There’s a lot to watch out for in college basketball this weekend, including who will end up winning the ACC and Big Ten regular-season titles.
It is the final weekend of the college basketball regular season and that means it is time for some of the bigger conferences to crown their champions.
Who will win the ACC?
Heading into the weekend, the Florida State Seminoles and Louisville Cardinals are tied at the top of the ACC standings with identical 15-4 conference records. Sitting right behind both are the Virginia Cavaliers and Duke Blue Devils who each are just a game back with 14-5 records.
On Saturday, all four will be in action. The Seminoles will face Boston College, Duke gets the North Carolina Tar Heels and Louisville and Virginia will play one another.
Nearly every possible outcome is still on the table. There’s a possibility the year ends with a four-way tie.
Though the conference has lacked the firepower we’ve grown accustomed to seeing in recent years, there are still a select few teams that have their eyes set on doing damage in the NCAA Tournament.
The Blue Devils entered the year as one of the top teams and many assumed they would be the favorite to win the conference. Between the legend that is Mike Krzyzewski, another top-five recruiting class and Tre Jones electing to stay in Durham for a sophomore year Duke looked good on paper.
Yet, they’ve been fairly inconsistent and as of late have played like a team that is more likely to be upset in the opening weekend of March Madness as opposed to making a run to the Final Four.
Louisville was also a pre-season favorite for some. Potential All-American, Jordan Nwora was one of two players selected to one of the all-conference teams last season who returned to the ACC this year. The Cardinals were also a young team and had many pieces returning from a group that showed promise despite finishing seventh in 2018-19.
The emergence of freshman point guard David Johnson has fortified this group into a legit contender. Their combination of defense, athleticism and perimeter shooting makes them a team difficult to game plan for in the one-and-done environment the tournament provides.
Florida State looked like it was going to be able to sleepwalk to becoming conference champions not long ago. Duke lost to North Carolina State and Wake Forest in the same week and the Seminoles got a huge head-to-head win over Louisville. All they needed was to beat Clemson and their banner was all but guaranteed. Spoiler alert: they lost by one-point.
Leonard Hamilton has once again put together a deep and talented roster he freely rotates through in-game to keep his kids fresh. This year’s team could arguably be the best he’s had since they won their lone regular-season ACC title in 2012.
Lastly, Virginia won a share of the ACC regular-season title a year ago and the NCAA Tournament as well. The defense has always been the calling card for Tony Bennett’s teams in Charlottesville but with Kyle Guy, De’Andre Hunter and Ty Jerome all leaving there’s been a massive void offensively all season.
Still, as the adage goes, defense wins championships and the Cavaliers have the number one defense according to kenpom.com’s adjusted defense metrics. If Bennett can coach this team to even a share of the title again he should be considered the best coach in a conference full of current or future Hall of Fame members.
Who will win the Big Ten?
A very similar scenario is at play in the Big Ten. While this conference will most likely send the most teams to the NCAA Tournament it remains undecided which of them will win the regular-season title.
Michigan State, Maryland and a red-hot Wisconsin are all 13-6, Saturday and Sunday are the last two days of games of the year. Waiting in the background is the Illinois Illini at 12-7. Saturday will see only the Badgers in action and they will travel to Assembly Hall to take on an Indiana team trying to complete a strong finish to Archie Miller’s third — and best — year with the Hoosiers.
Sunday is when all the eggs will be placed in the basket.
The Spartans take on Ohio State in East Lansing. It will have an added buzz in the arena as it will also be senior night for Cassius Winston and the rest of the graduating class. Winston’s season has been the definition of up-and-down and it will surely get emotional when he gets his chance to plant a kiss on the logo near halfcourt.
Tom Izzo’s team is looking as dangerous as ever now that the calendar has finally turned to March and winning the Big Ten could be the boost this group needs to make a deep run in the tournament.
Maryland will face the Wolverines for an early afternoon tip-off. It seemed like the Terrapins would run away with the conference just a couple of weeks ago but since then they had to beat Minnesota on a buzzer-beater and lost back-to-back games to Michigan and Rutgers.
Anthony Cowan Jr. and Jalen Smith are the two keys to this team. When both are clicking this team is very hard to stop. Both players can play effectively in the paint and on the perimeter. Either is capable of putting the rest of their teammates on their back and carry the team to victory. After a long year, they just need one win to capture the elusive first-ever Big Ten regular-season conference title.
Can San Diego State survive?
The San Diego State Aztecs have lost just one game throughout their entire season. Tha loss came two weeks ago at home against UNLV. After displaying the first real blemish on their armor, they are now looking to double up on Mountain West titles and win the Mountain West conference tournament.
They are just two wins away from accomplishing that goal. Tonight, they will take on Boise State in the semifinals of the Mountain West Championship. Yet, they almost didn’t make it this far. In their quarterfinal meeting with Air Force, they trailed by four points at halftime and looked like a shell of the team that had dominated West Coast basketball all season long.
A 21-3 run in the second half — propelled by the 3-point shooting of Jordan Schakel (who made four in the second half) — helped the team regain its footing and stay alive for another round.
The Aztecs are going to need to keep winning as the NCAA Tournament selection committee tries to lock in on which teams it will choose as the top four seeds. Of the “big four” (Kansas, Baylor, Gonzaga and SDSU) it’s San Diego State with the weakest resume. Without the appeal of being undefeated, they are no longer a shoo-in for one of the No. 1 seeds.
Winning the Mountain West Championship convincingly would be a big feather in their March Madness cap. Another matchup with the Utah State Aggies could await them in the finals. The Aztecs won by 11 and 12 points in their previous two meetings. However, beating a team three times in the same season is quite a challenge.
This likely trilogy will take place Saturday afternoon and it will likely be the best game of the day if it were to happen. San Diego State is looking to cap off a spectacular season but Neemias Queta and Sam Merrill are going to be looking to secure a guaranteed spot in the NCAA Tournament rather than sweat it out next Sunday with the rest of teams hoping to secure an at-large bid.
It’s been a special season for the Aztecs but the hope within the San Diego State program is it won’t end in March but the journey will continue into April and bring them to Atlanta as well.
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