The Blue Devils completed their regular season by trouncing North Carolina 93-57 Sunday in Chapel Hill, but will most likely need to topple a nationally ranked opponent in the upcoming ACC tournament to secure an at large bid to the NCAA tournament. Heading into the conference tournament as the No. 8 seed, Duke must go through ninth-seed Virginia Thursday in order to face No. 2 Notre Dame—the top seed in the tournament.
Elsewhere in the ACC this week, the Fighting Irish completed an unblemished conference season, beating then-No. 12 Florida State as well as Clemson and Boston College to advance to 28-1 on the year. No. 7 Louisville fended off No. 21 Miami on 79-51 the road Thursday and put together a 19-point win against Pittsburgh at home Sunday to end the season second in conference standings. The Seminoles bounced back from their loss against Notre Dame to defeat the Hurricanes Sunday, scoring 26 points in the fourth quarter to come away with a much-needed win.
Looking at the Big Ten, No. 5 Maryland extended its current wining streak to six games with victories against Wisconsin and Minnesota. In a battle of ranked teams and rival states, No. 19 Michigan State outlasted No. 8 Ohio State 107-105 in three overtimes led by Tori Jankoska’s career-high 36-point performance. With the loss to the Spartans, the Buckeyes dropped to 15-3 in the Big Ten standings and enabled the Terrapins to capture the regular season conference title by a one-game margin.
In the SEC, 13th-ranked Kentucky added two wins against ranked teams to its resume, defeating then-No. 24 Missouri 69-59 at home before upsetting No. 15 Texas A&M 71-58 on the road to cap off conference play. Third-ranked South Carolina completed its conference slate without drama, dispatching Ole Miss and LSU to finish the season 27-1 and 15-0 in the SEC. No. 16 Mississippi State pieced together wins against Vanderbilt and Alabama to finish the season riding a three-game win streak.
No. 4 Baylor locked up it’s sixth-straight Big 12 conference title, defeating 24th-ranked Oklahoma Monday 78-70 and Kansas State 63-52 Saturday. No. 6 Texas also posted two wins in the final week of conference play—besting Texas Tech 76-55 and Texas Christian 63-52—but finished one game behind the Bears in the conference standings.
Out West in the Pac-12, Utah defeated Washington State 75-69 and Washington beat Colorado 68-57. No. 8 Oregon State took home the regular season conference title for the second straight year, sporting a 16-2 record in Pac-12 play
ACC Game to Watch: Duke at Virginia, Thursday, March. 3, 2 p.m.
Conference Tournament to watch: Big 12 Tournament
Team to watch: Colorado State
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