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When discussing the world of college hoops, the Florida Gators don’t immediately come to mind, especially in the brutal SEC. But it wasn’t too long ago that the Gators captured back-to-back National Championships and even more recently made a trip to the Final Four. They missed out on the NCAA Tournament in both years following that Final Four season, but they are back in a big way, and have a first place showdown with the Kentucky Wildcats on Saturday.... 

Neither the Baylor Bears nor the Iowa State Cyclones have a shot of running down the Kansas Jayhawks for league honors. What both sides do however have a shot at pulling off is improving their placement in the upcoming Big 12 Tournament pecking order. That’s what both Johnathan Motley and Deonte Burton will attempt to do when they lead their respective clubs into battle against one another for the second time this season.... 

The Connecticut Huskies will need to pick themselves off the mat quickly after blowing a 10 point halftime lead at Houston with the AAC leading SMU Mustangs paying Hartford a visit for the team’s final meeting of the regular season. The league leaders haven’t dropped a game since the middle of January, so the Huskies will need to bring their “A” game to the gym if they’re to keep their home win streak intact.... 

The Arizona Wildcats are looking to win the PAC-12 regular season title outright, but have one more major test before they can raise the banner. The UCLA Bruins are one of the most exciting teams in college basketball and can score points on any team in the country. UCLA knocked off Oregon a couple weeks ago to move Arizona into first, and knows that it needs a win here to keep its slim conference title hopes alive.... 

The Purdue Boilermakers have hit their groove down the stretch of Big Ten play and have vaulted into the top spot in the standings. They can wrap up the conference regular season crown with a strong finish, beginning with a tough one against the Michigan Wolverines.... 

The TCU Horned Frogs need a win in the worst way. What was once a promising at-large resume has gone off the tracks in recent weeks with four straight losses and a 6-9 record. However, all is not lost. They have two very winnable games their last two weeks of the season and getting a win over the West Virginia Mountaineers on Saturday would give them a shot to break .500 in conference. A win would also make it plausible to get to 20 wins and leave TCU not worrying about its fate on Selection Sunday.... 

Monmouth is atop the MAAC and has already clinched that conference title. They are at home against a Siena it has already blown out this season, so it is clear that the Hawks will be heavy favorites in this matchup. The Saints have played better in the conference than out of it but will still be a substantial underdog in this showdown.At 7 p.m. ET, tune into ESPN2 for live television coverage of this NCAA basketball game on Friday, February 24, 2017, at the OceanFirst Bank Center in West Long Branch, New Jersey.... 

Dayton has the superior record but must go on the road for this matchup. Davidson has struggled of late within the conference but a big win over the A-10 leader would be a sizable confidence boost.However, based on its play of late, Dayton should be considered the favorite in this matchup.... 

The Cincinnati Bearcats have put together some dominant runs on their own floor and they’re in the middle of yet another. Cincy extended its current home winning streak to 24 straight and looks to remain at the top of the American Athletic Conference standings with a matchup against the Memphis Tigers. The Bearcats have some work to do in order to match their longest home stretch, which reached 41 games back in the late 1990s, but getting to 25 looks promising.... 

It’s been a bad year for the Ohio State Buckeyes and it won’t get better any time soon, especially with the Big Ten co-leader Wisconsin Badgers next on the docket. The Buckeyes have won at least 20 games in each of the past 12 seasons and haven’t missed the NCAA Tournament in consecutive years in a decade. But those two streaks are in serious jeopardy unless OSU can miraculously pull it together for a late season run. The only hope they have of making the NCAA’s is to win the Big Ten Tournament, and the way they’re playing, that’s not going to happen.... 

Time is running out for the “Bubble Teams” to impress the selection committee. The regular season is down to just one week for the smaller conferences and a couple for the majors. While all of these teams can assure themselves of a bid should they catch fire and win their respective conference tournaments, the better route to take is to get yourself on the right side of the cut line going in. With that, let’s take a look at some more teams that could make you a mint if they get in and go on a Cinderella run.... 

The defending national champions have crossed one item off their to-do list this season. With Saturday’s win, the Villanova Wildcats have clinched the Big East regular season title for a fourth consecutive season. But their sights are set on bigger things, and this is no time for the Cats to relax with the Butler Bulldogs coming to town. And just in case Nova needed added motivation, it was the Bulldogs that handed them their first loss of the season back in January.... 

Florida has been the better team this season and is playing at home, so it will certainly be favored to win this one. The Gamecocks were able to pick up the victory the first time these two teams played and hopes to use that confidence to perform well in this one.At 7 p.m. ET, tune into ESPN for live television coverage of this NCAA basketball game on Tuesday, February 21, 2017, at the Exactech Arena in Gainesville, Florida.... 

Finally living up to their preseason hype, the Duke Blue Devils could be a force come tournament time. There were some trying times for the Dookies a few weeks back with Coach K laid up due to a bad back and several players missing action with injuries. But the coach and players are back and the Blue Devils have rattled off seven straight victories. They have to play three of their final four contests on the road, beginning with a matchup against the Syracuse Orange on Wednesday.... 

MIssissippi State has the inferior overall and conference record, but does get the homecourt advantage. This spread could come in just a couple of points either way as it could be a game that comes down to the wire.Ole Miss walloped Mississippi State the first time out and would love to sweep the season series, but this one certainly figures to be tougher as the Rebels hit the road.... 

The North Carolina Tar Heels are at the top of the pack in the ACC right now. But with a vicious schedule to close out the regular season and four teams within two games in the loss column, things could be much different in two weeks. In order for the Tar Heels to maintain their perch, they need to beat the Louisville Cardinals on Wednesday. If the Cards win at the Dean Dome, something no other team has been able to do this season, there will be a tie at the top, which is fitting for the toughest conference in college basketball.... 

Baylor is one of the best teams in the country and even though it has lost four of its past six games, there is plenty of talent. The Bears likely won’t be down for long as throughout the season they have proven themselves.Oklahoma has had a terrible season and sits in last place in the Big 12. Add the fact that they are on the road, and the Sooners will be heavy underdogs in this matchup. Baylor is likely going to need to win by double-digits in order to cover this spread.... 

Both teams have similar overall records and in conference, so this could be a competitive matchup. Since the Hawkeyes have the home court advantage, they could be slight favorites, although either team could easily come away victorious.At 9 p.m. ET, tune into ESPN for live television coverage of this NCAA basketball game on Tuesday, February 21, 2017, at the Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Ames, Iowa.... 

The Oregon Ducks are flying high in the PAC-12 but have had their share of road woes this year. All four of Oregon’s losses came away from Eugene and this team has proven vulnerable outside of the state. They will travel down I-5 on Wednesday night to take on a team that is pretty squarely on the bubble, the California Golden Bears. Most bracketologists currently have Cal in the field, but a win over Oregon would erase any doubt.... 

A huge win in Waco on Saturday virtually locked up the Big 12 Championship for Bill Self’s Kansas Jayhawks. Kansas now has a three-game lead in conference with just four games left to play and can clinch at least a share of the title when they take on the TCU Horned Frogs in Lawrence on Wednesday. As for TCU, the Horned Frogs are looking to make the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 19 years, but have lost three in a row. Getting a win against either Kansas or West Virginia in their next two games would be huge for their at-large hopes.... 

The Connecticut Huskies and the Temple Owls both entered the season with high expectations and in UConn’s case a Top 25 rankings, but both teams have woefully underachieved. Both of these teams likely need to win the AAC conference tournament in March if they have any hope of making the NCAA Tournament as both are hovering right around the .500 mark. For Temple, this one is especially important as a loss would assure the Owls of having a losing record in conference play.... 

If not for undefeated and No. 1 ranked Gonzaga, the Saint Mary’s Gaels would have a much better looking record. It’s still a beautiful sight at 23-3, but two of those defeats came at the hands of the Zags in games the Gaels had no answer for. And Saturday’s matchup with the BYU Cougars is huge in terms of the NCAA Tournament hopes for Saint Mary’s, who got the snub from the committee last year. Getting one last big win in regular season play could seal the deal for the Gaels this year.... 

The three-way tie for the top spot in the Big Ten will be broken on Sunday when two of the teams sharing the lead square off. The Wisconsin Badgers might have the advantage of playing on their home floor, but that didn’t help them last time out in a loss to Northwestern. Bucky followed that home loss with a defeat at Michigan to drop them into a tie with the Maryland Terrapins and Purdue. The Terps are trending up and the Badgers down at the most critical time of the year.... 

The Arizona Wildcats have been so good over the years that a run to the Pac-12 title is just an annual occurrence. And when other teams in the conference show promise, those are the ones that grab the headlines. UCLA garnered plenty of preseason attention with its ridiculous recruiting class. Oregon also received plenty of ink following their deep tournament run last season. But it all seems to come back to the Wildcats, who go for the sweep in the Northwest and look to hold down the top spot in the league with a matchup against the Washington Huskies.... 

No one would have believed that Shaka Smart’s Texas Longhorns would be this bad at the start of the year. Texas is on pace to have one of its worst seasons ever in basketball and the only question is how many games below .500 the Longhorns will end up. They have looked toothless all season long and still have three more games against Top 10 opponents left. The first of those will take place in Morgantown on Monday night when the West Virginia Mountaineers welcome them....