It seems as though every NCAA basketball betting week, a new team is argued for in favor of being the best in the country regardless of what was said about them the previous week. That is the nature of a sport where every individual contest means as much as a playoff game, a battle to the very end to determine who belongs where in the national rankings, conferences, and in the national title tournament. Those changes continued this week with the defending national champions taking back their spotlight as the Duke Blue Devil are back at No. 1 for the second time this season.
The Blue Devils rise coincides with one of the strangest betting management weeks of the decade for college basketball, as for the first time since 2003 all four teams that were seeded at the top of the USA Today/ESPN poll lost a game, beginning with the Kansas Jayhawks against their in-state rival Kansas State Wildcats. The Jayhawks were joined by the Ohio State Buckeyes, Pittsburgh Panthers, and Texas Longhorns as the losers that week, and after the reshuffling that took place when it was all said and done the landscape heading towards the March Madness tournament already looked very different.
The Buckeyes are ranked second in the nation in the AP Polls with three wagering service games remaining on their schedule, and only one ranked opponent left to face. Unfortunately for Ohio State that opponent is the same Wisconsin team that handed them their first loss of the year earlier this month, which is crucial since their lead on the Purdue Boilermakers is down to a single game. The Jayhawks are ranked ahead of them in the USA Today/ESPN polls but not according to the AP after falling out of the top spot last week, the third straight week that the No. 1 has suffered a letdown. Kansas has won 25 of 27 games and is on the verge of clinching another Big 12 title, but that is not enough to rival the reigning national champions in terms of merit just yet. Rounding out the top five in the AP polls is Pittsburgh and Texas, who remain locked in battles for their respective conference leads. The Panthers failed to extend the gap between them and the No. 9 Notre Dame Fighting Irish with a close loss at St. John’s last week, while the Longhorns suffered their first loss in Big 12 play this year when they fell to Nebraska.
That leaves the Blue Devils as the only team from the top-five that has really managed to gain any momentum down the stretch, as Duke has assaulted the rest of the ACC to pull within two wins of clinching another conference title. That will be the first step on a long road to potentially capturing another national pay per head title, which is what that program really has set as its goal. For now, it’s the Blue Devils that have earned the right to be called the best in the country.
The Blue Devils rise coincides with one of the strangest betting management weeks of the decade for college basketball, as for the first time since 2003 all four teams that were seeded at the top of the USA Today/ESPN poll lost a game, beginning with the Kansas Jayhawks against their in-state rival Kansas State Wildcats. The Jayhawks were joined by the Ohio State Buckeyes, Pittsburgh Panthers, and Texas Longhorns as the losers that week, and after the reshuffling that took place when it was all said and done the landscape heading towards the March Madness tournament already looked very different.
The Buckeyes are ranked second in the nation in the AP Polls with three wagering service games remaining on their schedule, and only one ranked opponent left to face. Unfortunately for Ohio State that opponent is the same Wisconsin team that handed them their first loss of the year earlier this month, which is crucial since their lead on the Purdue Boilermakers is down to a single game. The Jayhawks are ranked ahead of them in the USA Today/ESPN polls but not according to the AP after falling out of the top spot last week, the third straight week that the No. 1 has suffered a letdown. Kansas has won 25 of 27 games and is on the verge of clinching another Big 12 title, but that is not enough to rival the reigning national champions in terms of merit just yet. Rounding out the top five in the AP polls is Pittsburgh and Texas, who remain locked in battles for their respective conference leads. The Panthers failed to extend the gap between them and the No. 9 Notre Dame Fighting Irish with a close loss at St. John’s last week, while the Longhorns suffered their first loss in Big 12 play this year when they fell to Nebraska.
That leaves the Blue Devils as the only team from the top-five that has really managed to gain any momentum down the stretch, as Duke has assaulted the rest of the ACC to pull within two wins of clinching another conference title. That will be the first step on a long road to potentially capturing another national pay per head title, which is what that program really has set as its goal. For now, it’s the Blue Devils that have earned the right to be called the best in the country.
