We've said goodbye to the last of the undefeated teams (both of them: Michigan and Virginia), and the members of Indiana's perfect 1975-76 team can, again, rest a little easier.
These are the hot takes I think I can prove in a world where every team has lost at least once:
UK will push Tennessee for the SEC title
After Kentucky was blown out by Duke at the beginning of the season and then lost one-possession games to Seton Hall and Alabama, the Wildcats dropped off the radar, relatively speaking.
John Calipari's team can never truly fade from the national discussion, of course. Still, with Tennessee blowing up so huge and UK showing an early-season "3" in the loss column, the men from Lexington were no longer top-of-mind, at least not relative to every other season in the Calipari era.
Those days are over. The combination of the Wildcats' tough win at No. 14-ranked Auburn and the Volunteers' surprisingly close victory at home over the Crimson Tide suggests this could be a really fun conference title race to watch.
To be sure, this is still Tennessee's league to lose. For one thing, Rick Barnes' team is undefeated in conference play and sitting in first place along with LSU. There's also the fact that Tennessee, presumably, will be ranked No. 1 in the nation when the next AP poll is released.
Nevertheless, Kentucky's showing clear signs of becoming something more closely resembling the team everyone expected to see when the Wildcats entered the season ranked No. 2. For starters, this has been an excellent 2-point shooting team in league play. Ashton Hagans, Reid Travis, Keldon Johnson and PJ Washington are all converting at least 55 percent of their tries inside the arc against SEC opponents.
No, this isn't a great perimeter shooting team, but don't discount the possibility that UK could at least improve in that category. Tyler Herro shows clear potential from beyond the arc, both in the number of attempts he launches and in his ostentatiously accurate foul shooting (89 percent).
As for Hagans, he was inserted into the starting lineup in early December, and he has propelled Kentucky on both sides of the ball to start SEC play. The 6-foot-3 freshman has made just two 3s all season, but he's a skilled passer and outstanding defender.
With Hagans recording three or more steals in every SEC game, the Wildcats have forced a high number of turnovers as a team. (Only Florida has taken the ball away from league opponents on a higher percentage of defensive possessions.) And with Travis, Washington and Johnson crashing the glass, this is the best defensive rebounding team in the league.
Again, Tennessee isn't going anywhere, and the Volunteers are a game up on Kentucky. This race will go through Knoxville, but it's clear now just how hard the Wildcats are going to make the Vols work for that SEC title.
Brandon Clarke is the best player the Wooden Award Watch List hasn't heard of yet
There was no way of knowing that Brandon Clarke was going to be this good for Gonzaga. The junior sat out all of 2017-18 after transferring from San Jose State, and in two full seasons with the Spartans, he rarely had the opportunity to face NCAA tournament-level opponents. (Fun fact: Clarke saw two major-conference opponents in two years at SJSU: Marquette and Washington State.)
Still, somehow, Mark Few knew what he had. Clarke started the Bulldogs' first game of the season against Idaho State, and the junior has been irreplaceable ever since.
This season, Clarke has made 71 percent of his 2s while accounting for 23 percent of Gonzaga's shot attempts during his minutes. Those numbers are surprisingly close to what Zion Williamson's doing for Duke (73 and 27 percent, respectively).
In a tough win last week at San Francisco, Clarke scored 24 points, grabbed five offensive boards and put the finishing touches on the victory with a spectacular late-game block. The game against the Dons was the junior's season in miniature, for Clarke has been excellent all season long not only at scoring but also at cleaning up his teammates' misses and defending the rim.
There may be some category trouble standing between Clarke and Wooden Award consideration, since his teammate Rui Hachimura made the midseason Watch List. Then again, Duke (Williamson and RJ Barrett), Nevada (Jordan Caroline and Caleb Martin) and Tennessee (Admiral Schofield and Grant Williams) all put more than one player on the list. Time to do the same for Gonzaga, because Clarke belongs in this same company.
The Hoosiers need more chances to score
This season isn't playing out according to the script for Indiana. The Hoosiers are 3-4 in the Big Ten, having lost four straight. There's no shame, certainly, in losing at Michigan or at Maryland, but in its past two games, IU was defeated by double-digit margins at the hands of Nebraska in Bloomington and Purdue in West Lafayette. In those two losses, Indiana scored just 0.83 points per possession.
It wasn't supposed to go like this in Archie Miller's second season at the helm. Romeo Langford is the highest-ranked recruit to come out of the state of Indiana since Eric Gordon, and Miller got him. Not to mention Juwan Morgan recorded a rather extraordinary season as a sophomore in 2017-18. This team showed that promise early and recorded wins over Louisville and Marquette.
All true, but none of those facts are helping Indiana at the moment. The Hoosiers are mired in a 6-of-34 shooting slump on 3s over the past two games. Indeed, in Big Ten play, Miller's men are connecting on just 28 percent of their attempts from beyond the arc.
Granted, teams can work around cold shooting from the perimeter as long as they make 2s and get enough opportunities to score. Alas, IU has the first part of that equation down cold (Morgan and Langford both have been excellent inside the arc all season), but not the latter.
With a turnover rate a little higher than the league average and a 24 percent offensive rebound rate in Big Ten play, Indiana's getting fewer chances to score than any team in the conference except Illinois. The Hoosiers' relatively low number of offensive boards isn't necessarily fatal (Michigan often posts a similar number), but it does require a lower turnover rate than what we're seeing from IU.
Improvements in any of the above categories -- perimeter shooting, turnovers, or offensive boards -- would be very good news for the Indiana faithful. Improvement in all of them would be bad news for the rest of the Big Ten.
You still don't want to see Jay Wright's offense in your bracket
Villanova is a far cry from the Wildcats team that won the 2018 national title, but for the record, most of the difference there is on defense. Conversely, if your team is suspect on defense and you land in a bracket with Jay Wright's guys in March, you should still be very afraid.
These Villanova players still know how to make shots, and they still do so by making wise shot-selection choices. Just ask Creighton and Xavier.
The Wildcats rung up 175 points against the Bluejays and Musketeers in just 135 possessions. Phil Booth and Collin Gillespie combined to shoot 11-of-20 from beyond the arc against Xavier, in a game in which five Villanova players recorded at least three assists.
Wright's team is still spreading the floor and still attempting more 3s than 2s. It works: Villanova is scoring 1.17 points per possession in conference play, and no other Big East team is recording better than 1.11. As incredible as it is to say about a roster that lost Mikal Bridges, Donte DiVincenzo, Jalen Brunson and Omari Spellman, this is still a dangerous offense.