UConn, Purdue and Houston spent the past four months separating from the rest of the sport in a way that allowed them to enter their conference tournaments with a clear understanding of their paths to the Final Four. UConn was always going to start in Brooklyn as the No. 1 seed in the East. Purdue was always going to start in Indianapolis as the No. 1 seed in the Midwest. Houston was always going to start in Memphis as the No. 1 seed in the South.
The only remaining question: Which will be the No. overall seed?
We got our answer Saturday when UConn beat Marquette to win the Big East Tournament while Purdue lost to Wisconsin in the Big Ten and Houston lost to Iowa State in the Big 12. Now, barring a surprise, Dan Hurley's Huskies, the reigning national champs, will be the No. 1 overall seed when Adam Zucker unveils the 2024 NCAA Tournament bracket later Sunday on CBS.
"We've been the best team in college basketball," Hurley said. "Obviously, March Madness next week ... who knows what goes on there? But we've clearly been the best program in the country this year."
Based on Saturday's developments, UConn is No. 1 in Sunday morning's updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings. Purdue is now No. 2. Houston is No. 3. And Iowa State is the new No. 4, which means, yes, I believe the Cyclones should be the fourth No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Some of the pushback was expected because pushback on anything is inevitable on X. But if the debate is between Iowa State and North Carolina, and that appears to be where the debate lies, it's clear to me that Iowa State has the superior body of work.
Take a look for yourself:
Iowa State
- Record: 27-6
- Q1: 10-6
- Q2: 6-1
- Q3/Q4: 11-0
North Carolina
- Record: 27-6
- Q1: 9-3
- Q2: 7-4
- Q3/Q4: 11-0
As you can see, the Cyclones and Tar Heels have identical overall records -- but Iowa State has more Q1 wins than UNC and three fewer losses outside of Q1. Moreover, Iowa State is higher than North Carolina in the NET and at KenPom.com and BartTorvik.com. And Iowa State is also the only team besides UConn, Purdue and Houston to have more than nine Q1 wins and less than eight total losses.
But what about Iowa State's non-league strength of schedule?!?!
That's a reply I saw a lot after I tweeted what I tweeted. To that, I'd ask, why should Iowa State's non-league strength of schedule matter? It's in the 300s and bad, sure. But after everything was completed, and all of the games were played in advance of Selection Sunday, Iowa State ended up with four more Q1 games than North Carolina and the same number of games inside the first two quadrants. So it's frankly stupid that non-league SOS would even be a part of this discussion, and I'll continue to insist non-league SOS is the single dumbest number the selection committee uses.
Like I noted on a recent episode of the Eye On College Basketball podcast, the selection committee should evaluate bodies of work with no regard for anybody's non-league strength of schedule. To argue the contrary is to argue that you're comfortable punishing a team with a good-enough body of work for something that neither hurt them nor prevented them from building that good-enough body of work -- and that simply makes no sense when you think about it for more than two seconds. Beyond that, whenever a team -- like South Florida, for instance -- stresses what it did in its conference to make a case for an at-large bid, the selection committee quickly points out that what you did in your conference doesn't matter in and of itself because what matters is the total body of work. If that's really true, and the total body of work is what matters, why is a ranking of a fraction of your schedule ever a factor in the selection process at all?
Shouldn't total strength of schedule matter more? On that note, here are two more numbers for you courtesy of Bracketologists.com:
- Iowa State's total NET SOS: No. 16.
- North Carolina's total NET SOS: No. 36
Top 25 And 1 rankings
Rk | Teams | Chg | Rcrd | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  | Donovan Clingan finished with 22 points and 16 rebounds in Saturday's 73-57 win over Marquette. The Huskies' next game will be in the NCAA Tournament. | 1 | 37-3 |
| 2 |  | Braden Smith was 3 of 10 from the field in Saturday's 76-75 loss to Wisconsin. The Boilermakers' next game will be in the NCAA Tournament. | 1 | 34-5 |
| 3 |  | L.J. Cryer was 3 of 12 from the field in Saturday's 69-41 loss to Iowa State. The Cougars' next game will be in the NCAA Tournament. | -- | 32-5 |
| 4 |  | Milan Momcilovic finished with 18 points and six rebounds in Saturday's 69-41 win over Houston. The Cyclones' next game will be in the NCAA Tournament. | 1 | 29-8 |
| 5 |  | North Carolina allowed NC State to shoot 54.9% from the field in Saturday's 84-76 loss to the Wolfpack. The Tar Heels' next game will be in the NCAA Tournament. | 1 | 29-8 |
| 6 |  | Dalton Knecht was 4 of 17 from the field in Friday's 73-56 loss to Mississippi State. The Vols' next game will be in the NCAA Tournament. | 1 | 27-9 |
| 7 |  | Kam Jones was 5 of 17 from the field in Saturday's 73-57 loss to UConn. The Golden Eagles' next game will be in the NCAA Tournament. | 1 | 27-10 |
| 8 |  | Caleb Love was 2 of 11 from the field in Friday's 67-59 loss to Oregon. The Wildcats' next game will be in the NCAA Tournament. | -- | 27-9 |
| 9 |  | JaKobe Walter was 1 of 8 from the field in Friday's 76-62 loss to Iowa State. The Bears' next game will be in the NCAA Tournament. | -- | 24-11 |
| 10 |  | Steven Ashworth was 3 of 13 from the field in Thursday's 78-73 loss to Providence. The Bluejays' next game will be in the NCAA Tournament. | -- | 25-10 |
| 11 |  | Jaylin Williams finished with 13 points and four assists in Saturday's 73-66 win over Mississippi State. The Tigers' next game is Saturday against Florida. | -- | 27-8 |
| 12 |  | Terrence Shannon Jr. finished with 40 points and two steals in Saturday's 98-87 win over Nebraska. The Illini's next game is Sunday against Wisconsin. | -- | 29-9 |
| 13 |  | Johnny Furphy was 1 of 8 from the field in Wednesday's 72-52 loss to Cincinnati. The Jayhawks' next game will be in the NCAA Tournament. | -- | 23-11 |
| 14 |  | Darius Brown was 3 of 11 from the field in Friday's 86-70 loss to San Diego State. The Aggies' next game will be in the NCAA Tournament. | -- | 28-7 |
| 15 |  | Jeremy Roach was 1 of 6 from the field in Thursday's 74-69 loss to NC State. The Blue Devils' next game will be in the NCAA Tournament. | -- | 27-9 |
| 16 |  | Justin Edwards was 1 of 6 from the field in Friday's 97-87 loss to Texas A&M. The Wildcats' next game will be in the NCAA Tournament. | -- | 23-10 |
| 17 |  | Dallin Hall was 0 of 6 from the field in Thursday's 81-67 loss to Texas Tech. The Cougars' next game will be in the NCAA Tournament. | -- | 23-11 |
| 18 |  | AJ Storr finished with 20 points and six rebounds in Saturday's 76-75 win over Purdue. The Badgers' next game is Sunday against Illinois. | 1 | 22-14 |
| 19 |  | Collin Murray-Boyles was 1 of 9 from the field in Friday's 86-55 loss to Auburn. The Gamecocks' next game will be in the NCAA Tournament. | 1 | 26-8 |
| 20 |  | Pop Isaacs was 2 of 13 from the field in Friday's 82-59 loss to Houston. The Red Raiders' next game will be in the NCAA Tournament. | 1 | 23-11 |
| 21 |  | Alabama allowed Florida to shoot 50.8% from the field in Friday's 102-88 loss to the Gators. The Crimson Tide's next game will be in the NCAA Tournament. | 1 | 25-12 |
| 22 |  | Lamont Butler was 2 of 13 from the field in Saturday's 68-61 loss to New Mexico. The Aztecs' next game will be in the NCAA Tournament. | 4 | 26-11 |
| 23 |  | Andrej Jakimovski was 1 of 7 from the field in Friday's 58-52 loss to Colorado. The Cougars' next game will be in the NCAA Tournament. | -- | 25-10 |
| 24 |  | Aidan Mahaney finished with 23 points and two rebounds in Tuesday's 69-60 win over Gonzaga. The Gaels' next game will be in the NCAA Tournament. | -- | 26-8 |
| 25 |  | Gonzaga only got four points from its bench in Wednesday's 69-60 loss to Saint Mary's. The Zags' next game will be in the NCAA Tournament. | -- | 27-8 |
| 26 |  | Nevada allowed Colorado State to shoot 50% from the field in Thursday's 85-78 loss to the Rams. The Wolf Pack's next game will be in the NCAA Tournament. | -- | 26-8 |
