College basketball rankings: Older coaches heading into March Madness with spring in their step

The top four conferences in college basketball this season, according to the NET, are the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 and Big East. The average age of the coach who has already locked up one of those league championships, or who has the best chance to do so soon, is 68.8.

This is a young man’s game?

Not really.

Rick Pitino has already secured the outright Big East title for St. John’s at the age of 72. Tom Izzo is on the verge of winning the outright Big Ten title for Michigan State at the age of 70. Kelvin Sampson has already won the outright Big 12 title for Houston at the age of 69. And Bruce Pearl has already won the outright SEC title for Auburn at the age of 64. Nobody can do anything forever, obviously. But there is a lot of evidence that suggests it’s possible to flourish as a college basketball coach into your 70s, provided you adjust to the sport, both on and off the court, whenever the sport requires you to adjust to survive. Pitino, Izzo, Sampson and Pearl are all doing it remarkably well.

Anyway …

Auburn remains No. 1 in Monday morning’s updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings for the 54th straight day thanks to a 27-2 record that includes a 16-2 mark in Quadrant 1 opportunities. As I explained in Sunday’s Top 25 And 1, we’ve reached the point where I really do believe the Tigers have secured the No. 1 overall seed in the 2025 NCAA Tournament, point being they could lose every remaining game between now and Selection Sunday and still have a better resume to submit to the selection committee than any other team.

Auburn’s next game is Wednesday at Texas A&M. After that, the Tigers will close the regular season on Saturday with a home game against Alabama.