Is there some separation — and semblance of calm — coming to 2023-24 college basketball just as we enter the madness of March?
After four months of action that saw top-15 teams getting upset seemingly every single night, this past week saw just five losses from teams ranked in the top 16 of last week’s Power Rankings. And all but one of those five losses were to teams also ranked in the Power Rankings. That outlier was Kansas‘ home loss to BYU, which is now in the waiting room this week.
Is the past week’s performance a blip or a sign of the rankings chaos slowing down? Three weeks ago, there were only seven losses by the 16 teams in the Power Rankings, but two weeks ago featured 10 losses by teams in the top 16. Only one team has dropped out of the Top 16 in each of the past two updates, and zero teams dropped out from last week to this week.
Neil Payne wrote earlier this week that top-10 teams have won just 78.1% of their games against unranked opponents this season, far below the past average of 85.5%.
Are the truly best teams finally emerging and separating themselves from the pack? Or is this just the calm before the storm of the postseason? We don’t quite have the answers (yet).
On to this week’s awards and rankings …
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Tennessee shines down the stretch to take down Alabama
Tennessee picks up a huge road win as it comes up clutch down the stretch to take down Alabama.
Tennessee’s chance at an SEC regular-season title — and a potential 1-seed in the NCAA tournament — essentially hinged on this past week: against the best defense in the SEC outside of Knoxville (vs. Auburn) and the best offense in college basketball (at Alabama). And Rick Barnes’ team passed both tests — in very different ways.
Against the Tigers, it was the Dalton Knecht Show. Auburn looked poised to come out with an upset win on the road, leading by eight in the second half, until the Northern Colorado transfer completely took the game over, finishing with 39 points on 12-for-21 shooting and 5-for-8 from 3-point range. Twenty-seven of Knecht’s points came in the second half, including 25 in the final 12 minutes — a stretch during which Auburn scored just 21 as a team.
On Saturday, Tennessee’s defense and supporting cast carried the load. The Vols limited Alabama to 9-for-37 shooting from behind the arc, including just two 3s…
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