By Brendan Marks, CJ Moore and Lindsay Schnell

A seemingly standard final Tuesday of the regular season provided a preview of what the next few weeks could hold. Texas A&M surprised No. 1 Auburn in Aggieland. Iowa State’s big comeback attempt fell just short at home against BYU. And we’re just getting started.

(Submitted questions have been lightly edited for length and clarity.)

How long will Rick Pitino be at St. John’s? Can the Johnnies continue at a high level when he leaves? — Peter B. 

Rick Pitino is 72 and still performing at an elite level. Coaches seem to be coaching later in life than other eras. For instance, let’s take a look at the age of the coaches in the current top 10 compared with the final top 10 in 1990:

Small sample, but let’s go with it. Theory checks out!

Jim Boeheim just coached to 78. Larry Brown worked a few years ago on the Memphis staff at 81. Is it possible Pitino could get to 80? If anyone would and could, I’d bet on him.

Pitino has made St. John’s relevant again, so the next coach will take over a much healthier program than the one he inherited. It should make St. John’s a more desirable job because Pitino proved the boosters — one, in particular — are willing to spend and the fan support is there. But as Pitino has shown, the success of many programs depends greatly on who your coach is, so St. John’s getting the right guy again will determine the program’s success more than any other element. — Moore 

Any chance we are underselling how incredible Duke freshman Cooper Flagg’s season has been? He leads his team in every statistical category, just turned 18, is the best player in the country, will most likely win national player of the year … is a top-two defensive player and has a chance to lead his team to a national title. And he should still be playing in high school. — Jonathan C.

Yeah, I mean — what Jonathan said.

When Brendan Quinn and I profiled Flagg in February, that was my biggest takeaway in the reporting process. There have been dominant freshmen — Anthony Davis, Zion Williamson, Kevin Durant, etc. — and other dominant freshmen in the postseason — Carmelo Anthony, Tyus Jones, Pervis Ellison — but has there been a freshman who could truly have it all? Flagg is on pace to do the following:

• Lead Duke — the second-best team of the KenPom era, which dates back to 1997 — in every major statistical category, becoming the first freshman to do so on an NCAA Tournament team;

• Lead the nation in win shares per 40 minutes and defensive win shares;

• Win ACC Player of the Year, Newcomer of the Year, and Defensive Player of the Year;

• Win the Wooden Award (although because of Auburn’s Johni Broome, I doubt he’s the unanimous National Player of the Year);

• And become the No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft.

All of those things are practically guaranteed — and he’s the second-youngest player in college basketball this season, who will still be 18 when he plays in his first NBA game. It’s ridiculous. Without knowing what he does in March, we absolutely should already be talking about Flagg’s season as one of the all-time greats — not just for freshmen, but for any college player. He also set the ACC single-game scoring record with 42 points vs. Notre Dame, posted a borderline-perfect stat line versus No. 1 Auburn with 22 points, 11 rebounds, four assists, three steals, two blocks and no turnovers in one of the Tigers’ three defeats all season, and is the front-runner to win Naismith Defensive Player of the Year. Nobody even blinks when he is compared to Kevin Durant anymore, and for good reason.

If Duke does win the national title, and Flagg adds that — plus most outstanding player honors — to his resume, he’ll have cemented the best season in college basketball history by a freshman. People know he’s good, but I don’t know if they fully realize the greatness we’re witnessing. — Marks

Of all the teams not currently slated to be a 1-seed or 2-seed, which would you feel most comfortable projecting to make the Final Four? — Andrew G.

What seemed like a difficult question upon first reading … maybe isn’t? But let’s use The Athletic’s most recent bracket projection to eliminate all the teams currently slated to be a No. 1 or 2 seed: Auburn, Duke, Tennessee, Houston, Florida, Wisconsin, Alabama and Michigan State.

Beyond that top tier, three teams stand out as potential Final Four squads: Texas Tech, St. John’s and Iowa State.

The Red Raiders are the highest-ranked KenPom team (No. 7 nationally) not on one of the top two seed lines. Since Jan. 1, per Bart Torvik, Texas Tech is one of just seven teams with a top-20 adjusted offensive and defensive efficiency ranking, joining five of the above contenders, plus Louisville. Offensively, it is incredibly balanced, with JT Toppin thriving inside while surrounded by a litany of perimeter shooters: Chance McMillian, Christian Anderson and Kerwin Walton. Not getting to the free-throw line more regularly could be a problem in the Big Dance, but that’s Grant McCasland’s team’s only real weakness. Defensively, the Red Raiders are as good as anyone at straddling the line between physicality and fouling, and they rarely get torched from deep. Put those together, and a team that already has wins over Houston, Arizona, Kansas, BYU, Baylor and West Virginia looks mighty compelling.

St. John’s case is smothering defense and rebounding proficiency that (almost) always compensates for the Red Storm’s lackluster shooting. Pitino’s team is second nationally in adjusted defensive efficiency, per KenPom, 10th in offensive rebounding percentage and 14th in defensive turnover rate. But those are necessary counter-balances for a team ranked 247th nationally in effective field goal percentage and 338th nationally in 3-point percentage. When the Johnnies are hitting shots — they’ve made eight or more 3s in three of their past six games, compared with just eight times in their first 24 — they’re borderline unbeatable. There’s a reason Pitino’s team has only one loss since the calendar flipped to 2025. That sort of playing style tends to carry over to postseason success, and Pitino pulling the strings only makes it more likely that the Red Storm go on a real run. I am feeling (best Larry David voice) pretty, pretty good about my preseason prediction that St. John’s makes the Elite Eight.

As for Iowa State, when the Cyclones have been at full strength, they’ve been as good as anyone in the country — and yes, I stand by that after Tuesday night’s loss. I haven’t been able to get the Cyclones’ first-half performance versus Auburn in November in Maui out of my head. That was a Final Four team, no question about it. T.J. Otzelberger’s squad still has a top-25 adjusted offensive and defensive efficiency despite missing key pieces, and while you’d love to see Curtis Jones get back in rhythm from 3, this team still has all the pieces to make the final weekend. — Marks

What is the national perspective on Oklahoma coach Porter Moser? I love the guy and his passion, but I think it is time to move on, even if OU makes the tourney. For some reason, he just can’t make the necessary adjustments in conference, and despite some of what the program lacks (NIL, fan support, etc.), there are coaches who do way more with less. — Scott C.

Moser’s record, particularly when he was at Loyola Chicago, speaks for itself. He went 188-141 with the Ramblers, and in his last four seasons was a combined 99-36. The guy can coach. But for whatever reason, it hasn’t worked out at Oklahoma the way people — particularly OU administrators — anticipated. Sometimes things are just a bad fit.

It’s absolutely true that there are coaches who do more with less. But will OU move on from Moser? That’s tough to say because Sooners football fans are also getting antsy about Brent Venables, and I’m not sure OU athletic director Joe Castiglione wants to potentially make two big hires so close together. Booster/name, image and likeness support will probably dictate Moser’s future more than anything. Moser’s buyout is $7.65 million if he’s shown the door after the season, a reasonably hefty number.

I know Scott is ready for Moser to move on, but if Oklahoma can sneak into the tournament — a strong showing in the SEC tournament next week would certainly bolster its case — Moser probably isn’t going anywhere. — Schnell

Kansas, Baylor, Purdue, Texas A&M, Oregon (and a few others) have gone on some pretty bad slides in conference play. Is that to be expected for good — but not great — teams that are in large, stronger conferences? Do teams get figured out and need to come up with a counter? Or are the issues all fairly different and nothing can be drawn from them? — Brian M. 

In this transfer era of college hoops, the teams with roster continuity are likely going to perform better early in the year than those with a lot of turnover. Outside of Baylor, those teams above had strong cores returning and rank fairly high in minutes continuity: Kansas (110), Baylor (225), Purdue (42), Texas A&M (6), Oregon (135). Others that returned a lot, looked great early and cooled in conference play include Marquette (13), Cincinnati (24) and Iowa State (35). If you have elite talent and roster continuity, that’s a sweet spot. See: Auburn, Florida, Houston and Michigan State.

There’s also something to the scouting component to this and the idea that teams get figured out. That’s where the ebbs and flows come in a season — opponents adjust, you adjust back and opponents adjust again. No one knows these teams better than conference opponents, and it’s why sometimes you see a team limp into the NCAA Tournament and suddenly look awesome again. — Moore

I think it was Georgia football coach Kirby Smart who said that you can’t “outcoach” recruiting, and that evaluation/recruiting is 75 percent of what makes a successful coach. How does that translate for basketball? I’m going to say 50 percent recruiting, 20 percent motivation/buy-in/play hard/etc., 20 percent X’s and O’s/tactics, and 10 percent luck. How do you divide the pie chart? — Todd V.

We’re getting into the part of the season where coaching matters the most, and too often, people don’t put enough weight on coaching — specifically, the X’s and O’s.

Football is an entirely different beast because games are won and lost in the trenches, and for the most part prospects either have NFL-type bodies or they don’t. In basketball, I’d argue the strategy piece of the game is higher than 20 percent — I’d say it’s closer to 40 or 50. (As a side note, this is why I’ve personally always loved college hoops more than the NBA; I love to see how college coaches scheme around great individual opponents.)

Given all that, I’d divide the pie chart into 40 percent recruiting, 40 percent tactics/strategy, 10 percent motivation and 10 percent luck. Keep in mind that with recruiting, it’s about finding the right players for your system and philosophy, not just prospects the recruiting nerds have ranked high.

When I fill out my bracket in March and I get to a matchup of two mostly even teams, I always give the edge to the better, more experienced coach. Think of it this way: If the score is tied and you’ve got the ball, who do you want drawing up a play? — Schnell

 (Photo of Cooper Flagg: Grant Halverson / Getty Images)