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NCAA Basketball: Examining title contenders, Texas Tech’s return & more takeaways

By Brian Rauf

LUBBOCK, TX - FEBRUARY 23: Jarrett Culver #23 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders goes in to dunk the basketball during the first half of the game Kansas Jayhawks on February 23, 2019 at United Supermarkets Arena in Lubbock, Texas. (Photo by John Weast/Getty Images)
LUBBOCK, TX - FEBRUARY 23: Jarrett Culver #23 of the Texas Tech Red Raiders goes in to dunk the basketball during the first half of the game Kansas Jayhawks on February 23, 2019 at United Supermarkets Arena in Lubbock, Texas. (Photo by John Weast/Getty Images) /
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LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY – FEBRUARY 05: PJ Washington #25 of the Kentucky Wildcats celebrates in the game against the South Carolina Gamecocks at Rupp Arena on February 05, 2019 in Lexington, Kentucky. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY – FEBRUARY 05: PJ Washington #25 of the Kentucky Wildcats celebrates in the game against the South Carolina Gamecocks at Rupp Arena on February 05, 2019 in Lexington, Kentucky. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) /

With just days until March, only five teams have a legitimate chance to win the national title. That and more takeaways in this week’s Rauf Report.

The NCAA Basketball regular season is quickly coming to a close, which is kind of hard to believe, isn’t it? Major conferences have two more weeks of regular season action before conference tournaments get underway, while many mid-majors are entering their final week of regular season play before tourney time. The exciting thing about late February/early March is when conference title races go down to the wire, and there are many high-profile races that will take center stage over the next couple of weeks.

Marquette has a one-game lead over Villanova in the Big East, and they will meet for the final time this week in what might serve as a de facto title game. The same goes for Houston and Cincinnati, but we have to wait for them to meet in the regular-season finale on March 10.

There are also two major conferences that have a three-way tie for the lead. Duke, North Carolina, and Virginia are all deadlocked at the top of the ACC after all three won in convincing fashion on Saturday. The SEC is in the same boat with Kentucky, LSU, and Tennessee, but the Tigers currently have the edge after beating the Wildcats and Vols in the past two weeks.

Michigan, Michigan State, and Purdue are all tied in the loss column at the top of the Big Ten, but that will change today with the Wolverines and Spartans engaging in their first battle on Sunday (it’s crazy we’ve had to wait this long for them to play, isn’t it?).

However, the most intriguing race might be in the Big 12, as it seems Kansas’ streak of 14 consecutive championships will be coming to an end. The Jayhawks fell two games behind first-place Kansas State in an eyebrow-raising 91-62 loss to Texas Tech. That game told us more about the Red Raiders than it did the Jayhawks (who we’ve discussed several times over the past few months), and that is where we start this week’s Rauf Report.

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