On a loaded Saturday full of traps for some of college basketball’s top teams, chaos reared its head and delivered drama and more drama. Four top-10 teams lost, three top-seven teams dropped games to unranked opponents, and two top-10 teams — No. 1 Auburn and No. 10 Houston — managed to avoid a similar fate by escaping in dangerously close fashion.
No. 2 Iowa State was not among the fortunate, though, as the Cyclones — owners of the longest winning streak in college hoops at 12 games entering Saturday — suffered their first loss since November with a 64-57 defeat at West Virginia. The loss landed just days after ISU moved up one spot in the AP poll to its highest ranking in school history, but on a day where top teams tumbled with regularity, it was far from the only surprising outcome.
The disarray of the day affected the Big East in particular, where Marquette as a big favorite took its first loss in league play to Xavier and UConn as a favorite fell at home to Creighton. Those outcomes, coupled with St. John’s winning 79-51 at Seton Hall, pushed Rick Pitino’s Red Storm into first place in the Big East with a 7-1 conference record, ahead of the Golden Eagles, who fell to 6-1 after losing to the Musketeers.
That’s just a snippet of the madness that took place across the sport Saturday. Our recap of some of the biggest winners and losers of the action is below.
Loser: Arkansas remains winless in SEC play
Only three major conference teams have yet to score a win in conference play this season. Arkansas, led by first-year coach and Hall of Famer, John Calipari, is one of them.
The Razorbacks fell 83-65 at Missouri to drop them to 0-5 in SEC play, which is the worst start to conference play since going 0-5 in 1985-86 when Arkansas was a member of the SWC under Nolan Richardson.
“The whole league is physical and they’ve got good players and good coaches,” Calipari said. “This is a hard league. We’re going to have to figure stuff out.”
Arkansas had an especially difficult opening start to SEC play with Tennessee, Ole Miss and Florida to open its slate. But things have snowballed from 0-3 to 0-5, and KenPom.com projects it will likely be an underdog in three of its next five games.
Its next chance to get a win will be back home Wednesday with No. 23 Georgia coming to Fayetteville. – Kyle Boone
Winner: Cardinals flying high
Louisville extended its winning streak to eight with an 81-67 drubbing of Virginia as the Cardinals continued to establish themselves in ACC’s upper-echelon under first-year coach Pat Kelsey. What’s most impressive is that Louisville (14-5, 7-1 ACC) isn’t just beating teams but blowing them out. Six of its seven league victories have come by double digits. Don’t be shocked if the Cardinals are ranked on Monday for the first time since the 2020-21 season as Kelsey continues breathing fresh life into a program that totaled just 12 victories over the two seasons prior to his arrival. – David Cobb
Winner: Broome-less Auburn sneaks past Dawgs
Playing for a second consecutive game without ailing star Johni Broome, who is dealing with a significant ankle sprain, No. 1 Auburn went on the road and escaped a closer-than-expected contest at No. 23 Georgia. The Tigers won 70-68 after leading big for much of the game, surviving two would-be game-tying shots from the Bulldogs in the closing nine seconds.
The win keeps Auburn undefeated (5-0) in SEC play and extends its winning streak to 10 – tied for the third-longest active streak in college basketball. It all but guarantees Auburn will be ranked No. 1 when it faces Tennessee – which was ranked No. 1 for five consecutive weeks before Monday – leading into next Saturday’s big SEC tilt. – Boone
Loser: Kentucky’s defense falters
Kentucky is down to No. 87 in KenPom’s defensive efficiency metric after allowing Alabama to hit 13 of 34 shots from 3-point range in an offensive slugfest that the No. 4 Crimson Tide won 102-97. The No. 8 Wildcats have now given up 100 points in two of their last three home games. While UK boasts the offensive power to win in most firefights, a similarly talented offensive team like Alabama poses challenges. The Wildcats’ answer was fouling as they were whistled 18 times in the second half, leading to 20 made Crimson Tide free throws over the final 20 minutes. – Cobb
Winner: Creighton gets signature win on the road vs. UConn
Selection may be just over two months away, but Crieghton did themselves a huge favor with a gutsy 68-63 win over No. 14 UConn on the road. Creighton guard Jamiya Neal scored 24 points, and star big man Ryan Kalkbrenner added 16 and 10 rebounds. The Bluejays have won five of their last six games, with the lone loss coming on the road to Marquette. Creighton entered the day as a No. 10 seed in Jerry Palm’s latest Bracketology predictions. This win is sure to be beneficial come Selection Sunday. – Cameron Salerno
Loser: Gonzaga suffers ugly loss at home to Santa Clara
Gonzaga did something it hasn’t done in over a decade. The Bulldogs dropped back-to-back games in WCC play for the first time since 2014-15. The Zags lost to Santa Clara 103-99 as a double-digit home favorite for its second consecutive loss against WCC competition. The Bulldogs were coming off an overtime loss on the road against Oregon State earlier this week. – Salerno
Winner: Mississippi State wins thrilling Egg Bowl of basketball
No. 15 Mississippi State outlasted rival No. 21 Ole Miss in the first edition of the Egg Bowl with an 84-81 win in overtime. The Bulldogs’ win snapped their two-game losing streak as RIley Kugel scored 21 points and five different Mississippi State players scored in double figures. The win sets up a big showdown Tuesday in Tennessee vs. the No. 6 Vols, who fell in a stunner at Vanderbilt earlier in the day. – Boone
Loser: UCF squanders golden opportunity for upset win
The final 1.1 seconds of Houston’s showdown against UCF seemed to last an hour. The Knights turned the ball over, down one, with that same amount of time on the clock. Then, Houston also turned the ball over on its ensuing possession after committing an offensive foul. UCF had one final chance to win the game, but the inbounds pass was deflected, leading to a 69-68 win for Houston. UCF entered the day in Palm’s latest Bracketology projections as a No. 9 seed. This would’ve been a chance to notch a big win over a top-10 team and helped UCF move up in the Big 12 standings. This certainly isn’t a bad loss for UCF, but one they might look back on in a few weeks as a game that got away from them after leading by as many as 12 points late in the first half. – Salerno
Loser: Arizona State can’t get back on track
Arizona State got off to an 8-1 start to the season but has since lost six of its last eight games. The low point came on Saturday during a 67-60 loss to Cincinnati on the road. That loss dropped the Sun Devils to 1-5 in Big 12 play, and the lone win came against Colorado – the only team in the conference that hasn’t won a game in Big 12 play. Arizona State was without star freshman Joson Sanon, but this game was an opportunity to end the losing streak and get back on track. ASU entered the day as one of the “First 4 Out” in Palm’s latest Bracketology projections. – Salerno
Winner: Kansas shines brightest in Sunflower Showdown
Coming off its fifth-largest loss in Big 12 play in the last five seasons – a 74-57 defeat at Iowa State – No. 9 Kansas showed real resolve Saturday with a Sunflower Showdown victory over rival Kansas State 84-74 to inject some confidence back into the Jayhawks. Big man Hunter Dickinson scored a game-high 25 points and Zeke Mayo added 24 points, while the guard trio of Shakeel Moore, AJ Storr and Dajuan Harris all played big roles to boot.
KU appears to be on the search for help beyond Dickinson, Mayo and Harris, who have been the most consistent pieces for the preseason No. 1 Jayhawks, and while that search is far from finished, we’re still seeing what KU can do when its top dogs are on their game and the supporting cast can pitch in. It’s a work in progress for Kansas still, but a win over K-State could help get them pointed back in the right direction. – Boone
Loser: UNC beat by Stanford’s Duke graduate
North Carolina may have entered its game with Stanford without much concern for Cardinal guard Jaylen Blakes. After all, in four seasons as a reserve at Duke, Blakes never scored against the Tar Heels. But UNC learned about Blakes’ talent the hard way as the Cardinal graduate transfer hit a go-ahead jumper with 0.9 seconds left to lift his team to a 72-71 upset victory over the Tar Heels. Blakes finished with 20 points on 7-of-13 shooting to help put an ugly Quad 3 blemish on UNC’s resume. – Cobb
Winner: Vanderbilt validates strong start
Vanderbilt nearly squandered a 16-point lead in the second half but held on for a dramatic 76-75 upset of No. 6 Tennessee to validate a strong start under first-year coach Mark Byington. The Commodores (15-3, 3-2 SEC) entered as one of the “Last Four In” the projected NCAA Tournament field of CBS Sports Bracketology Expert Jerry Palm, and their stock should be going up following their first win over a ranked team since 2023. Byington is the only first-year coach in the SEC, and his club was picked to finish last in the league. But the ‘Dores are proving they’ll be a tough out. – Cobb
Loser: No. 7 Marquette falters as big favorite
With a chance at home to extend its lead in Big East play and remain unbeaten against conference foes, No. 7 Marquette faltered as a 10-point favorite inside Fiserv Forum in a 59-57 loss to Xavier. The Golden Eagles struggled early and had to play catch-up almost the entire game – which it nearly did! – before failing to finish the comeback in crunch time.
The loss moves Marquette into a tie for first in Big East play at 6-1 with St. John’s. – Boone
Winner: Rhode Island wins in dramatic fashion on bank shot
A back-and-forth battle in the Atlantic 10 between Rhode Island and Davidson that featured 10 changes – including two in the game’s final six seconds – ended with Rhody sending off its home crowd in jubilation as Rams guard Sebastian Thomas banked home a runner from 3-point range to give them a 92-90 final edge.
Thomas finished with a team-high 22 points to erase 30 and 28 point explosions from Davidson forward Reed Bailey and Bobby Durkin, respectively. It was a big win to help restore confidence for the Rams in Kingston, as they improved to 14-4 on the season and 3-3 in league play in what appears to be a wide-open A-10. – Boone
Winner: Purdue upsets Oregon, moves to 7-1 in Big Ten play
One of the biggest winners of the weekend was Purdue. The Boilermakers won their seventh consecutive game in Big Ten play since losing to Penn State with a 65-58 upset win over No. 13 Oregon. Purdue forward Trey Kaufman-Renn scored a team-high 23 points and added 11 rebounds, and Braden Smith added 15 in the victory. The Boilermakers (seven) now have the most wins in conference play of any team in the Big Ten. – Salerno
Loser: Miami’s brutal season getting worse
Miami remained winless since Jim Larranaga’s in-season resignation in late December with a 117-74 loss to SMU at home to drop it to 4-14 on the season and 0-7 in ACC action. The 43-point loss was its largest by margin since 1990 (!), when on Jan. 27 that year it fell by 47 points to Notre Dame. It’s a new record for the largest loss of the season for the Hurricanes after setting their previous record on Tuesday in an 89-54 loss at Duke. – Boone
Winner: Oklahoma State wins Remember the Ten game
In Oklahoma State’s annual Remember the Ten game, dedicated to pay tribute to the 10 men who lost their lives on Jan. 27, 2001, in a plane crash in Colorado, the Cowboys shook off a two-game losing skid with an 83-73 win inside Gallagher-Iba Arena. It’s the most points OSU has scored vs. a conference opponent since Feb. 17 last year, and a feel-good win for first-year coach Steve Lutz on a special day. – Boone
