NCAA Basketball: Top 16 breakdown, belief in Maryland, and more weekly takeaways

Here are the biggest takeaways from the past week in NCAA basketball, including a look at the top 16 early reveal, why I believe in Maryland, and more.

NCAA Basketball has taken center stage in the sports world following the Super Bowl and the first week without any NFL action provided plenty of high-profile matchups and historic happenings.

We have to start with the thrilling Duke-UNC game, as the Blue Devils erased a 13-point deficit with four minutes left and forced overtime with an incredible missed free throw play by Tre Jones.

Then, in overtime, Wendell Moore won the game at the buzzer with a putback of a Jones miss.

That game didn’t disappoint, and neither did Bob Knight’s return to Assembly Hall – the first time he was there since he was fired in 2000.

That said, the most important thing that happened over the weekend was the NCAA Tournament Early Bracket Reveal. For the fourth straight year, the selection committee released their top 16 overall seeds as things stood prior to Saturday’s game, giving us some insight into their thinking and showing where teams actually stand as opposed to relying on the AP poll.

Here’s what they revealed:

We’ll start this new Rauf Report by breaking down that early reveal before getting to my other top takeaways from the past week of NCAA basketball.