The top of the AP Top 25 College Basketball Poll for Week 8 needed some reshuffling after Miami handed then-No. 6 Virginia its second loss in a row on Tuesday. Jim Larrañaga and the ‘Canes proved they are for real, and a scuffling Virginia will head back to the drawing board.
While other conferences were finishing up non-conference play, the ACC was already getting started. Duke suffered a painful 81-70 road loss to Wake Forest without freshmen Dariq Whitehead and Dereck Lively who were sidelined with a non-COVID illness. Duke tumbled in the AP Top 25, but Blue Devils coach Jon Scheyer hopes his young team learned its lesson about life on the road.
“Credit to Wake,” Scheyer said. “They outplayed us. They were the hungrier team and I thought their sense of urgency coming off their game on Saturday, you could really tell, and for us, we didn’t have that. They outrebounded us. I thought the free throws were key. That’s on us. They drove the ball stronger than we did and we probably fouled a few times when we shouldn’t have, but credit them. I thought that experience, playing on the road, hurt us. For a lot of our guys it’s their first time going through it.”
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Here’s how AP college basketball voters across the country sorted things out in their top 25.
Purdue is one of just three teams in the country to stay undefeated after Christmas. The Boilermakers looked a little vulnerable in December with tight wins over Nebraska and Davidson. But it earned a 74-53 win over New Orleans last Wednesday even with National Player of the Year frontrunner Zach Edey out with a back injury. Redshirt freshman Trey Kaufman-Renn stepped up with 24 points off the bench. But Purdue shot just 15 for 69 (21.7%) from 3-point range in the last three games.
UConn needed a furious late rally to run away from pesky Georgetown in Tuesday’s 84-73 win. Andre Jackson (seven points, eight rebounds, eight assists) and Tristen Newton (17 points, seven assists, two turnovers) were terrific. The Huskies improved to 2-0 in Big East play. But this is a huge week. UConn will be tested by Villanova on Wednesday and Xavier on Saturday. It can prove once and for good that the road to the Big East crown runs through Gampel Pavilion.
Houston did not show much of a hangover after a gutsy road win over Virginia. The Cougars got 23 points and 13 rebounds from Ja’Vier Francis, 18 points from freshman Emanuel Sharp and 17 points from star guard Marcus Sasser in an 83-44 romp over McNeese State. Houston opens AAC play this week with tussles against Tulsa and a dangerous UCF club. Purdue and UConn might be ranked higher, but Houston is KenPom’s No. 1-rated squad.
Kansas shot a miserable 4-for-20 from 3-point range in Thursday’s 68-54 win over Harvard, but Kansas coach Bill Self was not concerned.
“I will very rarely ever judge how we play from a good or poor standpoint on whether or not the ball goes in the hole,” Self said. “Obviously it makes it hard to win when you don’t make shots, but we need to keep shooting it.”
But Kansas will need the 3s to drop if it wants to knock off Oklahoma State in Saturday’s Big 12 opener.
Thanks to wins over Montana State and Morgan State last week, Arizona clinched a perfect 10-0 record in non-conference games this season. Right now, we know what Arizona is. The Wildcats own KenPom’s No. 1-rated offense, and Tommy Lloyd has a bunch of grown men who he can rely on. Saturday’s road showdown against rival Arizona State should be spicy. The last time Arizona went on the road for a Pac-12 game, Utah handed it a 81-66 beatdown. We’ll see how ready Arizona is for this next road test.
Freshman Arterio Morris erupted for a game-high 25 points in Wednesday’s 100-72 win over a pesky Louisiana team. The five-star Texas guard could be a huge X-Factor for this Longhorns team in Big 12 play. Texas has one more non-conference tuneup Tuesday against Texas A&M Commerce before Big 12 play gets started Saturday on the road at Oklahoma. Texas’ perimeter defense will be tested by Sooners’ explosive guard Grant Sherfield.
Tennessee enters SEC action with a 10-2 record. If the Vols want to win the league, this opening five-game stretch will be enormous. It starts with a road tilt against Ole Miss and concludes with a home game against Kentucky on Jan. 14. Sandwiched between are home games against Mississippi State and Vanderbilt and a road showdown against a struggling South Carolina program. Tennessee has to make hay right now. This is Tennessee’s golden opportunity at a 5-0 start in league play.
Does Alabama have the next Paul George? Freshman wing Brandon Miller certainly has those PG-like flashes. Alabama waxed Jackson State 84-64 in its final non-conference tilt. Miller had 10 points, 14 rebounds, three assists and three steals. A road showdown against Mississippi State will not be an easy game for Alabama’s young team but we’ll learn a lot about this team. Nate Oats’ high-powered offense against Chris Jans’ blanketing defense is going to be a war.
Arkansas opens SEC play Wednesday on the road against LSU. All eyes will be on the status of dazzling freshman Nick Smith Jr. who has been nursing a knee injury.
“Nick is a competitor and he looked forward to playing for the Razorbacks,” Arkansas coach Eric Musselman said. “He’s kind of been in and out of the lineup, or whatever, and we just want him to get healthy as quickly as possible and for him to be 100 percent.”
Montana gave Gonzaga a run for its money but it had no answer for Drew Timme who totaled 32 points, 11 rebounds, five assists, two blocks and two steals. Chattanooga transfer Malachi Smith added 11 points in the 85-75 win. After a slow start, it certainly looks like Smith is starting to find his perfect role with Gonzaga. The Zags can’t flirt with a Final Four run without him.
UCLA is playing at a really high level. The Bruins won eight games in a row and enter Pac-12 play absolutely sizzling. UCLA owns the No. 4-rated offense and the No. 11-rated defense on KenPom. Those are the key ingredients to being a heavy hitter in March. UCLA has to be road warriors immediately with games against Washington State and Washington kicking things off.
Baylor only played three games in the last three weeks, and it’s used the time off to try and nurse Adam Flagler and LJ Cryer back to full health ahead of the Big 12 gauntlet. Baylor has one more non-conference game against Nicholls State (who is really feisty at times) before kicking off league action with a road war against Iowa State. Cryer and Flagler have to be at 100% for Baylor to even consider a Big 12 Championship push.
Winning on the road in conference play is not easy. Virginia learned that lesson the hard way in last Tuesday’s 66-64 loss to Miami. Outside of Ben Vander Plas’ 4 for 9 showing from downtown, Virginia just could not buy a bucket. The rest of the team combined to shoot just 2 for 14 from 3-point range. On the bright side, Vander Plas (20 points, four rebounds, two assists) is looking like one of college basketball’s most underrated transfers. He might be Virginia’s second-best player already.
Miami is going to be in the thick of the ACC race all season long. It proved that with Tuesday’s 66-64 win over Virginia. Isaiah Wong poured in 24 points on just 13 shots and added six rebounds and five assists. Miami is off to a 12-1 start without Nijel Pack really cooking from 3-point range yet. After shooting 43.6% last season at Kansas State, Pack is off to an odd 32.3% mark for Miami. Positive regression is coming, and that makes Miami even scarier.
Wisconsin escaped Lehigh’s upset bid with a second-half explosion. Steven Crowl, Jordan Davis, Connor Essegian and Tyler Wahl all cracked double figures. Wisconsin gets one more non-conference test against Western Michigan before Big 10 play gets rolling for good.
“It’s kind of like running through the mud this time of year,” Badgers center Steven Crowl said. “You have finals going on, and there aren’t as many fans at the game and stuff, so I would say it’s a little harder, but it’s on us every night to come out and perform and be consistent.”
16. Indiana (10-3)
17. Duke (10-3)
18. TCU (10-1)
19. Kentucky (8-3)
20. Auburn (10-2)
21. Mississippi State (11-1)
22. New Mexico (12-0)
23. Xavier (10-3)
24. West Virginia (10-2)
25. North Carolina (9-4)
Charleston 102, Maryland 87, Memphis 74, Illinois 65, Ohio State 59, Virginia Tech 57, Missouri 57, San Diego State 39, Iowa State 19, Marquette 12, Texas Tech 10, Michigan State 7, Providence 6, Kansas State 5, USC 4, San Francisco 1
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