Welcome to the winners and losers of the weekend. This is a very scientific post in which the author judiciously decides what teams and players were winners or losers of the weekend. It should be taken very seriously, with the winners being filled with pride, and the losers being filled with shame, but still harboring hopes of one day landing on the winner list. Without further ado, let’s get to the winners.
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WINNERS
Arizona Wildcats
The second-half shutdown of Utah was incredibly impressive. The standout for Arizona was T.J. McConnell, who was pretty unstoppable in his 16-point outing. If he can bring that level of play on the road, this team might take off and find its expected gear. No one doubts Arizona in the McKale Center. The outing against Utah was exactly why. What the Wildcats need to do is show they can be that imposing on the road. Like the next team mentioned, this team showed its teeth to anyone who doubted.
Duke Blue Devils
We covered their win at Louisville over the weekend, but it bears repeating the great play the Blue Devils got from their front line. Jahlil Okafor and Amile Jefferson produced a combined 37 points on 14-17 shooting and 9-11 at the line. They kept Montrezl Harrell out of the paint for the most part, forcing him to shoot jumpers. This was a big win for Duke to make some people put the shovels down — the Devils aren’t dead yet.
Iowa State Cyclones
One of the most impressive wins of the weekend was Iowa State’s handling of Kansas on Saturday night. Again, this game was touched on this weekend, so I’ll keep this brief. While the late-game execution was a bit lacking, the run-and-gun style of ISU was so fun and entertaining. If you are a step slow getting back on the Cyclones, it’s a layup or dunk. The Cyclones have a leg up in the Big 12 race.
Maryland Terrapins
Melo Trimble (24 points) and Jake Layman (23) led a Terrapin beatdown over Michigan State. The Terps sit at 17-2, 5-1 in the Big Ten. They have swept the season series with the Spartans. Maryland is currently on top of the Big Ten. If the Terps can get offense like they did Saturday to go with their strong defense, they could take home the league. The only meeting with Wisconsin is in College Park.
Oklahoma and Texas
The Sooners and Longhorns treated Oklahoma State and West Virginia very poorly when those schools visited Saturday night. Oklahoma shut down the Cowboys with a 17-point victory, while Texas hung a 27-point drubbing on the Mountaineers.
Iowa Hawkeyes
Once again, the Hawkeyes put the hammer down on Ohio State. Unlike the meeting in Columbus, Iowa didn’t let this game get interesting, keeping OSU at arm’s length until the buzzer. Aaron White had a fantastic game with 22 points. Iowa moves to 4-1 in the Big Ten, a nice week after the disaster against Michigan State. The Hawkeyes meet Wisconsin on Tuesday night to clear up some of the second-place logjam.
Stanford Cardinal
The Cardinal are on a nice little roll, having won three straight heading into their Thursday meeting with Arizona. Stanford was easily able to take care of Connecticut on Saturday night. This is the Cardinal’s first of two cracks at the Wildcats; it comes off a week in which Johnny Dawkins’s team played very well.
St Mary’s Gaels
Winners of a huge WCC showdown against BYU on Saturday night, St Mary’s can turn its attention to chasing down Gonzaga and making a run at the NCAA tournament. This was the first statement win for the Gaels this season. They meet Gonzaga on Thursday night. Thursday is going to be a big day for West Coast hoops.
Indiana Hoosiers
The Hoosiers went on the road Sunday to Champaign and coughed up a 10-point second-half lead, resulting in a nine-point deficit. An 11-3 run got IU back in the game. When the Hoosiers needed baskets late, Troy Williams and James Blackmon Jr. gave them the lead. The duo had 21 points each in the victory.
Notre Dame Fighting Irish
Notre Dame showed a ton of resilience in its 17th victory of the season. Down 12 to Miami, ND was able to tie the game in five minutes of scoreboard clock time. With the game tied at 58, the Irish dropped a 10-3 run to pretty much seal the deal. ND hung 46 points on Miami in the second half. When Notre Dame’s offense is working, it’s one of the most fun things in college basketball.
Georgia Bulldogs
A strong 12-point victory at home over Florida evened the Bulldogs at 2-2 in SEC play. Their two losses were against Arkansas and at LSU in double OT. You don’t want to look too far ahead — they are an SEC team after all — but there are four winnable games before their roll at Kentucky. Could the Bulldogs make a push to the top of the league?
Washington Huskies
The Huskies pulled off a sweep of the Oregon schools to begin to right the ship on their season. That’s not going to be the easiest of tasks with a trip to the mountain schools this week, Colorado and Utah, but 2-3 is better than 0-5. Hashtag #Math.
Minnesota Golden Gophers
After losing every Big Ten game in seemingly agonizing fashion, the Gophers took down Rutgers in the Barn. Good for them.
TCU Horned Frogs
TCU got its first-ever road win Big 12 play, going on the road to beat Texas Tech. Congrats.
Kentucky Wildcats
Kentucky gets mentioned this low in large part because the Cats completely destroyed the SEC this week. UK beat Mizzou by 39 and Alabama by 22. Vandy and South Carolina are next on the blowout list.
Bubble Teams Getting it Done
Providence, Old Dominion, Wyoming, Georgetown, N.C. State – salute.
Georgetown’s Isaac Copeland
Onions alert
https://twitter.com/ncaamania/status/556780063363186688
Kansas State – Big 12 Leader
Valley Leaders Taking Care of Business
This was a good week for both Northern Iowa and Wichita State. WSU remained unbeaten in the league with easy wins over Southern Illinois and Evansville. The Shockers are also the only undefeated team in the Valley, now that Illinois State lost. Northern Iowa pounded Bradley and Missouri State. These teams hope to stay hot heading into their big January 31 showdown in Cedar Falls.
AAC Leaders Roll
Tulsa and SMU are the two teams atop the AAC standings. The Golden Hurricane are a surprise at 5-0, while SMU is 4-1. The two appear to be on a collision course for the top of the standings for their February 7 meeting. Neither team has under a 60 percent chance of winning a game until then, according to the Ken Pom numbers.
A-10 Leaders Looking Strong
VCU and Dayton are both 5-0 in a surprisingly good A-10. There are currently six Ken Pom top 70 teams in the league. VCU has defeated two of them, Davidson and Rhode Island, while Dayton has yet to play one. The Flyers get Davidson and Richmond this week, though.
Don’t overlook George Washington at 4-1, 14-4 overall. The Colonials have a win over Wichita State. GW did take a loss at LaSalle, but now has a couple easy games before it travels to VCU on the 27th.
Small League Undefeateds
Stephen F. Austin moved to 14-3, 4-0 in the Southland. The Lumberjacks play their toughest remaining game of the year, on paper, this weekend at Sam Houston State.
Murray State moved to 5-0 in the OVC. The Racers have won their last four games by at least 15 points apiece.
Eastern Illinois is 6-0 in the OVC. The Panthers host Murray State on … Thursday night. Apparently every game is on Thursday night this week.
Louisiana Tech and Western Kentucky are 5-0 in Conference USA.
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LOSERS
Anyone Hyped for Big 12 Showdown Saturday
We got a pair of dominant butt-kickings as Oklahoma absolutely destroyed Oklahoma State and Texas beat the brakes off West Virginia. Even ISU-Kansas was lopsided until very late. While the performances are to be respected, it was disappointing if you wanted some high level basketball from two teams at the same time.
Louisville’s Shooting
When finishing 29.5 percent for the game is an improvement over your first-half total, you really can’t shoot. Louisville is the third-worst 3-point shooting team in ACC play. On top of that, the Cards have the second lowest free throw rate. When they aren’t getting dunks, they aren’t getting points. That’s kind of a problem if you want to win a national title.
Utah’s Offense
Delon Wright was held to 10 points on 4-9 shooting, and Utah shot 39 percent from the floor against Arizona, putting up only 14 free throw attempts. This is 100 % a very good team. There is no shame in any of the Utes’ losses — at San Diego State, what was practically a road game versus Kansas in Kansas City, and at Arizona. However, the offense in all three games is a cause for concern. The Utes managed 49, 60 and 51. Come that big tournament in March, they are going to play someone who will clamp them down, not the suspect defenses of USC, UCLA, Colorado and Arizona State.
San Diego State’s Offense
The Aztecs have now had three games where they’ve had a half scoring in the teens. Believe it or not, they are still 2-1 in such contests…. but that’s going to catch up to them in March if they don’t do something about it.
Michigan’s Injury Luck
While Michigan got a win over Northwestern Saturday night, the news came Sunday that its best player, Caris LeVert, is out for the season with a broken foot.
Anyone Trying to Figure Out the SEC
Arkansas came into this week 13-2. The Hogs promptly lost at Tennessee and at home to Ole Miss.
Ole Miss has alternated wins and losses in SEC action. The Rebels continue to look much better on the road than they do at home, which is head scratching.
Florida had an easy path to 3-0 before getting smacked in its first true SEC test. The Gators hit the SEC grind at 10-7.
Tennessee, once 4-4, is now 11-5, 3-1 in the league. LSU is about to be mentioned.
This league after Kentucky makes no sense.
Home Bubble Teams
Illinois lost to fall to 12-7, 2-4. There may not be a team that has lost as many close games by blowing late leads as the Illini have this season.
LSU lost to Texas A&M and is now 13-4, 2-2. LSU is a major-league tease. Lose on the road at bad Mizzou, beat Georgia, and win at Ole Miss. When you think the Tigers could do something, they lose at home to A&M. They have trips to Florida and Vandy this week; they could sweep or get swept and neither would be a surprise.
Road Bubble Teams
St John’s lost at DePaul. DePaul! The Johnnies are 1-4 in the Big East and currently sport the worst defense in the league.
UConn lost at Stanford. The defending champs are now 9-7. The good news is their schedule is going to ease up quite a bit. The bad news is that they can’t afford to lose more than 3 or 4 games, including the conference tournament, the rest of the way to feel safe for an NCAA bid.
BYU lost to St Mary’s. I love watching this team play, I really do. The Cougars’ offense is great. Looking at the schedule, the best win is Stanford followed by … Long Beach State. There is no meat on their resume. There are no bad losses, but they did lose to Pepperdine. This seems like an NIT team.
Syracuse lost at Clemson. The Orange’s stout defense was lit up by the Tigers to the tune of 45 % shooting from the floor.
Baylor lost at Kansas State. Baylor probably isn’t a bubble team in all actuality. The Bears are 2-3 in the league with a seven-game gauntlet of OU, @ OSU, Texas, TCU, @ WVU, OSU, and @ KU coming. Losing in Manhattan put them behind a bad 8 ball.
Miami lost at Notre Dame. It wasn’t so much who the Hurricanes lost to, but how they lost. The Hurricanes had a 12-point second-half lead on the Irish. Five minutes later, the game was tied. That’s not the type of giveaway you want following such a huge win at Duke.
Creighton Blue Jays
Everyone knew the team would be down after losing Doug McDermott. The Blue Jays are now under .500 on the season, 0-6 in the Big East, after a loss to Providence.
Offense in the Mountain West
Wyoming and Fresno State played a triple overtime game Saturday night. The final? 70-65.
