We're now less than a month away from the conclusion of college basketball's regular season. We're also well past the halfway point of intra-conference play. How many teams do you think still haven't lost a game in league competition? And what about those still owning a bagel in the W column?
While Gonzaga's getting a lot of rightful recognition for being the only undefeated team left in college basketball, let's also give props to the teams who have managed to make it this far without a defeat among their conference peers. To answer the questions I posed above, there are just six teams, pulling from 32 leagues, who have gotten to this point without losing to a league foe. Coincidentally, there are also six teams still without a win via intra-conference competition.
Three leagues -- the American, the Ivy League and the Ohio Valley -- all have an undefeated and a winless team still going in the standings. This number isn't abnormal; college basketball almost always gives us at least one team that barrels through its league and doesn't get picked off. On average, we get 1.6 teams per season (since 2008) that enter conference tourney time as an unbeaten in their league.
2008: Cornell (Ivy)
2009: Memphis (Conference USA), Gonzaga (West Coast)
2010: Butler (Horizon)
2011: N/A
2012: Kentucky (SEC)
2013: Gonzaga (WCC), Memphis (C-USA), Norfolk State (MEAC)
2014 : Florida (SEC), Wichita State (MVC), Stephen F. Austin (Southland)
2015: Kentucky (SEC), North Carolina Central (MEAC), Murray State (OVC)
2016: Stephen F. Austin (Southland)
Gonzaga has a chance to become the first team to sweep its league three times in the past decade. Here are the six chasing post-December perfection. The percentages of winning or losing the rest of the way are via KenPom.com's forecast.
Gonzaga Bulldogs
| Conference | Overall record | Conference record | Pct. of winning rest of conference games |
| WCC | 24-0 | 12-0 | 50.7 |
The Bulldogs only have one team standing in the way of finishing undefeated. Saturday's road tilt at two-loss Saint Mary's will be THE game of the weekend. If GU wins there, it will become the third team in four seasons -- joining Wichita State and Kentucky -- to finish the regular season without a loss. Pretty cool. Gonzaga is projected at 96 percent or higher to win every other game left.
Belmont Bruins
| Conference | Overall record | Conference record | Pct. of winning rest of conference games |
| Ohio Valley | 17-4 | 11-0 | 33.1 |
The Bruins are riding a 13-game winning streak and just cleared their toughest in-league test over the weekend, beating Murray State by 12 on the road. Rick Byrd's taken the Bruins to the NCAAs seven times, and just missed out a few other years. This team is always legitimate on a mid-major level. Belmont has road games, its final ones of the season, this week against Jacksonville State and Tennessee Tech. Clear those, and the Bruins will not only finish the season without a loss in the OVC, they'll also be a bubble team.
Vermont Catamounts
| Conference | Overall record | Conference record | Pct. of winning rest of conference games |
| America East | 20-5 | 10-0 | 28.1 |
As longtime readers might know, I grew up all but five miles from the UVM campus. Burlington's one of the best small college towns in America. And the Catamounts are probably going to not lose a game in the America East this season. They've won most of their league games by double digits, and four of their final six are at home, the two road games against UMBC and UMass Lowell. The UMBC game is the only tricky one. Clear that, and the Catamounts will be tracking to a 13 seed, perhaps. This team is 64th in KenPom.
New Mexico State Aggies
| Conference | Overall record | Conference record | Pct. of winning rest of conference games |
| WAC | 22-2 | 8-0 | 20.7 |
The Aggies are doing this with a first-year coach, which is even more impressive. Paul Weir's group ranks 81st in KenPom -- nearly 40 spots higher than the next-closest WAC team, Cal State Bakersfield. And wouldn't you know it, that's the next game for NMSU. The Aggies play at Bakersfield on Thursday. A win there would skyrocket NMSU's undefeated chances, likely pushing it above 40 percent.
Cincinnati Bearcats
| Conference | Overall record | Conference record | Pct. of winning rest of conference games |
| AAC | 21-2 | 10-0 | 7.9 |
I already told you why the Bearcats are criminally underrated. Playing in the AAC (which isn't have as strong a year as basically everyone predicted), it might seem like that 8-percent chance of finishing unbeaten is a smidge low. Then again, Cincy has to play at pretty-good SMU on Sunday, and still has road games against UCF and UConn (season finale) on the docket as well. Ultimately, I think the Bearcats wind up losing two in league play.
Princeton Tigers
| Conference | Overall record | Conference record | Pct. of winning rest of conference games |
| Ivy League | 12-6 | 5-0 | 5.1 |
The Tigers were projected as the best team in the Ivy, but look, the team's only played five games so far. And there's four straight on the road from Feb. 17-25, so a loss is probably inevitable. The Tigers have played 18 games, 17 of them against D-I opponents. I believe that's the lowest number in college basketball right now.
Biggest losers
On the reverse end, here's the history of teams that did not win a league game, dating back to 2008. On average, we see 2.1 of these per season, meaning we're more likely to have really bad teams than great ones.
2008: Colorado State (Mountain West), Oregon State (Pac-10), Rice (Conference USA)
2009: Air Force (Mountain West), DePaul (Big East), Southeast Missouri State (Ohio Valley)
2010: Fordham (Atlantic 10)
2011: Towson (Colonial)
2012: Kennesaw State (Atlantic Sun), Navy (Patriot), Tennessee Martin (Ohio Valley), Santa Clara (West Coast), South Carolina State (MEAC)
2013 : Grambling State (SWAC)
2014 : TCU (Big 12)
2015: San Jose State (Mountain West), Grambling State (SWAC)
2016: Boston College (ACC), Chicago State (WAC)
And here are the six squads looking for that elusive first W. My guess is we wind up with just one winless team.
Oregon State Beavers
| Conference | Overall record | Conference record | Pct. of losing rest of conference games |
| Pac-12 | 4-20 | 0-11 | 51.1 |
No team has taken a bigger year-over-year plunge than the Beavers. This was a 7 seed in last year's NCAA Tournament. Now it rates as more likely to not win a Pac-12 game than Gonzaga rates as likely to not lose a WCC game. Bonkers. Wayne Tinkle's a fine coach who's been dealt a tough hand with injuries and a loss of talent. OSU won't steal any on the road, so it will have to either beat Colorado, Utah or Oregon in Corvallis. Of those three, Colorado is the only one that seems possibly doable. This will go down as one of the worst seasons in program history.
SIU Edwardsville
| Conference | Overall record | Conference record | Pct. of losing rest of conference games |
| Ohio Valley | 5-20 | 0-11 | 16.9 |
The Cougars have had a few close calls in the OVC but still haven't made it happen. The best chance for a win comes Thursday, when 11-15 Southeast Missouri State comes to town. SIU-E lost by just three points at SEMO on Jan. 19.
USF Bulls
| Conference | Overall record | Conference record | Pct. of losing rest of conference games |
| AAC | 6-16 | 0-11 | 16.8 |
The Bulls had their coach fired, are in the midst of an NCAA investigation and are running out of chances. Their two best opportunities to win an AAC game come on Saturday (home against East Carolina) and the following Saturday, at Tulane. My guess is this group does not win a league game this season.
North Carolina A&T Aggies
| Conference | Overall record | Conference record | Pct. of losing rest of conference games |
| MEAC | 1-22 | 0-9 | 5.2 |
Does not have a win over a Division I team this season. That lone victory came in the team's first game of the year, against Greensboro College. Despite the 22-game losing streak, their chances of not getting a win remain very low. Jay Joyner is in his first year as coach of the Aggies. The first league win probably comes Saturday, as 5-16 Florida A&M heads to A&T.
North Texas Mean Green
| Conference | Overall record | Conference record | Pct. of losing rest of conference games |
| Conference USA | 6-16 | 0-10 | 2.2 |
Conference USA's worst team is riding an 11-game losing streak that will probably going to 13 because the Mean Green's next two games are on the road. Then it's a four-game home stand. They'll get on the board with a win in that stretch, without question. Wins over UTSA and Southern Miss seem especially likely.
Penn Quakers
| Conference | Overall record | Conference record | Pct. of losing rest of conference games |
| Ivy League | 7-11 | 0-5 | 0.2 |
The Quakers are a lock to win at least once in the ol' Ivy. Just 0.2 percent to go winless? This ends on Friday, probably, with Penn welcoming in Columbia. With the way the Ivy schedule broke, Penn had to play three of its first five on the road.
