College Basketball

The stories to follow as March turns to Madness

The most intriguing college basketball regular season in years has lived up to the hype — if you were expecting the unexpected. Highly rated powers Kentucky and Michigan State have failed to reach expectations, unsung programs Wichita State and Virginia have surprised even their own fans, and Creighton senior Doug McDermott has outshone by far all those highly rated freshmen.

The second season is coming; below are a number of story lines to follow.

Kentucky fried

The Wildcats were a unanimous preseason No. 1, hailed by some as having the best recruiting class in history. Coach John Calipari said his seven McDonald’s All-Americans were chasing “greatness” and “perfection.” Instead, Kentucky has been a colossal disappointment, unlikely at this point even to get past the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament.

After Saturday’s stunning road loss at SEC bottom-feeder South Carolina, Calipari sent assistant coach John Robic into the postgame press conference. Stockpiling five-star recruits doesn’t seem to be working for him anymore, after last year’s loaded team lost in the opening round of the NIT.

This team is tournament-bound — it has 21 wins— but is just 1-4 against ranked opponents, and has struggled defending and playing together, issues when stockpiling a team of high school All-Stars used to getting their way.

Shockers no more

Last March’s Final Four Cinderella story is chasing history, as Wichita State is attempting to become the first team to get through the regular season undefeated since St. Joseph’s in 2003-04, and the first school since UNLV in 1990-91 to reach the NCAA Tournament without a loss. It may seem surprising, but it shouldn’t be — pun intended — shocking.

The mid-major Shockers from the Missouri Valley Conference returned their three best players from last year — Middletown, N.Y., product Cleanthony Early, an NBA prospect, forward Ron Baker and point guard Fred VanVleet — nearly upset national champion Louisville in the Final Four last April and have been mostly healthy after injuries sabotaged them early last season. They can cut down the nets in Dallas.

Open season

Get ready to shred those office pools. Unlike recent years, there isn’t a clear-cut favorite, no Louisville like last season or Kentucky the year before. It’s wide open, a number of teams capable of getting hot and being the last team standing.

No team is without flaws — Kansas is young and inconsistent; Florida lacks a go-to guy; Syracuse is limping toward the finish line; Arizona has no depth; Duke is weak inside; Wichita State is untested. It all adds up to what will undoubtedly be one wacky tournament.

Doug does it

Doug McDermott could go 0-for-the rest of the season and he’d still win the Naismith Player of the Year award. The Creighton senior has been that consistent, that potent, that effective, scoring, rebounding and distributing at such a high level.

Until recently falling behind Villanova, the Bluejays have been at the top of the Big East in their first year in the conference, and the 6-foot-8 McDermott has been unequivocally responsible, elevating his play after key forward Grant Gibbs went down with a knee injury. McDermott is not only leading the nation in scoring (26.0 points per game), but he’s doing so by shooting 52 percent overall and 44 percent from 3-point range, making two last-second game-winning shots to boot.

Cav-do attitude

When the ACC season began, Virginia wasn’t just under the radar. The Cavaliers were off of it completely, swallowed up by traditional powers North Carolina and Duke and newcomers Syracuse and Pittsburgh.

Yet on Saturday they clinched the ACC crown with a second-half dismantling of the Orange, playing the kind of lockdown defense — coach Tony Bennett’s team allows just 54.8 points per game, best in the nation — that has them ranked in the top five for the first time since 2001 and the highest this late in a season since 1983.

Bubblicious

NBA prospect Marcus Smart and Oklahoma State. Perennial tournament team Pittsburgh. Local hopeful St. John’s. High-scoring Oregon, which started 13-0, lost eight of 10 and has now won five straight. What do they all have in common? The next few weeks are going to be stressful on the NCAA Tournament bubble, all of them keeping a close eye on the mid-major tournaments in the hopes the favorites win and an extra at-large spot isn’t taken away while knowing every game is precious to their field-of-68 hopes.