Bracket Briefing: Duke, Creighton jump to No. 2 seeds
AT THE WATER COOLER: As the curtains begin to close on the college basketball regular season, every victory - by big or small margin - has the potential to drastically bolster or damage a team's résumé.
March is less than two weeks away and the seeding and bubble madness will only get more dramatic.
BASKETBALL BRUNCH: RELATED: Florida looks like NCAA title contender North Carolina hitting its stride
This weekend paved the way to some shuffling among the top seeds in USA TODAY Sports' latest NCAA tournament bracketology.
One team's emphatic win and another team's narrow victory climbed them up the seeding ladder to No. 2 seeds. Duke barely escaped a pesky Maryland team on Saturday but was the beneficiary of Michigan State's surprising loss to Nebraska, Meanwhile, Creighton routed Villanova for a second time this season to take command of the Big East standings and leapfrog their conference foe in seeding.
The Bluejays (21-4, 11-2) have respectable credentials (RPI of 8, SoS of 18) with losses to George Washington, San Diego State, Providence and St. John's - all tournament-worthy teams. Two blowout wins over Villanova go a long way. With just one of those wins, it's easier for the committee to toss Creighton in the hot-shooting former mid-major category. Now, it's almost impossible to ignore this team's strength as the best team in the Big East (for now) and a tough matchup for any team thanks to a Doug McDermott-led offense. Creighton has three of its final five games on the road, so avoiding hiccups will be crucial, as will its finish in the Big East Tournament, for its NCAA tournament seeding.
Duke's Jabari Parker continues to carry the Blue Devils in pivotal stretches this season.(Photo: Mark Dolejs, USA TODAY Sports)
The Blue Devils' final six games could be a muss less comfortable ride with two tests against a surging North Carolina squad and a home game against top-ranked Syracuse. This late-season ACC slate of course serves as a double-edged sword: There's more room for résumé blemishes yet there's also ample opportunities to make a case for a No. 1 seed should Arizona or Wichita State falter. Duke (20-5, 9-3) barely got past Maryland at home but that's a victory that positions them nicely heading into the home stretch of the regular season.
REWIND: Wichita State remained unbeaten, continuing its perfect season (27-0) with a 84-68 rout of Evansville on Sunday. Nebraska upset Michigan State with a 60-51 stunner, while Wisconsin edged out Michigan, 75-62, in Big Ten action. Creighton bulldozed Villanova for the second time this season in a 101-80 victory, while Louisville obliterated Rutgers 102-74. And SMU suffered a 71-64 setback lost to Temple.
BEST BET TONIGHT: A busy week for North Carolina opens with its regularly-scheduled trip to Florida State (7 p.m. ET, ESPN). Following Saturday's hard-fought home victory against Pittsburgh, the Tar Heels must avoid looking ahead to Thursday night's make-up game against Duke. The Seminoles, meanwhile, had a promising start to the campaign but find themselves struggling to get back to .500 in the Atlantic Coast Conference standings. Some recent strong play from F James Michael McAdoo is a major reason the Tar Heels enter on a six-game winning streak. It will most likely be up to Seminoles' senior F Okaro White to match up with him.
ALSO ON DECK: Oklahoma State at Baylor (9 p.m. ET, ESPN)
NUMBER OF THE DAY: 6. Getting through a season unbeaten is hard. Just getting through one's own league unscathed is challenging enough. With less than a month to go in the regular season, only six Division I teams still claim that coveted '0' in the loss column in the conference standings. Four of them - Syracuse, Wichita State, Florida and Saint Louis - have high rankings to show for their efforts. The other two are flying under the radar. Stephen F. Austin (24-2, 13-0) is showing the way in the Southland Conference, while Delaware (19-7) is off to an 11-0 start in the Colonial Athletic Association. But the Blue Hens' clean league slate gets a huge test tonight on the road at second-place Towson.
WORDS OF THE DAY: 'To come out like that and build ourselves a lead and maintain it throughout the whole game, against a team that really beat us up at home, is a great thing.' - Wisconsin big man Frank Kaminsky, whose 25-point, 11-rebound outing Sunday set the tone in the Badgers' 75-62 win at Michigan.
DAYS UNTIL SELECTION SUNDAY: 27.
Contributing: Eddie Timanus. HOW THE TOP 25 TEAMS FARED THIS WEEKEND
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Scott Gleeson, a national college basketball writer/digital producer for USA TODAY Sports, is on Twitter @ScottMGleeson.
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