CBGB: Duke Is Worth Hating Again, and Just in Time for a Crazy March

Welcome to the VICE Sports College Basketball Grab Bag, where every week we’ll round up the biggest news stories in the sport. Random stuff, too, because it’s college basketball. Enjoy!

The Duke team you love to hate is back. Hallelujah!

After a rough stretch midseason stretch that included four ACC losses in five games, Duke appears to be back. The Blue Devils are on a five-game winning streak, including three straight against Louisville, Virginia, and North Carolina.

Videos by VICE

And the best part is that Duke won those last two in the most hateable way possible.

For Blue Devils haters—which is to say a significant majority of right-thinking Americans—the Virginia game was perfect. By which I mean it was the worst. Duke star guard Grayson Allen, college basketball’s Ted Cruz doppelganger, took four steps on a game-winning shot to beat the Cavaliers. You’re only allowed two steps in basketball, so that very clearly should have been a travel. Here’s the video:

So, the Dukies got a break. Par for the course, right?

Against North Carolina, the Blue Devils eked out a win despite trailing for nearly the entire game. It was a deserving, hard-earned win on the road, and the kind of comeback that doesn’t happen all that often. It put the Blue Devils in the unfamiliar position of being scrappy underdogs, even though the program is loaded with blue-chip recruits—a turn of events that’s particularly hard to swallow for the “Anybody But Duke” crowd.

To make matters worse, look at Ted Cruz Jr.’s face:

In the past 20 seasons, Duke has recorded 10 road wins over Top-5 teams, more than any other D1 program. — ESPN College BBall (@ESPNCBB)February 18, 2016

To be clear, there is nothing wrong with celebrating, nothing wrong with getting lucky, and nothing wrong with winning. These past two games just have encapsulated everything about the Duke that we’ve all learned to loathe—and frankly, that’s great news, because it isn’t fun to root against the Blue Devils when they aren’t any good in the first place.

Upsets galore mean the NCAA tournament should be a blast

Three top 10 teams have lost to unranked opponents this week, some in more embarrassing fashion than others.

Oklahoma lost to Texas Tech, which is forgivable. Iowa lost to hapless Penn State, which is less forgivable. Maryland lost to Minnesota, which was 0-13 in conference play, which…what!?

It has been a crazy year for parity in college basketball, with top-ranked teams stumbling regularly and upstart programs like Iowa, Oklahoma, West Virginia, Xavier, and others threatening to make some major noise in March. That bodes poorly for your office pool bracket but very well for an entertaining NCAA tournament.

Last year’s tournament was top-heavy: three No. 1 seeds made the Final Four, along with No. 7 seed Michigan State, a result that only was surprising if you’ve never paid attention to Spartans coach Tom Izzo in March. This year, the story likely will be much different.

According to the KenPom.com ratings, the top six teams last season were better than any team in the country right now. And last year, the gap between No. 1 and No. 10 is equal to this year’s gap between No. 1 and No. 22.

Buckle up for a wild ride, because this could be one of the most unpredictable tournament fields in a long time.

Will the selection committee favor flawed small schools or big schools?

Two years ago, the NCAA tournament selection committee seemed to make an effort to reward small schools over big schools. It took a number of teams that didn’t have great wins, but had big win totals and very few bad losses, over major conference schools with better wins and worse losses.

The Atlantic-10 was particularly fortunate in 2014, getting six teams in. Five of them lost in the first round; the only one that didn’t was Dayton, the lowest-seeded team of the bunch.

Last year, the committee flipped that philosophy on its head. They rewarded UCLA, which was just 20-13 but had played a tougher schedule than many schools in smaller conferences.

So which way will the committee lean this year? Will it prefer teams like St. Mary’s, which already has 20 victories but also ranks No. 233 nationally in non-conference schedule difficulty? Or will it prefer squads like LSU, which has beaten Kentucky, Texas A&M, Alabama, and Vanderbilt but also lost to College of Charleston and Wake Forest?

My guess is the latter, but we’ll see.

Best week: Duke

The Blue Devils are now firmly back in the hunt for a national title, and while they certainly won’t be favored to win it all, they’ve proved this week that they have championship potential.

Worst week: Maryland

With Iowa falling to Penn State, Maryland had the chance to take control of the Big Ten race, since the Terrapins own a head-to-head win over the Hawkeyes. Instead, they lost at home to Wisconsin, and then inexplicably lost to Minnesota, giving the Golden Gophers their first Big Ten win in 14 tries. Maryland now needs a lot of help to win the conference.

Random ranking

This week, we rank the top five new head coaches for 2015-16:

1. Shaka Smart, Texas: Smart figured to get Texas turned around pretty quick, but he has made the transition faster than anyone anticipated. (No puns intended, given Smart’s preferred style of play). After a 2-3 start to the season, the Longhorns beat Iowa State, West Virginia (twice), and Baylor. They’re closing in on top five seed in the NCAA tournament.

2. Avery Johnson, Alabama: Alabama could never get over the hump with Anthony Grant, but Johnson has the Crimson Tide primed to make the NCAA tournament in his first season in Tuscaloosa. They’ve won five straight, including beating Texas A&M, Florida, and LSU.

3. Eran Ganot, Hawaii: Hawaii really shouldn’t be good at any sport, because the Warriors have so many expenses and don’t have the resources of most other schools. But as VICE Sports’ Michael Weinreb has chronicled, the school is 21-3 in Ganot’s first year and is favored to win the Big West and make the NCAA tournament.

4. Michael White, Florida: Florida figured to take a big step back this year after losing longtime coach Billy Donovan to the Oklahoma City Thunder, as well as a majority of its roster. However, White has kept the Gators consistent, and they should make the NCAA tournament.

5. Steve Prohm, Iowa State: On the surface, Iowa State has been a bit of a disappointment this year, given the talent on hand. That said, Prohm still has the Cyclones playing fairly well, and they should be a top three or four seed in the NCAA tournament.