The two best teams in the ACC showed it on Tuesday night.
Coming off a massive win over then-No. 1 Michigan, Duke breezed through a trip to South Bend, dominating Notre Dame from the opening tip en route to a 100-56 thrashing. Unsurprisingly, Cam Boozer was brilliant again, tallying 24 points, 13 rebounds, three steals and two assists (zero turnovers) in just 24 minutes. Duke’s defense also narrowly overtook Michigan’s for the top spot in KenPom’s rankings after suffocating the Irish attack.
Virginia, meanwhile, obliterated NC State, 90-61, to improve to 25-3 (13-2 in the league). The 11th-ranked Hoos have largely flown under the national radar this season, but it is hard to ignore such a shiny record in Ryan Odom’s debut season as coach in Charlottesville. The Cavs got a balanced offensive attack in this one, with Thijs De Ridder (19 points), Sam Lewis (16) and Jacari White (15) leading five double-digit scorers.
Those two results set the stage for a massive showdown at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Saturday. Duke may be the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament right now, but the Cavaliers could swipe the inside track for the ACC Tournament’s top slot with a road victory (thus also earning the head-to-head tiebreaker). As of Tuesday, our Joe Rexrode had Virginia slotted as a No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
A Duke win, however, would clinch the No. 1 seed in the ACC while earning Jon Scheyer his second straight regular-season title in the conference. Considering Coach K only managed that feat once in his final 12 seasons, it would mark an outstanding start to Scheyer’s tenure in Durham. — Jim Root
Indiana, Auburn fill the bubble bath; Missouri seizes opportunity
Coming into Tuesday, Indiana was in a tenuous but decent spot. The Hoosiers were one of the teams Rexrode predicted to receive the last four byes in his bracket, largely on the strength of a profile that had zero losses outside of Quad 1 (15-0 in all non-Q1 games). They only had two Q1 wins, but everything else on their resume looked worthy of an at-large bid.
After Tuesday night, that is no longer the case. Indiana led by as many as 13 and was up seven with 10 minutes left when its offense completely vanished. The Hoosiers scored a measly five points in an eight-minute span, allowing Northwestern to take the lead, and Indiana (17-11, 8-9 in the Big Ten) picked up what is currently a Q3 loss to Northwestern (12-16, 4-13) in Bloomington.
Northwestern was 79th in the NET rankings entering play Tuesday. If the Wildcats leap to 75 or higher, then IU’s loss would only register in Q2.
A controversial no-call in the final seconds did not help the Hoosiers’ cause. Trailing 71-68 as time wound down, Tucker DeVries rose for a potential game-tying 3, but Northwestern’s Angelo Ciaravino appeared to take a chunk out of DeVries’ wrist:
No foul was called on the shot here for Indiana.
Was it a foul? pic.twitter.com/jzH3Vr8run
— FOX College Hoops (@CBBonFOX) February 25, 2026
No foul was called, and IU took its worst loss of the season. That result puts the Hoosiers in serious danger of missing the NCAA Tournament.
Elsewhere, Auburn’s 91-79 loss at Oklahoma is not particularly damaging, but the Tigers’ 15-13 overall record puts them in a dire position. Typically, teams must be at least three games over .500 to earn an at-large bid, and Auburn is now on pace to fall short of that barometer. That means the Tigers, despite having five Q1 wins and playing the toughest schedule in the country, could be on the outside looking in come Selection Sunday.
Another set of Tigers, Missouri, went the opposite direction by collecting a crucial fifth Q1 win. At home in Columbia, Mizzou knocked off Tennessee, 73-69, behind a career-high 28 points from sophomore point guard T.O. Barrett. The victory improved the Tigers to 5-5 in Q1 and 9-9 against the top two quadrants. They have no bad losses, and even after a meek nonconference performance with no key wins, Dennis Gates’ squad looks destined to dance.
The Big 12 had two massive battles on Tuesday night. Oklahoma State survived West Virginia in overtime, 91-84. It was a “gotta have it” win for the Cowboys, who had lost five straight. They and the Mountaineers are both on the fringe of the bubble at this point. TCU won the other contender clash, dominating Arizona State, 90-78. The Horned Frogs are in the best shape of all the Big 12 bubble hopefuls, according to Rexrode’s bracket projections. Tuesday’s win over ASU might not have moved the needle on its own, but TCU might benefit from Indiana’s or Auburn’s stumbles. — Root
Dayton takes down No. 23 Saint Louis
Saint Louis dropped its second conference game, this one to Dayton, a 77-62 loss to a team it now hasn’t beaten on the road since 2014.
The Billikens’ offense struggled again, as it did in the team’s loss to Rhode Island, shooting 40 percent from the field and 24 percent from 3. The Flyers came in well-prepared defensively. Saint Louis runs a lot of off-ball action with big man Robbie Avila operating at the top of the key. The Flyers were physical off the ball and blew up a lot of those actions, forcing the Billikens to take contested shots later in the shot clock. Dayton also mixed in some switching to prevent dribble penetration.
Despite the ugly loss, Saint Louis should still be in the tournament field — even if it’s as an at-large team. But we’ll see if other Atlantic 10 teams can turn the Flyers’ defensive game plan into a blueprint for slowing down the Billikens.
UCF scorches the nets in win over No. 19 BYU
UCF picked up a big-time win for its tournament resume thanks to a blazing shooting performance in which the Knights hung nearly 100 points on No. 19 BYU.
From the beginning, UCF could not miss in the 97-84 win. The Knights jumped out to a 20-6 lead five minutes into the game and scored 52 points in the first half. Johnny Dawkins’ team finished 14 of 24 from 3-point range, shot 56 percent from the field and was up on BYU the entire game.
The Knights’ defense capitalized on BYU’s weak outside shooting. Defenders sank within the 3-point line and clogged the lanes for AJ Dybantsa and Robert Wright III to get to the basket, forcing BYU into poor shot selection. That helped UCF play early offense, allowing them to find open 3-point looks.
BYU’s shooting outside of Dybantsa didn’t help. The Cougars shot 9 of 27 from distance and had 11 assists to UCF’s 25. The Knights exposed what is likely the formula to contain BYU: load up on Dybantsa’s drives and make him shoot over the top. If he passes, you force other BYU players to beat you and live with the outcomes.
Dybantsa had zero assists, but that appeared to be the result of BYU players failing to convert a number of potential assists from Dybantsa.
In Jim Root’s bubble watch last week, he graded UCF as “Should Be In.” The Knights have further solidified their case to be a tournament team.
Dawkins has only made the tournament once (2019) in his 10 seasons at UCF. This could be the year UCF gets back to the dance. — Matthew Ho
Late Knight energy ⚡️ pic.twitter.com/7Qz6FqJ9tf
— UCF Men’s Hoops 🌴 (@UCF_MBB) February 25, 2026
The undefeated Redhawks
Miami (OH) beating Eastern Michigan on the road is not a notable result. It will not help the Redhawks’ seeding much, if at all. Improving to 28-0, though, puts Miami in rarefied air. Only six other teams have started the year 28-0 since the tournament field expanded to 64 teams in 1985: 2021 Gonzaga, 2017 Gonzaga, 2015 Kentucky, 2014 Wichita St., 2005 Illinois, and 1991 UNLV.
With three winnable games left on the MAC schedule, Travis Steele’s squad is inching toward an undefeated regular season. With that achievement, the selection committee would not be able to keep them out of the NCAA Tournament, no matter what happens in the MAC Tournament. — Root
Sun’s out at UCLA
Finally, Bruins guard Donovan Dent is playing up to his billing as one of the best available players in the transfer portal last March, when he moved from New Mexico to UCLA.
After struggling for much of the season, Dent has 44 points, 22 assists and zero turnovers in his last two games. He led UCLA to an 81-62 dismantling of rival USC on Tuesday night, and now the cloud hanging over his season appears to have given way to sunshine. There’s no way to know if Dent has broken out of his slump for good, but UCLA, amid a season blemished by blowout losses and the volatile behavior of coach Mick Cronin, will ride this surge as long as it lasts.
Entering Tuesday, the Bruins were considered a likely tournament team. Beating USC should give them some more breathing room, coming on the heels of UCLA’s 95-94 win over No. 10 Illinois last weekend and pushing the team’s record to 19-9 overall and 11-6 in the Big Ten.
For USC, Tuesday’s result was costly. The Trojans entered as a bubble team in desperate need of a Q1 road win. Instead, they fell to 18-10 and 7-10 in conference play, extending their losing streak to four games and leaving USC with little margin for error as the season winds down. With Q1 opponents Nebraska, Washington and UCLA remaining, coach Eric Musselman and USC need to finish strong to avoid a third straight March without an NCAA bid. — Ira Gorawara