By Aidan Joly
The past two nights have brought seven unranked teams taking down ranked teams. They all ranked in terms of how surprising they were, but let’s discuss each of the eight teams that pulled off upsets.
(This is in order of the ranked team they beat)
Nebraska beats No. 1 Purdue
A dream season is unfolding in Lincoln as the Cornhuskers now sit at 13-3 after an 88-72 win against Purdue on Tuesday night.
The win gives Nebraska its best win of the season and what will surely end up being its signature win of the season. Keisei Tominaga is becoming one of the premier shooters in the country, while Rienk Mast has become one of the most impactful transfer adds around. Tominaga 19 points and hit five threes in the win against Purdue, while Mast scored 18 points on 8-17 from the field.
On top of that, Brice Williams has been a very solid third option scoring and also grabbed 11 rebounds in the win. Juwan Gary rounds out the four players who average in double figures.
At 3-2 in Big Ten play, this is the first time in the Fred Hoiberg era that Nebraska has been above .500 in league play in January.
Some will remember that Nebraska won five of its last six regular season games last season and the momentum is really shifting in Lincoln. Now, there is a real chance that the program can make its first NCAA tournament appearance in a decade.
Iowa State beats No. 2 Houston
There are no more undefeated teams in college basketball as the Cyclones took down No. 2 Houston 57-53 on Tuesday.
Iowa State is now 1-1 in Big 12 play and 12-3 overall after the victory. The Cyclones picked up some votes in the AP rankings but did not crack the top 25, but are sure to pick up some more AP points this week.
The key for Iowa State this year has been defense, ranking third in the country in KenPom’s adjusted defensive efficiency. It is also one of the best teams in the country in forcing turnovers, which it forced Houston into 16 turnovers on Tuesday night.
Tamin Lipsey is one of the best defensive players in the country. He averages 3.3 steals per game and grabbed eight of them in one game against Prairie View A&M in December. Big man Hason Ward missed nine games with a foot injury suffered in November, but has been back for Iowa State’s last three games. He’s still playing somewhat limited minutes, but is very good as well.
The Cyclones should finish in the top half of the Big 12. This team is a group that will make noise the last two months of the season.
UCF beats No. 3 Kansas
How about this one?! After losing by 25 to Kansas State in its first-ever Big 12 league game and looking totally overmatched while doing so, the Knights turn around and take down Kansas in Orlando 65-60 on Wednesday night.
Similar, Johnny Dawkins’ team hangs its hat on defense. It ranks eighth in the country in turnover percentage – Kansas turned the ball over 18 times in the loss. It also blocked seven Jayhawk shots, with CJ Walker recording three of them. It limited Hunter Dickinson to 12 points and KJ Adams to 10. Dickinson’s 12 was his second-lowest scoring output of the season.
It is still going to be quite a learning curve for UCF to really be competitive in the Big 12 moving forward and the Knights will likely struggle, but this win is a stunner that will remain a proud moment for the entire season.
But hey, maybe they’ll surprise. Stranger things have happened.
Mississippi State beats No. 5 Tennessee
The Bulldogs beat Tennessee in Starkville on Wednesday night 77-72.
The common denominator remains the same here – defense. Chris Jans’ team ranks 10th in the country in defensive efficiency, is ninth in the country in defensive effective field goal percentage and sixth in the nation in opponent three-point percentage. It has held teams to shooting just 27% from three this season. That was right on the money in the win as Tennessee shot 8-29 from three, which is 27.6%.
Mississippi State did lose the turnover battle 18-16.
DJ Jeffries did not have much of a scoring output at only four points, but grabbed five steals and also blocked a shot in 32 minutes of action. It didn’t get the scoring from starters that it needed but got that lift from Josh Hubbard, who scored a career-high 25 points on 8-15 from the field.
Mississippi State is one of those teams on the bubble as well but now, it has a great win that will last all the way to March. Right now, it likely puts them on the right side of the bubble. Plenty of more opportunities to grab another great win or two await in the SEC.
TCU beats No. 9 Oklahoma
If you remember, the Horned Frogs started the season 7-0 before it lost to Clemson in a neutral site game on Dec. 9. The 80-71 win over Oklahoma on Wednesday night improved this group to 12-3 and 1-1 in the Big 12.
It’s not unfair to say that Oklahoma took advantage of one of the easier schedules in the country and got into the top 10 in the country because of that. So, the win does feel like more of an indictment on Oklahoma than it does praising TCU.
We’ve known all along that Jamie Dixon has a good team this season. Emanuel Miller, Jameer Nelson Jr. and Avery Anderson is one of the best trios in the Big 12 and should continue to win games consistently.
But still, this win is TCU’s first quad 1 win of the season. In the Big 12 there’s lots of chances for those but after going 0-3 in quad 1 games leading up to this, the Horned Frogs did need to get a win like this.
Butler beats No. 11 Marquette
The Bulldogs picked up the biggest win of the second era of Thad Matta in Indianapolis, taking down Marquette on the road 69-62 on Wednesday night.
Butler caught Marquette on a bad shooting night. The Golden Eagles were 5-31 from three as part of a night where it shot just under 33% from the field overall. Kam Jones was 1-10 from behind the arc, while Tyler Kolek was 0-7 from three. Kolek had just two points in total as he was 1-13 from the field.
Four Butler Bulldogs finished in double figures, with Pierre Brooks II and Landon Moore scoring 14 points each while Jalen Thomas and Posh Alexander had 10 each.
Butler is still in something of a rebuild and has struggled in some games – this win only improves it to 2-3 in Big East play. It is 11-5 after the win, but only three of those wins have come against top 100 KenPom teams.
Still, it’s a very quality win and one to be proud of.
Boise State beats No. 17 Colorado State
It was a surprising result in the Mountain West. Colorado State was ranked No. 17 in the country and rising before getting taken down by the Broncos 65-58 on Tuesday.
Again, Boise State is one of the top defensive teams in the country, ranking 33th in the country in defensive efficiency. It forced Isaiah Stevens, usually very sure-handed, into the turning the ball over six times. In total, Colorado State turned the ball over 16 times.
Right now, the Mountain West has three teams ranked in the top 20 in the AP rankings with Utah State and San Diego State checking in there too. The dream of a five-bid Mountain West is still alive. Colorado State, Utah State and San Diego State are looking good at this point, if Nevada takes care of business it will certainly be looking good, while Boise State is trying to play its way onto the bubble. A win like this sure helps. Maybe New Mexico can squeeze onto the bubble too.
Virginia Tech beats No. 22 Clemson
This win barely registers as an upset as Clemson was favored by just 1.5 points, but the Virginia Tech beat the Tigers pretty convincingly, beating them 87-72.
It improved Virginia Tech t0 10-5 overall and 2-2 in ACC play.
Sean Pedulla has been a very solid player in the ACC for several years now and he came up huge in the win, scoring 32 points on 9-16 from the field. He also dished out seven assists Tyler Nickel had 24 points off the bench as well.
The big thing on Wednesday night was Virginia Tech shooting 13-24 from three, good for 54.2%. That was its best performance three all season. Even more impressive was that it did it with Hunter Cattoor, who shoots 41.4% from three, not scoring at all. Pedulla was 6-10 from three, while Nickel was 5-7.
Virginia Tech is still on the outside looking in for the tournament. Only three of its 10 wins are against top 100 KenPom teams and six of the 10 are against top 200 teams (including Wofford, who is ranked at No. 200 even).
Still some work to do for the Hokies, but right now they still project as a mid-pack ACC team. It will need to finish in the top five or so to have a real shot at an at-large bid.
AJ Hoops 