by The final full Saturday of regular-season College Hoops action was on paper supposed to be a banner day. In practice, however, there have been quite a few really good teams who have been caught looking ahead to the postseason. On the precipice of conference postseason games for every major conference, three top-10 teams suffered losses that day and five unranked teams dropped ranked teams in a one-sided, I can’t explain it day.
And that was all before 6:00 p.m. ET.
No. 2 Alabama was the highest-ranked team to stumble with one that day 67-61 road loss at #24 Texas A&M. The Crimson Tide was down by double digits at halftime and never recovered from a flat performance just days after winning the SEC all-time title in the regular season.
No. 3 Kansas found themselves in a similar boat in a 75-59 loss to No. 9 Texas. Kansas officially clinched the outright Big 12 regular-season title with Texas’ loss to TCU earlier in the week, falling behind for most of the game in an impressive start-to-finish display for the Longhorns. The overwhelming performance for KU led to a failed attempt to cement his resume as a possible No. 1 overall seed.
There have been many others who have provided duds and dandies on the college basketball landscape, so let’s break down the style of winners and losers below — starting with Kentucky.
Winner: Antonio Reeves Leads Kentucky to Big Road Victory
Without the services of leading guards Cason Wallace and Sahvir Wheeler, Kentucky stole a huge win on the Arkansas road in Fayetteville behind a career-best 37-point blast from sniper Antonio Reeves. Reeves had a respectable 15 points in the first 20 minutes before going nuclear on 22 in the second half and ending the game with a 12-of-17 shooting and a perfect 11-of-11 from the free-throw line. Kentucky’s place in the NCAA tournament was never in doubt (it’s a predicted 7-seed, according to CBS Sports Bracketology expert Jerry Palm), but the win helped Britain secure the 3-seed and all-important double-bye in the SEC tournament .
Loser: Kansas is blown out in the finals
After already winning the Big 12 regular-season championship thanks to Texas earlier in the week, Kansas put an egg on the road in Austin while being defeated 75-59 by the Longhorns. The game was meaningless for KU in terms of Big 12 tournament impact – it already held the title and locked out the 1-seed while Texas played for seeding – but it was an alarming disappointment for a Jayhawks team that has almost looked immortal in the last month.
It’s also not the first time Kansas has been severely underchallenged this season. There’s no doubt Kansas still has what it takes to potentially repeat themselves as champions, but a 16-point loss to Texas is their third double-digit loss this season. Maybe it’s not a reason to panic, maybe it is, but it’s worth noting: Of KU’s five losses, three — to Texas, to Iowa State, and to TCU — averaged 18 points. If KU gets it rolling, any team can beat it. If Kansas doesn’t have it, however, it will likely run out of the gym — like Saturday did.
Losers: Alabama shows some shortcomings
The No. 2 Crimson Tide lost when she shot just 7 of 36 from 3-point range. Alabama will still be the No. 1 pick in the SEC tournament and remains in good shape to secure a No. 1 pick for the NCAA tournament. But the Crimson Tide hasn’t been quite the same in the last four games since revelations about Brandon Miller’s connection to the murder investigation into ex-teammate Darius Miles came to light. Amid a wave of criticism of the program’s handling of the situation, Alabama worked overtime to beat lowly South Carolina and then racked up home wins against Arkansas and Auburn, both of whom they defeated by large margins away earlier in the season. Alabama’s resume is rock solid, but Saturday’s performance was the latest sign that this team isn’t operating at peak efficiency in the postseason.
Loser: Providence is blown up
No. 20 Providence is officially limping into the postseason after losing 82-58 at home to Seton Hall – the program’s worst home loss since 2004. The brothers started as 8-point favorites but left the Pirates 62.5 % shoot off the ground. Dre Davis led Seton Hall with a career-high 24 points in 9-of-10 shooting, and the Pirates shot a season-best at 55.6% from 3-point range. Providence made just 4 of 23 tries from deep and has now lost three of their last four games after a 12-4 start to the league.
Winner: Princeton rallies for Ivy League title
Princeton was 19 seconds behind Penn in the first half and was nine down with less than five minutes to go but managed to rally for a 77-69 victory in overtime to claim at least a share of the regular-season title of the to win the Ivy League. It is the program’s 29th championship title and the second in a row. Four players reached double digits for the Tigers, who finished the game on a 22-5 run.
Winner: Auburn gets a big bubble win
CBS Sports Bracketology expert Jerry Palm wrote that Auburn was “desperate” to beat Tennessee. Well, the Tigers did just that, clinching a 79-70 win over the No. 12 Volunteers to cap out the regular season with a marquee win. Earlier in the day, Auburn’s only Quad 1 win was a November win over Northwestern on neutral ground. The win over Tennessee gives the Tigers much-needed juice to enter the SEC tournament and helps ease the pain of a heartbreaking overtime loss at No. 2 Alabama earlier this week.
Loser: Baylor falls flat in regular-season finals
With Big 12 Tournament Seeding on the line and the increasingly important NCAA Tournament Jockeying looming, Baylor No. 7 put a stinker in what I thought was the most disappointing performance of the season for the Bears with a 73-58 home win over Iowa State. Losing four straight games on Saturday, Iowa State was in full melting mode before taking to the streets and giving Baylor its biggest home loss since Feb. 13, 2016, when it lost 18 points at home to Texas Tech.
“It was one of those games where every time we got something going we couldn’t keep it going,” said Baylor coach Scott Drew. “The only good news is that hopefully everyone had a bad game straight away and got it out of their system to allow us to refocus and restart for the conference tournament.”
Winner: West Virginia Strengthens Resume
West Virginia entered Saturday’s game against No. 11 Kansas State as the projected No. 11 seed in the NCAA tournament, according to Palm. The Mountaineers handled the deal in an impressive manner, shooting 50.8% from the floor and forcing 20 turnovers in an 89-81 win. Emmitt Matthews Jr., Kedrian Johnson and Erik Stevenson each had 20 points for WVU, which recovered well from a 0-5 start in Big 12 play to finish the regular season on a 7-11 league mark.
