2024 College basketball rankings: Houston remains on top, North Carolina moves up

College Basketball

Updated Mar. 10, 2024 11:27 p.m. ET

College Basketball Broadcaster and Reporter

The final Saturday of the men’s college basketball regular season, with some conference tournament action getting sprinkled in, delivered the goods. Before we hit on any takeaways from the teams in our rankings, congratulations are in order to Preston Spradlin and the Morehead State Eagles, who booked the first of 32 automatic bids to the NCAA Tournament with a 69-55 win over Little Rock. With the win, the Eagles are going dancing for the first time since 2021. The madness has only just begun.

As for the heavyweights across the sport, the biggest debate at the top is who should be the final No. 1 seed in the Big Dance? Arizona, projected in the committee’s top-16 reveal three weeks ago, added a third Quad 2 loss on Saturday with a 78-65 defeat to USC.

Meanwhile, North Carolina captured a seventh Quad 1 win and an eighth true road victory – the most of any high-major program – with an 84-79 win over Duke to complete a season sweep and earn the outright ACC regular-season championship. The other team in contention for the 1-line, Tennessee, lost at home to Kentucky. While it’s a Quad 1 loss and the Vols still have eight victories over the top Quadrant, it increases the debate about who that last No. 1 seed belongs to next to Houston, UConn and Purdue.

The Tar Heels, who have now won three of the last four meetings with their arch rival played at Cameron Indoor Stadium, raced out to a 15-point lead in the first half and never looked back. Saturday’s victory will forever be known in Chapel Hill as “The Cormac Ryan Game“ because the UNC guard went off for a career-high 31 points in the victory. That effort produced the highest-scoring game by a Tar Heel in a game at Duke since Hubert Davis scored 35 on March 8, 1992.

Marquee road wins were a theme on Saturday, as Kentucky proved why John Calipari has a team with national championship upside. Despite first-team All-American frontrunner Dalton Knecht scoring 40 points, Antonio Reeves scored 27 points, and Reed Sheppard delivered 27 while shooting 7-for-10 from 3-point territory for Kentucky to pull out an 85-81 victory in Knoxville. Throw in Justin Edwards posting another encouraging performance with 16 points while hitting four triples, and this team’s offensive abilities are truly limitless. While it’s a tough loss for Tennessee, Rick Barnes’ team only has one Quad 2 loss, whereas Arizona and North Carolina have multiple defeats in that column. The committee has some thinking to do, and this week’s conference tournament performance should play a part in determining seeding.

As for the nation’s top teams, Houston bullied Kansas, 76-46, behind Jamal Shead’s 13 points, eight assists and six rebounds. For the Cougars to be 28-3 overall and 15-3 in the Big 12 as outright conference champions in Year 1 in that league is exceptional. Meanwhile, the Jayhawks have major issues. Hunter Dickinson dislocated his shoulder and Kevin McCullar Jr. (knee) did not play in the second half. I would not trust Bill Self’s team past the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament, if even that.

And then there’s Connecticut, who is my front-runner to win the national championship and will likely be my pick to cut down the nets in Arizona when the bracket is revealed next Sunday. UConn overcame a slow start, one in which they trailed 15-2, and rolled to a 74-60 win with five scoring in double-figures and the Friars going scoreless in the final 8:46 of the first half.

Connecticut is the No. 1 seed in the Big East Tournament, with No. 2 seed Creighton earning its seventh win in eight games. The shot of the day on Saturday? It comes from Trey Alexander, who hit the game-winner to beat Villanova, handing the Wildcats a devastating loss for their at-large hopes.

Creighton’s Trey Alexander hits a game-winning shot with .1 left to take down Villanova

Two other results that stood out: Danny Sprinkle, who took over at Utah State in the offseason, has the Aggies as Mountain West outright regular-season champions for the first time ever.

The other? USF was bounced from our rankings with a loss to Tulsa. While the Bulls are 23-6 and having a magical year, they must win the American Athletic Conference Tournament to get the NCAA bid. Their résumé is not strong enough.

Complete rankings:

1. Houston (28-3)

2. UConn (28-3)

3. Purdue (28-3)

4. North Carolina (25-6)

5. Tennessee (24-7)

6. Creighton (23-8)

7. Arizona (24-7)

8. Kentucky (23-8)

9. Iowa State (24-7)

10. Marquette (22-7)

11. Duke (24-7)

12. Auburn (24-7)

13. Illinois (23-8)

14. Baylor (22-9)

15. South Carolina (25-6)

16. Utah State (26-5)

17. BYU (22-9)

18. Gonzaga (24-6)

19. Saint Mary’s (24-7)

20. Nevada (26-6)

21. Kansas (22-9)

22. Alabama (21-10)

23. Texas Tech (22-9)

24. Dayton (24-6)

25. Drake (28-6)

John Fanta is a national college basketball broadcaster and writer for FOX Sports. He covers the sport in a variety of capacities, from calling games on FS1 to serving as lead host on the BIG EAST Digital Network to providing commentary on The Field of 68 Media Network. Follow him on X at @John_Fanta.