College hoops rarely gets two unbeatens in February. Arizona and Miami are proving why this year is special

Wanna hear something pretty sweet? It's Feb. 5 and we still have two undefeated teams in men's college basketball.

You already knew that, but it's still great to read and say out loud. Cherish this, because you probably didn't know that the second sentence in this column is something that's only been true five times in the last 30-plus seasons.

Arizona and Miami University: Two very different programs bonded by a riveting storyline. They are a combined 45-0. The losses may well come soon for both sides, but we're 94 days into this campaign and no one's been able to scheme a win against 'em yet.

This unpredictable development is making a great season that much better. 

Arizona's vivid dominance and potential to wreck the plans of any and every team has been on display since its statement-making, season-opening win against reigning champion Florida back on Nov. 3. The 93-87 outcome included what is statistically on the short list of best freshman debuts in college basketball history, authored by Koa Peat.

Since then, Arizona's won 21 more in a row and is beating teams by an average of 21 points. The Wildcats' nine Quad 1 wins are tied with Duke for most in the country. They've gone to UConn and won, gone to Alabama and won, gone to BYU and won. U of A has never started a season 22-0, and now it's a win away from setting the Big 12 record for longest streak since the Big Eight became the Big 12 in 1996. 

Meanwhile, 1,545 miles away in Oxford, Ohio, Miami University's inventing new ways to win in dramatic fashion. The RedHawks' 73-71 win at Buffalo on Tuesday night was the fourth time in the last five MAC games that Travis Steele's guys won by six points or fewer. The RedHawks rank eighth in "Luck" at KenPom, a metric that balances a team's record vs. what they'd be expected to be based on how efficient they've been against their schedule. Miami keeps overcoming the expectations while rewriting its own.

It's why the team's a fascinating at-large case in the making, provided it doesn't swerve into three or four losses in the next month. But that's a conversation for another day. 

I'm here to praise the unlikely timeline that brought us to this point. 

The RedHawks own the longest win streak in MAC history (23 games), are averaging 92.8 points (No. 3 nationally) and have the second-best 2-point-shooting scheme in college hoops (63.1% only falling behind Michigan's 63.6%). What's more, Miami has won all of its games this season by scoring at least 70 points. The only other teams in the past 30 years to win 23 or more games by dropping 70-plus every time: Gonzaga from 2019-21 and Duke in 1998-99. (Both of those teams lost in the national title game. Miami in the national title game? Do you dare to dream it?)

To even have one team reach this far without a loss is a gift, something that uplifts the sport. 

But to have two?

Special, rare stuff. 

Here are the only other seasons since the early 1990s that saw at least two undefeated teams reach February in men's D-I.

2020-21: Gonzaga (17-0), Baylor (16-0), Drake (16-0)

This was the COVID season, so it comes with a disclaimer because each of the teams that got to February undefeated did so due to cancellations — and, in fact, Gonzaga and Baylor were supposed to play each other in December of that year, only to have the game axed less than two hours before tip-off due to positive COVID tests. If the game gets played, two make it to February instead of three.

Those two, of course, went on to meet in the national title game, with Gonzaga undefeated until that final night, when Baylor laid the smackdown on GU 86-70 and prevented the sport's first undefeated season since Indiana in 1975-76. As for Drake, its first loss came at 18-1 on Feb. 7. The Bulldogs earned an at-large bid as an 11-seed. 

2013-14: Wichita State (22-0), Arizona (21-0), Syracuse (20-0)

What a season this was. Everyone remembers how Wichita State ran the table to Selection Sunday, earning a No. 1 seed with a flawless record before losing a second-round battle to Kentucky in one of the 10 best NCAA Tournament games of this century. Whereas this year's Miami team has a brutally low strength of schedule, that Wichita State team (led by Fred VanVleet and Ron Baker), beat eight top-100 opponents in the regular season, including a batch of power-conference teams.

For Arizona, it literally made it to the afternoon of Feb. 1 undefeated but then lost at Cal 60-58 on the first day of the month. The Wildcats still earned a No. 1 seed that season and fell in the Elite Eight to Wisconsin, finishing 33-5. Syracuse was a weird one that year: made it all the way to Feb. 19 before losing, getting to 25-0, and then it finished the season 3-6, falling to Dayton in the second round. 

2004-05: Illinois (21-0), Boston College (18-0)

That is not a typo. We live in a timeline that once saw Boston College exist as one of the final two undefeated teams. The Al Skinner-coached, Big East-based Eagles opened 20-0 that season before losing on Feb. 8 at Notre Dame. BC would get a No. 4 seed that season and lose to Milwaukee in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. That was BC's last season in the Big East before moving to the ACC. In the years since switching leagues, the program hasn't made the NCAA Tournament since 2007 and has finished above .500 in league play only twice in the past two decades. Careful what you wish for.

The Illinois team is one of the best to not win a title since 2000 and one of my favorites ever. Luther Head, Dee Brown and Deron Williams went 29-0 before losing their first game on March 6 that year to Ohio State by one point. Illinois' second lost was in the last game of the season: a 75-70 defeat in the national title game to the only team that was better than them season, North Carolina. 

2003-04: Stanford (18-0), Saint Joseph's (18-0)

Also not a typo. We live in a timeline that once saw Stanford as a top-five college hoops powerhouse at the end of the 20th century and for the start of the 21st. That 2003-04 Cardinal team had one of the best regular-season buzzer-beaters of this century: Nick Robinson's running winner from 38 feet out to best Arizona. This video transports me to another time and place. I was in college at the time, watching the game in the office of my student newspaper and hoping to one day cover college basketball for a living. Seeing this game, this team, this storyline continue only deepened my urges to cover such a fun sport.

Stanford would get to 26-0 before taking a loss, doing so in the final game of the regular season in a 75-62 road defeat at Washington. The smarties finished 30-2 with a second-round upset to Alabama, and that was the last great Cardinal team. Mike Montgomery left to coach the Golden State Warriors.

How lucky were we to get back-to-back seasons with multiple undefeated teams into February, though? This '03-04 year is high on the list of best seasons this century. The Saint Joseph's team famously ran the regular-season table and didn't lose until the Atlantic 10 quarters (to Xavier). It still received a No. 1 seed and lost a classic in the Elite Eight to second-seeded Oklahoma State with Tony Allen and Joey Graham.

It's wonderful to see a mid-major doing it again. It's never been harder to pull off, yet here's Miami doing it.

Part of the fun of what we're seeing with Arizona and Miami is the way they're extending these streaks in different styles. Miami is the highest-scoring team in college basketball, but it's also dancing on a knife's edge in some of these games. Arizona is a behemoth and the rare team that wins big despite not taking a lot of 3-pointers in this 3-point-happy era. 

Next up for both: Arizona hosts Oklahoma State on Saturday before it gets a whale of a test at Kansas next Monday. Miami has what is statistically its toughest game left in the regular season, a road test against 14-8 Marshall in the MAC/Sun Belt Challenge.

We're headed toward an all-time March. I believe it, I feel it, I know it. But if these two teams can get even one more week and a couple more wins into February without a loss, we'll also ultimately remember this season for their unexpected streaks so deep into the calendar. 

In a season that's building up as one of the best of the past 20 years, these two have made the march to March that much sweeter.