The power conferences tend to hog the spotlight during championship week, whether it's top-ranked Duke trying to win another ACC Tournament title, second-ranked Arizona trying to win its first in the Big 12, or all those other schools trying to spring an upset.
One of the most intriguing tournaments, though, just might be the Mid-American Conference.
No. 20 Miami (Ohio) brings a 31-0 record into Cleveland, Ohio, after becoming only the third school to run the table in the league, and the first to do so since the RedHawks — then known as the Redskins — pulled off the feat nearly seven decades ago. The tournament's top seed plays No. 8 seed UMass in the opening game Thursday at Rocket Arena.
The RedHawks might just need to win it. And keep winning.
Because while fans have come to love the gritty, win-at-all costs RedHawks, and AP Top 25 voters have had them solidly in their poll for weeks, the advanced metrics are far more skeptical. The NET rankings used by the NCAA to help seed its 68-team field had them at No. 55 on Sunday night, while KenPom's ranking had them at No. 91 as this week began.
The reason is simple: Their strength of schedule is 274th out of 365 teams in Division I basketball. It includes NAIA schools Indiana University East and Milligan, and Mercyhurst, which just moved up to Division I a couple of years ago. In fact, the RedHawks' biggest wins have come against Akron and Kent State, fellow MAC schools that need a tourney title to make the NCAA field.
RedHawks coach Travis Steele is right to bristle at the naysayers, though. Miami has merely played the schedule that was put in front of it. And much of that was made years ago, before anyone knew just how good the RedHawks could be.
“I knew it was going to be a complete rebuild,” said Steele, who is finishing up his fourth season after a four-year stint at Xavier. “But we wanted to build it the slow, steady way, to where we could get a foundation to where it's more sustainable.”
The first couple of years were lean, but Miami went 25-9 last season, when it lost by two to Akron in the MAC title game.
In other words, the RedHawks are no one-hit wonder.
“Where we are in college athletics, a lot of things are year to year,” Steele said. “Like, you can put together one really good team and you can be awful the next year. We won 25 games last year. We won 31 this year. But our goal is not to win 31 games. Our goal is to advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. That's where anything can happen.”
So long as the RedHawks get there, first.
The Blue Devils could be without Patrick Ngongba II and Caleb Foster because of injuries when the No. 1 seed begins the ACC tourney on Thursday. Virginia is seeded second and earned a double-bye, as did No. 3 seed Miami and No. 4 seed North Carolina.
Defending champion Houston is seeded second behind Arizona in the Big 12 tourney, while No. 3 seed Kansas and No. 4 seed Texas Tech also earned byes into Thursday's quarterfinals. Seventh-ranked Iowa State is seeded fifth and will open Wednesday.
The hottest team in the nation might be St. John's, which has won 16 of its last 17 and swiped the No. 1 seed in the Big East away from UConn. They both will play quarterfinals on Friday along with No. 3 seed Villanova and fourth-seeded Seton Hall.
Michigan is seeded first in the Big Ten and will play its quarterfinal Friday. Second-seeded Nebraska, third-seeded Michigan State and No. 4 seed Illinois also got two free passes, while Iowa is among the likely NCAA tourney teams that must play Wednesday.
Defending national champion Florida has the No. 1 seed in its conference tournament. It will play its quarterfinal Friday along with No. 2 seed Alabama, third-seeded Arkansas and No. 4 seed Vanderbilt.
Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here and here (AP mobile app). AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball
Miami (Ohio) guard Trey Perry reacts after defeating Ohio in an NCAA college basketball game, Friday, March 6, 2026, in Athens, Ohio. (AP Photo/HG Biggs)
A huge game awaits the Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday night.
It'll happen in Houston, even though the Timberwolves will be in Los Angeles. There will be no dunks, no traveling, no 3-pointers. No halftime, either. No shot clock, but there will be a pitch clock.
And there will be fouls. Well, foul balls.
These are fun times for the Timberwolves. They're in the thick of an airtight Western Conference playoff race, but they're getting a neat and probably unexpected diversion — the World Baseball Classic. Minnesota assistant coach Micah Nori's son is Dante Nori, and he's been a breakout player for Italy in that tournament. Italy plays the U.S. on Tuesday night, a game that starts a couple of hours before the Timberwolves take on the Los Angeles Lakers.
“I will be watching the Timberwolves,” Micah Nori said. “But at 6 o'clock Pacific time, I will be focused on the Italians and the Americans in the WBC, for sure.”
Make no mistake, the Timberwolves are focused on the stretch run and trying to lock up the best possible playoff seed. But that doesn't mean head coach Chris Finch, co-owner Alex Rodriguez — the slugger who knows a thing or two about baseball — and others within the organization can't stop and cheer for one of their own, even if it does mean paying attention to a different sport.
“My family is obviously locked in on it, but so is our organization," Micah Nori said. “It sounds crazy, but so many guys are locked in. Our head coach is a big fan, and I can't tell you how many people send videos or pictures of them watching Dante's game. It means a lot. It is a welcome distraction, if you will, one that has you just get away from the grind a little bit.”
Dante Nori is 5 for 7 through his first two games of the tournament, with a two-homer game in Italy's win over Brazil on Saturday.
His father says that by the time Dante was 4, he figured his future was in baseball. As the story goes, Dante would try to play on his toy basket and Micah would swat his shot away and put the baseball bat in his hands instead.
Dante says the baseball-over-basketball realization actually happened around the time he was in middle school and realized he wasn't going to get past 5-foot-9.
“It was a very easy choice,” Dante Nori said. “Just keep the cleats on and play baseball.”
Having Dante wear Italia across his chest for this tournament is a big deal to the family. But it's not exactly a stretch that Micah Nori — someone who could easily be an NBA head coach one day — has a kid who excels in baseball.
And really, baseball has basically been the family sport.
Fred Nori, Micah Nori's father, played three years of college baseball at Indiana before spending a few seasons in pro ball. Micah Nori also played baseball at Indiana, batting a team-best .365 as a senior. Butch Carter got him into basketball as an advance scout with the Toronto Raptors, but he wound up leaving that role to return to the Hoosiers as a coach. Micah Nori returned to the NBA four years later and has been in the league ever since.
“Being around all these great NBA players your whole life, it helps you out listening to them, seeing their work ethic, seeing what they had to do to get there," Dante Nori said. "And then the standpoint of getting to rep that name — Italia — across your chest, you’re playing for your ancestors, you're playing for your family, especially my grandpa Fred. Him getting to watch is really special. All of that, it’s just all coming together. It's sweet.”
It's not lost on the Nori family that one of the guys running the Wolves right now was a 14-time All-Star, three-time MVP, a World Series champion and someone who hit 696 home runs in his career.
Yes, A-Rod is a fine guy for Dante Nori to have in his corner. It's just another illustration of how, for the Timberwolves and the Nori family, the worlds of baseball and basketball are meshing perfectly together right now.
“Alex has been great the few times that Dante and he have crossed paths when Dante was in Minnesota, even when he was in high school," Micah Nori said. “Alex is always taking time to give Dante some advice. And I think that’s been huge. Just the fact that Dante has been fortunate enough to grow up in professional locker rooms, he realizes that they're just people but he sees the work ethic. And that's why I think he gets to the WBC and just focuses on playing his game. He's not distracted or overwhelmed by it all."
Around The NBA analyzes the biggest topics in the NBA during the season.
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba
Italy's Dante Nori, right, celebrates after hitting a home run against Brazil during the seventh inning of a World Baseball Classic game, Saturday, March 7, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
Philadelphia Phillies' Kehden Hettiger, right, and Dante Nori celebrate after Hettiger's two-run home run during the third inning of a spring training baseball game against the Washington Nationals, Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026, in Clearwater. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
Italy's Dante Nori, right, celebrates after hitting a home run against Brazil during the seventh inning of a World Baseball Classic game, Saturday, March 7, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
