If you're a casual basketball fan who cares more about your annualMarch Madnesspools than the men's college basketball regular season, we've got you covered.
WithSelection Sundayless than a week away and power conference tournaments about to begin across the country, here's your guide to get up to speed before the greatness that is March Madness fully begins.
The true title contenders
No. 1 Duke headlines the list of title contenders as the Blue Devils went 17-1 in ACC play and have wins over Kansas, Arkansas, Florida, Michigan State and Michigan out of conference. The Blue Devils are led by star freshman Cameron Boozer, the son of former Duke and longtime NBA player Carlos Boozer. Cameron Boozer will assuredly win the Wooden Award for men's player of the year.
TheBlue Devils are slight betting favorites at BetMGM(+320) ahead of Michigan at +325. The Wolverines have been the best team in the Big Ten, and dealt with foul trouble to key players in their loss to Duke. After those two, Arizona is at +475 and Florida is at +675. No other team has odds better than 10-1 to win the title.
The best players in the country
Boozer is averaging nearly 23 points and over 10 rebounds a game for the Blue Devils while also leading the team with four assists a contest. He's shooting over 58% from the field and over 40% from behind the 3-point line. He's got enough outside shooting to force defenses to guard him closely away from the paint.
Boozer likely won't be the No. 1 pick in the 2026 NBA Draft when he likely declares after the season, however. The top two candidates to go No. 1 are also freshmen in BYU's AJ Dybantsa and Kansas' Darryn Peterson.
Peterson has been seen as the favorite to go No. 1 for quite some time, but his availability this season could put that status in doubt. Peterson has dealt with cramping and other issues this season as he's played in 20 of Kansas 31 games so far. He leads the Jayhawks with 19.9 points per game, but is averaging just 1.8 assists to 1.6 turnovers a game.
Dybantsa leads the country in points per game at 24.7 and has scored at least 20 over BYU's last 10 games. Dybantsa has been a rock for BYU as he's averaging over 34 minutes per game and hasn't played fewer than 34 minutes since Jan. 17.
However, he's struggled shooting from the field lately. Dybantsa has played a total of 116 of 120 possible minutes over BYU's last three games and has shot 22-of-61 from the field and just 4-of-21 from the 3-point line.
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The top teams missing key players
Dybantsa has been asked to do even more for the Cougars as Richie Saunders is out for the season with a torn ACL. The guard was averaging 18 points per game and shooting nearly 38% from the 3-point line before his season-ending knee injury on Feb. 14. It's hard to see how it's a coincidence that BYU finished the regular season 2-4 after Saunders' injury.
Texas Tech still earned the No. 4 seed in the Big 12 tournament and will probably be a No. 4 seed or better in the NCAA tournament. But the Red Raiders are without star forward JT Toppin thanks to an ACL injury of his own. Toppin led the team with 21.8 points and 10.8 rebounds per game. A healthy Toppin makes the Red Raiders a real threat to make the Final Four. But without him, there may be too much resting on Christian Anderson's shoulders for Tech to be a serious factor in March Madness.
North Carolina had been learning to play without star freshman forward Caleb Wilson following his hand fracture on Feb. 10. But any hopes of Wilson coming back for the ACC and NCAA tournaments disappeared last week when he suffered a broken right thumb. Wilson leads the team with 19.8 points per game and is shooting 61% from the field. UNC can make the Sweet 16 without Wilson, but it's hard to see how the Tar Heels can take down Duke in the ACC tournament or make a deep March Madness run without him.
Duke has its own issues with starting center Patrick Ngongba II dealing with myriad injuries and starting guard Caleb Foster getting hurt during theBlue Devils' blowout win over the North Carolina on Saturday. Duke coach Jon Scheyer wasn't exactly hopeful the two players would be on the court during the ACC tournament.
"I haven't thought about it yet," Scheyer said after Duke's win, per Carolina Blitz. "To be honest, the NCAA tournament is the priority … [We] want to be ready to go. But look, I can tell you this, I'll be shocked if both of them are playing next week. I'll tell you that much. But our plan is, how can we get as healthy as possible as ready as possible?"
Is Florida a credible threat to go back-to-back?
The short answer is yes, Florida is a very real contender to go back-to-back and give the NCAA tournament back-to-back champions again after UConn won in 2023 and 2024.
The Gators enter the SEC tournament on a 10-game win streak following a seven-point loss to Auburn on Jan. 24. And none of those wins have been close, either.
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Florida has won all 10 of its conference games by at least nine points and has an average margin of victory of 23.2 points. It's been the most dominant run in all of college basketball thanks to a frontcourt that could be the best in the country.
Six Gators are averaging at least 10 points per game and juniors Thomas Haugh, Alex Condon and Rueben Chinyelu combine to score over 40 points and grab almost 25 rebounds a game. Oh, and all three are at least 6-foot-9, too. It's a big trio that hardly anyone in college basketball can effectively counter. That makes the Gators especially dangerous again this postseason.
Nebraska is good at basketball — seriously
The Cornhuskers' NCAA tournament history is comically bad.
Nebraska has made the NCAA tournament eight times in program history and just twice since Danny Nee took Nebraska to the postseason in 1998. In those eight appearances, the Huskers are 0-8. That includes a loss as a No. 3 seed in 1991, when Nebraska fell 89-84 to No. 14 Xavier.
We're confident that the Huskers will get the first March Madness win in school history this season. Coach Fred Hoiberg's team is 26-5 and finished second in the Big Ten with a 15-5 conference record. Opponents are scoring just under 66 points per game against Nebraska, and junior Pryce Sandfort is averaging 18 points per game.
While we wouldn't bet on Nebraska making the Final Four; we wouldn't be shocked either. This is a team that should make the second weekend of the NCAA tournament. And you can bet whatever Midwest city Nebraska plays its first- and second-round tournament games in will be dominated by people wearing red.
Is Miami (Ohio) for real?
The only undefeated team at the top level of college basketball should make the NCAA tournament no matter what happens during its conference tournament. Notice that we said "should" and not "will."
The Miami (Ohio) RedHawks are 31-0 and the top seed in the MAC tournament. However, the RedHawks are far from a lock to make the tournament thanks to a non-conference schedule that was hardly impressive,largely because many power conference teams didn't want to play them.
At the moment, Miami's NET ranking is No. 53 and is at No. 90 in KenPom's rankings. Those are the advanced stats of a bubble team. But let's be real, leaving out a team that went undefeated in the regular season — no matter the conference — would be a travesty if the RedHawks don't get the MAC's automatic bid.
And even though we think Miami should make the Big Dance no matter what, we're also aware that the RedHawks have been living on a precipitous edge lately. Each of Miami's last three wins have been by a scant two points. And the RedHawks aren't even favored to win the MAC tournament by oddsmakers.
Can they keep the improbable run going? It'd be great for college basketball if they did.
The teams that have disappointed
Purdue opened the season as the No. 1 team in the AP Top 25 and enters the Big Ten tournament as the No. 7 seed after losing four games at Mackey Arena this season.
The Boilermakers went 13-6 in Big Ten play but have lost three of their last five games, including a defeat at Ohio State on March 1 that probably got the Buckeyes into the NCAA tournament.
BYU can be classified as a disappointment too. The Cougars were No. 8 in the preseason AP poll and went 9-9 in Big 12 play. They need to win five games in five days in Kansas City to win the conference tournament.
Kentucky was a spot behind BYU in the AP poll and the Wildcats finished the regular season 19-12 and 10-8 in SEC play. Like BYU, the Wildcats have to play on the first day of the SEC tournament and win five games in five days.
The SEC will get the most tournament bids again
A year ago, the SEC set an NCAA tournament record by getting 14 of its 16 teams into the 68-team field. Only LSU and South Carolina failed to make the field as every other team spent at least one week ranked in the AP Top 25.
The SEC is poised to get the most bids of any conference again this season, but the conference is not nearly as good as it was a season ago. Auburn made the Final Four alongside Florida a year ago and four teams finished the season inside the top 10 and seven teams were ranked in the final AP poll.
This year, the SEC is positioned to get 10 or 11 teams into March Madness. But Florida is the only legit national title contender in the conference. Teams like Alabama, Arkansas and everyone else have real flaws that make it hard to build a title case.