Six weeks from now the field of 68 will be set for March Madness, but six weeks is a lot of time to make moves and get into the tournament and also improve seeding. One team who was able to accomplish this last week was Kentucky, who capped off a 2-0 week with an impressive blowout victory over Kansas at Allen Fieldhouse. UCLA also dominated Arizona on their home floor on Tuesday night, and the bubble is heating up as we take a look at who is playing themselves into the tournament and who is playing themselves out.
Kentucky Rolls at Kansas
Big Blue had an incredibly disappointing 2020/2021 season and failed to make the tournament for the first time in six seasons. It was a difficult year with COVID-19 for the Wildcats, but John Calipari has turned this team around and has Kentucky ranked fifth in the AP Poll after a big road win on Saturday against Kansas.
Kentucky currently sits at 17-4 and 6-2 in SEC play and is projected as a two-seed in the tournament right now by ESPN’s Joe Lunardi. Junior Oscar Tshiebwe leads the team in both points and rebounds and outplayed fellow Wooden Award hopeful Ochai Abaji on Saturday night, scoring 17 points to go along with 14 rebounds and 4 steals in the Wildcats 80-62 win. Keion Brooks Jr. was also big in the victory, as he scored a game high 27 points and 8 rebounds in the rout.
Kentucky was able to get the impressive win despite their star freshman guard and projected lottery pick in the 2022 NBA Draft Ty Ty Washington only scoring 2 points, shooting just 1-9 from the field and 0-4 from deep. Even with the off game for Washington, other players stepped up as this is a team with a rotation that runs nine deep, which is why they can make a deep run in the tournament and find themselves in New Orleans in early April.
UCLA Dominates Arizona
UCLA came into the year as the second ranked team in the preseason and they find themselves ranked third at the end of January. Mick Cronin returned all five starters from the team’s Final Four run a year ago and that experience showed on Tuesday night at Pauley Pavilion.
The Bruins dominated the final 35 minutes of the game against an Arizona team that was undefeated in conference play and only had one loss on the year, on the road at Tennessee in late December. A big reason behind UCLA’s dominant win was Preseason All-American Johnny Juzang, who was tied for the team lead in points with 15. Juzang has had another impressive season, deciding to back out of the NBA draft and return for his junior year, averaging 18.1 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 1.9 assists per game.
All five starters for the Bruins scored double figures with the exception of Tyger Campbell, who had 9 points. UCLA became just the second team in tournament history to reach the Final Four after playing in the First Four, but this year the Bruins look like they could be a 1-seed if they keep on winning games in a top-heavy Pac-12. The experience and depth Mick Cronin’s team has should help them down the stretch and into the Pac-12 tournament, with two games scheduled this week including a rematch at Arizona this coming Thursday.
Bubble Watch
Every game is important for all 358 teams over the final six weeks of the season, and that especially rings true for teams on the bubble of the NCAA tournament. Joe Lunardi currently has Florida, San Diego State, West Virginia, and Creighton as his last four teams in and Oregon, Wyoming, Mississippi State, and Notre Dame as his first four teams on the outside looking in.
Oregon has been playing much better basketball since their 6-6 start, winning six games in a row before losing at home to Colorado last Tuesday. Over that winning streak they beat both third ranked UCLA and fifth ranked USC on the road, drastically helping their resume. Dana Altman’s teams always improve throughout the year and this looks like another group that could make the tournament and be a second weekend type of team.
A team trending in the wrong direction is Florida, with a record of 3-5 in a tough SEC, including 1-4 on the road in conference play. A big reason for the Gators recent struggles has been the absence of Colin Castleton, who has missed the last five games with a shoulder injury, and it does not look like he will make a return to the court anytime soon. Castleton leads Florida with 15.4 points and 9.1 rebounds per game and his absence will continue to be sorely missed down the stretch.
It is another packed week of marquee matchups that will shake up the landscape yet again with nine ranked vs ranked matchups, including games between 11 Wisconsin @ 18 Illinois, 3 UCLA @ 7 Arizona, and 8 Baylor @ 10 Kansas.
