Of the last seven national champions, six of them won either a share of their conference’s regular season title or their conference tournament championship. With just a week remaining until Selection Sunday, let’s check in with the regular season champions from each conference and see how they’ve performed lately.
Big East—Connecticut
The only team in the last seven years not to win their conference regular season title or conference tournament and still win a national championship came from the Big East last season: the Connecticut Huskies. This year, if they become the first team to win back-to-back NCAA Tournaments in 17 years, they will not be an exception to the same pattern, as they clinched an outright Big East regular season title last Sunday in a blowout win against the Seton Hall Pirates, 91-61.
The Huskies were led by their lone freshman starter, Stephon Castle, who scored 21 points and recorded more rebounds (4) than missed field goal attempts (3). Castle is averaging just over eleven points per game this season, but has surpassed 20 points on three occasions, an impressive number for a rookie in a major conference.
Teams who rely on freshman guards do not typically perform well in later rounds of March Madness, but Castle is only a complimentary piece for Connecticut who has proven himself to be a consistent option for the Huskies if their more experienced leaders aren’t performing at their best. Against the Pirates, everyone on Connecticut’s offense was involved, as the Huskies took a 15-point lead into halftime and doubled it by the final buzzer.
With Connecticut having already clinched the Big East regular season title, fans may have wondered if the Huskies would rest their starters for the last two regular season games to prepare for the Big East Tournament.
However, head coach Dan Hurley said, “We’re playing for big, big things… in terms of seeding… for the NCAA Tournament.” On Wednesday night against the No. 8 Marquette Golden Eagles on the road, Connecticut players proved that they took Hurley’s sentiment seriously. They forced Marquette to miss 54.5% of their 2-point attempts, and they left Fiserv Forum with a 74-67 win, their first win against a ranked opponent on the road since January 16, 2014, a season in which the Huskies won the national championship.
On Saturday, the Huskies finished the regular season with a 74-60 win on the road against the Providence Friars. All five Connecticut starters scored in double figures, and the Friars never held a lead in the game’s final 26 minutes.
This Thursday, the Huskies will play in the quarterfinals of the Big East Tournament against the winner of Xavier-Butler.
Big Ten- Purdue
On Tuesday night, the Purdue Boilermakers clinched their second straight outright Big Ten regular season title in a tight road contest against No. 12 Illinois. Despite entering the day with a 15-3 conference record and a three-game win streak, Purdue only had a two-game lead on Illinois in the Big Ten standings.
Before Tuesday’s contest, the Fighting Illinis sported a 15-2 record at State Farm Center. However, they hadn’t faced Purdue there yet, and the Boilermakers are arguably the best team in the country. Purdue is the only team to have been ranked in the AP Poll top four every week this season, and they are likely to earn the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament bracket.
With just over three minutes left in the game, Illinois led by two points, but Purdue guard Fletcher Loyer went on a personal 7-0 scoring run to take the lead, which the Boilermakers held onto for the duration of the contest. Loyer finished with 16 points, but Zach Edey, the overwhelming favorite to repeat as Naismith Men’s College Player of the Year, led the Boilermakers with 28 points on 56.5% shooting.
On March 15, Purdue will play in their first game of the Big Ten Tournament, which they hope will be the first of many win-or-go-home games for them this March.
SEC—Tennessee
The last time the Tennessee Volunteers earned an outright SEC conference title was in 2008, when George W. Bush was finishing his second term as U.S. President. On Wednesday night, they did it again with a win in enemy territory against the No. 17 South Carolina Gamecocks, 66-59.
During their recent seven-game win streak, Tennessee star Dalton Knecht averaged 22.1 points per game while making over 40% of his three-point attempts. Knecht has a realistic claim for most versatile scorer in the country, and he is likely to end the season as the SEC Player of the Year.
However, Knecht is still looking ahead to the rest of March. After Wednesday’s win, he said, “The job’s not done,” noting that the Volunteers want “the big one,” an NCAA Championship.
Perhaps Knecht and company looked too far ahead, for they dropped their final regular season game on Saturday at home against the Kentucky Wildcats, 85-81. Despite Knecht’s career-high 40 points, the Volunteers offense only made 37.8% of their field goal attempts and were unable to stop Kentucky’s lethal offensive attack.
With this loss, Tennessee’s path to a No. 1 seed may require an SEC Conference Tournament Championship victory and uncharacteristically weak performances from other top teams (North Carolina, Arizona) in their own conference tournaments. Top-seeded teams account for seven of the last ten championships, whereas only a single No. 2 seed has cut down the nets in the last decade. If the Volunteers were to earn a No. 1 seed in this year’s tournament, it would be their first in program history.
Big 12—Houston
Unlike the last three conferences we’ve covered, the Big 12′s regular season title had yet to be fully decided until the last day of the Big 12′s regular season. Entering Saturday, the Houston Cougars had a one-game lead on the Iowa State Cyclones in the conference standings, and each team had one more game to play.
Houston hasn’t lost a game since February 3rd, when the Kansas Jayhawks bested them at Allen Fieldhouse. On Saturday, with an outright Big 12 regular season title on the line, Houston had a chance to avenge their loss on their own home floor against the same Kansas team.
However, it would have taken a loss to Kansas and an Iowa State victory on the road against the Kansas State Wildcats for Houston not to clinch the title. And by halftime of Houston’s game, not only were they up on the Jayhawks by 19 points, but Iowa State had already lost to Kansas State, which gave Houston an outright regular season title in their first year as a member of the Big 12.
On Saturday, Houston got their revenge on No. 14 Kansas, got their Big 12 title, and made a statement before the postseason via a 30-point victory against a top-25 conference opponent.
This Thursday, Houston will open their play in the Big 12 Tournament against the winner of Oklahoma-TCU.
ACC—North Carolina, Duke
On Saturday, the ACC regular season title was determined by the result of the latest chapter in the best rivalry in sports: the North Carolina Tar Heels vs the Duke Blue Devils at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Duke entered the week one game behind North Carolina in the ACC standings. On Monday night, they faced off against a middle-of-the-pack NC State Wolfpack and won comfortably, 79-64.
The next night, with only a half-game lead over Duke, North Carolina needed to extend its four-game win streak to five to ensure they would earn a share of the ACC title regardless of how the rest of the season played out. Thankfully for the Tar Heels, their opponent, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, did not put up much of a fight, and North Carolina battled their way to a blowout, 84-51.
Then, their lead over Duke was back to one game, and their one game left in the regular season was a matchup against the Blue Devils themselves. In his final career game in Cameron Indoor Stadium, Tar Heel senior guard Cormac Ryan scored a career-high 31 points on just 12 shots. His offensive effort combined with a weak Blue Devils shooting night gave North Carolina just enough to steal a road win, 84-79.
This season is the first time since 2021 that North Carolina has swept their season series against Duke and their first outright ACC regular season title since 2017. Given a strong showing in the ACC Tournament, the Tar Heels are likely to earn the fourth No. 1 seed for the NCAA Tournament, along with Purdue, Houston and Connecticut.