For all the madness we have had this season before the month of March, we haven’t had many days like Saturday. There have been surprise results or outright head-scratchers all along, and some of those come in the big picture as opposed to from one game, but there haven’t been many instances where we’ve had such a wild day.
But we had one on Saturday. It started early and ended with one of the last games of the night. We’ve known all along that this March should be as wide open as ever, but indications of it continued on Saturday.
It started with Kansas going to Waco and ending Baylor’s incredible 23-game winning streak behind a dominant performance from Udoka Azubuike. The big man has stayed healthy and played like an All-American, never so much as he did on Saturday. The road team wins both games between these two teams, and now the question becomes if someone else can knock one of them off the rest of the way or if they’ll tie for the regular season title.
It continued a little later in the Big 12 with TCU, who had a six-game losing streak recently, knocking off West Virginia for their second win in three tries since that streak. There was also Memphis edging Houston, which means the Tigers’ NCAA Tournament hopes without an American Athletic Conference Tournament title are not dead yet.
Later, Hampton went on the road to beat Winthrop, which knocks the Eagles out of a tie for first in the Big South as Radford won later in the day. Around that same time in the mid-major ranks, we saw Murray State squeak by SIU-Edwardsville and Missouri State knock Loyola-Chicago out of a tie for first in the Missouri Valley.
In the evening, we had a double dip in the Atlantic 10 as Davidson handed Rhode Island a damaging overtime loss and St. Bonaventure edged Richmond. In the Big East, DePaul knocked off Georgetown for just their second Big East win.
The big shocker was UNLV going on the road and handing San Diego State their first loss of the season. It would have been one thing for the resurgent Runnin’ Rebels to do this in Las Vegas, but in San Diego it was a surprise.
The game of the night was around this time, with Oregon edging Arizona in overtime in Tucson. It was everything you could have hoped for in a showdown game like that in prime time on Saturday night. The Wildcats looked like they might be on their way in the final minutes, as they had a lot of answers for Payton Pritchard (38 points) and the Ducks, but they didn’t have enough and then the Ducks pulled it out in overtime.
And as that game was going on, BYU was battling Gonzaga. The Cougars have handed the Bulldogs some surprising losses, including when they were undefeated late in the season a few years back. Well, they did it again, pulling away for a 91-78 win at the Marriott Center to hand them their first West Coast Conference loss and just the second of the season.
Saturday was a great day of college basketball, and a wild one. You get the feeling it’s far from the last one between now and early April.
Side Dishes
For more on yesterday’s key games, please see the Saturday Notes.
One piece of news that escaped us a day earlier: on December 6, 2020, the Basketball Hall of Fame London Showcase will be hosted at the O2 Arena and feature a doubleheader of Marist taking on UMBC followed by Kentucky taking on Michigan. While the latter game was announced earlier, the Hall of Fame announced the doubleheader and details on Friday.
Tonight’s Menu
The slate is a little busier than usual this time around, and there are some key games among them.
- In Big Ten action, Indiana hosts Penn State (noon), then Rutgers goes to Wisconsin (1 p.m.) and Ohio State hosts Maryland (4 p.m.)
- A big game in the Patriot League comes up early as American visits Boston University (noon)
- The American Athletic Conference has a key game as Wichita State visits Cincinnati (1 p.m.)
- A pair of Big East games are on tap as St. John’s heads across the Hudson to visit Seton Hall (2 p.m.) and Butler visits Creighton (4 p.m.)
- The Missouri Valley has a big game as Northern Iowa hosts Southern Illinois (2 p.m.)
- A full slate of MAAC action is highlighted by Rider visiting St. Peter’s (2 p.m.)
- South Dakota State hosts South Dakota in a key game in the Summit League (3 p.m.)
- Pac-12 action comes in later as Utah hosts USC (6 p.m.) and the night closes with Stanford visiting Washington State (8 p.m.)
