It was supposed to be smooth-sailing for the 13 ranked teams taking the floor on Monday night, but two squads playing away from home - including previously unbeaten Marquette - ended up falling victim to the upset bug.
Kansas Stunned By Davidson And Marquette Falls From The Ranks Of The Unbeatens
LSU’s 67-59 win over No. 10 Marquette leaves just six undefeated teams remaining in college basketball.
TOP 25 SCORES
No. 5 North Carolina 99, Nicholls State 49
No. 6 Baylor 95, Paul Quinn 54
No. 7 Duke 90, UNC-Greensboro 63
LSU 67, No. 10 Marquette 59
No. 11 Florida 82, Mississippi Valley State 54
Davidson 80, No. 12 Kansas 74
No. 17 Indiana 107, Howard 54
No. 19 Michigan State 89, UMKC 54
No. 21 UNLV 81, Louisiana-Monroe 63
No. 23 Creighton 83, Tulsa 64
No. 25 Illinois 64, Cornell 60
GAME OF THE NIGHT: Davidson 80, Kansas 74
Kansas’ recent struggles against mid-majors on neutral courts continued on Monday as Davidson pulled a shocking six-point upset of the 12th-ranked Jayhawks. The meeting was the first between the pair since KU nipped the Wildcats and All-American Stephen Curry in the 2008 NCAA Tournament regional finals.
Remarkably, Davidson did not commit a single turnover in the second half. The Wildcats obviously deserve a significant amount of praise for that accomplishment, but there’s also the issue of Kansas applying next-to-no ball pressure until the game’s final minutes.
UPSET OF THE NIGHT: LSU 67, Marquette 59
And then there were six unbeatens in college basketball.
In the wake of Chris Otule's ACL injury and the odd recent one-game suspensions of veterans Junior Cadougan and Darius Johnson-Odom, you could almost see this one coming.
The loss of Otule didn’t seem monumental at the time considering the senior center is only averaging 5.0 points and 4.4 rebounds, but the Golden Eagles have often looked lost on defense without him. With less than two weeks to go before the start of Big East play and the big man’s status still up in the air, it’s an issue they need to get resolved quickly.
PLAYER OF THE NIGHT: Doug McDermott, Creighton
The nation’s second-leading scorer hit 16-of-23 shots and torched Tulsa for 35 points.
HONOR ROLL:
Chace Stanback, UNLV - The senior forward hit 8-of-9 three-point attempts and dropped a career-high 29 points in the Rebs' 81-63 win over Louisiana-Monroe.
Darren White, Campbell - Scored a game-high 29 points, but the Camels were upset at the buzzer by UNC Wilmington.
Thomas Robinson, Kansas - Continued his monster season with a 21 and 18 performance in the loss to Davidson.
DeAndre Kane, Marshall - Scored a game-high 29 points in Marshall's big 87-86 win over Belmont.
Jeffery Taylor, Vanderbilt - Scored 18 of his 29 points in the first half as Vandy cruised to a 99-71 win over Longwood.
IMAGE OF THE NIGHT:
Sad Marquette.
Murray State, Missouri, Indiana, Baylor, Syracuse and Louisville are now the last six teams in college basketball without a loss.
TEN TO END:
1. A buzzer-beating win for Southern Miss over Arizona State was overshadowed a bit by a second half fight that resulted in the ejections of three players. You can read the story and check out the video of both the fight and Darnell Dodson’s game-winner right here.
2. Marshall’s 87-86 victory over Belmont should put to bed any talk of the Bruins being a potential at-large team. BU could now run the table in the A-Sun and they’d still have to win the league tournament in order to ensure their place in the field of 68.
The team that does have a shot at an at-large is the Thundering Herd, which can throw its Belmont victory into the quality pile along with Cincinnati and Iona. Marshall’s only losses have come to No. 1 Syracuse and once-beaten Ohio by a combined eight points.
3. Another team that continues to fly under the radar is Denver (9-2). The Pioneers knocked off previously 11-1 Wyoming by a score of 57-46 on Monday night.
4. Idaho State coach Joe O’Brien stepped down Monday, marking the third coaching change in college basketball before the new year.
5. Memphis forward Ferrakohn Hall made his season-debut and scored seven points. The Tigers again showed little interest in defending, but managed to beat Lipscomb, 85-75.
6. Perhaps the most impressive win of the evening came from California, which throttled UCSB 70-50 despite playing without Jorge Gutierrez and Richard Solomon. The Bears held Orlando Johnson, one of the nation's best pure scorers, to just nine points on 4-of-13 shooting.
7. Baylor beat someone named Paul Quinn by 41. Doesn’t really seem fair. If anything, I think you have to credit Mr. Quinn for keeping it that close.
8. Howard is bad, but the fact that Indiana is beating anyone 107-50 is remarkable given the state of the program just two years ago. The Hoosiers are 11-0 for the first time since 1975-76 when they finished the season undefeated.
9. The Todd O’Brien situation is shameful.
10. Oregon transfer Jabari Brown is officially taking his game to Missouri. On a related note, someone had some fun with Ducks head coach Dana Altman's wikipedia page.
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