ON TODAY'S SCORECARD
Power Ranking It

Duke (29-2), Arizona (29-2), Michigan (29-2) and Florida (25-6) are the top four teams in the final men's AP poll of the regular season.

To nobody’s surprise, they are also the top four choices to cut down the nets in this year’s NCAA Tournament.

In reading Ed Feng’s Power Rank - an excellent free newsletter at ThePowerRank.com – he calls out his Top 5 Tips for filling out your NCAA Tournament Bracket.

Interestingly, the No. 1 right thing you must get right when it comes to winning your bracket is to find smaller pools to play in.

Your odds go down dramatically with more people in your pool. The bigger the pool, the more likely someone gets lucky and beats you.

Ed’s take home message is: Do not get in a large pool. For winner take all contests, I recommend a pool with less than 100 people. Maximize your odds of winning by getting in a pool of 10 or less.

He also notes points out a powerful predictor of NCAA tournament games. It also works in the NFL playoffs.

Simply put it ignores all game data from the current season and instead relies on the AP Preseason Polls.

Ed says the preseason AP poll has an uncanny ability to highlight overrated teams. 

From 1985 to 2025, 40 teams started the season outside the top 25 in the preseason AP poll but then earned a 1 or 2 seed in the NCAA tournament. These teams exceeded preseason expectations by a large amount.

However, none of these 40 teams has made the Final Four. Zero. Zilch.

Take it for what it is. I personally utilize the preseason polls when the post season rolls around.

Needless to say, Ed is a smart cookie.

THE SLEEPER: KENTUCKY

The inconsistent Wildcats have earned this slot in this year’s SEC tourney. They were the No. 9 team in the nation in the AP Preseason Top 25 (second-highest in the SEC), faced the No. 5 overall adjusted strength of schedule per Ken Pomeroy. Despite going one-and-out last season, the Wildcats are 63-17 overall in this tournament since 1992 and 14-4 SU/14-3-1 ATS when seeking revenge. Yes, we’d call them dangerous. And so does our 100% ATS AWESOME ANGLE on page 2.

The Awesome Angle above is from this week’s Playbook Hoops Newsletter previewing 7 conference tourneys this week

Click here to download a copy now.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander keeps making history.

On the night he tied Wilt Chamberlain's 63-year-old scoring record, SGA hit the game-winning 3-pointer to beat Nikola Jokić and the Nuggets in an instant classic. Oh, and he also had a career-high 15 assists. With no turnovers. And finished one rebound shy of a triple-double (35-9-15). Is that good?

What are we witnessing? In the short term, probably this season's MVP, which would make SGA a rare back-to-back winner. But zoom out and you realize we aren't just watching an MVP-level basketball player… we're watching one of the most unstoppable scorers the sport has ever seen.

By the numbers: When your name starts appearing alongside Chamberlain, LeBron James and Michael Jordan, you're keeping some pretty serious company.

• SGA has now scored 20+ points in 126 consecutive games, tying Chamberlain for the longest streak in NBA history.*

• He joined James as the only players since 1977-78 to record 35 points, 15 assists and zero turnovers in a game.

• He's on pace to become the first player since Jordan to average 30+ points per game in four straight seasons.

What they're saying: "I don't know that people know how hard it is to do that [score 20+ points in 126 straight games]," said Jokić, who had his usual triple-double (32-14-13**) in defeat. "He's a special player."

Dueling MVPs: SGA and Jokić are just the second pair of MVPs to each record 30 points and 10 assists in the same game. The other pair? Giannis Antetokounmpo and Russell Westbrook in 2021.