Each and every Sunday I hand out grades for some of the best and worst teams in college basketball and package it all up tidily in a report card for you to consume. And each and every Sunday I have to search high and low to find teams worthy of earning an 'A.' An 'A+' performance for the week is even more difficult to identify. But let me pull the curtain back a bit for you and keep it real here: That was absolutely, positively not the case this week.
No. 1 UConn delivered a statement that sent shockwaves across the college landscape Saturday with a 28-point home beatdown of top-five Marquette that made the Huskies the easy choice for an 'A+' earner -- the only one -- on this week's report. UConn dismantled DePaul on the road 101-65 earlier in the week then treated the No. 4 Golden Eagles like DePaul in the XL Center a few days later. Only Houston has as many wins of 28 points or more on the season as UConn, and there's a strong case to be made that no other team has the combination of impressive wins over elite competition than the Huskies -- whose résumé includes victories over five ranked teams. All five of those wins came by double-digit margins.
Not every team fared as well as the defending national champions this week including No. 2 Purdue, which lost on Sunday in a stunner at Ohio State, and the grades below reflect as much. Only one team earned an 'F' this week (we'll get to that below), but there were several other teams that may not be flaunting their grades publicly. So let's get to the good and the bad and every other team in between in the space below.
As always, the grades are handed out based on the week that was, running from Monday-Sunday.
College basketball grades: This week's report card
| Team | Grade | Analysis | |
|---|---|---|---|
 | UConn | A+ | In UConn's first top-five matchup at home since 2009, the Huskies handled business on Saturday with a dominant win over No. 4 Marquette to polish off arguably the most impressive two-game stretch by any team this season. |
 | Tennessee | A | Neither Arkansas nor Vanderbilt are quality wins on the resume, but Tennessee gets credit for the way in which it handled both this week. The Vols won by 29 and 35 over the two teams, respectively, dominating in impressive fashion as you'd expect from a contender. |
 | Alabama | A | Alabama scored 100 and hit 18 3-pointers in a 25-point win over Texas A&M on Saturday to stay atop the SEC standings. The Tide have scored 209 points in their last two outings and are now tied for first among all college hoops teams in total points scored per game (90.7). |
 | Arizona | A | Against in-state rival Arizona State as an 18.5 point home favorite, Arizona scorched the Sun Devils by 45, securing its fourth win of the season by a margin of 45 points or more. |
 | Duke | B+ | It wasn't a spectacular week for Duke but it was solid and respectable with a home win over Wake Forest followed by a road win at FSU. Jared McCain stepped up for a career-high 35 on Saturday and Mark Mitchell had a team-high 23 points against the Demon Deacons, proving this Blue Devils team has developed enough depth beyond its top two to be a real threat this March. |
 | Kentucky | B | I've been a critic of Calipari and Kentucky in this space for most of the last month but the 'Cats get a 'B' after a 2-0 week. Their 11-point road win over Auburn was arguably their best defensive showing of the season and a promising sign that this team has the talent to dig out of its defensive rut to become competent. That'd be a huge plus. |
 | North Carolina | C | UNC's defense collapsed mid-week with a loss at Syracuse where Orange guards JJ Starling and Judah Mintz had a field day. The offense responded with 96 points in a win over Virginia Tech, but there's some flaws with this Heels defense that are of concern. |
 | Wisconsin | C- | Almost nothing has gone right for Wisconsin the last month and its struggles continued this weekend in an OT loss at Iowa. The Badgers have a solid resume overall but have now lost five of their last six and will almost certainly not be ranked when the polls update Monday. |
 | Purdue | D | Minnesota gave Purdue a scare on Thursday before pulling away but Ohio State did more damage than that, taking down the No. 2 Boilermakers on Sunday in a 73-69 stunner. That's going to be an ugly loss to shake and might be something that keeps it from earning the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament. |
 | Indiana State | D- | After joining the AP poll last Monday for the first time since the Larry Bird era, Indiana State promptly turned around and went 0-2 on the week with losses to Illinois State and Southern Illinois. Most tourney teams have margin for error for a stumble or two in league play, but the Sycamores probably don't, especially with one of those losses coming to a sub-.500 team. They may need to win the MVC Tournament to be dancing this postseason. |
 | South Carolina | F | Wellp, this week did not go well for the Gamecocks. First they lost by 40 (!!!) at Auburn -- then they lost by one at home to LSU after blowing a 16-point second half lead. Just when the path for South Carolina to win the SEC looked wide open, it turned around and may have fumbled its way out of SEC contention. What a gross turn of events. |
