What did the Super Bowl and college basketball have in common over the weekend? No lead seemed safe, whether it was the San Francisco 49ers over Kansas City 10-0, or Caitlin Clark and the Iowa women over Nebraska by 14 going into the fourth quarter. Or on the men’s side, where there have been 25 games this season when a team came from at least 20 points behind to win, and four of them just happened in the past two days. Not only that, eight of the Associated Press top-25 lost to unranked opponents since Friday.
Now the first conference tournaments are now only 21 days away. We can use the weekend’s odd plot twists to do a status check on some of the leagues.
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SEC . . .
The lead is currently shared by Alabama and South Carolina. In the preseason conference poll, the Tide were picked to finish fifth and the Gamecocks were picked to finish last. Alabama just rolled over LSU 109-92, the seventh time this season the Tide have hit triple digits. That’s the second most in the SEC the past 30 years. They scored 218 points in two games against LSU.
The Texas A&M rollercoaster has gone from starting 1-3 in the league to winning five of six, the latest a 16-point pounding of No. 6 Tennessee. Florida had a rather mystical conquest of No. 12 Auburn Saturday when they Gators were outshot 42.1-40.3 percent, did not have a field goal the last 9:40 but led by 29 and won by 16.
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But the really conspicuous SEC team over the weekend was the one now tied for fifth. Kentucky’s defeat by Gonzaga was its third home loss in a row. That had never happened in the history of Rupp Arena, and the place opened in 1976. The last three-peat defeat at home was 1966, when the Wildcats were playing in Memorial Coliseum and John Calipari was in elementary school. Kentucky has dropped four of its past six and has given up 94, 103 and 89 points its past three home games. “Nothing has changed in my mind with this team. We have the ability to do what we want. We are just going to have to do it together,” Calipari said. “Thank goodness we have time.”
But not a lot.
Big 12 . . .
The three most important factors in the race appear to be location, location and location. The top three teams — Houston, Iowa State and Kansas — are a combined 41-0 overall at home but 6-10 in the conference on the road. For the dangers of straying too far from home in the Big 12, ask Baylor. Bears coach Scott Drew is now 1-15 in Allen Fieldhouse after Baylor lost at Kansas, 64-61.
Of the three teams at the top of the standings, one of the more compelling questions is Kansas' depth. The Jayhawks have gotten only five points from reserves the past two games and are 339th in the nation in bench scoring. Looks like it might have to be a five-man job.
Cincinnati might be the most dangerous 11th place team in the land. The Bearcats fell behind Houston 17-4 at home over the weekend, had the lead by halftime, but finally gave way 67-62. Their conference record is 4-6 in their first season in the Big 12, but those six losses are by a combined 22 points.
Big Ten . . .
Lots of unusual things went on. Take Purdue’s new long-range shooting threat from downtown . . . Zach Edey? Yes, in his 123rd game as a Boilermaker, Edey now has a 3-pointer to go with his 776 other field goals, a bunch of them dunks. The loudest roar in Mackey Arena Saturday night was not when the Boilermakers went up by 28 points on Indiana but when Edey banked one home from beyond the arc. “He missed it so bad, it went in,” coach Matt Painter would say afterward.
Purdue plows onward, opening its Big Ten lead to 2.5 games by mauling Indiana 79-59, not to be confused with the 87-66 beating in their first meeting in January. The last time the Boilermakers swept the Hoosiers with two 20-point wins in the same season was 1934.
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Behind Purdue comes much turbulence. It seems like 20 minutes ago Wisconsin was on fire and ranked No. 6. But the Badgers lost their fourth game in a row, by 22 points at Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights had never whipped a ranked opponent by that many. Wisconsin is 13-for-59 in 3-pointers the past three games. Northwestern shot only 31.7 percent and still beat Penn State 68-63. It was only the third time in 13 years the Wildcats won a game when shooting under 32 percent. Iowa came from 20 points behind with 16 minutes left to stun Minnesota 90-85, the Hawkeyes’ largest second-half rally to win in 37 years.
Also, those footsteps Big Ten teams might be hearing belong to Michigan State. The formerly sputtering Spartans beat No. 10 Illinois 88-80 for their 11th victory in 15 games. The enigma that went from preseason No. 4 in the AP poll to a 4-5 record could be starting a late-season push, as Tom Izzo teams invariably do. “I am looking at it the same way as when I thought we were awful,” he said. “I’m going to give them some credit and I’m going to be guarded with it, until it’s consistent.”
ACC . . .
Here’s yet another measure of North Carolina permanence. The Tar Heels held off Miami 75-72 to go 6-1 in league road games and clinch their 44th winning ACC road record.
Charging hard on the outside is Virginia, whose five losses this season came by an average of 20.8 points but has since reeled off eight consecutive wins. The Cavaliers have rolled into second place behind North Carolina despite playing on the road seven consecutive Saturdays.
And now hear this: Louisville, 6-43 in its previous 49 games against ACC opponents when January ended, is now 2-1 in February, and without a goal tending in the final seconds of the 94-92 Syracuse loss, might be 3-0.
Big East . . .
It’s all Connecticut all the time. The Huskies lead the rest of the pack by 2.5 games and just won their 12th in a row, mashing Georgetown 89-64. In the 40th anniversary year of their national championship, the poor Hoyas are 1-11 in the Big East. During Connecticut’s 12-game streak, the Huskies have never trailed by double digits and been behind only once in the final 11 minutes.
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Marquette is the only team closer than four games back of UConn, and now the Golden Eagles take their seven-game winning streak to Butler. The Bulldogs, picked to finish 10th in the league, have won five of six themselves, including 75-72 over Providence Saturday when Augusto Cassia saved the day by blocking a Friars shot at the rim near the end. Cassia had been on the bench all day and didn’t get into the game until there were only 19 seconds left.
Mountain West . . .
Goodness, what a mess. Utah State has the lead but six teams are within 1.5. games. Nevada will do as an example of a conference where fate shifts quickly. The Wolf Pack started the season 15-1, lost four of five, now have won three in a row.
Pac-12 . . .
Arizona still holds the lead as expected but has anyone noticed who’s only a game behind? Washington State, having just completed its first road sweep of Oregon and Oregon State in 16 years. The Cougars’ last NCAA tournament bid was 2008. Also intriguing is the team suddenly tied for third. UCLA edged California 61-60 Saturday after six lead changes in the last 3:05. The Bruins, once floundering at 6-10, are now 13-11. “You just see we’ve become a different team, right?” coach Mike Cronin said to the media afterward.
But UCLA’s neighbor hasn’t. USC was blown away 99-68 by Stanford, with the Cardinal making 19 3-pointers, matching the most for any team against a Division I opponent all season. The Trojans, No. 21 in the preseason Associated Press poll and second in Pac-12 preseason voting, are now 9-15 and tied for last in the league.
WCC . . .
Gonzaga had to travel 2,000 miles to pound Kentucky in the paint and finally win its first Quad 1 game, something 112 other teams had already done. So maybe we’ll see the Zags in March after all, though there remains work to do. Gonzaga is still in third place in the league, 2.5 games behind Saint Mary’s. “I see a lot of potential,” Mark Few said. “I know the results aren’t reflecting it, but we’ve been right there in every game, with the exception of the UConn game. If we would have closed out some of these other ones, this would look a lot different.”
Atlantic 10 . . .
VCU beat Dayton 49-47 in a game where neither team scored a point in the final three minutes. VCU is now fourth in the conference but has beaten all three teams ahead of it — Richmond, Dayton and Loyola Chicago.
American . . .
South Florida went 43-133 in league games its first 10 years in this conference, but look at the Bulls now. They're 10-1 in the AAC, 17-5 overall and have won nine in a row after wiping out a 13-point halftime lead at Rice. They have never been 17-5 in their history before. New man Amir Abdur-Rahim should go on the national coach-of-the-year candidate list.
Patriot . . .
Never mind Colgate, on top as nearly always. Consider instead Saturday’s battle for eighth place. Army downed Navy 69-67 in a game with 10 points scored in the last 10 seconds of overtime, all of them free throws.
Horizon League . . .
Green Bay slid by Youngstown State 84-83 on Foster Wonders’ 3-pointer with just over a second left. The Phoenix lead the conference at 12-3 and are 17-9 overall. P.S. Green Bay went 3-29 last season.
Ivy League . . .
Yale was 6-0 in the conference and so was Cornell. There hadn’t been a meeting like that in the Ivy League in 21 years. Yale won Friday’s showdown and remains with Saint Mary’s as the only teams in the nation still unbeaten in conference play.
Missouri Valley Conference . . .
Indiana State’s lead is now two games and the Sycamores aren’t giving much away. Their starting lineup committed only three turnovers in a 73-71 win over Missouri State that had 17 lead changes. The reward Monday was a No. 23 spot in the new AP poll, Indiana State’s first ranking since the days of Larry Bird 45 years ago.
Ohio Valley . . .
Morehead State might have gone 0-4 against the Big Ten and Alabama this season but the Eagles 20-1 against everyone else and, at three games ahead in the Ohio Valley, own the biggest conference lead in the nation.
America East . . .
Vermont held onto first place by coming from 20 points behind on the road to beat UMBC 72-70. Shamir Bogues outscored the entire UMBC team by himself 10-9 in the last four minutes, including hitting the winning basket with two seconds left. Vermont is 19-6 and seven of its past 17 games have been decided by one or two points or in overtime.
Sun Belt . . .
The league went 10-2 against the MAC in their weekend challenge, but then all 12 Sun Belt teams were at home. The highlight was Appalachian State over Toledo 109-104 in two overtimes with 17 lead changes, 16 ties and 12 players scoring in double figures. Then there were Buffalo and Georgia Southern proving even struggling teams can be entertaining. Buffalo came into their game 2-20, Georgia Southern 5-19. Buffalo won 82-81 in overtime, its first victory in the state of Georgia since 1971.
WAC . . .
Grand Canyon is 22-2 and the question is if the Lopes fall into a crater during the WAC tournament, can they still get an at-large berth from the NCAA selection committee? Their record is tied for the nation’s best with Connecticut and Purdue. Only they don’t have a national championship to defend, or a 7-4 guy who shoots 3-pointers.