Loyola's Drew Valentine addresses 'bizarre' 7-22 season

Keep these Three Pointers in mind with one week to go in college basketball’s regular season:

1. Maybe next year, Ramblers

Is coach Drew Valentine still happy at Loyola?

‘‘I’d definitely be lying if I said I’m waking up as happy as I’ve been in the past,” he said Sunday, a day after the Ramblers’ 69-66 victory against Richmond.

Yeah, well, you’d be grumpy, too, if your team were 7-22 overall and in last place at 3-13 in the Atlantic 10.

But the losing and aggravation are only temporary, Valentine said.

His explanation for how it has gone so wrong this season is pretty simple: The Ramblers started out with pretty close to an all-new team, then everybody started getting hurt. Second-leading scorer Justin Moore has missed seven games and third-leading scorer Xavier Amos 14. In all, nine players have missed a combined 83 games because of injuries.

Walk-on Caleb Reese was needed for 16 minutes — and nailed two must-have free throws with 25 seconds left — for Loyola to squeeze past struggling Richmond.

‘‘Been a bizarre year,’’ Valentine said. ‘‘But my family’s healthy, and I guess that’s all that matters.’’

2. Mighty Michigan

Things can change awfully fast in the college game now that the line between it and pro basketball is essentially nonexistent. Take No. 3 Michigan, which has gone from last place in the Big Ten two seasons ago — Juwan Howard’s flameout as coach — to first at an eye-popping 17-1 under Dusty May.

It isn’t just May, of course. His team is so big, tough and talented, it pantsed No. 10 Illinois 84-70 on Friday in Champaign and stopped just short of stuffing the whole Illini team into a locker.

The Illini might be a Final Four kind of team, as many have said throughout the season, but Michigan is — even without guard L.J. Cason, who tore an ACL on Friday — a national-championship kind of team. And there is a mighty big difference.

3. No offense, Billy Donovan

Defending national champ Florida, getting ready to wrap up first place in the SEC, is extremely dangerous, too, having just handed Arkansas coach John Calipari his worst career loss in a 111-77 obliteration. Might the Gators go back-to-back? If so, should the Bulls hire Todd Golden?