It was not a great season for some of the most famous college basketball programs. But on Saturday, some of the sport’s blue-blooded programs showed they were not yet dead.
Kentucky, Duke and Michigan State are not even on the Bubble Watch of CBS sports Bracketology expert Jerry Palm, but each of them won against a team designed to enter the key or is in the bubble. And other teams among the sport’s royalty, including Kansas, a classified No. 5 seed, and UNC, one of the first four out of 68 when the day started, also achieved a major victory.
While the traditional powers had a good day, two Big Ten teams in the bubble did not.
Minnesota has been one of the country’s most lethal teams on its court this year. He entered Saturday with a 13-1 record inside the Williams Arena, and managed to build his growing NCAA Tournament curriculum largely within the confines of his own venue. This is what makes the 94-63 defeat of No. 5 Illinois in Minneapolis all the more impressive. The Illini saw that record and, just like they did last month, crushed and stepped on it.
For a team of Golden Gophers in the tournament bubble, the loss – and the way they lost by such a large margin – can deal a brutal blow to their March Madness aspirations. They were not alone, as Big Ten member Indiana took a second-half lead to Michigan State on Saturday, suffering a blow to the NCAA tournament curriculum.
The Spartans are still far from having a chance to make the NCAA Tournament as a general team, but the victory in Indiana put Michigan State in the category of blue-blooded programs that showed they still have life.
Winner: Bluebloods still kicking
Kentucky deserves a tip from the cap for not giving in fully after dropping to 5-13 overall earlier this month. Saturday’s 70-55 road victory over No. 19 Tennessee, a No. 3 seed in Bracketology, took the Wildcats to 7-7 in the league game and marked their first victory over a ranked opponent this season. The Wildcats have scored 70 or more in six consecutive games.
Duke has also won three consecutive wins now, after passing No. 7 Virginia 66-65. The Blue Devils entered the day in 60th place on NET and not even in the Bracketology bubble. But don’t be surprised if they enter the bubble conversation as they continue to flourish after Jalen Johnson’s departure.
Can we talk about Duke’s biggest rival pretty quickly too? North Carolina started the day as one of the “first four to leave” Bracketology expert Jerry Palm in 68. But Tar Heels defeated Louisville 99-54 while throwing a ridiculous 60.9% off the ground to improve to 14-7 (8-5 ACC).
With Michigan State beating Indiana and No. 23 Kansas beating No. 15 Texas Tech, Saturday’s results looked more normal after the season filled with dismal results for historically proud shows. Duke, Michigan State and especially Kentucky still have a lot of work to do to make it to the NCAA Tournament. But, for at least a day, they regained their collective place as winners in the sport.
Loser: Minnesota in first position and disappearing quickly
When Minnesota handed Michigan its only loss of the season and improved to 11-5 overall and 4-4 in the Big Ten on January 16, the Gophers rose to 17th in the AP Top 25. It looked like they were on the right track for the NCAA Tournament. But after Saturday’s 94-63 home defeat to Illinois, coach Richard Pitino’s team is in trouble.
The Gophers lost three in a row and six of their last eight to drop to 13-10 (6-10 Big Ten). They had already fallen into the “First 4 out” category, according to Palm Bracketology, and now they will have more ground to recover after the season’s most uneven defeat. The Gophers played with pivot Liam Robbins, limited by an ankle injury and will need him back at full strength quickly if they want to stop the bleeding.
Winner: Kansas continues to sail
If you weren’t completely convinced of the recent No. 23 Kansas turnaround, I can’t blame you. Four of his five wins to open the month of February were against teams with a (!) Combined victory in the Big 12 play, thanks to facing Iowa State and Kansas State twice. But KU showed on Saturday by defeating No. 15 Texas Tech 67-61 that it really took a turn. It was an impressive defensive game that showed how the Jayhawks are doing much better by holding 11-point scorer Mac McClung.
Kansas, the number 5 seed in Bracketology, still has a series of games to end the regular season game with Texas and Baylor before the postseason action, but this is a team now that is shooting at all cylinders and slowly gaining confidence and momentum as it roars into the most important section of the season.
“This is the most excited that I have been with our team throughout the year”, I said after the game.
Loser: Indiana collapses in the second half
As the great William Shakespeare once said, “Indiana, Indiana, why are you defending the second half, Indiana?”
What a guess that guy was!
The Hoosiers collapsed completely on Saturday against Sparty in the second half, in an eventual 78-71 defeat. During the final 20 minutes, the state of Michigan scored 52 (!) Points in the second half, going 17 out of 30 from the ground, 5 out of 9 in the 3-point streak and making just four turns. He turned a double-digit deficit into a double-digit lead before settling on a seven-point victory.
An IU victory would likely put her on the safe side of the tournament bubble, entering a difficult final stretch. Instead, as Jerry Palm noted, IU is outside, looking to Rutgers, Michigan, Michigan State and Purdue to close the regular season.
Winner: Syracuse gets a lively lap
Syracuse would not be able to lose at home to Quad 2 at Notre Dame on Saturday, but it looked like Orange was heading for a 20-point home loss early in the second half. That’s when Buddy Boeheim started leading the program’s biggest comeback in the past decade. The junior guard scored 17 of his 29 career high points in the final 11:10 am to help Syracuse recover from a 75-67 victory to remain in the NCAA tournament bubble.
Orange (13-6, 7-5 ACC) will probably still have work to do if they want to reach the field of 68, but now they have won four out of the last five, and their electrical submission on Saturday could be a good springboard to enter the race. stretching. Syracuse overcame Fighting Irish (9-11, 6-8 ACC) 40-12 to end the game.
Loser: Miami takes the worst home defeat since 2014
There are very few teams this season that have been more devastated by the combination of injuries and interruptions at COVID-10 than Miami. Therefore, it is difficult to go very strong with hurricanes, despite the often tortuous winds at Coral Gables. But losing 87-60 at home to Georgia Tech was the cherry on top of an unpleasant and lousy season, as it qualified as the Yellow Jackets’ biggest margin of victory in an ACC road game. For Miami, it’s the biggest home loss margin since December 19, 2014, when it fell 72-44 east of Kentucky.
Winner: Ryan Daly flies to Saint Joseph’s
Playing in their first game in two months, Saint Joseph star Ryan Daly came back hard on Saturday to lead the Hawks to their first A-10 victory after the league opened 0-9. Daly tied the best of the season with 30 points in 39 minutes of the game, defeating La Salle 91-82. It was Saint Joseph’s second win of the season and the first since an escape on January 9 over Albany.
Winner: Villanova dodges the playful UConn, stays on top of Big East
After eight weeks in the top five in the AP Top 25 poll, Villanova dropped to tenth place this week after a 16-point loss at Creighton last Saturday. In their first game since then, the Wildcats have recovered well by dealing with UConn 68-60 and denying the Huskies a remarkable victory. The Wildcats (14-3, 9-2 Big East) lost 42-41 with 14:07 remaining, but closed in strength thanks to stars Collin Gillespie and Jeremiah Robinson-Earl. The pair combined 37 of Villanova’s 68 points.
Wildcats are the # 2 seed in the most recent Bracketology.
Loser: Longhorns collapse Texas-sized at home
Texas led West Virginia by up to 19 points in the second half, only to see it collapse in the final stretch in an eventual 84-82 defeat. This, in itself, is suboptimal for a Texas team that was unable to conjure up its mojo from the start of the season last month. But the way it fell apart is especially worrying.
It really started to fall apart a few minutes after the second half, when Andrew Jones and Courtney Ramey entered a verbal sparring session on the court, which led to the separation of the two. Thereafter, West Virginia, a No. 3 seed in Bracketology, rode a 34-18 run to close the game and successfully interrupted a potential victory and an attempt at a draw in the final seconds.
Texas, a No. 4 seed in Bracketology, is undoubtedly still in the tournament field with a strong resume, but the loss was the least problematic development on the court in Austin, Texas. And the loss was very worrying.
Winner: Noah Williams has a career game
Williams, a second-year Washington state guard, awarded 40 points to lead the Cougars in the 85-76 victory over Stanford in the triple overtime. Williams needed 35 shots to reach that total, but his mark of 8 out of 18 in the 3-point range – including the one who forced the first OT – propelled his team to one of the best wins of the season.
The defeat was particularly brutal for Stanford, who entered the day as one of the “first four to leave” the NCAA tournament field, according to Palm. Williams is the first Washington State player to reach 40 points since Klay Thompson scored 43 in 2011.
Winner: teams winning league titles
Cleveland State and Wright State won on Saturday to win a part of the regular season title of the Horizon League, and the milestone has a special weight for a Cleveland State program that fought for five consecutive seasons of conference losses before this year. The Vikings beat Purdue Fort Wayne by 20 points in the second half on Saturday, overcoming a 12-point handicap in the interval.
Remember UMBC? The Retrievers – best known for their historic turnaround in Virginia in 2018 as number 16 in the NCAA tournament – won the East American regular season title this weekend. In fact, it is the first UMBC league title in the regular season since the 2007-08 season. Maybe we’ll see Retrievers back to Big Dance.
Belmont also looks like a good bet for doing the NCAA Tournament. The Bruins secured the regular season title OVC with a 90-66 victory over Tennessee Tech. It is the 12th league title in the program in the past 16 years.