CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. -- Reaching the halfway point of a season forces college basketball teams to reassess their positions relative to the rest of their conference. The top-ranked teams are jockeying for seeding regardless of their league affiliation, but some of those early season bubbles built by strong starts start to pop as late season Cinderella runs force difficult conversations. The mid-major bids take their own shape, and the strong basketball leagues, including those with teams that struggled through their first half of the year, start regaining ground lost in those early-season defeats.
The resumes and visions are geared towards March, and every team, even those who don't audibly appear to harbor postseason dreams, understand what it means to play through big wins and tough losses.