The Big 12 has been the strongest league in the country, while the ACC has notoriously struggled this season. It's comfortably in seventh place (behind the Mountain West) in predictive metrics, including the NET.
Defenders have pointed out that the ACC has done pretty well in the NCAA Tournament in the past decade, shrugging off regular-season inconsistencies. That's fair. But 2023 might be different. The ACC will not have a team among the top two seeds and getting on the 3-line seems almost impossible. Putting even one team on the 4-line is now the goal. That's where the bar is.
Here's what's at stake: If no ACC team is seeded between Nos. 1-4, that would be a first. This year is setting up to be the worst seeding situation the ACC's ever had at the top -- not in terms of bids, but in terms of its best-seeded teams in the "lowest" spots. The previous highest total between the two best-seeded ACC teams? Ten, last year: Duke was a No. 2, UNC was a No. 8 ... and we know how that ended up. In 2021, Virginia and FSU both were No. 4 seeds, which was its feeblest showing at the top to that point in history.
We'll see if we wind up getting there; I get the sense one ACC team will do enough to barely squeak onto the No. 4 line. Virginia, Miami and Duke are all capable of winning enough to justify it, but would you bank on any to do it?
What makes this all the more shocking: The ACC had three No. 1 seeds in 2019, and one of them won the national title. Virginia cut down the nets, while Duke and Carolina also got No. 1 seeds. That completed a six-year run of at least one ACC program landing on the top line. In fact, it happened in all but one year (2013) from 2004-2019. Now, it's trying to get one team as a No. 4 seed? Strange times in arguably the proudest basketball conference in the country.
This season has been a cacophony of craziness, and March is only going to double down on the absurdity. With that in mind, let's get to an eclectic final edition of this season's Hey Nineteen.
Hey Nineteen Power Rankings
Reminder: My rankings are not solely about whom I think is "best." This is a weekly encapsulation of the 19 hottest, most successful and/or most *interesting* teams, combining team quality with win quality but also having no shame for recency bias and rewarding significant winning streaks. All records shown are vs. D-I competition.
| 1 |  |
| Record: 27-2 | Last week: 1. With the regular season wrapping this weekend, this marks the final power rankings of 2022-23. Until we meet again on these Cougars, a casual reminder: Houston is the only two-loss team in the country. The Coogs have been ranked No. 1 in advanced metrics since early January. This is objectively the best team in college hoops, and it's still not getting the kind of discussion and widespread respect most other teams in this spot would. If Houston wins its next two games, it will join the '83 and '84 teams as the only UH clubs to lose one or fewer conference games. Those previous teams made it all the way to the national title game. | |
| 2 |  |
| Record: 25-5 | Last week: 2. Kansas has claimed its 64th regular-season league title, which is an NCAA record. Its narrow win over Texas Tech on Tuesday also marked the 40th straight season Kansas won on Senior Night, which is some sort of voodoo. Bill Self also now claims — and this is absurd — 21 regular-season conference championships in his past 25 years as a coach, including his time at Illinois and Tulsa. Kansas, in my opinion, needs one more win (a record 16th Quad 1 victory) to have rightful, undisputed claim to the No. 1 overall seed. | |
| 3 |  |
| Record: 25-4 | Last week: 3. A preseason prediction that went as expected: UCLA is the outright Pac-12 champion, the first time it's won the league since 2012-13. It's the school's conference-leading 32nd overall regular-season title. The Bruins are nudged up against Purdue for the fourth No. 1 seed; a home sweep of the Arizona schools Thursday and Saturday would present a compelling case. It sure feels good for college hoops to have UCLA mattering on a weekly basis for the past few years. | |
| 4 |  |
| Record: 24-6 | Last week: 5. Eyebrow-raising: Marquette made it up to No. 6 in this week's AP poll, marking its highest ranking since 1978. To commemorate such an achievement, Shaka Smart's team efficiently took care of Butler on the road Tuesday, a 72-56 win. With the victory, Marquette clinched a Big East title, becoming the first team in that conference to get picked as low as ninth and go on to earn a conference crown. Tyler Kolek should be the league's player of the year, and if Marquette wins the Big East Tournament, I expect it to be a No. 2 seed. | |
| 5 |  |
| Record: 24-4 | Last week: 4. The Crimson Tide have been taken to overtime by South Carolina and Auburn in two of their past three games, and the other was the narrow win over Arkansas over the weekend. So, some unsteadiness, but wins nevertheless amid the backdrop of the still-not-fully-explained Brandon Miller/Jaden Bradley story. The Tide maintain their No. 1 seed status heading into this weekend's game at Texas A&M. The matchup doesn't carry drama anymore because Bama's 90-85 OT win on Wednesday secured the SEC title outright for the second time in three years. It hasn't done something like that since 1940. Bama just clinched the program's third undefeated season at home in history. | |
| 6 |  |
| Record: 25-5 | Last week: 9. You know, I think Gonzaga's riiiiiight where it wants to be. No huge pressure that comes with being ranked in the top five most of the season, no undefeated record it's carrying into March, no punditry predicting Final Four futures. Because of that, I think Gonzaga will be helped in floating ever-so-slightly off the radar, though obviously that matters little when it comes to guaranteeing another deep tournament run. Bottom line: This season has gone to plan for Mark Few, for the most part. The Zags have won 83% of their games after Few scheduled, per what he told me in November, his most challenging nonconference assembly yet. | |
| 7 |  |
| Record: 23-4 | Last week: 16. With Eastern Washington promptly falling right after it got inclusion in the power rankings last week, that means Oral Roberts owns a 14-game winning streak, tied for the new best stretch. The Golden Eagles ran the table in the Summit League, the only school to not lose a conference game this season. They've got a 6-foot star (Max Abmas), a 7-5 center (Connor Vanover) and are well-stocked in wing play. Made the Sweet 16 two years ago and can do it again. Yeah, this is high in the rankings, but almost everyone that was ranked lost in the past week. Not ORU! | |
| 8 |  |
| Record: 23-6 | Last week: 18. To the small group of readers who are just now checking in on college hoops coverage in March: If you're wondering why I put Oral Roberts and Toledo in a top 10, just scroll back up and look at how these rankings are built each week. Reward the winning! The Rockets, like Oral Roberts, are recent claimers of the longest winning streak in men's college hoops. Tod Kowalczyk's team hasn't lost dating back to Jan. 10. Toledo is holding off equally good Kent State atop the MAC. The Rockets are trying to finally break through to the NCAA Tournament. The school last danced all the way back in 1980. | |
| 9 |  |
| Record: 23-7 | Last week: NR. The Huskies have won seven of eight, their only loss coming by three points at Creighton. On Wednesday, Dan Hurley's team tossed out DePaul after starting the game 29-2 (!). It ended 88-59. Why are the Huskies going from unranked to No. 10? They've scored 85-plus in three straight games in league play for the first time since 2005. ICYMI: Connecticut's been ranked in the top 10 at KenPom since Nov. 26. | |
| 10 |  |
| Record: 22-8 | Last week: NR. Jon Scheyer guided Duke to a 16-0 home record this season. It's the first time since 2013-2014 that Duke ran the home table. The only other high-major coach to not lose at home in their first season since 1996-97: Tommy Lloyd a year ago. For real. The Blue Devils make their first Hey Nineteen appearance in months thanks to winning five in a row and eight of their past 10. And here's a great note from Duke: The Blue Devils have held opponents below their scoring average in 26 of 30 games this season. | |
| 11 |  |
| Record: 23-6 | Last week: 6. A shoutout to The U's social media team. If you're reading/quoting the Hey Nineteen for your team graphics, you're getting the love sent right back to ya. The Canes dip this week after blowing a 25-point lead at home to lowly FSU, but given how many other teams also took on at least one loss in the past 2-10 days, I can only ding Miami so much. The final game of the regular season awaits Saturday vs. Pitt, and in a storyline everyone saw coming, Miami needs to win that game to claim at least a share of the ACC title. Program last accomplished the feat in 2013. | |
| 12 |  |
| Record: 24-6 | Last week: 8. For all of the pub Aidan Mahaney got in February, Logan Johnson is the better player and more important piece for this month. SMC's fifth-year shooting guard is averaging 14.7 points, but he's put up 25.2 in his past six games. The Gaels will have a claim to the 4-line if they can win two in the WCC Tournament and beat Gonzaga in the final. That's only happened once in the past 10 years. | |
| 13 |  |
| Record: 23-7 | Last week: NR. The Wildcats won Wednesday night, easily, over Oklahoma — an avenged loss after the Sooners won by 14 on Valentine's Day. A bumpy patch a few weeks back, but now K-State's won four straight and remains a No. 2 seed in Palm's latest bracket outlook. That would match the program record that Frank Martin achieved in 2010. K-State has never been a No. 3 seed and been a No. 4 seed only thrice, so safe to say Jerome Tang has already authored one of the 10 best seasons in the school's 118-year history. | |
| 14 |  |
| Record: 22-8 | Last week: 13. The Aggies were noted in Wednesday's Court Report as one of my six most interesting tourney résumés heading into the weekend. Fair to call A&M a Big Dance lock at this point, but I'm left wondering how this team gets seeded, especially if it were to lose to a bottom-half SEC team in the league tournament. If the Aggies win at home vs. Alabama on Saturday, they'll set a school record with 15 conference wins — and remember, the SEC plays an 18-game schedule, not 20. | |
| 15 |  |
| Record: 22-6 | Last week: 11. The Aztecs got caught in a wave late Tuesday night at Boise State, falling 66-60 after Max Rice hit some thrilling 3-pointers to boost the Broncos to a win. The L was a minor résumé setback for SDSU, but it helped the Mountain West in its quest to get at least three teams to the NCAAs. When SDSU hears Greg Gumbel calls its name in 10 days, it will be the 10th time in the past 13 NCAA Tournaments this program has been included. And in all but two of them, it's been a single-digit seed. In hoops, SDSU is ready for the (still-not-officially-decided) move to the Pac-12. | |
| 16 |  |
| Record: 22-8 | Last week: 10. The Longhorns would have placed in my top 10 had they been able to win at TCU on Wednesday night, but alas, they never even led in Fort Worth. In fact, UT fell to the Horned Frogs even though TCU had 22 turnovers and its best player, Mike Miles, scored one (1) point. That took the drama out of Saturday's Kansas-Texas game; a Longhorns loss means the Jayhawks are outright Big 12 champs. Texas' hopes for a No. 1 seed now reside with beating KU on Saturday and then making it, minimally, to the Big 12 semis. | |
| 17 |  |
| Record: 22-8 | Last week: NR. The Braves have won 10 straight and are the champions of the Missouri Valley for the first time since the 1990s. The MVC tourney is always a thrill ride, and as usual, you can watch it on CBS Sports Network (Saturday) and catch the league title game Sunday afternoon on CBS. Bradley may well be destined to meet 24-7 Drake — which BU beat over the weekend to clinch the title — in the championship. Would be a stellar mid-major affair if so. The teams split this season and are separated by three spots (78, 81) at KenPom. | |
| 18 |  |
| Record: 24-5 | Last week 7. The Boilermakers plummet after their inability to put together two wins in a row in the past three weeks. Purdue's lost four of six and might drop five of seven because its next game comes Thursday night at feisty/desperate Wisconsin. Something that bodes well for March, however: Purdue has made 441 foul shots this season, while opponents have only attempted 305. That 218-shot difference is the greatest discrepancy in the sport. How will Zach Edey be officiated once he's out of the Big Ten? | |
| 19 |  |
| Record: 24-5 | Last week: 12. The Wildcats beat out the likes of Baylor, Charleston and Hofstra for final mention this season. I've never had a season in which so many teams were losing games/momentum week over week over week. It made for a fun challenge over the past three months. Arizona barely hangs on after its unlikely buzzer-beating home loss to Arizona State on Saturday (Desmond Cambridge from 60 feet!), which was the first time a ranked Zona team was ever toppled by an unranked ASU club. The Wildcats have the LA swing — at USC, at UCLA — to wrap the regular season. A pair of Quad 1 wins would keep U of A in the No. 2 seed discussion. | |
