Ncaa Tourney Field Takes Shape
League races count the most in the Big Ten, Pacific-10 and Ivy League, where regular-season basketball champions are the automatic qualifiers to the NCAA Tournament.
Last week was a big one in determining both the Big Ten and Pacific-10 outcomes.
No. 3 Minnesota will likely win its first Big Ten title since 1982 and get one of four No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament next month.
The Golden Gophers (22-2, 11-1) won big road games at Purdue and Iowa last week to take a four-game lead in the loss column over five teams. Four of Minnesota’s remaining six games are at home, with road games at Michigan and Wisconsin.
The Big Ten might get as many as six teams in the 64-team NCAA field, but Minnesota, because it is so dominant, might be the only league team that gets seeded among the top 16 teams.
The Pac-10 is still too close to call, but No. 24 UCLA registered perhaps the most crucial league victory of the season with its last-minute win at No. 11 Arizona on Thursday. The Bruins (15-7, 10-3) have a one-game lead over California and Southern California and the schedule in their favor.
Southern California must still play at UCLA. California has only one campus home game remaining and is finished playing the Bruins, as is Arizona. The Wildcats, who are one game behind UCLA in the standings after being swept by the Bruins this season, play four of their final six games on the road.
Princeton (19-3, 9-0) is one of two unbeaten teams in conference play. The College of Charleston (23-2, 14-0), in the Trans America Athletic Conference, is the other.
Princeton, which has won 14 straight, is two games ahead on the loss side with five remaining and will play at second-place Dartmouth and third-place Harvard this week. Victories in those games would give Princeton at least a three-game lead with three remaining, all at home.
Here’s a look at how teams are jockeying for position heading into the final weeks of conference play:
Notable bubble teams/leagues
Arkansas helped itself on Saturday by finally beating a team that will be in the NCAA Tournament Georgia. The Razorbacks still have a lot of work to do, starting tonight at South Carolina.
The entire Big East. No. 18 Villanova, the league’s only Top 25 team, was bounced by Pittsburgh earlier this week. Can the Big East have a bye to 1998?
Now sinking
In the Pacific, University of the Pacific. The Tigers (18-4) have lost two straight games, at Cal-Santa Barbara and at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo, to ruin their chances of going to the NCAA Tournament as an at-large team.
Marquette, once in the Associated Press Top 25, had lost four straight games prior to Monday’s victory at Alabama-Birmingham. Tulane has lost four straight after winning 11 in a row.
Proving ground
The College of Charleston has the nation’s longest winning streak, 17 games. The Cougars made the Associated Press Top 25 poll last week for the first time in school history.
On the rise
Massachusetts, after a 6-9 start, is 16-10 after upsetting No. 10 Maryland on Saturday. The Minutemen also have beaten Boston College and Temple.
Week’s biggest victory
No. 12 South Carolina lost at Georgia, then turned around and dominated No. 8 Cincinnati on the Bearcats’ home court on Saturday. The Gamecocks’ victory elevated their seed in the NCAA Tournament and probably knocked Cincinnati out of consideration for a No. 1 seed.