Do you smell that in the air? No, not the trees blooming and the grass growing, but the scent of madness is here.
It’s March.
I hope you all left out cookies for Selection Sunday Santa (CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein).
With less than two weeks until Selection Sunday, we will see the top teams of college basketball ready themselves for the best week of the year. With that being said, I think it’s important to look at the top team from each of the top-four seeds going into March, to give a small preview of who will be the top seeds.
Top No. 1 seed: Auburn
I’ve talked extensively about the Auburn Tigers, and if you know anything about college basketball, then you would know this is the easiest pick of all.
The Tigers are the easy favorites to win the NCAA championship as of March 4, with a ridiculous nine wins over current top-25 teams. On top of that, head coach Bruce Pearl’s squad only has losses at the hands of No. 2 Duke and No. 5 Florida. Auburn’s most recent top-25 victory came in a trouncing of No. 19 Kentucky in Lexington, beating the Wildcats 94-78.
The strength of the Tigers is their depth and experience, with the average age of the Auburn players sitting around 23.5 years old, just barely younger than the NBA’s Oklahoma City Thunder, whose average is around 24.5 years old.
Auburn’s second-leading scorer, senior forward Chad Baker-Mazara is an astounding 25 years old, but only has three full seasons at the NCAA Division I level between the Tigers and San Diego State.
Senior forward Johni Broome is Auburn’s engine and the current betting favorite for the Wooden Award Most Outstanding Player, leading the Tigers in every major statistical category except steals.
Auburn has the experience, coaching and talent to make a run in March Madness and is my current pick to win it all.
Top No. 2 Seed: Florida
Another team out of the SEC, the Gators are one of the two teams to knock off Auburn and could be one of the only teams standing in the Tigers’ way from winning it all.
Florida is powered by its superstar guard trio, seniors Will Richard and Walter Clayton Jr. and graduate Alijah Martin.
These three combine for 45 of the Gators' 83 points per game — a top-10 scoring offense in the country — and are the heart and soul of the team. Clayton Jr. is the leader of this trio as he has hit a three in every game this season, breaking the Florida program record back in January for consecutive games with a three.
Last year, the Gators bowed out in the NCAA tournament in epic fashion, as in a dual with Colorado the Buffaloes knocked off Florida 102-100 in the highest-scoring game of the tournament last season.
My only knock of them is that the Gators did not play a difficult out-of-conference schedule, recording the No. 231-hardest non-conference schedule. Regardless, a win over Auburn is a win over Auburn, making Florida my top No. 2 seed.
Top No. 3 seed: Michigan State
Michigan State sways between a two and a three seed, and I am just not sure which.
The Spartans had quite the past week, beating No. 12 Wisconsin and knocking off No. 14 Maryland on a half-court heave at the buzzer. Though it wasn’t March, the wild factor was in the air.
Head coach Tom Izzo’s squad is one of the deepest in the land, often going eight- to nine-men deep in its rotation, despite only having two players averaging double digits. Similar to Florida, Michigan State has a triad of high-powered guards. Freshman Jase Richardson, junior Tre Holloman and senior Jaden Akins lead Michigan State in scoring and it was Holloman’s hoist at the buzzer which led to the Spartans' win in College Park last weekend.
Michigan State is probably the best team in the Big Ten. and has gone on hot streaks. My only drawbacks are its poor 3-point shooting ability and 0-2 trip to Los Angeles.
The Spartans are one of the worst teams in all of college basketball shooting the three ball, ranking No. 341 in the nation. Poor shooting can often be a good team’s downfall to losing early, making it nearly impossible to come back if they get down to lower-ranked teams who run and gun threes.
My only other quarrel with Michigan State is their trip out west. Sparty got swept when they traveled to Los Angeles to play a poor USC squad and a solid UCLA team. While these aren’t bad losses necessarily, the Spartans' poor play on the road makes me concerned for them traveling outside of the central time zone.
While this is a little ridiculous, losing to USC in a game which was practically a neutral site game due to the lack of Trojan fans does not bode well in my book and at least makes me hesitate a bit before picking the Spartans to go far.
Top No. 4 seed: Texas Tech
*In Chris Berman’s voice with ESPN’s fastest two minutes music underneath it* THE [Red] RAIDERZZ, are ROLLING with poppin [sophomore forward] JT Toppin pushing Texas Tech into the top ten for the first time this season after a road win at Kansas.
The Red Raiders are one of the most enjoyable teams to watch in college basketball. Nearly the entire team who plays meaningful minutes averages double digits, with their lowest scorer of that bunch, senior guard Elijah Hawkins, averaging 9.3 points. Hawkins does, however, lead the team in assists, averaging 6.4.
While Michigan State can’t hit water if it falls out of a boat, the Red Raiders can hit a pond from a mountain.
Okay bad analogy, point is, Texas Tech is one of the better 3-point shooting teams in the country.
The Red Raiders average just under 38% from 3-point land, which is good for third in the Big 12 and 34th in the country. On top of that, Texas Tech has one of the best, if not the best, forwards in the Big 12 in Toppin, who’s averaging 17 points and nine rebounds.
Texas Tech pulled off one of the biggest wins of the year, walking into Houston and knocking off the No. 4 Cougars in the country, handing them their only loss at home on the year. A team that can pull off a big win like that definitely has a shot at making the Final Four.
The Red Raiders are one of my favorite teams in college basketball and are destined to make a deep run in the NCAA tournament.
While I could go into depth on the 12 other teams that fit into the top-four seeds, I unfortunately do not have the time, nor my editors the wherewithal to sift through my grammatical errors. Alas, we will see how the tournament field shapes out in just under two weeks, it truly is the best time of the year.