One week into the season, we’ve already had our first shocker. For the second Tuesday in a row, the top team in the polls went down to defeat, though the first instance wasn’t a big surprise. And it was almost double trouble for the conference that team calls home, but “almost” ends up being the operative word.
And as sometimes happens, there’s an added layer to this one as Kentucky lost to Evansville 67-64. Evansville’s head coach is Walter McCarty, a member of the 1995-96 national championship team.
McCarty paid his dues as a college and then NBA assistant coach after his playing days were done. Now in his second season at the helm of his hometown school, he’s trying to build this program up past the level his predecessor did, and Marty Simmons did pretty well although he never got them into the NCAA Tournament. Year two in a situation like this often means a team with a lot of newcomers, and that is true of this team, though not to the degree seen in some other situations where a team might have six or seven freshmen.
Evansville is not your vintage mid-major contender; they were picked eighth in the Missouri Valley preseason poll for a reason. Namely, this team has just one senior and a lot of newcomers, including players who sat out as transfers last year. One player in the latter category, Kansas transfer Sam Cunliffe, had a big night on Tuesday night with 17 points on 6-13 shooting, 15 of them coming in the first half. His only two second half points were big free throws in the final seconds to keep the lead at three, leaving the Wildcats to have to try a three-pointer just to tie in the closing seconds.
The Purple Aces out-rebounded Kentucky 38-35 and held the Wildcats to 37 percent shooting, including 4-17 from deep. As talented as the Wildcats are, they reminded us that they have a fair amount of youth as well. John Calipari talked about Evansville being the tougher team on the night, and it showed.
The win marks the first time Evansville has knocked off a No. 1 team and the 13th time a Missouri Valley team has done it, with the last time coming almost four years ago.
Meanwhile, fellow SEC team Auburn needed a layup with less than three seconds left by Isaac Okoro to avoid losing at South Alabama, pulling out a 70-69 win. This would have been a little different since it was in Mobile at the Jaguars’ home, plus South Alabama is the favorite in the Sun Belt Conference. And give Auburn credit for playing that game on the road as many teams wouldn’t even think of doing so. Missouri, on the other hand, almost pulled off a nice unexpected win for the conference as they took Xavier to overtime before succumbing 63-58 in Cincinnati.
There are sure to be more upsets this season, as one thing that seems clear is that there is not a dominant team in college basketball this season by any stretch of the imagination. Don’t be surprised if several teams occupy the top spot in the polls over the course of the season, or some do so on more than one occasion. In just over a week, we’ve already had two of them fall from that spot.
Side Dishes
The Phil Knight Invitational was one of the highlights of the evening, and it was a solid doubleheader that saw Oregon knock off Memphis 82-74 in another solid win for the Pac-12, then Oklahoma beat Oregon State 77-69 in the nightcap behind a big double-double from Kristian Doolittle (19 points, 16 rebounds).
The Pac-12 had a bit of a close call as Washington was life-and-death with Mount St. Mary’s before holding them off 56-46, but otherwise took care of business.
The Gavitt Tipoff Games continued with two more on Tuesday, with Michigan shutting down Creighton in the second half for a 79-69 win over Creighton and Butler getting 27 points from Kamar Baldwin to take out Daniel Oturu (24 points, 10 rebounds) and visiting Minnesota 64-56.
Other noteworthy results on the evening: Charlotte got a nice 71-58 win over Davidson, who is now 0-2; Georgia got 29 points from Anthony Edwards to beat The Citadel 95-86; Siena got a big double-double from Manny Camper (15 points, 17 rebounds) to knock off St. Bonaventure 78-65; American got a buzzer-beater from Patriot League Player of the Year candidate Sa’eed Nelson to beat George Washington 67-65 despite a monster game for the Colonials’ Arnaldo Toro (28 points, 24 rebounds); and Coppin State snapped a 73-game non-conference losing streak by edging Loyola-Chicago 76-72 on the road.
Duke took care of Central Arkansas 105-54, but more important was the health of point guard Tre Jones as he sat out the second half of the game after colliding with an opposing player. Head coach Mike Krzyzewski said the sophomore took a hit to the temple but seemed okay later on. There was apparently a light moment, as he said, “I asked him if he knew my name. He said, ‘Michael,’ which was kind of bold on his part.”
Tonight’s Menu
It’s another busy night of action that includes three more as part of the Gavitt Tipoff Games.
- The first of those three games is Villanova visiting Ohio State (7 p.m.), then Purdue goes to Marquette and Providence heads to Northwestern (9 p.m.)
- Former VCU head coach Will Wade returns to Richmond as his LSU team visits VCU (6 p.m.)
- In an old America East matchup, Boston University travels to Vermont, while Hofstra goes to Bucknell in another good mid-major matchup early on (7 p.m.)
- Syracuse gets a test from Patriot League favorite Colgate (7 p.m.)
- Oklahoma State goes on the road for a tough test against College of Charleston (9 p.m.)
- The last game of the night is San Diego State hosting Grand Canyon (10 p.m.)
