The Mighty Continue to Fall
Anyone who knows or watches College Basketball is aware of the disparity from conference to conference across the country. Even within conference, it’s hard for one single team to establish complete dominance over the course of the regular season. This past weekend, however, was an upset day for the ages that no one could’ve seen coming.
On Saturday, January 18th, seven top-25 teams lost, with three of those losses coming from top-5 teams. This type of debacle has NEVER happened before in the sport, and we’re going on 80 years of statistical college hoops data. No. 16 Wichita State shot poorly from the field in a double-digit loss to unranked Houston. Unranked Arizona pummeled No. 20 Colorado by 21 points. Kansas State smashed No. 12 West Virginia, outscoring them 84-68. Finally, Ohio State was a no-show against an unranked Penn State team, falling 90-76 at home (Ohio State has now gone 6-12 after starting 12-1). But it doesn’t stop there…
No. 3 Duke lost twice this week.
No. 4 Auburn lost twice this week.
No. 5 Butler lost twice this week.
No. 8 Oregon lost once.
No. 10 Kentucky lost once.We're going to need a new top 25. pic.twitter.com/qphjeWjEIk
— The Athletic CBB (@TheAthleticCBB) January 19, 2020
Top-5 teams Butler, Auburn, and Duke all were upset in ‘Cinderella-style’ fashion. No. 5 Butler was sitting at 15-1 to start the year, but now have lost back-to-back games following Saturday’s loss to DePaul. 4th ranked Auburn put up an embarrassingly low 47 points against the Florida Gators, dropping their second game in a row since being undefeated. Finally, the Duke Blue Devils fell to long-time ‘thorn in their side’ Louisville in a nail-biter down the stretch. In what Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski stated as “The most physical game we’ve been involved in…in years”, the Louisville bench out-hustled and out-scored the Duke bench unit 39-5.
It could have been an even bigger day of disaster for ranked teams, as four more teams barely squeaked out scary-looking wins. Villanova just barely edged out UConn, Baylor pulled off the win after being down by 12 points in the second half, Seton Hall beat St. John’s after being down double-digits at the half, and Florida State beat Miami by 4 points in overtime.
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