N.C.A.A. Tournament Peek: Gonzaga Remains the Favorite, but the Blue Bloods Are

The N.F.L. and college football have crowned their champions, with the Los Angeles Rams and the University of Georgia winning titles. The Winter Olympics are in the rearview mirror. And the start of the Major League Baseball season is in flux because of a lockout.

But the men’s college basketball season is just heating up, with the N.C.A.A. tournament set to begin March 15 before concluding with the Final Four in New Orleans in early April.

Here’s a look at the major themes of the college season so far.

Gonzaga is once again the team to beat.

Because Gonzaga is in the West Coast Conference — meaning most of its games air late at night on the East Coast — a lot of people don’t get to see the Bulldogs much before March.

But one year after suffering their only loss of the season in the N.C.A.A. championship game against Baylor, the Bulldogs are once again the favorites to win their first title. They are ranked No. 1 in The Associated Press poll and in Ken Pomeroy’s rankings, and when the N.C.A.A. Division I Men’s Basketball Committee announced its projected Top 16 seeds on Sunday, Gonzaga was at No. 1 overall.

Unlike last season, the Bulldogs (23-2, 12-0 W.C.C.) won’t enter the national tournament undefeated because they lost to Duke and Alabama, but they have won 16 straight games and already wrapped up their 10th straight W.C.C. regular-season title.

With the conference possibly sending four teams to the N.C.A.A. tournament this year, Gonzaga Coach Mark Few said that “to be undefeated is quite an accomplishment.”

Entering Tuesday, the Bulldogs led Division I in scoring at 89.5 points per game — and, once again, a team will likely have to put up at least 85 or 90 points to have a chance at upsetting them in March. Five Gonzaga players boast scoring averages in double figures, led by the skilled forward Drew Timme (18.0 points per game, 6.3 rebounds per game) and the 7-foot freshman sensation Chet Holmgren, who is averaging 14.4 points, 9.6 rebounds and 3.4 blocks per game and is projected to be a top-three pick in this summer’s N.B.A. draft. In a year without many elite point guards at the top of college basketball, the Gonzaga senior Andrew Nembhard, who averages 10.9 points and 5.7 assists, might be the most savvy floor general.

Last year, Duke and Kentucky missed the N.C.A.A. tournament in the same year for the first time since 1976. Another powerhouse, Kansas, made the tournament as a No. 3 seed but was destroyed, 85-51, by Southern California, a No. 11 seed, in the second round.

This season, the three blue bloods have come roaring back, and all have a legitimate shot to reach the Final Four and contend for a title.

Kansas, 23-4 and 12-2 in its conference after beating Kansas State by 19 points on Tuesday, sits atop the powerhouse Big 12. Powered by the national player of the year candidate Ochai Agbaji, who is averaging 20.2 points and 5.2 rebounds, Kansas has been projected as a No. 1 seed — along with Gonzaga, Auburn and Arizona — by the Division I Men’s Basketball Committee, whose members include athletic directors and conference commissioners.

Duke and…