LEAGUE TOURNEYS TO
PLAY ROLE IN NCAA SEEDS
Teams in the AP Top 25 are down to their final chances to
make their case for high seeds in the NCAA Tournament.
Those could come in their league tournaments, with brackets that
could set up marquee matchups to boost the best postseason resumes with
Selection Sunday looming at the end of the week.
The marquee tournament of that group will be in the Atlantic
Coast Conference, which boasts three top-five teams in No. 2 Virginia, No. 3
North Carolina and No. 5 Duke. The Southeastern Conference also has three
top-10 teams in No. 4 Kentucky, No. 8 Tennessee and No. 9 LSU. Meanwhile, No. 6
Michigan State (Big Ten), No. 7 Texas Tech (Big 12) and No. 11 Houston
(American Athletic Conference) are headlining their own brackets.
HERE ARE SOME OF THE TOP STORYLINES TO WATCH THIS WEEK FOR RANKED
TEAMS:
ACC
Virginia and UNC shared a regular-season title, but Duke
could have the most to gain in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The Blue Devils (26-5) have played nearly six full games
without freshman star Zion
Williamson, a candidate for national player of the year who has been
out with a knee sprain. Duke went 3-3 without the 6-foot-7, 285-pound walking
highlight reel -- including two losses to the rival Tar Heels.
Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski said last week that Williamson
had returned to non-contact work in practice. He was scheduled to begin some
contact work in practice and work to improve his conditioning in the days ahead
of the third-seeded Blue Devils' first game in Thursday's quarterfinals.
If Williamson is healthy and back to full strength, Duke
could go back to the version that spent a national-best seven weeks at No. 1 in
the AP Top 25 poll this year. That group has lost just once at full strength,
falling to current No. 1 Gonzaga in the Maui Invitational championship game,
while handing Virginia its only two losses.
SEC
LSU has the No. 1 seed and Kentucky has won four straight
titles, but Tennessee sure looked like the league favorite for much of the
season.
Now the Volunteers have to figure out how to find that same
edge.
Tennessee (27-4) reached 23-1 and spent four weeks at No. 1
in the AP poll, but has lost three games in the past month to enter the
tournament in Nashville, Tennessee, as the No. 3 seed.
BIG TEN
Duke isn't the only team that could get a boost with a
return from injury.
Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said Nick Ward --
who has been out nearly a month after hand surgery -- will go through contact
practices this week ahead of the Big Ten Tournament in Chicago.
Izzo said he expected the 6-9 junior would play, though it's
unclear how much. Ward is the Spartans' No. 2 scorer (15.1 points) and No. 3
rebounder (6.7), providing an interior presence to complement point guard Cassius
Winston -- who helped guide the Spartans to a share of the Big
Ten regular-season title despite losing Joshua
Langford to a season-ending foot injury.
BIG 12
So how will No. 17 Kansas react to the end of its 14-year
run of winning at least a share of the Big 12 regular-season title?
The preseason No. 1 Jayhawks (23-8) open play in the Big 12
Tournament as the No. 3 seed against Texas in Thursday's quarterfinals, part of
a drama-filled season that included losing 7-footer Udoka
Azubuike to injury and senior guard Lagerald Vick leaving
the team for personal reasons.
The Jayhawks won eight Big 12 Tournament titles during their
14-year streak of regular-season crowns.
AAC
Houston (29-2) won the American's regular-season title by
two games over No. 24 Cincinnati. The Cougars will now try to win their first
AAC Tournament title to go with it after losing by a point to the Bearcats in
last year's final.
Kelvin Sampson's Cougars, the top seed in Memphis, have the
most wins for the program since the 1984 team led by future NBA star Hakeem
Olajuwon won 32 games and reached the NCAA title game.
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