Since beating Duke at home last month, the Cavaliers haven’t looked quite right. They barely escaped Louisville and Notre Dame, then managed to get beaten by Boston College and North Carolina. But they have now won four straight, including a beatdown of Clemson.
A bit of the luster has come off this game, as Texas lost its chance to try to share the Big 12 regular season title with Kansas. The Longhorns could have tied the Jayhawks for first had they won at TCU last time out, but a two-point loss at Fort Worth left Texas two games adrift of Kansas with one to play.
Perhaps the two best players in the Big Ten face off again, as Indiana star Trayce Jackson-Davis and the Hoosiers head north to face Zach Edey and Purdue.
If there’s one team that can’t wait for February to end, it’s Tennessee. Rick Barnes’ squad looked like it was in great shape when February began, carrying an 18-3 record and appearing on track for a possible No. 1 seed. But Tennessee has now lost four of its past six, falling to Kentucky, Missouri, Vanderbilt and Florida.
But year two of the Hubert Davis era hasn’t gone smoothly in Chapel Hill. Rather than building on that success, the Tar Heels have gotten stuck, finding themselves in major peril as March creeps closer. Carolina owns 16 wins on the season, but none are Quad 1 victories and only two have come in true road environments.
Opportunities don’t come much bigger for bubble teams than what Oklahoma State has in front of it Tuesday.