NORTHWESTERN SITS AT CUSP OF HISTORY
Selection Sunday (March 12) is fast approaching — and with it comes a great deal of pressure as well as opportunity. With fewer than four weeks until the NCAA tournament is unveiled, a look at the top three story lines in men’s basketball.
Northwestern: The Wildcats appear poised to make the NCAA tournament for the first time, and they can do it without even being on the bubble. They’re currently projected as a No. 7 seed, safely in after picking up their first signature win — a huge road victory against Wisconsin on Sunday without leading scorer Scottie Lindsey (he has mono). As long as Northwestern doesn’t completely fall apart in its last six regular-season games, it looks like this group is going to make significant history by hear-
ing its name called on Selection Sunday. The Atlantic Coast Con
ference: This is, unquestionably, the best and deepest league this season, and it could get up to 11 NCAA tournament bids. (It helps, of course, that the bubble is pretty weak this season.) Consider this: Wake Forest (15-10, 6-7 ACC) is projected to make the 68-team field — a team with a losing league record and doubledigit losses already.
Yet the Demon Deacons have no losses outside of the Rating Percentage Index’s top 75 and have a strong RPI (31) because of who they have played more so than how they’ve necessarily
fared. So, yes, the league is deep and challenging on a nightly basis.
And its elite teams — Florida State, Louisville and North Carolina — are all projected No. 2 seeds.
Gonzaga: The Bulldogs are almost certainly going to enter the NCAA tournament undefeated. They passed their last major regular-season test — Saturday at Saint Mary’s — with flying colors and have four games left on their schedule until the West Coast Conference tournament. Mark Few’s teams have cruised through each of the last four WCC tournaments, winning the title game by no fewer than 11 points. Gonzaga should be the first undefeated team to enter the NCAA tournament since Kentucky did it in 2015 before falling in the Final Four to Wisconsin. The last team to finish a season unbeaten was Bob Knight’s 1976 Indiana team, which went 32-0 and won the national championship.