The end of the regular season is almost here, and there were some good college basketball games over the weekend. I was obviously pleased with the Duke-St. John’s outcome. Any road win for this team is good, and hopefully will continue build confidence. Blowing SJU out (it was 34-10 at the half) was nice, too. Paulus continues to shoot well from 3-point range, and that is a huge plus when he’s a legitimate outside threat. Unfortunately, it was a regional game on CBS, and it didn’t air here because Memphis was also playing, so they showed their game instead. Memphis sucks.

The big one in the ACC was the UNC-Maryland game. It was televised on Fox Sports, but I completely forgot about it because it started earlier than usual. I remembered it just after it was over, and I’m disappointed because it looks as though it was a good one, with Maryland knocking off the Heels by two. Maryland is playing well of late, this being their 5th win in a row. If there were any doubts about Maryland being in the tournament, I think this win should put an end to that. That’s at least 6 ACC teams in now, with Georgia Tech still hoping to sneak in. With 9 league losses each, FSU and Clemson are now NIT bound.

This is a big week for Duke with Maryland coming to Cameron, and then the trip down the road to Chapel Hill. They need to split those two games at the least, which would give them a 9-7 record. Both games will be tough.

I saw a little of the Ohio State-Wisconsin game - the #1 vs #2 game (or #1 vs #1, since they were both #1 in a poll last week.) I watched most of the last 5 or 6 minutes of the game, and it was a great ending. I suspect Ohio State, who won by 1 point, will be #1 in both polls this week. Wisconsin lost 2 games, but may still not drop too far considering Florida and North Carolina also lost this week.

Speaking of Florida losing, the TV heads were all asking “What’s wrong with Florida?” over the weekend, after they lost to the worst team in the SEC, LSU (although USC also has a claim to that title.) LSU, without their “best player” Glen Davis, beat the Gators by 10 on Saturday. Florida has not looked particularly sharp in the last couple of weeks. They’ve lost two of three, and also fell far behind Alabama before coming back to win, and nearly let Kentucky erase a huge deficit as well. I told someone yesterday that Florida may just be bored. I suspect they’ll pick it up as post-season play begins.

On a related note, I found it odd that Joe Lunardi’s latest bracketology has North Carolina as a #1 seed and Florida as a #2 seed. They both lost last week, but Florida is still ranked higher and has clinched the SEC regular season, while UNC remains in a 3-way tie for first right now and may not even win it. Granted, the ACC is easily stronger than the SEC, but I’d be anxious to hear his justification for that call.

Can we finally drop Alabama out of the polls this week?? I don’t know what it’s going to take. They were still #25 last week. They’ve now lost 8 conference games, several by 20+ points, and they’re playing in one of the weakest divisions in the country (the SEC West). Most heads on TV had them out of the tournament after their loss this weekend, which makes me wonder if the SEC West is even going to get a team in at all. Ole Miss and MSU are 7-7 right now. My guess is the winner will be 8-8 at best.

And congratulations to the Duke women’s team, who finished off UNC for the second time yesterday to finish 14-0 in conference - the first ACC women’s team to do so. Not only that, but they finished the regular season at 29-0 as well. Losing three seniors last year, they weren’t expected to be where they are. Hopefully, in another month, they’ll be where they should have been last year - holding a national championship trophy.