Only one undefeated team is left in college basketball. And with that change in status will come a few questions as well.
It wasn’t even close, as Alabama convincingly knocked arch-rival Auburn from the ranks of the undefeated, pulling away fromp them by an 83-64 margin in Tuscaloosa.
The Tigers had no answer all night for Alabama guard Kira Lewis, who Nate Oats did well to keep in town when he took over last year. He had 25 points on 8-14 shooting. Herbert Jones got going from there with 14 points and 12 rebounds, while defensively the Crimson Tide shut down Auburn as the Tigers shot below 32 percent from the field and had 21 turnovers.
Auburn ran up its 15-0 mark against a good, but hardly great, schedule. Even the early SEC slate was not the best teams in the conference, which is down from the past couple of years, as they went to Mississippi State (who finally won their first SEC game a night earlier) and hosted Vanderbilt and Georgia before Wednesday night. Their best win was either Saint Louis or NC State – good, but neither is a lock for the NCAA Tournament although that can change. They have knocked off the likes of Georgia Southern, Davidson, South Alabama, Colgate, New Mexico, Richmond and Furman – all of them good teams, none of them remotely a lock for the NCAA Tournament. (Davidson, in particular, has underachieved, as that win has a lot less value than most expected it would.)
Additionally, as happens often, the Tigers ran up that record without having to go on the road much – in fact, their only true road game in non-conference was at South Alabama. They played four games at neutral sites, but life is a lot easier when you get to play in your own gym with your own fans, especially the students.
None of this is to say that Auburn isn’t a good team or worthy of a high NCAA Tournament seed if the field were to be selected today. It does, however, explain how they had barely made it into the top five in the polls and why many were hesitant to put them there. And it explains why some are bound to have questions about this team as SEC play continues. Next up is a trip to Florida to take on the under-achieving but still talented Gators on Saturday, while they still have to play Kentucky and Tennessee twice and play Arkansas only on the road.
In other words, the Tigers still have plenty to prove, and after Wednesday night, that is probably the case even more so.
Side Dishes
But for the result in Tuscaloosa, the lead would undoubtedly have been Seton Hall reminding everyone that most had them pegged right there with Villanova as Big East contenders before the season. The Pirates have come alive since late in non-conference and carried it over, moving to 5-0 in the Big East by rallying for a 78-70 win at Butler. Myles Powell had 29 points to lead the way, but as has been the case all along he was hardly alone in making this happen as it was all Bulldogs in the first half and all Pirates in the second. Romaro Gill continues to emerge in the middle for the Pirates with 17 points on 6-7 shooting and three blocked shots in just 27 minutes before fouling out, while Quincy McKnight had 11 points, 13 assists and just one turnover.
If you thought the Big East was predictable, think again. Providence is now 4-1 after holding off St. John’s, Georgetown edged Creighton 83-80 in the nation’s capital, and Xavier – another team picked to be a contender by most before the season and still thought to be given their non-conference showing – fell to 1-4 after Marquette handled them 85-65 in Milwaukee behind 35 points from Markus Howard.
Auburn wasn’t the only SEC team of note to go down on Wednesday night. In Columbia, Jermaine Couisnard capped a career-high 26-point night by banking in a deep three-pointer before the buzzer to give South Carolina an 81-78 win over Kentucky, picking up their first SEC win of the year and handing Kentucky their first SEC loss. Couisnard was making his first career start and scored 17 of those points in the second half, when the Gamecocks had to rally from being down by 14 at one point. Neither team did well at the free throw line on the night, as Kentucky went 25-36 and South Carolina went 16-30, so that could have easily turned this game one way or the other.
Other results of note: In the first game of the day, Lafayette handed visiting Colgate their first Patriot League loss, using a second-half rally to win 71-67; Syracuse jumped out early and routed Boston College 76-50; Georgia handled Tennessee 80-62 behind 26 points from Anthony Edwards and 21 from Rayshaun Hammonds; the Southern Conference gets more fun all the time, with three teams now having one loss apiece after Furman made a late run to beat Western Carolina 83-79; NC State took care of Miami 80-63 in Raleigh; Baylor took care of Iowa State 68-55; Florida State edged Virginia 54-50 in Tallahassee; Rutgers won again at home, this time a 59-50 win over Indiana; St. Bonaventure dumped UMass 74-61 to go to 4-0 in Atlantic 10 play; Northern Iowa used a big second half to beat Valparaiso 88-78; Temple got a much-needed win by knocking off visiting Wichita State 65-53; Texas also got a much-needed road win by taking out fading Oklahoma State 76-64; Minnesota got another big game from the duo of Marcus Carr (27 points and nine assists) and Daniel Oturu (26 points, 14 rebounds) to knock off Penn State 75-69; and Colorado State routed New Mexico 105-72; Stanford pulled away from UCLA 74-59.
Holy Cross was set to host Army on Wednesday night, but after members of the school’s women’s rowing team were in a tragic accident while traveling in Florida, the game was postponed to Thursday afternoon at 2 p.m. We extend our thoughts and prayers to the athletes and staff, their families and friends.
Tonight’s Menu
A similarly busy night of action is ahead, with mid-majors accounting for most of the action.
- One early game of note is between two teams off to a good start in the Big South as USC Upstate hosts Radford (6 p.m.)
- The American Athletic Conference has a good one on tap as Cincinnati visits Memphis (7 p.m.)
- The best of four CAA games on the slate is College of Charleston hosting Northeastern (7 p.m.)
- In MAAC action, Quinnipiac takes their 4-0 mark into Manhattan against the 3-1 Jaspers (7 p.m.)
- The Conference USA slate features a matchup of 3-1 teams as Old Dominion visits Western Kentucky (8 p.m.)
- It’s already gotten interesting in the Sun Belt, and a key matchup on a full slate is South Alabama hosting Georgia State (8 p.m.)
- The Pac-12 slate gets going a bit early with a battle of 1-2 teams as Arizona hosts Utah (8:30 p.m.), then Oregon goes to Washington State and Colorado goes to Arizona State (9 p.m.) before the late games, which feature Cal at USC (10:30 p.m.) and Washington hosting Oregon State (11 p.m.)
- Also tipping late is Santa Clara visiting Gonzaga in West Coast Conference action (11 p.m.)
