If this past weekend was any indication, we're in for a crazy March. Each of the top six teams in the AP Top 25 poll lost on Saturday, and then-No. 22 Ohio State followed up Sunday with a surprising 15-point loss at Maryland just three days after taking down then- No. 15 Illinois on the road. There is little doubt that silly season has arrived.
In college football, that term — "silly season" — is often used in reference to the coaching carousel. In college basketball, it's the best way to describe the entire month of March and what happens in the actual games. While the height of the madness comes during the NCAA Tournament after the March 13 Selection Show on CBS, there will be plenty of wildness before then as well.
Conference tournaments are getting underway this week, and the Big 12, Big Ten and SEC regular-season title races are packed with drama amid the final week of the regular season for the most prestigious leagues. In college basketball, March unofficially lasts until the Final Four concludes. That will be on April 4 this season in New Orleans, where a national champion will be crowned in front of an arena full of fans for the first time in three years. The 2021 NCAA Tournament was held in a sterilized environment in Indiana, and of course the 2020 Big Dance was canceled altogether amid the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
So with a relatively normal postseason finally dawning in college hoops, our writers are each offering "one bold prediction for March" in this week's edition of the Dribble Handoff.