Which college basketball teams are in contention for a No. 1 seed?

Forty names, games, teams and minutiae making news in college basketball (sympathy cards sold separately at California, where the 5-16 Golden Bears haven’t won since before Christmas and are on pace to make last year’s 8-24 team look good by comparison):

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TEAMS IN CONTENTION FOR THE TOP LINE

On Saturday, the NCAA tournament selection committee gives us its third annual February look-in at how it sees the top 16 overall seeds shaping up. This year’s reveal comes a little earlier, with 36 days between this look and Selection Sunday, so expect things to change during that time. But here’s how the top seeds could shake out Saturday:

Duke (21) would be The Minutes’ overall No. 1 seed, with non-conference wins over Kentucky, Auburn, Texas Tech and Indiana, plus Atlantic Coast Conference victories over Florida State and Virginia. And one of the Blue Devils’ two losses came in a game when starting point guard Tre Jones was injured in the first five minutes. There are a lot of difficult games left for Duke, but the present body of work should put it on top overall at this point. That would theoretically give Duke an NCAA tournament path starting in Columbia, South Carolina, and then going to the East Regional in Washington, D.C.

Virginia is a close second to Duke at this point, with the differentiation being the Cavaliers’ close loss in Cameron Indoor Stadium last month. It is Virginia’s only loss to date, with wins over Wisconsin, Maryland, Florida State, Virginia Tech and North Carolina State (barely) on the résumé. The Cavs’ return game against Duke in Charlottesville on Saturday could swing this the other way, but that will not be decided before the committee reveals its seedings. With Duke going to D.C., Virginia would theoretically be the top seed in the South Region and going to Columbia-Louisville.

(Though it should be noted that someone has to go to Hartford for the first and second rounds, and the Northeast is notably light on quality teams. Could the second-best team in the ACC open the tourney in Connecticut? Not out of the question.)

Tennessee looks like a third No 1 seed from the same general area of the country, which presents a challenge for the committee. If someone has to ship out to the Midwest it might well be the Volunteers, whose only loss is in overtime against Kansas in Brooklyn. Tennessee could start the tourney in Columbia or Columbus, Ohio, then be slotted for Kansas City. The Vols might get a nod for Columbia as an early round compromise for being shipped out the second weekend, with either Duke or Virginia heading to Hartford.

Gonzaga (22) is the clear best team to date in the West, which makes the Zags’ path easy to project: opening rounds in Salt Lake City, then a chance to advance to the regional in Anaheim. Gonzaga’s résumé largely hinges on beating Duke in Maui, with its other wins from that tournament diminished since then (Illinois, Arizona). There also is a road win over Creighton and a home win over Washington, but the only West Coast Conference victory of note so far is at San Francisco. Two games against Saint Mary’s and another against the Dons will help solidify Gonzaga’s power ratings, which are good across the board.

(Another factor the committee will have to take into consideration: avoiding saddling No. 1 seeds in Louisville and Kansas City with a crowd disadvantage. If neither Kentucky nor Kansas can get to the top seed line, it would seem unlikely that either would be sent to a regional that is closer to home than whoever the No. 1 seed would be.)

Who’s close to a No. 1 seed:

Michigan (23) would be The Minutes’ top No. 2 seed at this point, with a 20-2 record that includes authoritative wins over North Carolina, Villanova and Purdue. However, the Wolverines have lost their two toughest games since Dec. 1, at Wisconsin on Jan. 19 and at Iowa last Friday. Worth watching how Michigan handles the last nine regular-season games, including two meetings with …

Michigan State (24). The Spartans played themselves off the top line the last two weekends, losing at Purdue (not a bad loss) and at home to reeling Indiana (a shocker). They could certainly get back to a No. 1 seed — the Big Ten is probably the best overall league this season, and Michigan State played the customary excellent non-conference slate.

It would certainly make the selection committee’s life less complicated if a Big Ten team asserts itself as a No. 1 seed in the Midwest.

Rising teams to watch:

With two games left against Tennessee, surging Kentucky (25) could play its way into No. 1 seed contention. The Wildcats (18-3, 7-1) were quite bad in the first month of the season, then added non-conference wins away from Rupp Arena over North Carolina and Louisville, and now are on a seven-game Southeastern Conference winning streak. They also took down Kansas during that stretch.

Purdue (26) is still trying to overcome a lackluster non-conference performance, in which it went 7-4 against solid competition. The best way to overcome that would be winning the Big Ten, and right now the Boilermakers (16-6) are tied for the top at 9-2 with a manageable final nine games ahead. There are no games remaining against co-leaders Michigan and Michigan State, while those two play each other twice.

Iowa State (27) could be the team that finally ends the Kansas reign in the Big 12. Yes, the Cyclones (17-5, 6-3) are still behind co-leaders Baylor and Kansas State, and lost to both of them in early January. But this is the top-ranked Big 12 team in both the NCAA NET and Ken Pomeroy rankings, and the ‘Clones have won three straight and five of their last six.

North Carolina (28). After being blown out at home and then struggling to get past Notre Dame in a four-day span, the Tar Heels have clicked. They’re on a five-game winning streak, including consecutive double-digit victories on the road. There are three ACC teams with one loss in league play — Virginia, Duke and Carolina. The Heels (17-4, 7-1) play Duke twice and Virginia once, and two of those three games are at home. If Carolina wins the regular-season title, it would rearrange whatever the committee puts together this week.

With losses to Furman and Penn, Villanova (29) would need a lot of help to earn a third straight NCAA tournament No. 1 seed. But the Wildcats (18-4, 9-0 in the Big East) are rolling right now on a 10-game winning streak. If they can run the table the rest of the way to finish undefeated in the league at 27-4 overall, they’ll be in the argument if losses pile up elsewhere.

Houston (30) is a true long shot for No. 1 seed consideration, but don’t dismiss the Cougars entirely. They have a surprisingly high NCAA NET ranking at No. 7, with their lone loss coming on a controversial finish at Temple. And there are two games remaining against fellow American Athletic Conference power Cincinnati. Sweep those and win out, finishing the regular season with just one loss, and it might sway the committee to look past a non-conference slate of 11 home games and just two on the road.

UNDER THE RADAR LOVE

Each week, The Minutes will salute a player from a lower-profile program who is deserving of some attention. This week: Purdue Fort Wayne senior guard John Konchar (31).

He’s the only Division I men’s player since 1992-93 to total more than 1,800 points, 1,000 rebounds, 400 assists and 200 steals in a career. (Current totals: 1,904 points, 1,081 rebounds, 504 assists, 252 steals. He is the school’s all-time leader in points and rebounds, second in assists and second in steals.) This season he leads the Mastodons (15-10, 7-3 in the Summit League) in all those categories.

He’s probably the only leading scorer in college basketball who works part-time in the athletic equipment room, doing laundry for other teams and cataloging socks, towels and sweats. But this is a guy who came up without any sense of entitlement.

Konchar came out of West Chicago with two Division I offers — Chicago State and Fort Wayne. And the Fort Wayne offer didn’t come until late in his senior year.

The biggest reason everyone missed on him: Konchar was 6-foot-5 but painfully skinny. That necessitated a redshirt year when he first arrived in Fort Wayne. Konchar told The Minutes he lifted diligently and “ate a lot of Panda Express” that year, adding 25 pounds of muscle to reach a viable competition weight.

Now he’s hoping to add one more career highlight: leading the Mastodons to their first NCAA tournament berth.

THE WRETCHEDNESS IN RALEIGH

As you know by now, then-No. 23 North Carolina State (32) set basketball back several decades by scoring 24 points, at home, in an entire game, in a blowout loss to Virginia Tech. The Wolfpack shot the worst percentage in ACC history, 16.7 percent, making 9 of 54 shots from the field. They made 2 of 28 beyond the arc, a whopping 7.1 percent.

That included 14 consecutive missed shots in a nine-minute stretch of the first half, a plague upon the eyes that featured seven misses by Braxton Beverly (33) — he finished 0-for-12, one week after making a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to defeat Clemson. Then, after cutting the deficit to 22-19, there was a second-half stretch that went like this: turnover, made free throw, missed free throw, turnover, missed 3-pointer, missed 3-pointer, missed 3-pointer, missed 3-pointer, missed 3-pointer, missed layup. By the time N.C. State scored again, it was 39-20.

It was the fewest points by a ranked team in the shot-clock era, which dates to 1985-86. But wait, it’s much worse than that. No ranked team in the shot-clock era had ever scored fewer than 30 points before. The next-worst performance was 32 by (shocker!) Wisconsin in 1998. And it wasn’t until 6:52 remained that the Pack scored the basket that allowed it to surpass the worst scoring game in modern Division I history — a 20-point non-effort by Saint Louis in 2008.

North Carolina State looked like an NCAA tournament team heading into ACC play. Now, with a 4-5 league mark, that’s less certain. And if it’s a choice between taking a team that might fail to break the 25-point barrier and someone else, the committee should keep that horror show against the Hokies in mind.

STAT OF THE WEEK

Shot selection seems to be elusive in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (34).

On one extreme we have Florida A&M (35), which as of Monday was 21st nationally in 3-point accuracy, a highly respectable 38.8 percent. Yet the Rattlers (10-14, 7-2 in the MEAC) are 344th in percentage of shots that are from 3-point range, just 29.3 percent. Take some more threes, guys.

Conversely, Savannah State (36) is No. 1 nationally in percentage of shots that are from 3-point range at 57.9 percent. Yet the Tigers (6-15, 3-4 in the MEAC) are making a miserable 28.2 percent of those threes, which is 345th in the country. Stop shooting threes, guys.

COACH WHO EARNED HIS COMP CAR THIS WEEK

Scott Drew (37), Baylor. Ten games into the season, the Bears appeared well on their way to missing the NCAA tournament for the second straight season. They were 6-4, with home losses to Texas Southern and Stephen F. Austin, and a road loss to the weakest Wichita State team in years. But take a look at them now.

Baylor is tied for the lead in the Big 12, on a six-game winning streak and coming off its two most impressive showings of the season — a 30-point road rout of Oklahoma followed by a 26-point home stomping of TCU. Picked to finish ninth in the 10-team league, Baylor has patched together a cohesive unit with a pair of impact transfers — guard Makai Mason from Yale and forward Mario Kegler from Mississippi State. Mason was electric against TCU, hitting nine three-pointers and scoring 40 points in 33 minutes of play.

Baylor may not be able to maintain its conference lead over the final two months, but at this point the Bears are well positioned to make the Big Dance with a team not expected to do much.

COACH WHO SHOULD TAKE THE BUS TO WORK

Sean Miller (38), Arizona. Forget the off-court smoke that’s hovered over Miller and his program for more than 16 months. The on-court product is a mess as well. The Wildcats are on an embarrassing three-game losing streak — their first loss to rival Arizona State since Bobby Hurley arrived in 2015, and blowouts at USC and UCLA that the Arizona Daily Star said marked the first back-to-back 20-point conference defeats since 1982-83. Arizona is in acute need of a February intervention to salvage its season.

BUZZER BEATER

When hungry in the basketball bedrock of Durham, North Carolina, The Minutes recommends a visit to The Federal (39). Try the pork sandwich with a side of chipotle pimento cheese dip, accompanied by a Yard Breather IPA from Dreamchasers Brewery (40) in Waxhaw, North Carolina. Zion Williamson is unlikely to be there, but it’s still worth the visit.

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