Major conferences still with plenty left to be decided

College basketball has reached the final week of the regular season in all the major conferences.
Kansas guard Devon Dotson (1) makes a basket in front of Kansas State guard DaJuan Gordon (3) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in Manhattan, Kan., Saturday, Feb. 29, 2020. (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner)Kansas guard Devon Dotson (1) makes a basket in front of Kansas State guard DaJuan Gordon (3) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in Manhattan, Kan., Saturday, Feb. 29, 2020. (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner)

College basketball has reached the final week of the regular season in all the major conferences.

A lot is still left to be decided.

While No. 6 Kentucky has wrapped up the SEC title and No. 8 Seton Hall has earned a share of the Big East, the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten and Pac-12 all will come down to the wire.

The Big Ten has a logjam at the top, with six teams within two games of each other.

No. 9 Maryland, which has a half-game lead over No. 23 Illinois at 13-5, has games against Rutgers and No. 25 Michigan this week. The Illini play No. 19 Ohio State on Thursday and No. 18 Iowa on Sunday.

The Buckeyes play No. 16 Michigan State on Sunday and the Spartans, who are a half-game back at 12-6, play No. 20 Penn State on Tuesday. The Nittany Lions get Northwestern on Saturday.

No. 24 Wisconsin, which was ranked this week for the first time all season, plays Northwestern and Indiana as it tries to make up the one-game deficit behind Maryland.

Good luck sorting all that out.

The ACC has four teams within 1 1/2 games of No. 10 Louisville’s lead at 15-4.

The Cardinals have one game this week and it’s a big one: at No. 22 Virginia on Saturday. The Cavaliers, who are 13-5, also play at Miami on Wednesday.

No. 7 Florida State has two games to make up the half-game it is behind Louisville, at Notre Dame Wednesday and against Boston College on Saturday.

No. 12 Duke, which rolled over North Carolina State on Monday, faces rival North Carolina at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Saturday.

The Pac-12 has five teams within two games of UCLA at 12-5. No. 13 Oregon is the only ranked team in the conference and has games against Stanford and California this week. The Bruins face rival Southern California.

Arizona State, Colorado and USC are still in the mix, not only for the regular-season title, but for the coveted first-round byes that the top four teams get in the Pac-12 Tournament.

Kansas, the unanimous No. 1 team in this week’s AP Top 25, has a half-game lead over No. 4 Baylor at 15-1. The Bears beat Texas Tech on Monday night to improve to 15-2, so it will all come down to this week.

Kansas plays TCU on Wednesday, then Texas Tech on Saturday. Lose one of those games and Baylor has a shot at sharing the Big 12 title with a win over West Virginia on Wednesday.

FLYING FLYERS

Dayton capped its Atlantic 10 regular-season title with an incredible offensive performance. The Flyers had their best shooting performance in 34 years, hitting 72.3% in an 82-67 win over Davidson.

All that’s left for Dayton now is to finish the A-10 season undefeated. The Flyers, who have won 18 straight games, play at Rhode Island on Wednesday and host George Washington on Saturday.

Dayton moved up to No. 3 this week, its highest ranking since reaching No. 2 in 1955-56.

PIRATE TITLE

No. 8 Seton Hall has clinched a share of its first Big East regular-season crown since 1993. The Pirates want to win it outright, but it won’t be easy.

Seton Hall plays No. 14 Villanova on Wednesday and at No. 11 Creighton on Saturday. The Pirates beat the Wildcats 70-64 the first go-round, but lost 87-82 to the Bluejays on Feb. 12.

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More AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/Collegebasketball and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25

3 March 2020, 09:01 | Views: 189

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