The Matchup is set: It’s No. 4 Duke v. No. 14 North Carolina
There is only one topic of discussion in the Triangle this week: the rematch between Duke and North Carolina. Since the first battle in Chapel Hill, Duke has beaten then-No. 1 Syracuse and Virginia Tech at home and North Carolina has extended its winning streak to 11 straight games. The Tar Heels were unranked in their first game against Duke—they were the first team outside of the top 25—and have flown up the rankings over the last two weeks all the way to No. 14. Each team will have one more game to play before tip off on Saturday with North Carolina hosting Notre Dame on Monday night and Duke traveling to Winston Salem to face Wake Forest on Wednesday. With North Carolina's rise to No. 14, there are now four ACC teams in the top 15.
Virginia Jumps Seven Spots to No. 5
The Virginia Cavaliers have quietly become the best team in the ACC. With all the attention in the conference focused on Syracuse and Duke for most of the season, the Cavaliers have snuck up on everyone, claiming their first outright ACC regular season title since 1981 and moving all the way up to No. 5 in the latest AP Poll. The Cavaliers boast the best defense in the country, allowing only 54.8 points per game on the season and have not lost since Jan. 13 but are also ranked 288th in the country in scoring offense. Despite this, the Cavaliers look just as likely to make a run at the title as any other team in the top 10, with every team having some sort of question mark. Florida plays in the weakest power conference. Wichita State arguably only has one quality win on the year. Arizona does not look the same since losing Brandon Ashley for the year. Duke has moments where it cannot play defense or rebound. Kansas has weeks where they look like the best team in the country and then teams like Kansas State and Oklahoma State remind us they are far from unbeatable. The list goes on and on. Come tournament time, Virginia will be just as dangerous an opponent as anybody else.
Wisconsin Returns to the Top 10
The Badgers have been a tough team to explain this season—but then again, so has the entire Big Ten. Wisconsin has been ranked as high as No. 3 this season and after a rough stretch at the beginning of conference play, fell out of the rankings completely. After clawing its way back, Wisconsin finds itself ranked No. 9 this week and back inside the top 10 again with just two games remaining on its schedule. As for the rest of the Big Ten, Michigan moved up four spots to No. 12 and Michigan State and Iowa each fell four spots sinking to No. 22 and No. 24 respectively.
The SEC Bookends the Poll
The SEC just barely kept its second team in the AP Poll this week. With Florida still sitting at No. 1 in the poll, Kentucky fell all the way to No. 25. The SEC has been relatively weak and inconsistent this year in comparison to past years. The SEC sports the same amount of teams in the poll as the Mountain West Conference and the new Big East and three less teams than the American Athletic Conference. It will be interesting to see which SEC bubble teams get bids to this year’s NCAA tournament, if any.
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