It was another wild week of basketball, and we are now less than five weeks away from a March Madness bracket. There was a lot of movement in and around the AP top-25 and the two top teams, Auburn and Gonzaga, stayed put after 2-0 weeks. Kansas got back in the win column which included a big win at home over Baylor, Providence keeps on finding a way to win and they now control their own destiny in the Big East, and Texas Tech made a statement against Texas and their former coach. We also take a look at a couple of teams on the bubble as the regular season starts to wind down.
Kansas Bounces Back in a Big Way
Kansas had a huge bounce back week, beating Iowa State on the road and dismantling Baylor at home. The Jayhawks looked like the team they were before they got beat by 18 points at home to Kentucky and now sit in the driver’s seat to claim their 18th Big 12 regular season title in the last 21 years.
A big reason behind Kansas’ dominating performance was the return of Ochai Agbaji, who missed the previous game at Iowa State due to being on the COVID-19 list. He was tied for the game high in scoring with 18 points and brought in nine rebounds. Christian Braun also had 18 points to go along with 10 rebounds in the win.
The schedule does not get any easier for the Jayhawks as they travel to Austin tonight to take on the 20th ranked Texas Longhorns in what will be their fifth straight matchup against a ranked opponent. Kansas moved up two spots in the AP poll to eighth in the country and are currently looking like a two seed in the projections for the NCAA tournament, but if they continue to win, they could be looking at a one seed.
Providence Continues to Cruise in the Big East
Ed Cooley has his Friars playing at a very high level, as they have won seven in a row and have catapulted all the way up to 11th in the latest AP poll. Providence has looked like a team that can make the second weekend of the tournament, but possibly make a run at the Final Four in New Orleans.
The Friars have an overall record of 20-2 and they sit atop the Big East standings with a record of 10-1 in conference play. Cooley believes this could be the best team he has ever coached which has been evident on the court.
Providence’s rotation runs eight deep and they share the ball well with their top five scorers averaging between 9.5 to 13.5 points per game.
Providence still has its two toughest games ahead as they will face Villanova twice in their final five games. The first of these two meetings will be at home on February 15th and Villanova could be without Collin Gillespie, the reigning Big East player of the year who sprained his ankle on Saturday late in their win over UConn. Providence will be in action again on Saturday when they welcome DePaul to the Dunkin’ Donuts Center.
Texas Tech Ruins Chris Beard’s Homecoming
Chris Beard left Texas Tech to become the new head coach for the Texas Longhorns this past offseason. He made his return to Lubbock on Tuesday night and he was not well received by the Texas Tech faithful in a losing effort for his new team.
The Red Raiders came out guns a blazing and protected their home floor with a convincing 77-64 victory. The crowd on hand for this game was loud from the opening tip to the final buzzer, which helped propel Texas Tech to a big win over their rivals. Four of the Texas Tech starters scored double figures, including a game high 19 points from junior guard Kevin McCullar. Texas Tech shot 42.1% from deep while holding Texas to just 26.1% and forced 14 turnovers.
Most of the damage done to Texas resulted from players who were recruited and played for Beard during his time in Lubbock, including some who helped the Red Raiders to the National Championship game in 2019. This was a signature win for first year head coach Mark Adams, a win that helped get the Red Raiders into this week’s AP top-10, sitting at number nine. Texas Tech finished the week off with another convincing win at West Virginia in Morgantown on Saturday afternoon and will look to keep rolling with matchups at Oklahoma and TCU this week.
Bubble Watch
There was more movement on the bubble this past week and with less than five weeks to play before the bracket is set, the window to make a move keeps shrinking. According to ESPN’s Joe Lunardi the last four teams in the tournament right now are North Carolina, BYU, Florida, and San Diego State. While the first four teams on the outside and looking in are Creighton, Mississippi State, UAB, and Washington State.
After Florida was on the wrong side of this discussion last week, they are on the right side this week. The Gators went 2-0 last week after two close victories at Missouri and at home in overtime against Ole Miss. The leading scorer for Florida returned for Saturday’s win as Colin Castleton scored a game high 17 points. Getting Castleton back will be a huge boost for the Gators tournament push over the next five weeks and they will have a chance to make a big move on Saturday at Kentucky.
On the West Coast, BYU had a very difficult week getting blown out in both of their games at home against San Francisco and Gonzaga. On Thursday night BYU was favored by 2.5 points and lost by 14 points to San Francisco. On Saturday night the Cougars did not look any better as they were embarrassed by Gonzaga, losing to the number two team in the country by 33 points. These losses put BYU squarely on the bubble with a little over a month to go and will head out on the road for three straight games in the WCC.
Another huge week lies ahead of every team battling for seeding and on the bubble, a week that will also feature eight ranked vs ranked matchups including games between 13 Illinois @ 3 Purdue, 14 Wisconsin @ 17 Michigan State, and 12 UCLA @ 21 USC.
