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In this month's Big Three, we spotlight the winning play of Jaren Jackson and Xavier, the uncertainty hovering over the Arizona basketball program, and the potential for an SEC breakthrough.

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JAREN JACKSON

The 2018 NBA Draft looks better and better by the day and while there may be a drop off following the top seven, the upper half of the lottery will likely see a number of future NBA All-Stars taken. Jaren Jackson is one of those and in the month of February, the Michigan State standout had one of his best months of basketball yet. Helping carry his MSU squad to an undefeated month and clinching its first outright Big Ten title since 2009, Jackson displayed unbelievable potential through his versatile skillset defending four positions on the court, making shots to the perimeter and blocking shots with volume.

While his season averages might not jump off of the page, his per-40 minute averages and efficiency numbers sit among the best in America. Jackson’s national emergence has not just bettered MSU’s chances of a national title but also his candidacy as a top-three NBA selection in June’s draft, forging ahead of others such as Marvin Bagley III, Trae Young and his own teammate, Miles Bridges, within most mock drafts.

XAVIER

For the past four seasons and ever since the Big East was reformed with 10 basketball-only schools, Villanova has dominated the conference. Holding a 63-9 record into the 2018 season, the Wildcats were expected to repeat, that is until February hit and Xavier, the bridesmaid to Jay Wright’s program, took the Big East baton and ran away with it. While it has struggled to defeat Villanova in head-to-head matches, the Musketeers have been rather dominant against the rest of its league’s members, winning all of its February games minus its battle against the Wildcats.

Just days away from winning the conference outright for the first time in school history, the Musketeers have had a tremendous month of February seeing a variety of its roster step up and lead it to victory. To make matters even better, Xavier kicked off its 2019 class with the commitment of three-star guard Samari Curtis, a multi-dimension scorer that should enhance the program’s chances for success even further.

KANSAS

The talk all winter long as centered around Kansas and its unlikely chance to repeat as Big 12 champions and that the flavors of the month, whether it be West Virginia, Oklahoma or Texas Tech, would knock the Jayhawks off of their perch. Instead, Bill Self may have completed his best coaching job to date, leading a severely depleted frontline and a shot-reliant backcourt to another league title, its 14th consecutive and one that is now a college basketball record, outpacing the legendary John Wooden and his UCLA program.

During a time that the Big 12 may be the deepest in recent memory, the Jayhawks destroyed the dog days of the college basketball season, winning its final five games of the month while also nabbing the commitment of 2018 breakout wing Ochai Agbaji. For most, the month of February would be a high mark; for Kansas, it was the norm.

OKLAHOMA

The Sooners entered the month sitting at 16-5 overall and had just beaten Kansas, giving the Sooners one of the top 16 seeds by the NCAA Tournament Committee during its first bracket reveal. Since, Oklahoma has won just one game while giving up a school record for most points ever within a Big 12 regulation game, a contest that saw the same Kansas team that they had beaten a few weeks earlier, put 104 points on the scoreboard.

The depth of the league has not helped their cause and neither has the fact that OU fails to boast anyone outside of Trae Young that can create for others. Because of it, opposing defenses have been able to key on him and he has been unable to hit over half of his shot attempts in all but one game in February. The dog days of February were not kind to Oklahoma; could March be a reversal of fortune or the ultimate doom for Lon Kruger’s group?

MARK EMMERT

Imagine having to sit back and watch a major car pile up knowing how to stop it but you just cannot. That is the same position that NCAA president Mark Emmert and his contemporaries are in thanks to the consistent windfall of information that continues to come down, one that has been exquisitely reported upon by Yahoo's own Pat Forde and Pete Thamel.

The month of March is supposed to be the time that the sport enjoys all of the hard work that was put into it during the other 11 months of the year. Instead, Emmert and his system remain outdated and current stars of the game are walking the fine line between NCAA darling and ineligibility. The NCAA remains on the outside looking in, incapable of making for change amid the ongoing FBI investigation into the sport.

In the meantime, here is to hoping that the current revelations lead to much-needed, meaningful change.

ARIZONA

The end to the month could not have gone any worse for the Wildcats and after the immediate suspensions of all-league guard Allonzo Trier due to the trace amounts of the steroid Ostarine within his system, things went from bleak to even more dire within a matter of days. Head coach Sean Miller was then suspended for reportedly to being involved in the financial transaction that landed the program the commitment of five-star prospect DeAndre Ayton, though prior revealings remain on unstable ground and Miller is now back on the sidelines. Still, the former reports stung, leading to the decommitment of five-star forward Shareef O’Neal, Shaq’s son, who then committed to the rival UCLA Bruins on Tuesday.

Arizona is now without its top perimeter scorer and third-league scorer within the Pac-12, its top 2018 pledge, its ace recruiter, and will be forced to traverse through the month of March with a lot of what-ifs hovering around them.

TEXAS TECH

The end of the month for the Red Raiders did not go as planned, losing their final four contests. However, the health of Keenan Evans remains at the forefront of Chris Beard’s mind, for if there is no Evans in Texas Tech’s lineup, their chances of causing havoc within the Big 12 Conference Tournament and ultimately, within the NCAA Tournament, is all but lost. Texas Tech, with a healthy Evans, boasts an alpha dog producer and a top-10 defense in college basketball.

Thanks to its more mature roster and defensive prowess, the Red Raiders could post their best March in recent memory. They are set to receive their highest NCAA Tournament bid since 1996 and could reach the second weekend of play for the first time since 2005. Add in the fact that Beard just landed his first top-50 recruit, Khavon Moore, on Monday, and the short and long-term futures of the program remain on stable footing.

SEC

In 2016, the SEC named Dan Lebovitz its Associate Commissioner for Men's Basketball, a position that was created to better the on-the-floor product of the league, thus equating to more NCAA Tournament and postseason berths. This came after a season that saw just three SEC teams make the NCAA tournament.

Fast-forward two years and the hiring of Lebovitz and the infusion of up-and-coming head coaches within the league has the conference in the best spot that it has been in years. A number of predictive brackets have as many as nine SEC teams making the NCAA Tournament, the most of any league in America. No one is saying that the conference, as a whole, will ever compare to that of its football counterparts, but the potential of the SEC might finally be met in March. Things do not stop there as, in the most recently updated Rivals 2018 Team Rankings, six SEC members sit with top-25 classes.

GUYS THAT DID IT RIGHT

Since September 26 upon the initial FBI sting and recently, with the media revelations regarding the sport, coaches have been sweating that one of their players or even their own names might be the next to be unleashed within the next slew of findings.

For those that know that they have done things the right way, to say that they are upbeat and excited to what lays ahead, would be a giant understatement. Despite how ugly of a black eye the past few weeks and months have been, things now might be able to get back onto fair ground. These same coaches that have come in second place for a highly regarded prospect due to a rival’s willingness to offer some sort of financial package to land the respective recruit, will now have the opportunity to properly recruit the prospect from beginning to end.

There is still some time to go before more up-to-date rulings are put into place and the proper policing occurs, but not only is March a chance for these play-by-the-rule coaches to succeed, but., better yet, the long-term looks just as promising for those that have done it the right way.