No ranked team is safe this season. No. 1 Oklahoma just learned that lesson the hard way during a visit to Iowa State.
Top ranked college basketball teams are being upset more than they have in 67 years
Iowa State upset No. 1 Oklahoma on Monday. That’s par for the course this season.
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Ricky O'Donnell has covered basketball at all levels for more than a decade at SB Nation. He’s currently the Associate Director of Programming.
The No. 19 Cyclones outlasted Oklahoma, 82-77, at Hilton Coliseum on Monday night. The Sooners, who ascended to No. 1 earlier in the day, are now the 18th ranked team to lose since Tuesday. Eleven of those losses have come to unranked teams. We expected this year to be wide open all along, but this is getting a little ridiculous.
Iowa State overcame another amazing effort from Buddy Hield (27 points, 7-of-14 from three) to knock off its first AP No. 1 team since 1957 when ISU beat Wilt Chamberlain's Kansas team. Georges Niang (22 points), Abdel Nader (20 points) and Monte Morris (20 points) were each great for the Cyclones.
This shot from Morris was the dagger late in the second half:
Consider:
- This is the fifth No. 1 team to fall before the month of February. The last time that happened was 1949.
- This is the 14th time an AP top 10 team has lost since Jan. 1.
- This is now the third No. 1 team to lose in the state of Iowa. Northern Iowa previously defeated No. 1 North Carolina and the Iowa Hawkeyes knocked off Michigan State earlier this season.
Duke has lost three in a row, all to unranked teams, and it doesn't even seem that strange because this is happening to everyone. Yeah, the NCAA Tournament is going to be fun this year.
Oh, and as a reminder: January losses are nothing to freak out about. Especially this year.
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