The Post’s Zach Braziller provides a college basketball stock watch and look ahead to this week’s biggest games.
Game of the Week
No. 5 Florida at No. 1 Auburn, Saturday, 4 p.m.:
Saturday’s showdown against the Gators will mark Auburn’s sixth game this season against a current Top 10 team.
The top-ranked Tigers are 4-1 in such contests, well on their way to the overall No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
They own a ridiculous 12-1 record in Quad 1 games, and sit all alone atop the dominant SEC, a game in the loss column up on No. 4 Alabama. Expect offensive fireworks in this one, as two of the top 5 offenses in terms of efficiency in the nation meet.
Seeding
1. Auburn, Duke, Alabama, Tennessee
2. Purdue, Iowa State, Florida, Houston
3. Marquette, Texas A&M, Kentucky, Michigan State
4. Kansas, Arizona, Ole Miss, Missouri
Stock Watch
Up
John Calipari
Saturday’s victory at No. 12 Kentucky had to be one of the most satisfying wins of the Hall of Fame coach’s career.
On a night when he was booed in his old arena, despite leading the Wildcats to a national championship and four Final Four berths in 15 mostly successful seasons, Calipari led his new program, Arkansas, to a win that could ultimately get them into the NCAA Tournament.
Calipari was gracious afterward, when nobody would’ve faulted him for taking a few parting shots at the Kentucky fan base.
Saint Mary’s
The WCC is Saint Mary’s to lose. After knocking off Gonzaga on Saturday night, the Gaels have won 10 straight games, and hold a commanding three-game lead over San Francisco and the Zags. Their three losses, to Utah State, Arizona State and Boise State, have each come by seven points or fewer.
Despite losing star guard Aidan Mahaney to the transfer portal, Saint Mary’s is having another big year, buoyed by scoring depth — six players average at least nine points per game — and a defense that allows 60.8 points, the seventh-lowest total in the country.
Down
Kansas
The preseason No. 1 team is showing major cracks. After blowing a 21-point lead at previously skidding Baylor, Kansas has lost three of its past six games entering another difficult week: Home for No. 3 Iowa State and at in-state rival Kansas State.
Two of the Jayhawks’ major transfer portal additions, AJ Storr (Wisconsin) and Rylan Griffen (Alabama), have not panned out as expected, putting an onus on the big three of Hunter Dickinson, Zeke Mayo and Dajuan Harris Jr. Kansas finds itself in a three-way tie for fifth place in the Big 12, three full games behind 6th-ranked Houston and Arizona atop the league.
ACC
The ACC could be this year’s Big East, the conference most angered by the selection committee’s decisions. The league is trending the wrong way the first week of February. Saturday was particularly ugly: North Carolina wasn’t competitive against archrival and 2nd-ranked Duke, Pittsburgh’s shaky play continued in a loss at Wake Forest and No. 21 Louisville suffered a stunning setback to Georgia Tech.
Right now, the ACC has three teams that I believe will make it in: Duke, Louisville and Clemson. Pittsburgh seemed to be in good shape before this current skid of five losses in seven games.
North Carolina, flirting with missing the tournament for the second time in three years, is a disastrous 1-9 in Quad 1 games. Wake Forest and SMU, two potential bubble teams, are a combined 1-9 in Quad 1 as well. Only three bids isn’t out of the question.
