College Basketball Power Rankings – March 2

The college basketball season has arrived at the month of March, and so if you’re trying to make sense of the top 10 teams in the country, you want to know how those top 10 teams would likely be seeded for March Madness if the brackets were released right now. Lots of chaos occurred over the past several days, which means that the rankings will undergo a shakeup.

1. Gonzaga Bulldogs

The Zags lost to Saint Mary’s, but because the other five teams in the top six of the national rankings also lost on Saturday, the Zags keep their top spot. The main point to take away from the rankings – and the fact that so many top-10 teams lost this past weekend – is that whereas Gonzaga and Baylor were easily the two best teams in college basketball last season, this year offers a very different landscape in which no team or pair of teams has separated from the rest of the field. This year is a fluid situation in which several teams have a chance to win it all, and the brackets are likely to bust wide open in the NCAA Tournament. It’s likely to be a volatile tournament this March, but if you had to put one team at the top of the seed list, it’s still Gonzaga, due to the other losses below the Bulldogs.

2. Baylor Bears

This is the big surprise of the past week. We thought Baylor was pretty safely locked into a No. 2 seed, but after the Bears came back from a double-digit deficit to beat Kansas and then handled Texas on the road on Monday night, all while seven teams in the top 10 of the polls lost games, the Bears have moved back up to a No. 1 seed. The Bears have endured a huge amount of injuries, and have lost forward Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua for the rest of the season. One of their best scorers, L.J. Cryer, has missed several recent games. However, Jeremy Sochan is now healthy and is giving this team a huge lift in the paint with his active defense. Adam Flagler is hitting crunch-time shots. Everyone is stepping up to fill the gap with key players out. Baylor has this remarkable capacity to address its most immediate needs with decisiveness and skill. Baylor is now a clear favorite to be a No. 1 seed.

3. Auburn Tigers

The Tigers did lose at Tennessee on Saturday, which offered a reminder that their offense still needs a lot of work heading into March. Their defense is fine, but the offense has problems with turnovers, launching low-percentage 3-point shots, and not getting the ball often enough to future NBA lottery pick Jabari Smith. Auburn needs to run its offense through Smith, force the defense to help him, and then get open shots when the defense double-teams Smith and generally overextends. The Auburn guards need to be less selfish and must focus on distributing the ball to teammates for higher-percentage looks at the basket. Auburn is still in the driver’s seat for a No. 1 seed, but the Tigers can’t afford another slip-up in the next few weeks.

4. Kansas Jayhawks

The fourth and final No. 1 seed probably goes to Kansas, though Kentucky is right behind the Jayhawks and crushed Kansas a month ago. Kansas and Kentucky could both win their conference tournaments and have an argument for a No. 1 seed, but the depth of the Big 12 probably gives Kansas the edge there. If Kansas does not win the Big 12 Tournament and Kentucky does win the SEC Tournament, Kentucky would probably leap past Kansas for the final No. 1 seed, which would be in the East Region and Philadelphia.

5. Kentucky Wildcats

The Kentucky-Kansas fight for a No. 1 seed is going to be one of the more interesting aspects of the next two weeks leading up to Selection Sunday. Kentucky narrowly lost to an Arkansas team which is going to be a No. 3 or 4 seed. That’s not a bad loss. The Wildcats, when healthy, are a load for any opponent to deal with. Some of their SEC losses came when they were not fully healthy. They need TyTy Washington and Sahvir Wheeler to be 100 percent, or at least close to it, in order to make a run to the Final Four and beyond.

6. Arizona Wildcats

The Wildcats were thrashed by Colorado by 16 points on Saturday in a result no one anticipated. Kentucky lost to Arkansas and Auburn lost to Tennessee. Those are really good teams. Colorado is not a really good team, so Arizona has probably dropped down to a No. 2 seed in March Madness at this point. It can still win a No. 1 seed if it takes care of business in the next two weeks, but that No. 1 seed is no longer the guarantee it seemed to be a week ago.

7. Wisconsin Badgers

The Badgers won at Minnesota and Rutgers to move into first place in the Big Ten. If they win two games this week, they will win the Big Ten regular season championship and probably be in line for a No. 2 seed. This would be an amazing story, since Wisconsin was not part of the discussion for preseason Big Ten favorite. Purdue and Michigan were the two teams expected to contend for the conference title.

8. Duke Blue Devils

The Blue Devils are still in position to be a No. 2 seed. It remains true that it will be hard for them to be a No. 1 seed due to the weakness of the ACC, which prevents Duke from grabbing high-quality wins which produce a rise on the seed list.

9. Purdue Boilermakers

The Boilermakers lost to Michigan State and seem pretty locked into a No. 3 seed. If they win the Big Ten Tournament, they might rise to a 2 seed, but that’s a long way off, and will be difficult to do.

10. Texas Tech Red Raiders

The Red Raiders are clearly a No. 3 seed. They lost at TCU but then beat Kansas State to go 18-0 at home this season, a perfect record. Villanova losing last week to Connecticut puts Tech ahead of Nova in the top 10.