College Basketball Weekly: NCAA Tournament Tickets have been punched

March has arrived, several conference tournament champions have been crowned, while the final Saturday of regular season action provided plenty of drama for the NCAA Tournament picture. Take a look at what’s to come in today’s College Basketball Weekly post:

• Notable Results
• SEC bubble teams live another day
• Auburn’s 0-2 week
• Duke’s shot at No. 1 overall
• Review of conference tourney champs so far

Notable Results

Kansas 59 @ (3) Houston 65
(1) Auburn 72 @ (22) Texas A&M 83
Texas 87 @ (25) Mississippi State 82
Georgia 73 @ South Carolina 64
Indiana 64 @ Oregon 73
Arkansas 90 @ Vanderbilt 77
(4) Tennessee 76 @ Ole Miss 78
(5) Florida 99 @ (7) Alabama 94
(13) Maryland 71 @ (17) Michigan 65
(15) Missouri 84 @ Oklahoma 96
(20) Marquette 66 @ UConn 72
(18) Purdue 80 @ Illinois 88
Dayton 79 @ VCU 76
Colorado State 83 @ Boise State 73
(19) Kentucky 91 @ (15) Missouri 83
(7) Alabama 93 @ (1) Auburn 91
(2) Duke 82 @ North Carolina 69
(3) Houston 65 @ Baylor 61
Ole Miss 71 @ (5) Florida 90
(6) St. John’s 86 @ (20) Marquette 84
Penn State 86 @ (12) Wisconsin 75
(24) Arizona 76 @ Kansas 83
(25) Mississippi State 92 @ Arkansas 93
Vanderbilt 68 @ Georgia 79
Ohio State 60 @ Indiana 66
Oklahoma 76 @ Texas 72
SIU Edwardsville 69 vs. SE Missouri 48
Drake 63 vs. Bradley 48
Lipscomb 76 vs. North Alabama 65
High Point 81 vs. Winthrop 69
(17) Michigan 62 @ (8) Michigan State 79

SEC Bubble Teams Stay Alive

It seems like every result the SEC has needed to keep its various bubble teams alive has gone the right way lately. Obviously, the league’s dominant non-conference performance set the stage for a dozen or more teams to make the field, but there are 14 programs who could be in the field, and likely 13 at least.

Arkansas has lost Adou Thiero in addition to Boogie Fland but produced nonetheless, beating Vanderbilt and Mississippi State this week to affirm their chances. Vanderbilt is still in great shape after a strong week prior. Meanwhile, Georgia slammed the door on their tourney doubts with four straight wins to close the year.

High drama went down in Austin, though, as Texas hosted Oklahoma in a battle of not only two rivals but the two SEC teams with the least certain NCAA Tournament position as of Saturday morning. The Sooners got business done on the road with the 76-72 win, putting them on the right side and their bitter rivals on the wrong side in Joe Lunardi’s latest projections as the sides now head to Nashville.

Auburn opens the door…

Auburn ought to be sharpied in as the No. 1 overall seed with their mammoth 16 Quad 1 wins this year vs. just four total losses, even with two this week. The Tigers could falter again to open the SEC Tournament and still have the nation’s best resume, hands down.

But Duke lurked all year long after topping the Tigers in Durham back in the non-conference. Jon Scheyer’s club made mincemeat of the ACC aside from a misstep vs. the Blue Devils’ only gasp of relevant competition, Clemson, but are 28-3 with the head-to-head win as well. You could understand if the Devils take the No. 1 overall after an ACC Tourney victory.

Any Duke hatred aside, though, this squad has just been murdering their opponents by 20, 30, sometimes 40+ points! And Cooper Flagg? He’s absolutely asserted himself as the best player in the country, sorry to Johni Broome. The kid just does everything on the court at the highest possible level and there’s true reason to believe he could be the that rare chosen freshman to drag a college basketball team to the national title.

Tickets Punched

Missouri Valley — Drake

New coach, new roster, yet it’s a three-peat NCAA Tournament berth, MVC Championship, and this time, an even better record at 30-3 heading into the postseason for the Bulldogs. New head man Ben McCollum ran a D2 dynasty at Northwest Missouri State winning four national championships in an eight-year span before getting the call to try out a terrific mid-major D1 job at Drake following Darian DeVries own promotion to the Big 12 at West Virginia.

DeVries only coached the Bulldogs six seasons but whipped up a fine program in that time and left it in safe hands, clearly, with the seasoned McCollum taking over on the heels of two straight tourney appearances. He did, however, have to reshape the roster and had no hesitation pulling from his NW Missouri State ties, adding several pieces, including Drake’s three leading scorers this season headlined by MVC Player of the Year Bennett Stirtz, a junior point guard who’s taken a leap despite the raise in competition level and will be a terror in a first-round matchup.

Why They’re Dangerous: A 30-3 mark demands respect regardless of conference, as do non-conference wins over Vanderbilt and Kansas State. Stirtz is one of the best players in the dance, and Drake likes to punish by drawing fouls and crashing the glass while forcing plenty of turnovers on defense. They play slow and grind ’em out.

Big South — High Point

High Point waited just 13 months after Tubby Smith stepped down in February of 2022 to force out his son, GG Smith, after the 2023 season, then hiring Alan Huss. Well, that decision proved wise as Huss produced a first-place finish in the Big South as a debutante but the Panthers stumbled vs. Longwood in the conference tourney in ’24.

In 2025, Huss returned much of his core and filled it out through the portal, where he’s found some key contributors from high-major schools, such as Bobby Pettiford (Kansas), Kimani Hamilton (Miss St.), D’maurian Williams (TX Tech) and Abdoulaye Thiam (Minnesota). The improved top dog in the Big South repeated as regular season champs and grabbed their first-ever NCAA Tournament bid by overcoming a 15-point deficit vs. Winthrop in the title match of the conference tourney.

Why They Are Dangerous: As mentioned, this is an experienced team with plenty of continuity and power conference pedigree. Bobby Pettiford has a 2022 National Championship ring, for goodness’ sakes. Offensively, they’re just terrific across the board, shoot well everywhere and don’t have glaring flaws on that end.

Atlantic Sun — Lipscomb

The Bisons are back in the Big Dance for just the second time as a program as head coach Lennie Acuff finally gets over the hump after taking over ahead of the 2020 season.

Acuff has a senior squad on his hands, led by the dynamic big man from Sheboygan, Jacob Ognacevic, who missed last season due to injury but returned to average 20 points per game, win the A-Sun Player of the Year award and lead a sweep of the A-Sun regular season and tournament titles.

Why They Are Dangerous: Ognacevic is a ruthless machine shooting efficiently from every spot on the floor while the Bison also fall in as a top team in the country at avoiding foul calls, giving up less than nine made free throws per game, which ought to bode well with more lenient NCAAT officials.

Ohio Valley — SIU-Edwardsville

Sound the alarm, the Cougars are first-time NCAA Tournament qualifiers. Brian Barone finally got SIUE over the hill from the No. 2 seed in the Ohio Valley Conference tournament on Saturday night to make them the very first ticket punched of the 2025 field. He owes a huge thanks to the Taylor family with the leading contributions from cousins Ray’Sean Taylor and Brian Taylor on this club.

Why They Are Dangerous: The Taylor boys can put up points, but otherwise, the Cougars really struggle to put the ball through the hoop. However, they do guard at a high level inside the arc.