...and then the rest of the country.
We've talked all year about polls, the NET, SOS, Quad 1 wins and the eye test. You can say that you don't care is Purdue is #1 overall or not, and that's ok. Some people like me do care. For one thing, it specifically means avoiding the other 2 until April 8th. I think that's important considering how much of a drop off there seems to be after these 3 teams.
Currently, UConn is avenging one of their losses by destroying Seton Hall at home. It doesn't sound louder than Sunday church at Gampel though. I figure they jump us to #2 tomorrow. For whatever that is worth.
Houston won a high-scoring game yesterday, at the (almost) buzzer at Oklahoma. I'm sure none of us watched it since it was at the same time as our game but they let a decent-sized lead slip away before getting a fortunate bounce before the game-winner. The fact that they could win an up-tempo game on the road against a respectable team is something new.
Remaining schedules all have challenges.
Purdue:
Tues at Illinois
Sunday vs Wisconsin
UConn:
Wednesday at Marquette
Saturday at Providence
Houston:
Wednesday at UCF
Saturday vs Kansas
These remaining games may be more important than the respective conference tournaments in determining the final order for the bracket. Purdue has the best resume currently, but I think a loss, if the other 2 both win, will put us #3 overall in 2 weeks. But all 3 could in theory lose a game based on how these schedules are, which would keep it as status quo.
I do think that Tennessee is in the best shape to be the 4th #1 after beating Alabama yesterday. They finish at South Carolina and home against Kentucky, so they too could lose a game.
The other current question now is who is the last 2-seed, after Tennessee, UNC, Marquette and Arizona take #s 4-7 overall. There really isn't a great choice between Iowa State, Baylor, Illinois and Duke if they were to beat Carolina next weekend. The break after 7 is arguably bigger than the break after 3.