College basketball rankings, grades: UCLA gets season finale's lone 'A+', North Carolina flops with 'F'

Duke and UCLA were among those with high marks, while UNC, Providence and Arkansas struggled

The final full week of college basketball's regular season is in our rear view, which means our weekly report card -- wherein I hand out grades for various teams based on how they performed over the week -- will morph into something new this postseason. So let's make the last one of the regular season a good one, shall we?

As always, there's good and bad scattered about the report card, so let's start with the good. I'll be transparent from the jump: Only one team -- UCLA -- got an A+ for mowing by Arizona State and Arizona. However, Houston and Miami earned A grades this week after clinching their respective conference titles. Duke also earned the rare A by taking out in-state foes NC State and North Carolina, sweeping the Tar Heels while side swiping their tourney hopes in the process. Double whammy.

The bad starts with the Heels, who missed a chance at home to improve their résumé. No team in college hoops has ever began the season ranked No. 1 and gone on to miss the NCAA Tournament, but UNC is on the verge of doing exactly that. Jerry Palm has the Tar Heels on the wrong side of his bubble as of Sunday with work to do in the ACC Tournament to get in.

Oh, but UNC isn't alone with ugly grades this week. Providence laid an egg at home in a stunning meltdown vs. Seton Hall and Arkansas continued its downward spiral to flirt close with failing grades this week as well.

Let's dive into the report card for this week. As always, keep in mind the cycle runs Monday-Sunday.

College basketball grades: This week's report card

Team		Grade	Analysis
	UCLA	A+	UCLA comfortably beat Arizona State and Arizona to close out its regular season in style. The Bruins have won 10 straight and are threatening to move up to a No. 1 seed if they continue to rack up wins.
	Duke	A	First-year coach Jon Scheyer polished off a perfect record at home this season with a 71-67 win over NC State early in the week, then led the Blue Devils to a massive road win over rival UNC. Duke's won six straight and looking lethal entering postseason action.
	Miami	A	Miami handled business at home vs. Pitt on Saturday to clinch a share of the ACC regular season and the No. 1 seed in the ACC tourney.
	Houston	A	The resolve No. 1 Houston showed Sunday in winning ugly on the road at Memphis solidified its standing as the clear top dog in college hoops entering postseason play. The Cougars are one win away from their sixth 30-win season in program history.
	Fairleigh Dickinson	B+	Fairleigh Dickinson became the first team this year to punch its ticket to the Big Dance -- doing so before the NEC title game thanks to NCAA transition rules that automatically exclude Merrimack from earning a berth. That seems a rather unfairleigh way to treat new Division I teams, but that's a huge boon for Fairleigh -- which has made just three NCAA Tournament appearances since 2000.
	UConn	B+	Beating DePaul and Villanova isn't quite A-level work, but it's sure close. The Huskies won both by double figures and appear to be accumulating confidence heading into postseason play. That should scare the rest of college basketball.
	Kansas	C	Kansas clinched the Big 12 title over Texas earlier this week only to lose by 16 to the Longhorns on Saturday in its season finale. KU has the goods to win it all but has been susceptible at times to throwing out stinkers at random.
	Purdue	C	Purdue led by as many as 24 points in the second half vs. Illinois before its lead was totally erased late in a tie game. The Boilermakers won, but it was just the latest example of the second-half struggles that have plagued them all season. Hard to feel good about this team heading into the postseason.
	Alabama	C-	Texas A&M handled Alabama in College Station on Saturday, days after Bama needed overtime to beat Auburn. The once-dominant Tide are playing with fire of late on the court with each of their last three wins coming by five points or fewer, plus now a loss to close the regular season.
	Arkansas	D	Losing to a shorthanded Tennessee team in Knoxville was how Arkansas started its week. How it finished it was more concerning: An 88-79 home loss to a shorthanded Kentucky team. This Razorbacks team has fallen apart defensively and has no identity. Going the wrong direction at the wrong time.
	Providence	D-	With a chance to close the regular season at home in consecutive games, Providence fell flat vs. Xavier and then to Seton Hall by 24 points on Saturday. Ugly way to end the season for the Friars.
	North Carolina	F	With a possible "win-and-in" situation at home vs. Duke on Saturday, UNC instead had an abysmal performance and missed big on a chance to bolster its résumé with a Quad 1 win. Time is quickly running out for the preseason No. 1 Tar Heels to pile together credentials worthy of an at-large bid.
	Texas Tech	F	Tech finished with its worst conference record in regular season play since 2014-15 after falling at home Saturday to a struggling Oklahoma State team. The program suspended coach Mark Adams a day later for making an inappropriate and "racially insensitive comment"  to a player, further adding to the deafening drumbeat of angst in Lubbock.
	Maryland	F	What a horrific week for the Terps. They got ran off the floor at Ohio State, the second-worst team in the league, then stumbled at Penn State on a buzzer-beater. Yuck.