College basketball heat check: Kentucky scorching hot, Duke looks broken

Kentucky is rounding into tournament form while Duke is backsliding in the latest edition of the college basketball heat check.

We are officially in March and that means we’ve hit the final week of the college basketball regular season. With time running short before Selection Sunday, being hot could mean the difference of several seed lines in the NCAA Tournament.

In the penultimate edition of the heat check, who is hot and who is not is of the utmost importance. Let’s get started with our rapid risers, headlined by Kentucky.

Rapid Risers

Kentucky

The Wildcats have officially clinched the SEC’s regular-season title, getting revenge on Auburn with a 73-66 win. Since dropping the first meeting at Auburn, Kentucky has ripped off eight straight wins, with six of those victories coming by less than one point. That mental fortitude is a sign that the baby Wildcats are growing up, with John Calipari‘s bunch making a late push up the seed line. If Kentucky can extend their winning streak all the way through the SEC Tournament there’s an outside shot the Wildcats end up on the top line on Selection Sunday.

Virginia

Many left the defending national champions for dead back on Jan. 20 when Virginia lost by a bucket to N.C. State at home to fall to 12-6 on the season. Virginia has responded by winning nine of their next 10, with the one loss coming at Louisville. There are still question marks on offense, but the Cavaliers bolster the nation’s second-most efficient defense according to the KenPom ratings, and that has carried them through this streak. As long as the Pack Line defense is working Virginia will be a tough draw for their opponents in March.

BYU

The West Coast Conference is usually Gonzaga and everybody else, but the league has a second dangerous team with the way BYU has played. The Cougars are winners of nine straight, including a victory over Gonzaga. BYU is absolutely lethal on the offensive end. BYU scores over 80 points per game and ranks in the top 10 in the country in assist rate, which explains why KenPom rates the Cougars as the fourth most efficient offense in America. Don’t be surprised to see BYU as a top-4 seed on Selection Sunday and they also have a chance to reach the Final Four with a good draw.

Fast Fallers

Duke

There may not be a team in America that has had a worse week than Duke. After getting some love as a potential title contender, the Blue Devils went out and dropped back-to-back road games at Wake Forest and Virginia. The former was alarming since Duke blew a nine-point lead with under 90 seconds to go, surrendering 113 points in a double-overtime loss. Duke’s defense is quickly becoming an issue the Blue Devils could be vulnerable to an early exit in March if it’s not fixed.

West Virginia

While Duke may have had the worst week in the country, West Virginia wasn’t too far behind. The Mountaineers allowed Texas to shoot 52.4 percent from the floor in a 10-point loss before getting run out of their own gym in an 11-point loss to Oklahoma on Saturday. West Virginia has now dropped six of its last seven, a stark fall for a team that was comfortably in the top 16 of the NCAA’s mock bracket last month. The Mountaineers should still make the tournament but this ill-timed slump has sent their seed plummeting.

Rutgers

The Big Ten may still get double-digit teams into the NCAA Tournament, but Rutgers is starting to sweat. The Scarlet Knights lost their only game of the week, on the road at Penn State by a point, but it fits a troubling pattern. Rutgers has won 18 games this season, but 17 of those wins have come at home. The only road win that Rutgers has is over 7-21 Nebraska and that poor performance away from the RAC combined with a suspect non-conference schedule could leave the Scarlet Knights vulnerable to getting left out on Selection Sunday.

For more NCAA basketball news, analysis, opinion and features, check out more from the FanSided college basketball section to stay on top of the latest action.