John Fanta
College Basketball Broadcaster and Reporter
In a weekend that featured multiple top-10 showdowns across college basketball and with Selection Sunday just over three weeks away, the sport’s national championship contenders flexed their muscles while the SEC’s depth shined.
Duke dominated Illinois from tip to buzzer en route to a 110-67 victory at Madison Square Garden. The Blue Devils, the only team in America to be in KenPom’s top four in both offensive and defensive efficiency, opened the game shooting 16-for-27 and proved why there’s every reason to believe in their ability to cut down the nets in San Antonio this April.
Cooper Flagg was relatively quiet and even navigated through some foul trouble, but it didn’t matter. We knew about this Duke team’s upside defensively in the preseason, and it was on display Saturday when they held the Fighting Illini to 0-for-16 shooting from 3-point range in the first half. But when Isaiah Evans, Sion James and Khaman Maluach are steadily scoring for the Blue Devils and 3s are falling? Forget about it.
There’s a reason why Duke beat the nation’s top team, Auburn, and why you could argue the Blue Devils as the No. 1 team in the country as well. They’re a wagon.
[Read more: Duke hands Illinois its largest defeat in program history]
In the Big 12, an Iowa State team that was without leading scorers Curtis Jones (illness) and Keshon Gilbert (muscle strain) gave Houston a fight to the finish, but the Cougars showed why they also can reach San Antonio with elite shotmaking to close out a 68-59 win over the Cyclones.
Kelvin Sampson’s teams have always defended at a high level, but this squad is among the top seven in the country in offensive efficiency. Saturday’s man of the hour? L.J. Cryer, who delivered 28 points while shooting 5-of-7 from downtown in the victory. Between him, Milos Uzan and Emanuel Sharp, the Cougars can score in crunch time in different ways. They’re 29-2 in their last 31 Big 12 regular-season games. Sampson is dominating a league of heavyweights.
The surprise of the day? In the Big Ten, Wisconsin entered as hot as anybody in the country and looked in prime position to notch a sixth straight win. Jackson Shelstad and Oregon had other plans, however, rallying from 16 down and forcing overtime on the sophomore’s clutch 3.
Nate Bittle continued to display why he’s one of the league’s biggest matchup nightmares, going for 23 points as the Ducks outlasted the Badgers, 77-73.
The biggest statement of the weekend, though, came from Tom Izzo and Michigan State in Friday night’s 75-62 win at Michigan, giving the Spartans the steering wheel in the Big Ten regular-season championship race. Star freshman Jase Richardson has turned into as important of a weapon as any for Izzo, as he scored 21 points on 7-of-12 shooting from the floor in the victory.
The question for this Michigan State team was who would be the man for them. What was really impressive was how the Spartans locked down the Wolverines defensively, holding a top-30 offense to 24 second-half points on its home floor.
No. 14 Michigan State vs. No. 12 Michigan Highlights | FOX College Hoops
In the SEC, Chaz Lanier went off for 30 points for Tennessee in a top-10 victory at Texas A&M. It was a reminder that if the Vols can get Lanier and Zakai Zeigler going offensively, they could be second-tier title contenders. I think on the flip side, you have to wonder about the Aggies and whether they can score enough to be a serious Final Four contender. Even though they’re ranked in the top 10, I’m not buying that.
In terms of the bubble, we saw Oklahoma and Vanderbilt notch key wins over Mississippi State and Ole Miss, respectively. Sidenote: The job Mark Byington has done in Nashville with the Commodores is incredible and to have them very much in the mix for a bid is wild. The bubble losers, on the other hand: SMU, who lost to Clemson and remains without a Quad 1 win, and Wake Forest, who took a killer loss to NC State. The ACC is in a dark spot.
A new team to our Top 25 this week? BYU! I brought up in our weekly roundtable that the Cougars were the unranked team that could do the most damage in March. Well, head coach Kevin Young came from the Phoenix Suns and implemented a top-15 offense in Provo, Utah, and the results are now stacking up. BYU has won four in a row to get into the top five of the Big 12 standings, earning victories over Kansas and at Arizona this past week.
The 96-95 win over the Wildcats at McKale Center was especially impressive on Saturday, as Arizona entered at 58-5 since the start of 2021-22 in home games. But Richie Saunders drilled two game-winning free throws with three seconds left and scored 23 to lead the way. Between Saunders, senior Trevin Knell and freshmen Egor Demin and Kanon Catchings, BYU really has different scoring options and showed that by hitting 14 triples in Saturday’s win.
This is a team that can reach the second weekend of March Madness and has a lot of momentum with national No. 1 recruit A.J. Dybantsa coming in next season.
Here’s my complete top 25!
1. Auburn (25-2)
2. Duke (24-3)
3. Florida (24-3)
4. Houston (23-4)
5. Alabama (22-5)
6. Tennessee (22-5)
7. St. John’s (24-4)
8. Iowa State (21-6)
9. Michigan State (22-5)
10. Texas A&M (20-7)
11. Michigan (20-6)
12. Maryland (21-6)
13. Texas Tech (21-6)
14. Wisconsin (21-6)
15. Clemson (22-5)
16. Missouri (20-7)
17. Louisville (21-6)
18. Memphis (22-5)
19. Purdue (19-9)
20. Saint Mary’s (25-4)
21. Kentucky (18-9)
22. BYU (19-8)
23. Arizona (18-9)
24. Mississippi State (19-8)
25. Creighton (19-8)
John Fanta is a national college basketball broadcaster and writer for FOX Sports. He covers the sport in a variety of capacities, from calling games on FS1 to serving as lead host on the BIG EAST Digital Network to providing commentary on The Field of 68 Media Network. Follow him at @John_Fanta.
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