a handful of people out there who think that Calipari is just a great recruiter/salesman and not an excellent coach. While we might agree that Calipari’s ability on the recruiting trail might exceed his X-and-O capacity, that is not meant as much as a slight as it is a reflection of how he is the best recruiter in the game right now. The fact is that there are plenty of coaches who get great recruits to come to their school, but fail to back it up with results on the court and John Calipari is not one of those coaches.
4. Looking for scatter plots with regression analyses to try to figure out which teams are going to do well in March? If the answer is yes (or if you just want the latter part to figure out who will do well in March), John Ezekowitz may have the answer for you. The actual conclusion probably is not groundbreaking for most fans, but the actual analysis and the fact that it may give you flashbacks to statistics class is certainly worth a look. Of course, since the results fit what we already suspected we are always more willing to buy into what he is selling.
5. In this week’s edition of Hoop Thoughts, Seth Davis takes a look at Marquette, a top 10 team from the Big East that nobody is talking about as a national title contender. While Seth is not willing to call them that yet, he does note how strong the program has become under Buzz Williams, who is just his fourth year as head coach at the school. To Davis the story with Marquette is not just what they have done this season, which is remarkable in its own right, but instead what they have become as a program and what the future holds for a program led by a coach who is not even 40 yet.

Tonight’s Lede. Championship Fortnight is under way! With three days still left in February, the Big South Tournament tipped off its opening round at two different campus locations to mark the arrival of the best time of the year. Elimination basketball, baby. Most of the nation is still focusing on the last week of the regular season in the power conferences, and the final Big Monday of the 2011-12 season featured one of the country’s two NPOY candidates in action, an RTC that went oh-so-badly, and an impressive defensive performance by a team we’re having trouble figuring out. Let’s jump in…

See That? Tournament Basketball Has Started... (credit: Big South Conference)

Your Watercooler Moment. When RTCing Goes Very Wrong. You all know our general set of guidelines when it comes to rushing the court. Make it special. Listen to your gut. Full and complete coverage. Easy enough, right? Well, it goes without saying that you shouldn’t be RTCing for any reason until the game is actually over. Delaware State’s fans must not have gotten the memo tonight against Morgan State, and it severely cost them. After a tip-dunk by Tahj Tate gave the Hornets a one-point lead very late in the game, players and fans spilled onto the court in jubilation of the apparent victory. The only problem — there were still 1.1 seconds remaining on the game clock. After a significant delay, the officials levied a delay of game technical foul on Delaware State, allowing Morgan State’s Aric Brooks to hit two free throws to win the game. It’s not very often that MEAC basketball is highlighted on the national stage for something significant — this certainly isn’t the PR hit that the league offices were probably hoping for.

Survive and Advance. Big South. The Big South Tournament got under way on Monday night with High Point overtaking Gardner-Webb, 68-58, and VMI (remember when they could score?) outlasting Radford, 55-53. High Point will advance to play the top seed, UNC-Asheville, on Wednesday night, while VMI will take on the #2 seed, Coastal Carolina.

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