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It hasn’t been a great season for some of college basketball’s most famous programs. But on Saturday, some of the sport’s blue blood programs showed they weren’t dead yet.
Kentucky, Duke, and the State of Michigan aren’t even on CBS Bracketology expert Jerry Palm’s Bubble Watch, but each of those that have been won against a team projected to do the stand or are on. the bubble. And other sports royalty teams including Kansas, a projected No.5 seed, and UNC, one of the top four on the 68 field at the start of the day, also won a big victory.
While the traditional powers had a good day, two Big Ten teams on the bubble did not.
Minnesota has been one of the nation’s deadliest teams on home turf this year. He entered Saturday with a 13-1 record inside Williams Arena and has managed to develop his new NCAA tournament largely within the confines of his own venue. That’s what makes Illinois No.5’s 94-63 beat in Minneapolis even more impressive. The Illini saw this record and, just like they did last month, crumpled and stepped on it.
For a Golden Gophers team on the tournament bubble, the loss – and how they lost by such a big margin – could deal a brutal blow to their March Madness aspirations. They weren’t alone, however, as compatriot Indiana, a member of the Big Ten, stifled a second-half lead over Michigan State on Saturday, suffering from the resumption of their NCAA tournament.
The Spartans are still a long way from a shot at making the NCAA tournament as a team in general, but the victory in Indiana put Michigan State in the category of blue blood programs which have shown that they still had life.
Winner: Bluebloods still in action
Kentucky deserves a tip for not giving in completely after dropping to 5-13 earlier this month. Saturday’s 70-55 road victory over No.19 Tennessee, a No.3 seed in Bracketology, put the Wildcats 7-7 in the league and marked their first victory over a ranked opponent this season. The Wildcats have scored 70 or more in six straight games.
Duke also claimed three straight wins after beating 7th Virginia 66-65. The Blue Devils entered the day ranked No. 60 in the NET and not even on the Bracketology bubble. But don’t be surprised if they sneak into the bubble talk as they continue to flourish after Jalen Johnson leaves.
Can we talk very quickly about Duke’s biggest rival too? North Carolina started the day as one of 68’s bracketology expert Jerry Palm’s “first four”. But the Tar Heels beat Louisville 99-54 with a ridiculous 60.9 shot. % of the ground to pass to 14-7 (8-5 ACC).
With Michigan State defeating Indiana and No.23 Kansas taking a victory over No.15 Texas Tech, Saturday’s results looked more normal after a season filled with dismal results for historically proud programs. Duke, the state of Michigan and especially Kentucky still have a ton of work to do to make it to the NCAA tournament. But at least for a day, they reclaimed their collective place as winners in the sport.
Loser: Minnesota in the top four out and quickly disappears
When Minnesota handed Michigan their only loss of the season and improved to 11-5 overall and 4-4 in the Big Ten on Jan.16, the Gophers rose to 17th in the Top 25. AP. It was like they were on the fast lane to the NCAA tournament. But after Saturday’s 94-63 home loss to Illinois, coach Richard Pitino’s team are in trouble.
The Gophers have lost three in a row and six of their last eight to fall to 13-10 (6-10 Big Ten). They had already fallen into the “First 4 out” category, according to Palm’s Bracketology and will now have more ground to catch up with after their most unbalanced loss of the season. The Gophers played with star center Liam Robbins limited by an ankle injury and will need him back to full strength quickly if they are to stop the bleeding.
Winner: Kansas continues to sail
If you weren’t completely convinced of Kansas’ number 23’s recent turnaround, I can’t say I blame you. Four of his five wins to open the month of February were against teams with a combined (!) Big 12 victory, thanks to two clashes between Iowa State and Kansas State. But KU showed on Saturday by beating No.15 Texas Tech 67-61 that he had indeed turned a corner. It was an impressive defensive outing that showed just how much better the Jayhawks play as they keep top scorer Mac McClung at 11 points.
Kansas, a No.5 seed in Bracketology, still has one game gauntlet to end the regular season with Texas and Baylor on tap ahead of playoff action, but it’s a team that shoots all cylinders. and slowly gaining confidence and momentum as he rumbles towards the most important section of the season.
“This is what I have been most excited about our team all year,” Myself said after the game.
Loser: Indiana collapses in the second half
As the great William Shakespeare once said, “Indiana, Indiana, why are you in the second half, Indiana?”
What a diviner this guy was!
The Hoosiers collapsed completely against Sparty in the second half on Saturday in a possible 78-71 loss. In the last 20 minutes, Michigan State has scored 52 (!) Points in the second half, or 17 of 30 on the ground, 5 of 9 to 3 points and committing only four turnovers. He turned a double-digit deficit into a double-digit lead at one point before settling on a seven-point win.
A win for IU would likely have pushed him to the safe side of the tournament bubble into a tough closing phase. Instead, as Jerry Palm noted, IU is on the outside watching Rutgers, Michigan, Michigan State and Purdue to close out the regular season.
Winner: Syracuse gets sparkling comeback
Syracuse could hardly afford a home loss in Quad 2 to Notre Dame on Saturday, but it looked like the Oranges were heading for one when they fell 20 points behind early in the second half. That’s when Buddy Boeheim began to take over to lead the program’s biggest comeback of the past decade. The junior guard scored 17 of his career-high 29 points in the 11:10 Finals to help Syracuse rally for a 75-67 victory to stay in the NCAA tournament bubble.
The Orange (13-6, 7-5 ACC) probably still have some work to do if they want to make the field of the 68, but they have now won four of their last five games, and their electric finish on Saturday could be a nice one. springboard entering the stretch race. Syracuse beat the Fighting Irish (9-11, 6-8 ACC) 40-12 to end the game.
Loser: Miami wins worst home strike since 2014
There are very few teams this season that have been more ravaged by the combination of injuries and COVID-10 disruption than Miami. It is therefore difficult to go too far on the Hurricanes despite the often twisted winds in Coral Gables. But falling 87-60 at home to Georgia Tech was the icing on the cake of a foul-tasting bad 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 Dec.19, 2014, when it fell 72-44 to eastern Kentucky.
Winner: Ryan Daly flies to Saint Joseph’s
Playing his first game in two months, Saint Joseph star Ryan Daly came back with force on Saturday to lead the Hawks to their first A-10 victory after the league opened 0-9. Daly tied a season high with 30 points in 39 minutes of action, beating La Salle 91-82. It was Saint Joseph’s second victory of the season and the first since a Jan.9 breakout over Albany.
Winner: Villanova pushes back dashing UConn and stays on top of Big East
After eight weeks in the top five of the AP Top 25 poll, Villanova fell to No.10 this week after losing 16 points to Creighton last Saturday. In their first game since, the Wildcats rebounded well, handling UConn 68-60 and denying the Huskies a major victory. The Wildcats (14-3, 9-2 Big East) trailed 42-41 with 14:07 left but closed in force thanks to stars Collin Gillespie and Jeremiah Robinson-Earl. The duo have accumulated 37 of Villanova’s 68 points.
Wildcats are a # 2 seed in the latest Bracketology.
Loser: Longhorns suffer Texas-sized slump at home
Texas led West Virginia by as many as 19 points in the second half, only to see it crumble in a possible 84-82 loss. That, in and of itself, is sub-optimal for a Texas team that hasn’t been able to discuss their early-season mojo over the past month or so. But of particular concern is the way he collapsed.
It really started to go their separate ways within minutes of the start of the second half when Andrew Jones and Courtney Ramey got into a verbal bout on the pitch which led to the two separating. From there, West Virginia, a No.3 seed in Bracketology, rode a 34-18 run to close the game and managed to stop a potential game-winning game and a tying shot in the dying seconds.
Texas, No. 4 in Bracketology, is undoubtedly still in the tournament field with its strong CV, but the loss was the least troubling development on the field in Austin, TX. And the loss was truly disturbing.
Winner: Noah Williams has a career match
Williams, a second-year Washington state goalie, racked up 40 points to lead the Cougars to an 85-76 victory over Stanford in triple overtime. Williams needed 35 shots to reach that total, but his 3-point 8-of-18 mark – including one that forced the first OT – propelled his team to one of their best wins of the season.
The loss was particularly brutal for Stanford, who entered the day as one of the “first four exits” of the NCAA Championship, 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 both won on Saturday to clinch a share of the Horizon League regular season title, and that milestone carries particular weight for a Cleveland State program that had had five consecutive losing seasons in the conference prior to this. year. The Vikings beat Purdue Fort Wayne by 20 points in the second half on Saturday, overcoming a 12-point halftime deficit.
Remember UMBC? The Retrievers – best known for their historic 2018 overthrow of Virginia as the No.16 seed in the NCAA tournament – won the America East regular season title this weekend. This is in fact the first UMBC regular season title since the 2007-08 season. Maybe we’ll see the Retrievers in the Big Dance.
Belmont also seems like a good bet to make the NCAA tournament. The Bruins won the OVC regular season title with a 90-66 victory over Tennessee Tech. This is the program’s 12th title in the past 16 years.
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