TOP 25 RECAP
College basketball scores: Iowa State and Duke win the weekend
College basketball’s “Showdown Saturday” produced a bunch of interesting results, even if it didn’t produce a bunch of exciting finishes.
Reese Strickland-USA TODAY Sports
No. 1 Kentucky 70, Alabama 48
No. 2 Virginia 66, Boston College 51
No. 3 Gonzaga 72, Loyola Marymount 55
No. 4 Duke 63, No. 6 Louisville 52
No. 5 Villanova 62, Pennsylvania 47
No. 10 Arizona 69, No. 8 Utah 51
No. 11 Iowa State 86, No. 9 Kansas 81
No. 12 Notre Dame 75, Miami 70
No. 13 Wichita State 61, Evansville 41
No. 14 Maryland 75, Michigan State 59
No. 15 North Carolina 68, Virginia Tech 53
No. 20 Texas 77, No. 16 West Virginia 50
No. 17 VCU 70, Duquesne 64
No. 18 Oklahoma 82, No. 24 Oklahoma State 65
Ole Miss 96, No. 19 Arkansas 82
Kansas State 63, No. 22 Baylor 61
No. 23 Northern Iowa 60, Missouri State 46
No. 25 Wyoming 70, Fresno State 65 (3 OT)
GAME OF THE WEEKEND: No. 11 Iowa State 86, No. 9 Kansas 81
Iowa State refused to put this game away despite appearing to be on the verge of a blowout win twice in the second half, but still walked out of Hilton Coliseum on Saturday night with consecutive wins over Kansas for the first time in 14 years.
The Cylcones destroyed KU in transition, running after missed shots, made shots and turnovers. The strategy not only resulted in a handful of easy points, but it wore down Kansas' big men. Neither Cliff Alexander nor Jamari Traylor managed to play more than 15 minutes, and both players were largely ineffective when they were on the court.
All five Iowa State starters scored in double figures, and the Cylclones shot a sparkling 50.8 percent from the field for the game. Those numbers allowed them to compensate for being outrebounded by 11 and going just 15-for-26 from the free-throw line.
We've now played two weeks in the Big 12, and there are a grand total of zero teams with a perfect record in conference play. That's probably just one less than the number of teams in the conference who don't have a legitimate chance of snagging an at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament. The league is absolutely loaded with teams that will spend the next month and-a-half looking to make statements that outshine their counterpart. Iowa State made the loudest one to date on Saturday.
UPSET OF THE WEEKEND: Ole Miss 96, No. 19 Arkansas 82
The week after we heckle Arkansas for being unbeatable at home and proportionately awful on the road, of course this happens.
Even though Andy Kennedy has had far more success than most SEC coaches in Fayetteville (5-3), this was still a fairly shocking result that snapped the 16-game home winning streak of the 19th-ranked Razorbacks. To do it, the Rebels shot a season-best 74.1 percent from the field in the first half, and a season-best 56.4 percent for the game.
Let the “who’s the second-best team in the SEC?” debates resume.
THREE GREAT WINS:
1. No. 4 Duke 63, No. 6 Louisville 52
There’s no better medicine for hearing your defense put on blast for 72 consecutive hours than holding a top-10 team under 30 percent shooting on its home floor. That’s what Duke did at the KFC Yum Center on Saturday, ditching its traditional high-pressure man-to-man defense in favor of a packed-in zone that would force Louisville to beat it from the outside. The Cardinals could not, misfiring on 21 of their 25 3-point attempts and going scoreless for more than a six-minute stretch in the first half.
U of L also had no answer inside for Jahlil Okafor, who scored 18 points on 8-of-10 shooting. Amile Jefferson was also a force in the paint, scoring a game-high 19 points to go along with 7 rebounds.
2. No. 20 Texas 77, No. 16 West Virginia 50
No one hates close games more than Texas, which lost back-to-back games to Oklahoma and Oklahoma State by a combined 32 points before hammering West Virginia by 27 on Saturday. The vaunted Longhorn frontcourt led the way, as Cam Ridley, Myles Turner and Jonathan Holmes all scored at least 16 points and combined for 24 rebounds. The performance took an enormous amount of pressure off point guard Isaiah Taylor, who had struggled mightily in his first three games back since missing more than a month with a wrist injury.
3. No. 10 Arizona 69, No. 8 Utah 51
It feels like we've been waiting all season for the Wildcats to suddenly wake up and realize their potential, and maybe that's what Saturday was. Arizona started familiarly sluggish before exploding in a second half onslaught that was led by a brilliant performance from T.J. McConnell and freshman Stanley Johnson, who scored 18 points and grabbed 9 rebounds after the break.
THREE BAD LOSSES:
1. Kansas State 63, Baylor 61
So suddenly, the team that was being commonly referred to as the “biggest disappointment in college basketball” is sitting atop the standings of the league commonly referred to as the “toughest conference in college basketball.” That’s the biggest story to come out of this game, but it doesn’t meant that Baylor failing to build on the momentum created by its win over Iowa State wasn’t disappointing. Adding to the disappointment is the fact that the Bears had a chance to send the game into overtime, but Kenny Cheery’s contested buzzer-beater found nothing but glass.
2. Clemson 66, Syracuse 53
I think pretty much everyone was on the same page when it came to knowing the truth about Syracuse’s 4-0 start in the ACC, but if you’re wanting to understand how an unranked team losing on the road to another unranked team can be classified as “bad,” all you have to do is look at the gauntlet that the Orange will be ending their regular season with:
That’s not especially comforting for a team that figures to be somewhere in the vicinity of the bubble when that stretch begins, which is why ‘Cuse really couldn’t afford to lay the egg it did at Clemson on Saturday.
3. Stanford 72, Connecticut 59
Unless it gets hot for three or four days in the AAC Tournament (which is certainly possible), it looks as though the defending national champions are likely going to see their season end someplace other than the NCAA Tournament. Stanford doubled up the Huskies on the glass (48-24) in a performance that Kevin Ollie called both “unacceptable” and “an embarrassment.”
SHOT OF THE WEEKEND
Let’s go to the Patriot League, where American’s Peewee Gardner hit his third (third!) game-winner in the last month.
NUMBER OF THE WEEKEND: 671
That had been the number of days it had been since Florida had tasted an SEC defeat before Georgia dealt the Gators a 73-61 setback on Saturday.
DUNK OF THE WEEKEND:
We’ll go with Arizona State’s Shaq McKissic who threw down on Colorado in the middle of a 78-72 Sun Devil victory.
PLAYER OF THE WEEKEND: Buddy Hield, Oklahoma
The best postgame interview in college basketball was a perfect 10-for-10 from the filed and dropped a game-high 27 points in the Sooners’ rout of Oklahoma State.
ALL-WEEKEND TEAM
Derrick Marks, Boise State - Scored 31 points in a 69-59 win over New Mexico which really hurt the Lobos' NCAA Tournament chances.
Andre Hollins, Minnesota - Drilled 7-of-10 3-pointers and scored 31 points as Minnesota finally notched its first Big 10 win with an 89-80 triumph over Rutgers.
Seth Tuttle, Northern Iowa - One of the nation's most underrated players dropped 22 and 10 on Missouri State.
Thomas Walkup, Stephen F. Austin - Scored a career-high 30 points to go with 6 assists and 6 rebounds as the Lumberjacks won their 24th straight Southland Conference game.
Shawn Long, Louisiana Lafayette - Scored 22 points and grabbed 22 rebounds in an 89-82 loss to South Alabama.
See More:
