Week 11 of the college basketball season was nothing short of phenomenal. Six of the top 10 teams lost, three lost to unranked teams, and three teams lost on their home floor. With Houston getting upset at home and Kansas suffering two losses, the No. 1 and No. 2 teams have both lost in the same week for the first time since Week 16 of last season.
No. 10 Virginia Cavaliers
Virginia handled their business this week with two big wins. On Wednesday the Cavaliers, and a career night from Kihei Clark, outlast rival Virginia Tech by 10 at home. Then the Cavs went on the road and held off Wake Forest by 9. Virginia has now won five in a row and look to be ranked back in the Top 5.
No. 9 Tennessee Volunteers
Tennessee had a great bounce back week after suffering a loss at home last Saturday. The Vols had back to back road games which are never easy in the SEC. Even without two starters, Santiago Vescovi and Tyreke Key, the Vols pull away late and pick up a very solid road win at Mississippi State by 11. No road win is easy and picking up a road win in conference without your leading scorer is a lot more impressive than it might seem. The Vols then traveled to Baton Rouge to play a struggling LSU team and yet again played without a starter, this time Uros Plavsic. Tennessee dominated from start to finish and was dominant on both ends of the floor. The Vols beat the Tigers by 21. The Vols definitely look the part of a Top 5 team and I am intrigued to see where the voters rank them this week.
No. 8 Xavier Musketeers
Xavier’s 11 game win streak came to an end on Wednesday night. No game in the Big East will come easy and the Musketeers just ran into the wrong team the wrong night. Xavier was shocked when 8-9 DePaul upset the Musketeers by a score of 73-72. There is no such thing as a “Get-Right Game” in the Big East and especially not on the road. I know the loss hurts but this will benefit the Musketeers in the long run. Xavier did bounce back with a big win against Georgetown, 95-82.
No. 7 Texas Longhorns
Texas has been playing very well as of late, however their three game win streak came to an end. The Longhorns lost a tough one on the road at Iowa State, 78-67. After a tough loss, the Longhorns had to bounce back and play a solid West Virginia team in a ruckus environment in Morgantown. Texas picked up a big time win on the road by 8. Texas has another huge test next Saturday on the road at Tennessee.
No. 6 Gonzaga Bulldogs
The biggest upset of the week, in my opinion, was Loyola Marymount shocking the Gonzaga Bulldogs in the Kennel, 68-67. Gonzaga’s 76 game home winning streak comes to an end, a 83 game win streak against unranked opponents comes to an end, and a 25 game win streak against LMU come to an end. This was a monumental upset, and this one will hurt Gonzaga come March.
No. 5 UCLA Bruins
UCLA has not lost a game since November, until Saturday. The Bruins 14 game win streak came to an end on the road at No. 11 Arizona, 58-52. I still believe UCLA is a top five team, but Arizona was the better team on Saturday. It just wasn’t the Bruins day offensively and with that crowd in McKale, Arizona was going to be very tough to beat. I still think the Bruins will be a No. 1 seed come March.
No. 4 Alabama Crimson Tide
Alabama continues to dominate in SEC play. The Crimson Tide may very well be the No. 1 team in the country. Alabama is 7-0 in SEC play and the Tide has won every game by double digits. This team is deep and very dangerous. The Crimson Tide have a lot of basketball left to play, but this team is more than capable of cutting the nets down in March.
No. 3 Purdue Boilermakers
Purdue and Zach Edey continue to impress. The Boilermakers dominated from start to finish on the road at Minnesota. The Golden Gophers had no one that could stop Player of the Year frontrunner Zach Edey. Purdue ended the week by squeaking by Maryland at home by 3. Purdue is as good as advertised, however they haven’t been winning as convincingly as they should which comes back to hurt them.
No. 2 Kansas Jayhawks
Kansas had a week they would love to get back. The Jayhawks suffered two loses in week 11. Kansas started off the week losing to rival No. 13 Kansas State in overtime, 83-82. This game was an absolute heartbreaker for the Jayhawks. Kansas very easily could have won this game but didn’t make enough plays down the stretch. The Jayhawks definitely had a hangover game and TCU dominated from start to finish in Allen FieldHouse. No. 14 TCU beat No. 2 Kansas 83-60. Nobody saw that kind of game playing out. Kansas came out flat and never recovered. The Jayhawks will drop quite a bit after their atrocious week.
No. 1 Houston Cougars
Even after the week of upsets, no one saw Houston getting upset at home. No. 1 Houston gets upset by Temple 56-55 on their own floor. Houston was flat from start to finish. Houston trailed at half for the first time all season and it definitely was a different feel for the cougars. It looked like the cougars thought that they would eventually pull away but never did. Hats off to Temple for being ready to play and pulling off this monumental upset.
What a week in College Basketball. It is still January, but with all the different upsets and big games you can’t help but get excited for March. With all the different teams that lost this week, I am very intrigued to see where people rank the teams. Here is how I would rank the Top 10 teams right now.
- Purdue (18-1)
- Alabama (17-2)
- Houston (18-1)
- Tennessee (16-3)
- Virginia (15-3)
- Arizona (17-3)
- Kansas State (15-3)
- UCLA (17-3)
- Kansas (16-3)
- Texas (16-3)
