The final Saturday of February ended up being epic and historical in men’s college basketball. All of the top six teams in the AP Top 25 poll lost, the first time that has ever happened on a single day in the history of the poll. A total of seven members of the AP Top 10 lost, which had also never happened.
Will this affect the NCAA Tournament seeding with the last week of the regular season looming? What just happened is equal to having an NFL weekend in which every game ended in a tie. No team would lose or gain an inch in the standings.
The three top teams; Gonzaga, Arizona, and Kansas; all lost tough road games. The teams that could’ve replaced them; Kentucky, Purdue, and Texas Tech; also couldn’t get it done. Defending champion Baylor was the only Top-10 team to improve their seed by moving from sixth overall to fourth overall. The Bears are now the final No. 1 seed.
The damage to Kentucky, Auburn, and Purdue was relatively small. Auburn will move from a lower No. 1 seed to a No. 2 seed. Kentucky and Purdue will slide within the No. 2 seeds.
All of this losing minimally helped No. 7 ranked Duke. The Blue Devils won big on the road in a hostile environment at Syracuse. The 97-72 thrashing made them look like a No. 1 seed, but no matter how impressive they play down the stretch, it won’t match the resume wins of the non-ACC powers this year.
Even with the momentum, they have, along with the retirement of Coach K this year, they only moved up one position in the AP poll. It was a momentous day, but not yet conducive to building your NCAA bracket, which starts in only two weeks.
Article by: Chris Steele, iHearts143Quotes Team member
