How many screwball things can be crammed into 12 hours of college basketball? Saturday tried to answer that. Really, how could everything on this list happen in one day? But they did.
Nos. 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12 and 14 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll could all lose, five of them on their court.
The two longest home court streaks in the nation could be guillotined on the same day.
RANKINGS: AP Top 25 Poll | NET rankings
Duke could lead North Carolina by 32 points and win by 17, going wire-to-wire. It was the biggest home victory for the Blue Devils over the Tar Heels since 2010. That was Jon Scheyer’s senior night and now he’s the Duke coach. The Blue Devils won their 15th consecutive victory and have their first 11-0 ACC start in 17 years. North Carolina left with its fourth loss in five games. The Tar Heels’ stacked schedule so far has included six teams ranked last week in the AP’s top 11. Admirable. The problem is they can’t beat hardly any of them. They awoke Sunday with 10 defeats, a 1-9 record in quad 1 games and enter February on the NCAA Tournament bubble.
Duke’s young first-year players could face the heat of their first North Carolina game and not blink an eye. They were as relaxed as all the guys in the Duke fraternity houses eating pizza Saturday night that was catered by Bill Belichick. At halftime, with Duke ahead by 22, North Carolina had 25 total points. The Blue Devils freshmen starters — Cooper Flagg, Kon Knueppel and Khaman Maluach — had 28. “Our freshmen,” Scheyer said, “did not look like freshmen.”
Arkansas could go into Rupp Arena as the 14th-place team in the SEC — seven conference games, six losses — and beat Kentucky by double digits, ruining Big Blue Nation’s chance to fully enjoy the chance to heckle a returning John Calipari. “We needed to win a game,” Calipari said afterward. “It didn’t matter who it was against,” Well, maybe. Any Rupp customers there to taunt Calipari as he was humbled by his former team never got the chance. “He’s always had our backs and tonight I feel like we had his,” Adou Thiero said, who led Arkansas with 21 points. Kentucky, No. 6 in the AP poll four weeks ago, is now tied for eighth in the SEC.
Kansas State could land in Ames, IA. with a 9-11 record and hammer No. 3 Iowa State by 19 points, the first time in AP poll history that a team below .500 went on the road and smacked a top-5 opponent by more than 15. So ended Iowa State’s 29-game home court winning streak — by a Wildcat team that committed 18 turnovers and had lost 14 true road games in a row.
A few hours later, No. 6 Houston’s 33-game home court streak could also be snapped by a Texas Tech team that lost its coach and leading scorer to ejections four minutes after the opening tip. Winning 82-81 in overtime, Texas Tech is now 5-0 on the road in the Big 12. “You’re going to lose games, everybody is. What are we the team of the century, we’re not going to lose games?” Houston coach Kelvin Sampson said. UC Irvine now has the longest home winning streak in the country at 22.
No. 5 Florida, averaging 85.3 points a game, could be suffocated at No. 8 Tennessee 64-44, the first time in 1,168 games the Gators could not get to 45. Tennessee had one starter out sick Saturday, another out injured and only seven scholarship players available. You might remember these two teams played a month ago in Florida where the Gators won 73-43. That’s a 50-point swing in 25 days.
More from Saturday: The two longest home winning streaks in men’s basketball end
Baylor could fall behind 21 points at home against No. 11 Kansas, then go for 60 in the second half and win 81-70. It’s the largest blown lead in a loss in Jayhawks history. This is the same Kansas team that had a six-point lead in the final 10 seconds of overtime getaway against Houston. The Jayhawks have gone from ranked No. 1 to tied for fifth in the Big 12.
No. 7 Michigan State could make its first West Coast swing in the Big Ten and promptly have its 13-game winning snapped 70-64 at Southern California.
Locker room went up after knocking off No. 7 Michigan State ‼️💦 pic.twitter.com/165lLHG7sE
— USC Men’s Basketball (@USC_Hoops) February 2, 2025
No. 25 Connecticut could drop in on No. 9 Marquette and win 77-69 despite committing 25 turnovers and being outscored in points off turnovers 29-9. It was the Huskies’ ninth consecutive win over a top-10 opponent.
No. 20 Missouri could visit No. 14 Mississippi State and crush the Bulldogs by 27 points, the biggest road win ever for the Tigers over a ranked opponent. The previous high was 13 points and that was back in 1956. Missouri was led by the 20 points of Caleb Grill, whose 49% in 3-point shooting is the second-best in the nation and he doesn’t even start.
No. 15 St. John’s could blow a 19-point lead in nine minutes at home against Providence, but win 68-66 in the final three seconds. The Red Storm survived despite being outscored in bench points 44-5. St. John’s has won eight in a row, something the Red Storm hadn’t done since 1992.
Georgia Tech could dump No. 21 Louisville 77-70 — the Cardinals’ first loss in 11 games — even though the Yellow Jackets came in with a 9-12 record and were 0-4 against ranked teams this season, losing by 26, 23, 15, and three points.
Oklahoma could fall behind Vanderbilt by 13 points, but end up winning by 30. The Sooners shot better than 72% in the second half while the Commodores had one more turnover than field goals.
Florida State, ahead of Boston College by eight points with 50 seconds left, could lose 77-76 when the Eagles scored five late points in three seconds. A tip-in, a steal and a 3-pointer. Florida State has now dropped four in a row.
Minute of mayhem.
Eagles storm back for the win ⚡️ pic.twitter.com/2UtvAtwIEp
— BC Men’s Basketball (@BCMBB) February 1, 2025
Creighton could knock off Villanova 62-60 when Steven Ashworth banked in a 3-pointer with 5.8 seconds left. Before that moment, the Bluejays were 5-for-25 in 3-point shooting. Villanova has now lost five of six, two of them in the final six seconds.
Minnesota, recently with consecutive wins over Michigan, Iowa and Oregon, could lose at home to Washington, the last-place team in the Big Ten.
Temple could outlast East Carolina 98-94 in overtime, as the two teams combined for 40 points in the extra five minutes.
By the numbers: The surprising leaders, statistical oddities and more for all 31 men’s basketball conferences
Virginia and Virginia Tech could meet in their Commonwealth Clash rivalry, both with losing records for the first time since 1970. Virginia Tech won 75-74 in Charlottesville, where the Cavaliers previously had been 43-13 against their in-state cousins. Virginia had also been 173-11 since the 2009-10 season when scoring 70 points.
Miami, having lost 20 games in a row against ACC opponents, could finally break through, rallying from 13 points down to beat Notre Dame 63-57. The Hurricanes did not have a turnover in the second half. The Irish had nine.
Things could get so testy toward the end of the 249th meeting between Arizona and Arizona State — Arizona won 81-72 — that Arizona State coach Bobby Hurley sent his reserves to the locker room early and passed on the handshake line afterward. There were four technical fouls. “It was relentless, constant chatter from a couple of the Arizona players that was not being policed properly. Of course, they’re going to be happy with winning, but it was done with no class, in my opinion,” Hurley said, inferring one offender was Arizona star Caleb Love, who had 27 points but was ejected after a commotion with Arizona State’s BJ Freeman. Freeman was also ejected because of a head-butt. “I do get a vote for all-conference,” Hurley said, “and I can tell you who’s not getting a vote.” The return match in Tucson in early March ought to be chummy.
In a weekend with lots of neighborhood rivals going at it — not just the bluebloods in Durham — Ohio and Miami (OH) could play the latest version of their series, the Battle of the Bricks. They’re the two oldest colleges in the state of Ohio, both born in the early 1800s, and both have many stately buildings. Hence the rivalry nickname. Miami (OH) won 73-69, and to understand the value of a venerable rivalry, note the attendance. Aided by it being Alumni Day for former athletes at Miami (OH), the house was 7,889 people. The RedHawks’ average attendance had been 1,370. “That’s why you spend all these hours in the gym, in the weight room, getting up at 5 a.m. when and nobody’s watching. You do that for moments like this,” Miami (OH) coach Travis Steele said. “I don’t know what I would do if you don’t have rivalries. That’s what you work towards.”
Speaking of rivalries, the last startling turn of the day was Saint Mary’s could actually go three games up on Gonzaga in the West Coast Conference. This after the Gaels beat the Zags 62-58, holding Gonzaga — the nation’s second top-scoring team — nearly 32 points under its average. The game ended at 1:08 a.m., eastern time.
A long, crazy Saturday was over.
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