Thanks to losses by Oklahoma and North Carolina, a new No. 1 in college basketball will likely be unveiled Monday when the Associated Press and USA Today Coaches polls are released.
The vote could again be split.
Maryland has made a strong case for the top spot with four straight wins, including victories over ranked teams Iowa and Purdue. The Terrapins have star power with arguably the nation's best closer in guard Melo Trimble. Maryland is currently ranked No. 3 in the coaches' poll.
Villanova also has a strong argument, having won 12 of its past 13 and avenging its only loss during that span by beating No. 11 Providence 72-60 on Saturday. The Wildcats are currently ranked No. 3 in the AP poll.
Oklahoma (AP) and North Carolina (coaches) shared No. 1 in the polls this past week. In a season that has been so unpredictable, without a single dominant team emerging, it’s probably only right that the polls reflect it, too.
Here is the rest of your weekly campus tour into what is and what was in college hoops:
Coach of the week
There are plenty of reasons to love West Virginia coach Bob Huggins. His postgame news conference after the Mountaineers defeated Baylor 80-69 to take sole possession of first place in the Big 12 was another example. Asked what would change now that West Virginia was atop the league standings, Huggins deadpanned: “Yeah, our administration won’t make calls to try to get in the Atlantic 10. A buddy of mine told me when we were pretty good that make sure you tell them a dog with a bone is always in danger. There’s a lot of truth to that. When you have what everyone else wants, you have a whole bunch of people trying to get it.”
A week ago, it didn’t seem like West Virginia would be in this position after being dominated in an 88-71 loss at Florida. Immediately following that game, Huggins lamented the irony of possibly being the “worst transition team in the country” despite being a team that feeds off transition.
It looked like a tough week to bounce back from that defeat, with games against No. 13 Iowa State and No. 15 Baylor, but West Virginia pulled off the sweep and is now a game up on Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas in the Big 12. It helped that the Mountaineers limited their turnovers, committing a combined 23 against the Cyclones and Bears after 18 against the Gators.
“I’ve got as good a relationship with these guys that I’m coaching hard as I had back in the old days, because they want to get better and they trust us,” Huggins said.
Big man on campus
Kansas State was 0-8 against ranked teams this season and had just suffered an 18-point beatdown at rival Kansas. Coach Bruce Weber wondered whether the Wildcats had anything left emotionally. About halfway through shootaround Saturday, Weber abruptly stopped his players because he could sense their emotional fatigue. But come game time, Wesley Iwundu showed no signs of being tired.
The 6-foot-7 junior played perhaps the most complete game of his career, scoring a team-high 22 points -- just the third time this season he’s surpassed the 20-point mark -- dishing seven assists and committing only one turnover in the Wildcats’ 80-69 upset of No. 1 Oklahoma. More impressive than his 7-of-11 shooting from the field was that Iwundu also had to chase Oklahoma’s Buddy Hield around on defense. Hield, the nation’s second-leading scorer at 25.8 points per game, had just 13 points through roughly the first 35 minutes of the game.
During one sequence, after Iwundu stole the ball against Hield near half court and the Sooners tried to trap Iwundu back, Isaiah Cousins drew a technical foul for drop-kicking the ball. Iwundu caused that much frustration for OU. “He was [frustrating the Sooners] big time,” Weber told reporters after the game. “You need somebody to be special. ... It was a team win, no doubt, but Wes spearheaded it.”
The place to be
Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham, North Carolina. No. 19 Louisville, which on Monday will make its first trip into Cameron as an ACC member, hasn’t played at Duke since beating the Blue Devils 91-76 in 1983 during Mike Krzyzewski’s third season at the helm.
The Cardinals and Blue Devils are wounded teams for very different reasons. Duke already owns one three-game losing streak in league play that knocked it out of the Top 25 for the first time since 2007. The Blue Devils now face their toughest stretch of the season with Louisville, at home against Virginia, at North Carolina then a return trip to Louisville. Amile Jefferson is still out indefinitely. Duke’s formula for winning still has a thin margin for error.
Meanwhile, the Cardinals’ entire outlook on the season changed Friday when the school announced a self-imposed 2016 postseason ban after an investigation confirmed rules violations occurred. The only achievable goal left for Louisville this season is to win the ACC regular-season title -- and after Notre Dame’s upset of North Carolina on Saturday, the Cardinals are tied for first place with the Tar Heels.
Monday’s game promises to feature two teams playing with a hint of desperation, and that always makes for an entertaining contest.
Number to know
20. There's still a long way to go for Oregon to claim the Pac-12 regular-season title, but it’s sitting in pretty good company. The Ducks are currently alone in first place in the Pac-12 standings, one game ahead of USC and two games ahead (in the loss column) of Arizona, Washington and Utah. The last time the Ducks were 8-2 in conference play (in 2001-02), the team reached the NCAA tournament’s Elite Eight. The same thing happened the last time they reached 19 wins through 23 games back in 2007-08. When the Ducks face Utah at 4 p.m. ET Sunday, they'll have the chance to secure their 20th win in fewer games than any Oregon team since the 1944-45 season.