NCAA Basketball: Who wants to be #1? BYU

ESPN College Basketball Analyst, Digger Phelps, has now mentioned the same interesting stat 2 weeks in a row during College Gameday:  In the last 15 years, only 1 team ranked #1 overall has won the NCAA Tournament.  It's beginning to look as if the teams are thinking that the #1 spot is cursed. 

Ohio State held the top spot for several weeks, but lost it a couple weeks ago when Wisconsin beat them (and coincidentally, Wisconsin knocked them out of the #1 spot in football this season too).  Kansas was then voted #1, but they lost their very first game after receiving that ranking, even though they held it all week.  During that week, any one of the next 3 teams in the standings: Texas, Ohio State, and Pitt, could have taken over the top spot, but they all lost.  That left Duke to climb 4 spots to #1, which was the biggest climb to #1 in the history of the polls.  So this week, the first week after being back at #1, Duke lost to Virginia Tech, and once again several teams had a chance to jump up.  Kansas and Ohio State actually won their games, but Texas, Pitt and San Diego State all lost.

So who wants the #1 spot?! Anyone...?  Beuhler...?  It really doesn't seem like anyone is trying too hard to get there and keep it.

While Kansas or Ohio State will probably jump up to #1, there's only one team that continues winning week in and week out.  And they finally have some good enough wins to stake a claim for that spot:

BYU is now 27-2.  Their only losses are at New Mexico, and home to UCLA.  Neither one of those is a bad loss, and they are currently on a 7 game winning streak.  Big wins include home and away to San Diego State (ranked #4 both times), and Arizona (now ranked #10).  Those are wins that would rival any top team in the nation.  BYU also has the nation's leading scorer and the front runner for Player of the Year Jimmer Fredette.  So while the other top teams keep dropping games, it is not unfathomable that BYU could sneak into a number one overall spot.  It might take a lot to overcome the "small conference" label, but winning the Mountain West conference tourney, and a few more losses here and there in the top 4 or 5 teams could land them the #1 overall seed in the tournament.  And who knows how far they could go from there.