By Aidan Joly
It was a very, very busy weekend in college hoops, highlighted by John Calipari returning to the building he spent 15 years coaching in, Duke blowing out North Carolina in the rivals’ first matchup of the season, and a massive road win for Texas Tech.
Let’s get into all of it.
Arkansas wins in Calipari’s return
In one of the most anticipated games of the season, John Calipari returned to Kentucky for the first time as an opposing head coach.
Calipari was booed when he came onto the floor, it was strong but not merciless, which was a big point of debate throughout the week.
Then, Calipari’s Arkansas Razorbacks, which have really struggled all season, played their best game of the season, beating Kentucky 89-79. It came behind a 21 point performance from Adou Thiero, who was also returning to Lexington as a player, 18 points from Johnell Davis and 17 from D.J. Wagner, who was also returning to Rupp Arena.
You could tell that this was a game that this program circled on the calendar and really wanted. It was subtle to see, but this has to be one of the most satisfying wins of Calipari’s coaching career, regardless of how the season is going.
Duke blows out North Carolina
The biggest rivalry in the sport somehow felt like an appetizer to Arkansas-Kentucky.
In the first of two meetings this season, Duke blew out North Carolina 87-70 at Cameron Indoor, and that game didn’t even feel that close. The Blue Devils led by 25-30 points for much of the contest.
The freshman duo of Kon Knueppel and Cooper Flagg combined for 43 points, 13 rebounds, 12 assists and five steals in a game where they were both on. Tyrese Proctor had 17, and Sion James also played well.
UNC falls to 13-10 overall and 6-5 in the ACC with its tournament hopes slipping by the game it seems like. They are an overtime win against Boston College away from a five-game losing streak.
Duke is a true national title contender. It improves to 11-0 in the ACC and 19-2 overall and it’s beginning to feel like a perfect 20-0 ACC record is in play. We will see.
Texas Tech beats Houston after early adversity
Texas Tech grabbed one of the best wins of the day, beating Houston 82-81 in overtime to hand the Cougars their first Big 12 loss this season.
It was all the more impressive considering leading scorer JT Toppin was ejected on an awful Flagrant 2 call less than four minutes into the game, which also led to a subsequent ejection of coach Grant McCasland. It was a truly awful call that shouldn’t have even been a common foul, much less one that forced the Red Raiders to be without Toppin and their coach for 36 minutes.
Still, Texas Tech won the game. Chance McMillan stepped up in a huge way, scoring 23 points while Elijah Hawkins had 17. The Red Raiders shot 40% from three along the way.
Texas Tech is now 8-2 in Big 12 play and 17-4 overall. It’s a team that should be making a very deep run in March.
St. John’s takes over first in the Big East
The St. John’s Red Storm have taken over sole possession of first place in the Big East.
On Saturday the Johnnies held off Providence at Madison Square Garden, winning 68-66 to improve to 10-1 in league play and 19-3 overall. It got some good fortune later in the day with Marquette losing to UConn to drop the Golden Eagles to 9-2 in Big East play.
Rick Pitino’s squad has taken care of business all season. It has only lost one time since Thanksgiving and is on an eight-game winning streak. The three losses have been by a combined five points.
This is a team that has gotten better as the season. RJ Luis Jr., Zuby Ejiofor and Kadary Richmond have been a fantastic trio, maybe the best in the league. St. John’s has a chance in the next few weeks to be the favorite to win the Big East and make a deep run in the NCAA tournament. It has two big ones coming up, facing Marquette at home on Tuesday and going to play at UConn on Friday.
Short-handed Tennessee blows out Florida
Tennessee, without two starters in Zakai Ziegler and Igor Milicic Jr., beat Florida by 20 in Knoxville, 64-44.
It was a quintessential Vols performance. The defense stepped up in a huge way when it knew it didn’t have the scoring it needed and hung their hat on it. Florida went 24.5% from the field and only made 13 field goals the entire game and shot 14.8% from three.
Only one Gator was in double figures, and that was 10 from Walter Clayton. Alijah Martin had six on 2/12 from the field, and Alex Condon had four on 1/6 shooting.
It was a much-needed performance from the Vols, who had lost three of four coming into the day.
Arizona rivalry gets ugly
Arizona went on the road and beat Arizona State 81-72 in the in-state rivalry, and it got ugly at the end.
Arizona’s Caleb Love and ASU’s BJ Freeman were both ejected with 30 seconds remaining after Freeman head-butted Love. During that exchange, Arizona State coach Bobby Hurley sent his entire bench to the locker room. As the buzzer sounded Hurley waved his players off the floor and skipped the postgame handshake line, dismissively waving off Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd in the process.
He then had some choice words for Love in the press conference, insinuating that he won’t vote for him as an all-conference selection.
After a 4-5 start Arizona is now 15-6 on the season, 9-1 in Big 12 play, tied for first.
The two teams will meet again in Tucson on March 4.
Missouri’s blowout win
Missouri quietly had one of the most impressive wins of the day, going on the road and beating Mississippi State by 27, 88-61.
Caleb Grill was terrific for the Tigers in the win, scoring 20 points and making six shots from behind the three-point line. As a whole, Mizzou made 15 threes.
After a great first season two years ago and a dreadful year two last season, there was a lot of wondering about what Dennis Gates’ third season at the helm in Columbia would look like. With the Tigers in third place in the SEC at 6-2 as part of 17-4 overall, it is looking much more like the first.
Mizzou will go on the road to face Tennessee on Wednesday before seeing Texas A&M at home on Saturday.
Kansas State stuns Iowa State
Kansas State went into Saturday’s game against Iowa State as 14.5 point underdogs, but that didn’t matter at all.
The Wildcats stormed into Ames and beat the Cyclones by 19 in an 80-61 victory. Dug McDaniel had 20 points on 8/17 shooting, Coleman Hawkins had 17 on 5/10 and hit all three of his attempts from behind the arc, and Brendan Hausen had 15, nine of which came from the free throw line.
Kansas State has now won three in a row to improve to 4-6 in the Big 12 and 10-11 overall. It killed any hopes of a bid with a horrid first half of the season, but it has played well the past few weeks.
It has been one of the most disappointing teams in the country. But it has played well the past few weeks. Imagine what this team could have done had it played up to expectations up until the past few weeks.
Kansas’ collapse highlights issues
Kansas blew a 21-point lead and lost to Baylor 81-70 in Waco. The Jayhawks were out-scored 60-30 in the second half alone.
This latest performance continues to highlight the issues that Kansas has had this season. It seems like the epitome of a good but not great team. It stands at 6-4 in the Big 12 and 15-6 overall. Coming into the season it was a great roster on paper and an early championship frontrunner, but this is the result.
The main issue here seems to be a lack of leadership. When Baylor was climbing back into the game, nobody stepped up to prevent that from happening. You would think guys like DaJuan Harris and Hunter Dickinson, guys who were playing in their 161st and 150th college basketball game on Saturday, could be those guys. They weren’t. Zeke Mayo played in his 121st college basketball game on Saturday. Not him either.
This is a team that lacks in a lot of areas, but they are far too experienced to have these kinds of leadership issues. At this point, it needs to fall on Bill Self to make fixes over the next month.
Vanderbilt’s collapse against Oklahoma
Kansas didn’t have the only really bad collapse on Saturday.
After leading by as many as 13 in the first half Vanderbilt had a really bad second half performance, giving up a 23-0 run and getting out-scored 61-27 in the second half to lose 97-67 to Oklahoma.
Vanderbilt has had a very good year, one of the biggest surprises in the sport and a year that has put first-year coach Mark Byington in the UNC conversation should it move on from Hubert Davis. However, this was a stinker of a 20 minutes.
It hurt Vanderbilt’s tournament chances too. Before the game it had a 65% chance of making the NCAA tournament, per Team Rankings, and now that number is down to 45% on Sunday. Losing to another bubble team could really hurt.
USC upsets Michigan State
USC handed Michigan State its first Big Ten loss of the season, winning 70-64 at Galen Center.
USC is out of the tournament conversation, but it’s a nice feel-good win for Eric Musselman in year one for a team we haven’t talked much about this season. Desmond Claude had 19 in the win, while Wesley Yates III had 15.
Michigan State is still in first in the Big Ten but is now just a half-game ahead of Purdue.
Nebraska gets second straight ranked win
Nebraska got a 77-71 win against Oregon in Eugene on Sunday night, marking the Cornhuskers’ second straight ranked victory after a 1-8 start in Big Ten play.
It’s another feel good win for the Huskers, who had lost seven straight before the two wins. Brice Williams had 28 points on 10/18 from the field in Sunday’s win, while Juwan Gary had 23 on 6/10 shooting.
As for Oregon, the Ducks have now lost four of five as it continues to slide and hurt their NCAA tournament resume. The next chance of getting back on track will be on the road Wednesday against Michigan.
AJ Hoops 