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NCAA Basketball: UNC’s title hopes, to-do list for bubble teams and more weekly takeaways

By Brian Rauf

CHAPEL HILL, NORTH CAROLINA - MARCH 09: Kenny Williams #24 of the North Carolina Tar Heels reacts after a play against the Duke Blue Devils during their game at Dean Smith Center on March 09, 2019 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
CHAPEL HILL, NORTH CAROLINA - MARCH 09: Kenny Williams #24 of the North Carolina Tar Heels reacts after a play against the Duke Blue Devils during their game at Dean Smith Center on March 09, 2019 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) /
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BATON ROUGE , LOUISIANA – FEBRUARY 26: Head coach Will Wade of the LSU Tigers calls a play during the second half of a game against the Texas A&M Aggies at Pete Maravich Assembly Center on February 26, 2019 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. LSU won the game 66 – 55. (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images)
BATON ROUGE , LOUISIANA – FEBRUARY 26: Head coach Will Wade of the LSU Tigers calls a play during the second half of a game against the Texas A&M Aggies at Pete Maravich Assembly Center on February 26, 2019 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. LSU won the game 66 – 55. (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images) /

In this week’s Rauf Report, we look at why UNC might be the national championship favorite, what NCAA Basketball bubble teams have to do to make the tournament, and more.

The final regular season games on the NCAA Basketball season will take place today, meaning that we’re fully into tournament basketball for the next month. Who else is excited?

Murray State and viral sensation Ja Morant became the first team to punch their ticket to the NCAA Tournament on Saturday night, beating Belmont to win the Ohio Valley title.  31 other automatic bids will be handed out between now and the end of the week as March becomes mad.

March became unexpectedly mad for LSU in a different w ay this week. Yahoo Sports reported that LSU head coach Will Wade was on FBI wiretaps discussing an offer that was made to Tigers freshman Javonte Smart through his handler, Christian Dawkins, who was one of the three men who has already been sentenced in the college hoops trial.

Wade has been suspended and Smart is being held out of games right now, yet neither of those absences stopped LSU from winning the outright SEC title on Saturday night, their first title in a decade.

This situation is one that is both simple and complex at the same time. Wade appears to have clearly broken NCAA rules and, given the fact that he has also been subpoenaed to testify, more violations might be coming out. At the same time, most people agree that college athletes should be compensated in some way more than a simple scholarship.

I have no problem with what transpired for that reason, but that’s a different conversation for a different day. That said, Wade should be punished for breaking rules that are in place, even if they were loosely enforced until the FBI got involved.

Moving back to on-court happenings of the week, we already saw something unexpected in conference play with The Streak coming to an end for Kansas. For the first time since 2004, the Jayhawks did not win at least a share of the Big 12 regular season title. That distinction was earned by Texas Tech and Kansas State this year, as the Red Raiders and Wildcats each earned a share.

What did the other craziness of the week tell us about what is to come over the next four weeks? Here are all of this week’s biggest takeaways in this edition of the Rauf Report.

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