As the college basketball season reaches its climax, the regular season champions of the four major conferences are set to be determined in the final week of competition, with league matchups concluding this weekend.
The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) sees Notre Dame still in the lead, despite a recent loss to N.C. State. The Fighting Irish hold a narrow one-game advantage over the Wolfpack. In the Southeastern Conference (SEC), Texas and South Carolina are neck and neck, each having lost one game. Meanwhile, Baylor maintains a half-game edge over TCU in the Big 12, and UCLA and USC find themselves deadlocked in a race within the Big Ten.
Significant games loom this weekend, holding the potential to declare the Big Ten and Big 12 champions. Baylor faces off against TCU on its home court, whereas USC is pitted against rival UCLA.
Notre Dame’s schedule this week features a pair of home encounters against Florida State and Louisville, both of which have remerged in the Top 25, ranked 24th and 25th respectively. Conversely, N.C. State faces ostensibly less challenging opponents in Wake Forest at home and an away game against SMU.
Texas, after convincingly defeating Georgia on Monday, is set to visit Mississippi State and later host Florida. Concurrently, South Carolina will visit Mississippi before rounding off the week with a home game against Kentucky. Aside from aiming for their conference titles, these teams also seek to enhance their standings for the looming NCAA Tournament, prior to the selection committee’s second reveal on Thursday evening.
In a season of shifting ranks, Texas marked its ascent to the pinnacle of the AP poll, becoming the fourth program to seize the top spot this year — the sixth occurrence of such variability since the poll’s inception in the 1976-77 season. No season has witnessed five different schools at No. 1.
On an impressive streak, eighth-ranked North Carolina boasts a perfect 9-0 away record, making it the sole Division I team yet to stumble in a true road setting. The Tar Heels are gearing up to face Duke on Thursday, aiming to maintain their unblemished statistic.
UConn’s Paige Bueckers continues to climb the program’s illustrious career scoring chart, having risen to sixth place after surpassing notable figures such as Kerry Bascom, Nykesha Sales, and Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis in UConn’s victory over Butler. Up next on the milestone ladder is Katie Lou Samuelson, who holds 2,342 career points.
The NCAA’s weekly NET metrics, which the selection committee heavily relies on for NCAA Tournament selections, remain unchanged at the top. UConn retains its No.1 position ahead of South Carolina, Texas, Notre Dame, and UCLA. Creighton stands as the next highest-ranked program outside the elite conferences at 31st.
