Men’s college basketball, women’s college basketball – there’s no shortage of college ball, every night.
Don’t worry, we’re here to help you figure out what you missed but shouldn’t have. Here are all the best moments from the weekend in college basketball.
Purdue upset by Ohio State
“Michigan at the top” seems to be the only thing that the Big Ten can keep straight this season. Is Ohio State March Madness-worthy? Is Purdue a threat to win the conference title? The answer depends on when you ask the question, apparently. Entering into Sunday’s matchup between the two in Columbus, the Buckeyes were ranked 44th in Wins Above Bubble, with a score of 0.55 — basically, right on the bubble itself, and not a sure thing for the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament depending on how the rest of the season went. Purdue, meanwhile, was ranked No. 8 in the country, and while it had some recent losses they were against the likes of Michigan and Michigan State — getting one of the top byes in the Big Ten that would grant a pass to the quarterfinals was still very much in the cards with the unranked trio of Ohio State, Northwestern and Wisconsin left on the schedule.
Ohio State upset Purdue on Sunday, 82-74, throwing all of this into chaos. The Buckeyes now have a WAB of 1.33 with regular-season games left against Penn State and Indiana, giving them some cushion as far as the Selection Committee goes. They are in position to get not one of the top byes, but could still end up passing by the first two rounds, as Ohio State is tied with eighth-place Iowa at 10-8. Purdue, meanwhile, has lost two in a row and is still a full game back of Illinois for a ticket straight to the Big Ten quarterfinals, despite the Fighting Illini also losing two in a row. Nebraska and Michigan State have rebounded from some midseason struggles and are now two games up on the Boilermakers with two to go. See? Chaos!
Purdue was hot from beyond the arc early, which is why it remained in a game that Ohio State slowly took more and more control over. At halftime, the Boilermakers were 8-for-14 from 3, but then went 3-for-15 in the second half, with the last of those coming right before the buzzer as Ohio State was half-heartedly defending the final possession.
Outside of the cold shooting in the second half, Purdue also kept sending Ohio State to the line: while the Buckeyes made four fewer field goals than the Boilermakers and two fewer 3s, it went 25-for-32 from the line compared to Purdue’s 7-for-10. Even if Purdue had kept hitting from deep, it might have ended up losing given its inability to avoid fouling shooters.
Ohio State was led by guards John Mobley Jr. and Bruce Thornton. Mobley, a sophomore, shot 8-for-15 with 5 3s and a game-high 21 points, while the senior Thornton had 20 on 6-for-9 shooting with a 5-for-7 performance from the stripe. Junior forward Devin Royal went to the line the most and sank 8 of 9 attempts, but four of Ohio State’s starters drained at least 5 free throws.
Ohio State crushes Michigan State
It was a great night for Ohio State on the women’s side of the game, too. No. 13 Ohio State came into the weekend still fighting for March Madness seeding, and just one game up on Maryland for fifth in the Big Ten. With the Terrapins losing their regular-season finale against No. 8 Michigan, that last point became less of a priority, but a matchup against No. 15 Michigan State meant that seeding conversations were very much still in play.
The Buckeyes would win, and convincingly, 87-68. A 23-9 first quarter did not decide the game at that point by any means, but it gave Ohio State the breathing room it needed to survive a strong start to the second half by the Spartans. Sophomore guard Jaloni Cambridge continued to star for the Buckeyes, scoring a game-high 33 points on 12-for-24 shooting while shooting 7-for-12 from deep. She also picked up 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals and a block. Her sister Kennedy Cambridge, a junior guard, nearly had a triple-double with 10 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists, while sophomore center Elsa Lemmila had an 11-point, 10-rebound double-double with 3 blocks and 3 assists. Senior guard Chance Gray added 21 points, all on 3-pointers, to tie Jaloni Cambridge for the team lead from beyond the arc.
Michigan State did not have answers for such a well-rounded attack. Senior forward Grace VanSlooten had 17 points on 6-for-14 shooting with 7 rebounds and 5 assists — she had the team lead in all three categories. It was a tough day at work for basically everyone but her in the starting lineup, as the Spartans were held to 40% shooting overall, and the bench was responsible for most of the rest of the points with 32.
Ohio State enters the Big Ten tournament as the fifth seed, and will take on the winner of 12-seed Nebraska vs. 13-seeded Indiana on March 5, setting the Buckeyes up for a potential quarterfinals clash against Minnesota. Michigan State, meanwhile, will get the winner of 10-seed Illinois and 15-seed Wisconsin — the Spartans will be rewarded with a clash against a rested Iowa in the quarterfinals if they advance.
UConn completes undefeated regular season
Given that UConn has had six “perfect” seasons already — meaning, six occasions in which the Huskies have been the undefeated national champions — there is only so much excitement to glean out of an undefeated regular season. Don’t sleep on the achievement, however: UConn opened the season against a ranked Louisville team, dropped 100 points on Ohio State, defeated Michigan, pushed USC and Iowa around, handled tourney-caliber Villanova twice, and crushed Tennessee and Notre Dame by the most lopsided margins in the history of those rivalries to get to this point. There is a whole lot of season left for an undefeated defending champion with sights set on more, but taking a moment to acknowledge that 31-0 just jumps off the page is warranted, too.
UConn defeated St. John’s 85-49 on Sunday night at Madison Square Garden, and did so with the bench doing a whole lot of the heavy lifting. Sophomore forward Sarah Strong did her usual thing, with 11 points on 50% shooting, 7 rebounds, 4 assists and 6 steals, but four bench players picked up at least 10 minutes while the Huskies used 12 players in all in the final game before the Big East tournament kicks off on Friday.
Every St. John’s player was held under double-digit scoring, and the Red Storm shot 35% as a team while being forced into 22 turnovers, which UConn converted into 25 points. This is the kind of aggressive defense that has led to not just a 31-0 record, but also 47 consecutive wins for the Huskies: that ties them for the fifth-longest streak in Division I women’s basketball history, with the 2013-2015 edition of UConn.
Next up for St. John’s is the opening round of the Big East tournament, where the Red Storm, as the 6-seed, will face 11-seeded Xavier. UConn will play Saturday, against the winner of Butler (8) and Georgetown (9). Should St. John’s advance, it will take on Seton Hall (3) on Saturday night in the quarterfinals.
Texas Tech upsets Iowa State without Toppin
You would be forgiven for assuming Texas Tech was in serious trouble once it lost star junior JT Toppin for the season to an ACL tear, but the Red Raiders keep plugging along. They scored 100 points against Kansas State, beat Cincinnati 80-68 and, on Saturday, upset No. 4 Iowa State, 82-73. Again: without JT Toppin, who was scoring a team-leading 21.8 points per game while averaging nearly 11 rebounds.
The Red Raiders shredded the Cyclones’ defense, shooting 58% while making up for the lack of a huge individual performance by getting everyone involved. Four of Texas Tech’s starters scored between 12 and 18 points, while the only two bench players to get meaningful minutes both hit double-digits, too — in his 20 minutes off the bench, sophomore forward Josiah Mosely nearly had a double-double, as he picked up 9 rebounds to go with his 10 points. Toppin isn’t around, no, but try not to forget that Texas Tech still has sophomore guard Christian Anderson to lead the way.
Iowa State, conversely, wrapped up its offensive performance almost entirely in senior and junior forwards, Joshua Jefferson and Milan Momcilovic. The pair combined for 42 points on 13-for-28 shooting, which sounds like a great start until you see the rest: the other Cyclones shot 9-for-31.
While Iowa State had a much better second half, it couldn’t slow Texas Tech’s shooting, nor could it truly overcome a first half in which the Red Raiders outscored it by 16 points. There are two games left in the Big 12 season, but through March 1 Texas Tech is tied for second in the conference with Houston, while Iowa State is now tied for fourth with Kansas.
[Men’s College Basketball Rankings: ‘I’m so Impressed With the Red Raiders’]
Iowa State gets huge W to end regular season
Things were better for Iowa State’s women, at least. These Cyclones are already fighting for their lives, at least unofficially, thanks to the hole that the absence of Addy Brown left in the middle of the season. With the junior forward back from an undefined leg injury — but not 100% — Iowa State had a chance to improve its seeding both in the Big 12 and with an eye toward March Madness. Brown did her part against Kansas State, with 7 points and a game-high 14 rebounds to go with 3 assists, while junior guard Jada Williams played facilitator with 9 assists, while scoring 23 of her own points. Junior center Audi Crooks was the start again, however, with her first massive performance since… well, since Brown was a healthy rotation regular. Crooks scored 41 points on 16-for-19 shooting with 13 rebounds, and the result of this trio looking back at nearly full capacity once more was 93 points and a W. Oh, and Crooks tied Brittany Griner for the career Big 12 record for 40-point games, with five — four of which have come this season.
Iowa State ends the regular season as the 7-seed in the Big 12, which is worse than its preseason aspirations but excellent news considering how quickly the team faltered without Brown’s triple-threat presence. The Cyclones just made it to that point, with one more win in conference play than both BYU and Arizona State, and with a tiebreaker over Utah. The reward is a bye to the second round of the Big 12 tournament — that’s an extra day of rest for Brown — and a matchup against the winner of Arizona (10) and Arizona State (15). No. 17 West Virginia (second in the Big 12) awaits if Iowa State gets past that point, but that kind of heavyweight bout was always going to be on the table. At least this way Iowa State has to play just one game before that matchup instead of two.
Gonzaga lost to Saint Mary’s in finale
Gonzaga is going to see Mikey Lewis in its nightmares for a while. The sophomore guard from Saint Mary’s scored a game-high 31 points with 5 rebounds and 4 assists against the Bulldogs, undoing much of what was otherwise a fine defensive effort — Gonzaga limited the Gaels to 35% shooting overall, but Lewis just kept on hitting, even going 7-for-13 from beyond the arc.
That career-high performance powered Saint Mary’s past Gonzaga, 70-59 — the Bulldogs didn’t fare much better against the Gaels’ defense, hitting just 39% of their shots, and with 11 fewer 3-pointers than Saint Mary’s managed to make up for the low hit rate.
Now, Gonzaga is still the top seed in the West Coast Conference, despite the loss: both the Bulldogs and Gaels are tied at 16-2, ahead of 15-3 Santa Clara. Luckily for Gonzaga, the format of the WCC tournament plays in its favor: the Bulldogs have had a ton of near-miss losses in conference play that have caused concern, but being the top seed vaults them all the way to the semifinals. Which means Gonzaga still has to defeat which team earns its way there, and then possibly take on Saint Mary’s in the finals, too.
Both the Bulldogs and Gaels are likely for March Madness, but still. Better to win the automatic and the superior seeding that conference victories bring, especially since Gonzaga’s WAB rating is far worse (16) than its standing in the NCAA Evaluation Tool (6), given the generally lower competition level of the WCC combined with a loss to Portland. Gonzaga can pull off a last WCC championship, but whether it will is a different question.
Arizona is whole again
You don’t need to wonder about when Koa Peat will return to Arizona from injury, as the freshman forward did so in time for the Wildcats to take on Kansas. The Jayhawks ended Arizona’s undefeated season the last time the two met, but things were different on this occasion, despite the fact that Kansas could boast having freshman star Darryn Peterson in its lineup in the rematch.
Peterson led all scorers with 24 points, albeit on 8-for-21 shooting, and added 5 rebounds, 3 assists, a steal and 2 blocks. The Jayhawks as a whole shot poorly, at 34% from the field, and saw their score salvaged a bit by 10-for-11 from the stripe. It was still nowhere near enough against Arizona, however, which went to the line 34 times and sank 30 of those attempts, to go with shooting 45% from the field.
Arizona won the fight in the paint with ease, outscoring Kansas 30-20 there, while pulling down 48 rebounds to 26 — throw in drawing foul after foul against a Jayhawks’ defense that couldn’t seem to slow Arizona any other way, and where this game was one becomes clear.
What this game serves as a reminder of is how difficult it is to predict anything about the Big 12 this year, especially when it comes to the tournament. Kansas won without Peterson against Arizona but got handed a severe L with him, despite Peterson playing well when he had the chance. Iowa State lost to a Toppin-less Texas Tech, Houston is either dominant or vulnerable… it’s easy enough to pick a favorite, but to be right about that call is maybe tougher here than in any other Power 5 conference.
UCLA wraps perfect Big Ten season
Senior center Lauren Betts was held to just 5 points. UCLA shot just 41% overall. It did not matter for the Bruins. UCLA took down USC, 73-50, with Betts still grabbing 15 rebounds — USC as a team had 22 — and every other Bruins starter scoring between 11 and 20 points. The bench shot just 4-for-15, dragging down the overall numbers, but those starters had the game locked down. USC is a tournament-caliber team, but the absence of star JuJu Watkins — lost to an ACL tear during last year’s March Madness — is keenly felt when going up against one the caliber of UCLA.
With the win, the Bruins completed an 18-0 run through the Big Ten regular season: no one else had fewer than 3 losses, with both Iowa and Michigan finishing at 15-3. UCLA has won 22 games in a row, with its lone defeat coming against Texas back in November during Feast Week. It should be noted, too, that the Bruins were down by 23 in that game thanks to an uncharacteristically rough first half, and then put a late scare into the Longhorns, anyway — and this was before freshman forward Sienna Betts, sister of Lauren Betts, debuted as well. Sienna Betts, in her 19 games, averaged 15.7 minutes with 6.8 points, 4 rebounds and 1.2 assists while shooting 52.4%. That’s a depth piece that is going to come into play in March, and her presence on a roster already loaded with seasoned senior talent has helped make UCLA that much better in conference play. One of those seniors, senior guard Gianna Kneepkens, scored her 2,000th career points in this game.
USC is the 9-seed in the Big Ten tournament, and will face Washington (5) in the second round on March 5. Should the Trojans advance past the Huskies, top-seed UCLA awaits them for a rematch in the quarterfinals.
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