By Aidan Joly
The most loaded weekend of the college basketball season, which included four top-10 matchups and other important games in the NCAA tournament landscape, is in the books.
Let’s get into it.
Kansas makes statement in win over Houston
The first of three top-10 matchups on Saturday and four for the entire weekend, Kansas beat Houston 78-65 in Lawrence.
The game wasn’t even that close though. The Jayhawks led by as many as 20 and held a lead of 15+ most of the way. It got everything it needed from Hunter Dickinson, who had 20 points on 9-15 from the field, while Kevin McCullar and Johnny Furphy had 17 each. KJ Adams had 10.
It was an A+ game plan from Bill Self and Kansas executed right from the beginning of the game, jumping out to a double digit lead almost immediately and never looked back.
I had talked a few weeks ago about how Kansas needed a fifth guy to step up. Furphy has been that guy. He has scored at least 11 points in six straight games. Saturday was his second-best game of the season with his 17 points on 6-7 from the field. The freshman has been great.
LJ Cryer had a good game for Houston, scoring a game-high 24 points on 9-20 from the field and made six threes.
Bacot shines in UNC win over Duke
This year’s first edition of UNC-Duke wasn’t overly close either. North Carolina won it 93-84, but similar to Houston and Kansas, it was not that close.
The Tar Heels led by 15 in the second half and it never seemed like Duke had a chance to win. It went on a brief run in the closing minutes, but it was never really in doubt.
You can say either Armando Bacot or Harrison Ingram was the best player on the floor. Bacot scored 25 points on 10-13 from the field, grabbed 10 rebounds and dished out five assists. Despite a lower point total Ingram may have been better, scoring 21 points and hit five threes and had 13 rebounds. You can make an argument for either of them.
RJ Davis was really good too, with 17 points.
Overall, North Carolina was better than Duke the whole way. It got to nearly every 50-50 ball, played with more urgency and was much more physical than the Blue Devils. Duke will need to be a more physical team if it wants to make a deep March run.
Tennessee’s experience shows in win against Kentucky
The third top-10 game on Saturday night, Tennessee went on the road and beat Kentucky 103-92 at Rupp Arena.
The big takeaway in this game for me was that Tennessee looked like a bunch of 23-year-olds playing college basketball, while Kentucky looked like a bunch of 19-year-olds playing basketball.
The Volunteers just came into the game so prepared and like Kansas, executed the game plan really well.
Rob Dillingham delivered one of the best performances you’ll see in a losing effort, with 35 points off the bench on 14-20 from the field. But outside of him, Antonio Reeves and Reed Sheppard, the Wildcats didn’t get much out of anyone else. Remember Zvonimir Ivisic’s huge debut against Georgia a few weeks ago? He has only scored four total points in 19 minutes since then and had a DNP on Saturday. He’s already slipping and it’s clear he wasn’t ready to come in and be this star contributor.
The defense is suspect too. It has allowed 90+ points four times in its past seven games. That needs to be shored up.
Okay, back to Tennessee. Josiah-Jordan James had his best game of the season, scoring 26 points and had five rebounds, while Zakai Zeigler had 26 points as well and 13 assists. Dalton Knecht, who has been such a good addition for the Vols, had 16 points. All five starters were in double figures.
The Vols were prepared to go in and win. They did just that.
Purdue keeps rolling, but Wisconsin keeps it close
The top-10 matchups continued on Sunday, with Purdue grabbing a 75-69 win against Wisconsin in Madison.
Credit to Wisconsin. This game could have been a blowout with some question marks still lingering about the Badgers coming in to the day. They could have had a chance but struggled shooting from three, going 3-19 from behind the arc.
It did keep Zach Edey out of the game in the first half as he only had five points in the first stanza. However, that wasn’t much the case in the second half as Edey finished with 18 points and 13 rebounds. Lance Jones led the Boilermakers with 20 points and Braden Smith had 19.
For Wisconsin, they need one more guy to really compete in the Big Ten. Tyler Wahl can be one of the best players in the Big Ten when he is on, and AJ Storr, while more consistent and could be a guy to lead a team, I feel like fits better as a number two guy on a team. Will it be Chucky Hepburn? Max Klesmit? Someone else? We’ll see.
Baylor squeaks past Iowa State
Baylor got past Iowa State by the skin of its teeth. Iowa State’s Milan Momcilovic made a three at the buzzer, but it was deemed to be just after the buzzer sounded, giving Baylor a 70-68 win.
It was another great Big 12 basketball game and this is two teams that can make a deep run in the tournament.
There were some rightful questions about how RayJ Dennis would adjust to Baylor after transferring in from Toledo, but he’s been great. He had 18 points in the win.
Also, Scott Drew got ejected from this game! It was for going too far on the court, which has turned into a real discussion in college basketball this season. Some more egregious violations haven’t resulted in ejections, but this one did. ESPN noted on the broadcast that that was the first time the very mild-mannered Drew was tossed out of a game in 21 years as Baylor’s head coach.
UConn wins a big one
The No. 1 team in the country winning a huge game at Madison Square Garden against St. John’s usually isn’t the sixth entry on one of these, but that was what this weekend was.
The Huskies kept rolling with a 77-64 win against the Johnnies at MSG to start the day out. Cam Spencer remains one of the best big-game players in the country, scoring 23 points on 7-13 from the field, including 5-7 from three. Stephon Castle had 21 for UConn while Tristen Newton had 18 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists.
Daniss Jenkins had 19 for St. John’s, which falls to 5-6 in the Big East and 13-9 overall. The Johnnies are starting to trend towards the NIT, which is kind of a disappointment as many expected St. John’s to be in the tournament in Rick Pitino’s first season.
Butler is trending towards tournament
Elsewhere in the Big East, Butler picked up a huge 99-98 win against Creighton in Omaha on Friday night.
The Bulldogs now own wins against Texas Tech (at home) and road wins against Marquette and Creighton. They sit at 15-7 overall and 6-5 in league play. It has three Quad 1 wins.
Butler has not made the NCAA tournament officially since 2018 (it would have made it in 2020), but right now this group is trending towards getting into the tournament.
Not bad for the second season of Thad Matta’s return to Indianapolis and being picked 10th in the preseason poll, one point ahead of DePaul.
On Monday, it sits at 49th in both the KenPom and NET rankings. It can certainly be the fifth Big East team.
Ranked South Carolina
South Carolina, which was picked dead last in the SEC preseason poll, is in second place in the SEC.
The Gamecocks only played three teams with a pulse in the non-conference portion of the schedule (it lost one of them), so SEC play was supposed to be when things went backwards.
It hasn’t. South Carolina is 7-2 in SEC play and kept it rolling with a 72-62 win against Georgia on Saturday. At 19-3 overall, it became a ranked team on Monday for the first time since 2017, debuting at No. 15 in the AP poll.
Its 19 wins are already the most for the program in a single season since 2016-17, the same year it was ranked. What did it do that year? It went to the Final Four.
Lamont Paris has done a heck of a job in year two in Columbia, turning Meechie Johnson, B.J. Mack and Ta’lon Cooper into very good SEC players. He should be the shoe-in SEC coach of the year as well as be in the conversation for national coach of the year.
Quick hitters
- Gonzaga is running out of chances after a 64-62 loss to Saint Mary’s at The Kennel late Saturday night. With the WCC looking like a two-bid league at most, it will have to grab some Quad 1 wins. It only has three left: at Kentucky on Saturday, at San Francisco on Feb. 29 and at Saint Mary’s on March 2. It is 0-5 in Q1 games this year. Of course, it can win the WCC tournament and this is a moot point. The Zags have not missed the NCAA tournament since 1998, the third-longest streak in the country (Kansas, Michigan State).
- Things are unraveling in Arkansas after the Razorbacks were blown out by LSU 95-74 on Saturday. It dropped Arkansas to 2-7 in SEC play and 11-11 overall. After overportaling, this is the worst Arkansas team of the Eric Musselman era. There is just no chemistry and it shows.
- Florida State’s at-large chances are probably done after a 101-92 loss to Louisville on Saturday. That’s a Quad 3 loss, making the Seminoles 2-3 in Q3 games. It also has a Q4 loss.
- Indiana State and Drake should both be in the tournament after Indiana State beat Drake 75-67 on Saturday. The teams split their two matchups this season, an ideal scenario for both making the tournament. The Sycamores won their 20th game of the season with the win. Regardless of what happens in the Missouri Valley tournament, both of these squads are tournament teams.
AJ Hoops 