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Saturday, January 11, 2025
A quick look at key results and/or top stories from the night before, as well as a look ahead to key games during the season, to lead a reader into the new day
This season, there are no surprises when a top-5 team goes down. Frankly, it’s also almost never a surprise when Louisville is the group defeating such a highly ranked squads. Still, the Cardinals’ 71-65 win over No. 2-ranked North Carolina on Monday was bigger than some and maybe most this year.
January and February belong to conference play in college basketball, and that’s how it should be. That doesn’t mean the sport couldn’t use a few more games like those furnished Saturday.
It’s a new day at VCU, where there were some tough times early but good times now. Plus the smart kids are in full swing, a Gator may be out, and one coach doesn’t like an NBA focus in the television coverage.
North and south, east and west, there were high-level games and fantastic finishes last night. We’ve still got more than a month yet until we get to March-including a Leap Year day-but it felt like a snapshot from the greatest basketball month of the year.
On an emotional night at Oklahoma State, the Cowboys very nearly were successful in reprising the spoiler role they are going to continue to take on in this year’s Big 12 race.
If you only saw the first 38 1/2 minutes of the game between Virginia and Wake Forest Tuesday night, you wouldn’t believe the final result. In fact, the same would go if you only saw the first 39 minutes and 45 seconds. It was the Demon Deacons’ night, about to snap a four-game losing streak with a home win over a top 15 team. The Cavaliers were done. And then they weren’t.
Miami (Fla.) certainly appears to be well past its Dow Jones season of a year ago. This year, the Hurricanes have established themselves as a legitimate top 25 team, and quite likely will continue to be even more than that if they can continue results like their 80-69 win over Duke Monday night.
In handing SMU its first loss, Temple continued to grow since conference play began. Plus a big road win in the Big East, referees suspended, and a Hilltopper has departed.
We’ve written a few times this year about Texas-Arlington and Arkansas-Little Rock, two of the most surprising teams in the country and squads that could be legitimate NCAA tourney at-large contenders in March based on their stellar non-conference performances. Alas, their first meeting of the season on Saturday was muted, and it wasn’t because of a snowstorm.
The snowstorm hitting much of the east coast is affecting college basketball, including on a very busy Saturday. A team gets stuck going home, and a couple of conference races had important games on Friday.
