The Streak is over.
For the first time since 2003-04, there will be a regular season champion in the Big 12 other than Kansas. That became official after Oklahoma handled the Jayhawks 81-68 in Norman in a game that wasn’t even that close. It’s the end of a remarkable run that one of college basketball’s bluebloods has been on.
In recent years, many felt that you would pick someone other than Kansas to win the Big 12 at your peril. Until someone knocked them off, Kansas was the best pick to make, because they won or shared the regular season title whether they were national title contenders or just very good. Even while the Jayhawks might have looked like mere mortals, in Big 12 play they continued to rule the roost. It became like one of the guarantees in life along with death and taxes.
The irony is that this didn’t look like it was close to a year where the Jayhawks might be vulnerable. Plenty of people picked them as a preseason number one team, in fact (even some people our readers might know), given the combination of talent and experience they would have. We’ll never know if the full team might have won another one, but this Jayhawk team was certainly not whole all year.
Taking nothing away from Kansas State (a team that looked just okay in non-conference but every bit the contender they were thought to be once Big 12 play got going) and Texas Tech (with a strong national Coach of the Year candidate in Chris Beard), Kansas had a lot go against them. Silvio De Sousa was ineligible, Udoka Azubuike missed a great deal of the season due to different injuries, Marcus Garrett missed time with an injury and Lagerald Vick missed key games due to personal issues. Not helping is that Quentin Grimes was nothing like what he was expected to be aside from the season opener, but sometimes that happens – not every freshman has a smooth transition into college basketball. And Grimes’ play isn’t in the same category as injuries or eligibility issues.
Kansas had plenty of depth, but not in the frontcourt with Azubuike and De Sousa out of action. Mitch Lightfoot battled gamely and David McCormack tried to give them more than he could right away, but it wasn’t enough. Kansas has lost the most conference games – six – in 30 years, back to the days of the old Big 8. It’s a testament to how great they have been for so long.
When the week began, Kansas needed almost everything to go right to keep the streak going. We didn’t even have to wait for the final weekend of the regular season to find out the result. Kansas’ run of 14 straight Big 12 regular season titles will not go on. One more remarkable streak is now over.
Side Dishes
The big news with Kansas overshadowed quite a night of basketball. We’ll start with the Big Ten, where Minnesota scored a big 73-69 win over Purdue in Minneapolis behind 32 points and eight rebounds from Amir Coffey and 13 points and 14 rebounds from Jordan Murphy. Carsen Edwards had 22 points but was 7-31 from the floor, including 3-15 from long range. This obviously boosts the Golden Gophers’ NCAA Tournament at-large hopes, but it also takes away the Boilermakers’ control of their own destiny for an outright regular season Big Ten title. Related to the latter, Michigan State rolled over Nebraska 91-76 in East Lansing, which puts them at the same 15-4 mark that Purdue has entering the final game of the regular season.
The ACC had plenty to talk about, from Duke surviving 71-70 against Wake Forest in Durham to North Carolina finishing off a perfect 9-0 road mark in ACC play with a 79-66 win at Boston College to Florida State shutting down Virginia Tech in overtime for a 73-64 win. Florida State held Virginia Tech to just three points in the extra session and clinches a double bye in the ACC Tournament with the win, while North Carolina continues to have a better season than you might think considering not many people have been talking about them.
In the SEC, Tennessee dumped Mississippi State 71-54 and Kentucky held off Ole Miss 80-76, but a big result on the night was Auburn going to arch rival Alabama and rally with a big second half to beat the Crimson Tide 66-60 behind 17 points and 14 rebounds from Chuma Okeke. This one will sting more than most losses to the Tigers for Alabama, who led by as many as 13.
Out west, Utah State and Nevada both won, with the Aggies clinching at least a share of the Mountain West regular season title as they finish 15-3 with the Wolfpack being 14-3. The best Nevada can do is a tie, which no one would have imagined months ago.
Your box score of the night comes from the Atlantic 10, where VCU blew out George Mason 71-36. George Mason shot below 25 percent from the field and turned the ball over 22 times. Meanwhile, the Atlantic 10 also had the individual high scorer of the night as Fatts Russell had a career-high 41 points to lead Rhode Island past host Saint Joseph’s 86-85 in overtime.
Is Holy Cross poised to go on another historic run in the Patriot League Tournament? It’s a little unfair to ask that question with the implication that they could repeat what they did three years ago, but the No. 10 Crusaders took the first step by going to Lafayette and knocking off the No. 7 Leopards 79-74 behind 24 points from Jehyve Floyd and 22 points and 16 rebounds from Jacob Grandison. In the other first round game, No. 8 Boston University got 30 points from Javante McCoy to beat No. 9 Loyola (Md.) 71-63.
Opening round action in the Big South Tournament saw all three home teams win, with only one game being decided by single digits. Not surprisingly, the close call was the 8-9 game as No. 8 Hampton beat No. 9 Longwood 77-71. No. 7 Presbyterian hammered No. 10 UNC Asheville 106-59 and No. 6 Charleston Southern took care of No. 11 USC Upstate 71-52.
The Horizon League Tournament also got underway with quarterfinal action, and no surprises as No. 1 Wright State took care of No. 8 IUPUI 71-56 and No. 4 Green Bay edged No. 5 UIC 82-77.
The day was not perfect for Minnesota, as the Golden Gophers announced before the game that Eric Curry is done for the season with a right foot injury. The sophomore forward has unfortunately been injured a lot, as he redshirted last year and still missed the first 12 games of this season after a second procedure was done on the knee that was injured last year.
Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said injured star Zion Williamson, who sat out his fourth straight game on Tuesday night, should be ready to go for the ACC Tournament next week. He added that he doesn’t think Williamson will play on Saturday at arch rival North Carolina. Duke has been a different team without the star freshman, which isn’t surprising when you consider he’s been largely considered the clear national Player of the Year favorite.
The three men convicted in the October trial surrounding the FBI investigation into corruption were sentenced on Tuesday, all to time in federal prison. Former Adidas executive James Gatto will spend nine months, former Adidas consultant Merl Code will spend six months, and Christian Dawkins, the apparent protagonist, will also spend six months in jail. There is still more to come in this whole story.
Tonight’s Menu
Two more conference tournaments get going tonight, while another continues alongside a few more regular season games.
- The Northeast Conference Tournament gets underway with quarterfinal action as No. 3 Sacred Heart hosts No. 6 LIU-Brooklyn (6 p.m.), No. 1 Saint Francis U hosts Bryant, No. 2 Fairleigh Dickinson hosts No. 7 Wagner and No. 4 Robert Morris hosts No. 5 St. Francis-Brooklyn (7 p.m.)
- The Horizon League Tournament has two more quarterfinals on tap with No. 2 Northern Kentucky hosting No. 7 Detroit Mercy and No. 3 Oakland hosting No. 6 Youngstown State (7 p.m.)
- First round action in the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament is on tap in Evansville, with No. 8 SIU Edwardsville taking on No. 5 Morehead State (7:30 p.m.) followed by No. 7 UT Martin taking on No. 6
- A key game early on is Marquette visiting Seton Hall (6:30), and later on Creighton hosts Providence (8 p.m.) and DePaul hosts Georgetown (8:30 p.m.)
- The Atlantic 10 has an important game early with Davidson hosting St. Bonaventure, while Dayton hosts surging La Salle (7 p.m.) and later on Saint Louis hosts Duquesne (8 p.m.)
- In Big 12 action, Iowa State visits West Virginia (7 p.m.) and Baylor hosts Oklahoma State (9 p.m.)
- In key SEC games, LSU visits Florida (7 p.m.)
- A busy night of Southland Conference action is highlighted by Southeastern Louisiana hosting New Orleans in a battle between two teams separated by just half a game (8 p.m.)
- Out west, the most interesting games are San Diego State hosting Fresno State and Washington hosting Oregon State, both tipping at 10 p.m.
