The regular season of college basketball ends this week with a lot on the line in every conference. The mid major conference tournament start this week as well so their will finally be some tickets punched for the NCAA tournament. With March arriving this week let the madness start.

1. Kentucky – Kept up their perfect SEC season with an impressive comeback at Mississippi State. With a #1 tourney see all but wrapped up I could see them losing this week at Florida. I think it may actually be better if they do lose.
2. Syracuse – Escaped again on a questionable call at the end of a game. This is either a team of destiny or one that is being set up for a big time tournament let down. I’m thinking the latter.
3. Kansas – They move up based on the come from behind victory at home over Missouri. Bill Self incredibly wins his 8th straight Big 12 season title.
4. Duke – They got their revenge win over Florida State on some hot shooting. They then went to overtime again at home, but this time pulled it off against Virginia Tech. Have the rematch of the game of the year with UNC Saturday night to keep their momentum going and solidify a #1 seed in the tournament.
5. Michigan State – They are on a roll and setting themselves up for a possible #1 tournament seed if they can survive this last week of the regular season. They have a tough road game at Indiana followed by a home showdown on Sunday with Ohio State.
6. North Carolina – Did not look great this week but got two nice victories over NC State and Virginia. I’m sure they want the victory Saturday nihgt badly and that game should give some insight into if this team is ready to make a run in the tournament.
7. Missouri – If they would have just lost to Kansas last week they would have barely dropped. The home loss to Kansas State is what drops them from 3 to 7. They have a fairly easy week to right the ship before the post season.
8. Marquette – The win last week at West Virginia was good and assured them of a double bye in the Big East tournament. They have another tough road game this week at Cincinnati before closing the season with a home game against Georgetown.
9. Ohio State – Lost their chance at a #1 tournament seed with the home loss to Wisconsin. Are in danger of losing the 2 and even 3 seed if they lose one or two on the road this week at Northwestern and Michigan State.
10. Georgetown – Looked very bad in a loss at Seton Hall but followed it up by looking very good in a win over Villanova. They have some team issues to deal with as coach John Thompson III benched starting Point Guard Markel Starks for the Villanova game. They have a huge week starting with a home game against Notre Dame tonight followed by a road game at Marquette on Saturday.
11. Baylor – Got back on track with wins over Texas and Oklahoma. Finish the season with a tough road game at Iowa State.
12. Wichita State – Are on an 8 game win streak after heading into the Missouri Valley tournament after destroying Drake at home to avenge their last loss.
13. Wisconsin – Apparently they were looking ahead to their game with Ohio State and forgot about Iowa which cost them a bad loss. The win at Ohio State was a huge one that set them up nicely for the end of the season.
14. Florida – This team continues to show that they will live by the 3 and die by the 3. They have a brutal last week of the season with a game at Vanderbilt and home against Kentucky.
15. Michigan – They got embarrassed at home on Senior Night by Purdue. They now have to finish the season with two road games at Illinois and Penn State.
16. UNLV – If someone can explain the Mountain West to me this year please send me an email. UNLV is back in the catbird seat a week after it looked like New Mexico had it all wrapped up. The problem for them is they have a road game at a desperate Colorado State this week.
17. Notre Dame – Finally went cold from 3 and lost a game at St. Johns. They have a big game tonight on the road at Georgetown which would lock up a double bye in the Big East tournament if they win.
18. Louisville – Took a not so unexpected loss at Cincinatti and followed it up with a closer than expected home win over Pittsburgh. They finish off the season with a game at Syracuse that could really help with their tournament seeding.
19. Florida State – Took two losses last week against Duke and at Miami. They are looking a 3 game losing streak square in the face with a road game at Virginia next. Then they close the season with a Clemson team that beat them by 20 the last time they played.
20. San Diego State – Back in the mix in the MWC with the crazy last week. They now end the season with two road games at Boise State and TCU. I fully expect them to lose one or even two with the way the season has gone in the conference.
21. Murray State – How the other polls continue to rank these guys so high I will never understand. i guess we will see come tournament time.
22. Indiana – Get back in the polls after an impressive 19 point road win at Minnesota. They get to finish the season with two home games which could really provide them some nice momentum for the post season.
23. Temple – The 11 game win streak ended with the loss at St. Joe’s. They should finish with 2 wins this week and win the Atlantic 10 title.
24. Saint Mary’s – Won the West Coast Conference title by finish with two road wins. I am fairly confident we are head for the 4th straight WCC title game between Saint Mary’s and Gonzaga.
25. New Mexico – New Mexico stays in the rankings after the disastrous week because I think they are actually still going to win the MWC conference title. They are the only team out of the contenders with two home games to finish the season.