Let's Recap Week 10 of College Basketball
Week 10 tipped off on January 8 with a few unranked matchups. It was a nice little tune up for the crazy week of basketball that would follow. For this recap, I plan on focusing on all of the unranked over ranked team upsets
Tuesday 1/9:
#1 Purdue loses to Nebraska
#2 Houston loses to Iowa State
It's not often that both #1 and #2 lose in the same day. This is especially the case when they both have an unranked matchup on their schedule. Nebraska were, perhaps, an underrated opponent coming into the game, but nobody was predicting a 16-point win for the Cornhuskers. Houston, on the other hand, had a bad first half against Iowa State that they never could fully recover from despite "winning" the second half.
Wednesday 1/10:
#3 Kansas loses to UCF
#5 Tennessee loses to Mississippi State
#9 Oklahoma loses to TCU
#11 Marquette loses to Butler
#21 Clemson loses to Virginia Tech
Uhhhh....What just happened? The number of unranked over ranked team upsets reached 7 and its only Wednesday. 5 of those 7 are in the Top 10, and 3 of them occupy the top spots in the entire country. UCF had an astonishing second half win over a shocked Kansas team. Mississippi State blew out Tennessee in the first half leaving very little opportunity for a comeback and held on. The TCU/Oklahoma game was pretty consistent throughout with the Horned Frogs edging out the Sooners. Butler outscored Marquette by 14 in the second half to win by 7 in what was a shocking turn of events. Finally, Virginia Tech was just the better team on the day against a struggling Clemson side that just could not keep up. This season, anything is possible.
Thursday 1/11:
#23 Gonzaga loses to Santa Clara
Teams ranked in the 20s may be more susceptible to unranked losses, but Gonzaga has been a powerhouse as of recently and Santa Clara had little to bring to the table other than home court advantage. Finding themselves up at the half, the Broncos tried to lock it down in the second half. Gonzaga mounted a huge comeback to take the lead late, but a late game-winning shot that hung on the rim for an eternity was the difference that helped Santa Clara to the upset.
A peaceful Friday with no ranked games gave us time to collect our thoughts and prepare for an action-packed weekend where surely nothing too insane would happen given the results earlier in the week.
Saturday 1/13:
#2 Houston loses to TCU
#6 Kentucky loses to Texas A&M
#8 Arizona loses to Washington State
#19 San Diego State loses to New Mexico
#25 Texas loses to West Virginia
Houston loses again! TCU wins again! The Horned Frogs found themselves on the good side of two major Top 10 upsets and the Cougars dropped their second unranked matchup after starting the season perfect. Another shocking upset was Texas A&M taking down the always-formidable Kentucky Wildcats. Wazzou also took down Arizona, who my model had a #1 in the country (and still does despite the loss). The Lobos of New Mexico absolutely crushed San Diego State, winning by 18 at the end of the day. Finally, West Virginia escaped with a narrow victory over the just-happy-to-be-ranked Texas Longhorns.
Sunday 1/14:
#10 Illinois loses to Maryland
To put a cherry on top of this wild week of basketball, the dark horses of the Big Ten, the Fighting Illini lost to unranked Maryland by 9 thanks to the Terps pulling away in the second half.
Over the course of one week of basketball, the AP-ranked #1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 19, 21, 23, and 25 all lost to unranked teams. Is this an unprecedented week of college basketball? I am not quite as educated in the history of college basketball as I would like to be, so please let me know. What I do know, though, is the amount of shocking upsets this week will surely spark confidence in all unranked teams in the coming weeks. Hopefully we get some more shockers along the way.