March is only two days away, but the madness has already begun in college basketball. Two major conference races came down to the wire in the Pac-12 and ACC. Then, Iowa and Indiana delivered the game of the year to date on Sunday to close out the Big Ten regular season as Caitlin Clark punctuated her candidacy for conference player of the year with 34 points, nine assists, nine rebounds and a buzzer-beating game-winning 3-pointer.
But the national player of the year award isn’t in Clark’s hands — at least not yet. The crown still resides with Aliyah Boston, and Boston added another accolade to her resume by leading South Carolina to an undefeated regular season with 25 points and 11 rebounds in the final contest against Georgia. The Gamecocks completed a wire-to-wire regular season atop these power rankings as well (yes, there are more games to be played in other conferences; and no, South Carolina will not be dethroned no matter those results). Only a truly mad March would see the defending champs removed from that perch.
Dropped out: Florida State
Almost famous: UNLV, Florida State, South Florida, Columbia
• Indiana remains No. 2 despite the loss to Iowa. The outright Big Ten champions for the first time in program history acquitted themselves well, even in defeat, and…
