Riley Saxon
By Riley Saxon
The Final Regular Season Top 25: With conference tournaments and the Big Dance fast approaching, we‘ll stick to Top 25s, but with different topics each week to maximize your March Madness Experience. In the meantime, we’re sticking with our west coast bias to finish off the Saxon Top 25
1. Gonzaga – 8 games from perfection
2. Baylor – Seem to be fully in sync after Covid pauses
3. Illinois – Phenomenal week + decent showing in conference tourney should net then a 1 seed
4. Michigan – Are they crashing or is a mere bump in the road to the Final Four?
5. Alabama – Still have an outside chance at 1 seed, but likely will be the Top 2 seed
6. Iowa – The defense has improved, held 7 of their last 9 opponents to under 70 points (Michigan 79, Wisconsin 73).
7. West Virginia – Fought hard against Baylor and Ok St. but now at the point where “fighting tough” without winning means little
8. Ohio St. – Have lost four in a row, But 3 of them to Top 6 teams
9. Villanova – Gillespie’s loss will be huge, now await news on Justin Moore’s ankle
10. Florida St. – Ugly showing vs. Notre Dame, but can “repeat” as tourney champions
11. Texas – Seems to have righted the ship with three wins in a row, but still need a good showing in the conference tournament
12. Houston – a win made for March on Sunday
13. Kansas – After all the hoopla surrounding their “downfall,” finished second in the Big 12
14. Oklahoma St. – Does Cade Cunningham have a Carmelo Anthony run in him?
15. Arkansas – Not quite sold on them, but the Muss Bus is rolling!
16. Creighton – Could be the favorite for the Big East tourney, but inconsistency hinders the faith
17. Oklahoma – Dropped their last four, now have to play in first round of Big 12 tourney
18. Virginia – Down ACC means they get the one seed for the conference tourney
19. Loyola Chicago – Did what they needed to do, now they wait for seedings
20. Purdue – Climbed to #4 in the Big 10 Standings, half a game behind a tie for 3rd; could face Ohio State, Michigan and Illinois/Iowa in the Big 10
21. San Diego St. – Don’t have the fanfare they had last year, but the back-to-back champs will make some noise this march
22. Colorado – Did nothing to drop, Pac 12 tourney could provide some more strong wins to boost resume.
23. Oregon – Covid issues provided the breaks they needed to stay fresh for an end of year run
24. USC – Slipped and slid into a victory, will they travel further into March Madness?
25. BYU – WCC’s wacky bracket means they’ve had an 8 day layoff before tonight’s semifinal game against Pepperdine
Dropped Out
(11) Texas Tech – Another Virginia-type too-much-faith-in-them team gets knocked out
(20) Wisconsin – It’s now or never for the veteran-laden squad
The Saxon Top 25 appears every Monday at JoeTorosian.com
Riley Saxon can be reached at:
Email: rileymsaxon@gmail.com
Twitter: @riley_saxon
