No. 1 Duke, No. 2 Arizona and No. 3 Michigan get top-15 tests this week

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The committee that will select the NCAA Tournament field has zeroed in on a clear top tier of Duke, Arizona and Michigan.

Those three teams — now ranked 1-2-3 atop the AP Top 25 — have matching 25-2 records and a similar path for the week ahead: a Tuesday game against an opponent lower down the conference standings followed by a challenging test against a top-15 squad.

The Blue Devils, who pushed their record total of No. 1 appearances to 148 on Monday, visit Notre Dame before hosting No. 11 Virginia on Saturday in the Atlantic Coast Conference. In the Big 12, the second-ranked Wildcats visit Baylor before hosting No. 14 Kansas on Saturday.

And in the Big Ten, the Wolverines follow a home game against Minnesota with Friday's trip to No. 10 Illinois.

The committee had Michigan as its top overall seed in Saturday's reveal of the top 16 seeds for March Madness, followed by Duke and Arizona. But the Blue Devils beat the Wolverines and the Wildcats won at Houston later that day, shuffling the order in Monday's new AP poll.

No matter the order, selection committee chairman and Sun Belt commissioner Keith Gill pointed to that trio as having a clear separation from Iowa State, the fourth 1-seed in those preliminary rankings.

And those rankings generally experience only minor fluctuations by Selection Sunday. For example, 25 of the 32 teams (78.1%) to hold a No. 1 seed in the preliminary rankings since the debut show in 2017 ultimately secured a 1-seed for the NCAAs. That data excludes 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic forcing the cancellation of that year’s tournament.

As of Monday afternoon, KenPom and Evan Miyakawa ranked the order as Michigan-Duke-Arizona, while Bart Torvik had it Michigan-Arizona-Duke.

“This is where there was some consensus though in terms of these teams being 1, 2 and 3,” Gill said during Saturday's CBS show to unveil the seedings. “When we get to the 4 overall seed, that's where there was a lot more debate.”

The Big East has a marquee throwdown between its top two teams, with sixth-ranked UConn (25-3) hosting No. 15 St. John's on Wednesday. That comes just shy of three weeks since the Red Storm took an 81-72 win at Madison Square Garden to end the Huskies' 18-game winning streak.

St. John's (22-5) has won 13 straight games since falling to Providence in early January.

Four other games stand out on the AP Top 25 schedule:

—No. 8 Purdue hosts No. 13 Michigan State on Thursday in the first meeting between the longtime Big Ten foes;

—No. 4 Iowa State hosts No. 16 Texas Tech on Saturday in the Big 12, with the Red Raiders trying to regroup after losing AP preseason All-America selection JT Toppin to a season-ending knee injury;

—And there are two ranked-vs.-ranked games in the Southeastern Conference on Saturday, with No. 7 Florida hosting No. 20 Arkansas, and No. 17 Alabama visiting No. 22 Tennessee looking to avenge an earlier home loss.

The nation's lone undefeated team remains Miami (Ohio) of the Mid-American Conference, which opens this week at 27-0 and with a No. 21 ranking.

The RedHawks have a pair of road games against teams that enter the week with a combined 7-22 league record, first with Tuesday's stop at Eastern Michigan and then Friday's visit to Western Michigan.

Wisconsin (19-8) fell out of the poll from No. 24 last week and was the leading vote-getter among unranked teams. The Badgers' schedule this week takes them to the Pacific Northwest in the westernmost reaches of the Big Ten's coast-to-coast footprint, starting with Wednesday's game at Oregon followed by Saturday's trip to Washington.

Saint Mary's (25-4) is next up. The Gaels host 23-win Santa Clara on Wednesday, then host No. 9 Gonzaga on Saturday to close the regular season in the West Coast Conference.

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