College hoops roundup: Wisconsin doesn’t lose to Indiana

Tuesday’s slate may not have been robust in terms of the number of games, but it did feature a pair of top 20 teams taking surprising conference losses. That’s always fun and enjoyable for fans without loyalties to the defeated teams in question.

Let’s look at the day that was in college hoops.

Top 25 Scores

Wisconsin 64, No. 2 Indiana 59

Death, taxes and Wisconsin fielding a solid basketball team...also, Wisconsin beating Indiana.

The Hoosiers’ dominating first half performance against Minnesota over the weekend was the biggest evidence yet that IU has the potential to be the best team in the country, and had more than a few national media members touting them as the rightful No. 1 this week. Then Tuesday night happened.

Wisconsin came into Assembly Hall and held the nation’s highest-scoring team to 59 points as they notched their 11th straight win over Indiana. All-American candidate Cody Zeller went 8-for-8 from the field in the first half before completely disappearing in the second, where he was just 1-for-7.

As easy as it is to talk about the disappointing performance by the Hoosiers, Bo Ryan’s team might be the bigger story here. The Badgers lost the heir apparent to graduated All-American point guard Jordan Taylor to a season-ending injury just before the start of the season, dropped three games in November, and now find themselves as the only unbeaten team in the Big Ten. That’s a right, a conference six teams ranked in the top 25 is being fronted by unranked Wisconsin.

Bo Ryan: More reliable than the mailman.

No. 12 Creighton 79, Northern Iowa 68

Doug McDermott continued his midseason Player of the Year push by dropping 31 on the visiting Panthers. The Bluejays won their 11th straight and are off to the best start in school history at 17-1. They now get to turn their full focus towards Saturday’s showdown with Wichita State.

St. John’s 67, No. 20 Notre Dame 63

St. John’s utilized its advantages in size and athleticism to hand the Irish their second straight Big East loss. Dating back to 2004, this was fifth straight time Notre Dame has gone down to the Johnnies inside Madison Square Garden.

Mike Brey has developed a bit of a reputation for overachieving with teams that have low preseason expectations and underachieving with teams that have high preseason expectations. It appeared as if the latter wouldn’t be an issue this season when the Irish impressively ran through the non-conference portion of the season, but a pair of losses to teams that won’t compete for the Big East title is a nasty hole for this squad to dig itself into.

Other Scores of Note

Kentucky 75, Tennessee 65

The Wildcats didn’t exactly cruise to victory, but at least this was a more impressive performance than their first two SEC efforts. Nerlens Noel and his remarkable motor continue to be a bright spot for Kentucky during a stretch that Big Blue Nation would otherwise like to forget.

Ole Miss 89, Vanderbilt 79 (OT)

Marshall Henderson with his submission for shot of the year:

This looked like the classic Ole Miss letdown game before Henderson’s heroics and a dominant overtime period. The Rebels are now a sparkling 14-2 and (for the moment, at least) the only 3-0 team in the SEC.

Also, you have to feel for Vanderbilt fans, who have now had their hearts ripped out in consecutive games at Memorial Coliseum.

Clemson 60, Wake Forest 44

Wake Forest made just 15 field goals on 61 attempts (24.6 percent), and five of those makes came in garbage time when Clemson had basically stopped playing. It was the Demon Deacons’ worst shooting performance since 1964, and very nearly their worst ever.

Cincinnati 75, DePaul 70

The Bearcats held off DePaul despite Cleveland Melvin’s 32 points, but the bigger story here is the knee injury suffered by UC star Cashmere Wright. At the time of his injury, Wright had 20 points and had scored or assisted on 15 of the team’s 21 field goals. He’ll undergo an MRI on Wednesday.