By Aidan Joly
A big comeback quasi-road win for Kentucky, Marquette solidifying itself as the best team in the Big East right now, and the preseason No. 1 team continuing its slide highlighted this weekend across the college hoops world.
Let’s get into some of the big headlines from the weekend.
Kentucky’s comeback
Kentucky rallied after it trailed by as many as 18 points to pick up a 90-89 overtime win against Gonzaga in Seattle last Saturday night.
It was great resolve from the Wildcats. They out-scored Gonzaga by 16 in the second half and a bucket from Jaxson Robinson in the closing seconds sealed the win for Kentucky. Robinson had 18 points, while Andrew Carr led the Wildcats with 19. Gonzaga’s Graham Ike was the best player on the floor though, finishing with 28 points and 11 rebounds in the loss.
A lot of people had questions about what this Kentucky team would be. A first-year coach in Mark Pope and a roster made up entirely of new players raised eyebrows. But so far, Kentucky is 8-1 after the win, and also has a win against Duke.
So far, Pope is getting results. These Wildcats are legit.
Marquette solidifies itself
After losing to Iowa State on Wednesday Marquette got a really good bounce-back win, beating Wisconsin at home 88-74.
The game was never really in doubt in the second half. The Golden Eagles came out with a vengeance after the break, turning a three-point deficit into a double digit lead in less than 10 minutes thanks to several key plays from Kam Jones and David Joplin. Jones had the best game of his season, finishing with 32 points, while Joplin had 13.
Marquette is 9-1 with wins over Maryland, Purdue, Georgia and Wisconsin. Its only loss was the aforementioned road loss to Iowa State. With so much of the Big East struggling, the Golden Eagles are really showing to be the best team in that league right now.
It will go on the road to face Dayton on Saturday in its final non-conference game.
Kansas continues slide
Kansas took its second straight loss on Sunday, losing to unranked Missouri in Columbia 76-67.
It is the second straight loss for the Jayhawks, who have been No. 1 in the country since the season started. Its run at the top of the rankings will come to an end on Monday after Sunday’s loss and a loss to Creighton on Wednesday.
Watching both of those games, the Jayhawks did not look even remotely like the best team in the country. On Wednesday, it struggled to hit shots consistently. On Sunday, it was turning the ball over 22 times that did the Jayhawks in.
At the end of the day, Kansas will be fine. It has too much talent to truly falter. But you can’t deny that it had a tough week.
UConn continues to get back on track
Much was made of UConn going 0-3 in the Maui Invitational, and for good reason. The Huskies were the favorite to win it, and they failed to win a single game.
This week it got back on track, beating Baylor on Wednesday night and then going to Austin and beating Texas 76-65 on Sunday.
Both are solid wins that will give the back-to-back national champions their confidence back. On Sunday it was Alex Karaban, who scored 21 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in the win. Solo Ball had 16, while Tarris Reed had 12 off the bench as he becomes one of the more valuable bench players in the country.
It is one last big non-conference game for the Huskies before Big East play begins, a showdown with Gonzaga on Saturday in New York City.
St. John’s gets much-needed win
The Johnnies got a much-needed win both on the court wise as well as emotionally, beating Kansas State 88-71 in Queens in the program’s first game since the passing of legendary head coach Lou Carnesecca.
In a very cool gesture, current coach Rick Pitino wore a custom-made replica sweater in Carnesecca’s honor, getting a standing ovation from Red Storm fans before the game as he revealed it.
It was a good win for the Red Storm resume-wise too. It is now 2-2 against power conference teams, with the other win being a neutral site win against Virginia. It has losses to Baylor and Georgia, so it needed to beat a team with the talent Kansas State does.
At 7-2, St. John’s should be going into conference play on a three-game winning streak after going 1-2 in the Bahamas.
Concerning Memphis loss
Memphis took a very concerning loss on Sunday, losing to Arkansas State 85-72.
It came after only beating Louisiana Tech by 10 on Wednesday. That being said, it is a not good two-game stretch for the Tigers. It comes after it went 2-1 in Maui, a good week for sure.
It should noted that Arkansas State is one of the best mid-major teams out there and is the clear favorite to win the Sun Belt, but that is not the type of game Memphis should be losing. With how things go at Memphis sometimes, the hope needs to be that this week doesn’t lead to a spiral.
The Tigers will be idle until Saturday, when they play Clemson on the road.
Washington blown out by USC and another west coast Big Ten upset
Two interesting west coast Big Ten results over the weekend. Washington was blown out by USC on Saturday, losing 85-61 at home.
Things are off to a tough start in Danny Sprinkle’s first season at the helm. The Huskies are 6-3 and does not have a power conference win (although it did beat Colorado State), and also lost to Nevada.
There are growing pains happening right now in Seattle. Maybe, this will be a loss that wakes them up a little bit.
Elsewhere in the west coast faction of the Big Ten, UCLA pulled off an upset of Oregon on Sunday on a last-second shot from Dylan Andrews to earn a 73-71 win and hand the Ducks their first loss of the season. UCLA is off to a 8-1 start and has won its first two Big Ten games.
Rhode Island wins again
Rhode Island continues its great start, beating in-state rival Providence on Saturday 69-63 to win the annual matchup between the two schools for the first time since 2019.
The Rams are 9-0 and just got the program’s biggest win since Archie Miller took over the program last year. This team feels similar to Miller’s old teams at Dayton. He had a ton of success there before not doing well at Indiana.
Miller surely feels at home coaching in the Atlantic 10. I had expressed some doubts about the Rams since they had not played many good teams, but this is a convincing win. It feels like Rhode Island can do some real damage in the Atlantic 10.
AJ Hoops 