College Basketball Scores, Winners and Losers: Arizona, Kansas Make Big Data; No. 1 struggling Purdue

The busiest day of the college basketball season so far doubles as the best of the season with roaring strikes, late drama, scoring blasts and everything in between filling an entire day on Saturday’s roster.

So who are the winners and losers today? Well, it turns out, there was. . . Lots of both categories. Five matches were seeded versus ranked matches and a total of 19 seeded teams were in play. It led to some very good moments for many (Kansas and Gonzaga!), some bad for others (Indiana!) and some painful moments for a select few. (look at you, UCF!)

We’re still two weeks away from making conference play a full stride across the country, but the stakes are high at venues like New York’s Madison Square Garden, Birmingham’s Virginia John Paul Jones Arena, and Alabama’s Legacy Arena, where marquee showdowns have taken place. . The NCAA tournament field won’t be set for a few months, but Saturday’s action will no doubt reverberate through the arc that comes this particular Sunday.

Let’s get a little clearer on a loaded Saturday with a look at some of the winners and losers from the most important roster so far in the 2022-23 college basketball season.

WINNER: Arizona’s offense continues to hum

The most interesting game of the day was between No. 6 Tennessee and No. 9 Arizona at the McCallie Center, which featured No. 1 (Tennessee) defense against No. 1 (Arizona) offense. It was the Wildcats who downed the Volunteers in a 75-70 win, though Arizona had one of its worst shooting runs of the season, finishing 5-of-24 from 3-point range, third-worst in terms of team percentage. However, Arizona has reached the free-throw line 27 times — including 15 trips to the charity bar in the second half — and converted on 24 of those attempts.

Arizona has at times this season been prone to overrelying on 3-point shooting and paying to live and die with it with its only loss coming to Utah after hitting a season-low 14.3% from behind the arc. But the balance on which this team was built was largely a brutal threat to opponents. In the frontcourt against the Volunteers, Omar Ballou and Azula Topilis combined scored 37 points and 17 boards. In the backcourt, Courtney Ramey, Kerrissa and Billy Larson combined for 38 points and 10 assists, with his ability to play inside and out methodically picking off the Vols’ dynamic defense.

Winner: Kansas (and the social media team!)

He took No. 8 Kansas with a sledgehammer to the Vegas line and effectively eliminated pregame predictions, covering a 5.5-point lead as he was easily favored in an 84-62 win over No. 14 Indiana. That was the stuff. Freshman Grady Dick nailed 20 points and five other KU players finished in double figures.

Then there it was Reality Postgame merchandise that came from the KU Social Team. After the win, she released a tweet mocking Indiana’s tweet and brought Kansas into the mix. Savage, but beautiful.

Loser: Indiana’s slide continues

After a 7-0 start to open the season, culminating in a win over then-No. 18 North Carolina The Hoosiers posted a mediocre month in the calendar as they lost to Kansas marking their third defeat in their last four games. All three of those losses scored 14 or more points, with Saturday’s 22-point margin in defeat being their biggest this season.

“It hurts because I thought this week’s training was really competitive,” Ayew coach Mike Woodson said. “We weren’t in the game. Somehow I have to make this team understand that when we play top-flight teams, you have to give yourself a chance.”

Indiana played its way out of it early on careless errors and turnovers, committing 23 on the way. The guard’s play has been a bit shaky lately with Jalen Hood-Schifino coming in and out of the lineup with an injury, so there is wiggle room for IU to improve. (He played 30 minutes but had a team-high five turnovers.)

“Twenty-three turns against a really good team, that’s 23 times you don’t get a chance to score the ball. And they came in groups,” Woodson said. “That’s something we have to clean up because we’re not a big team in terms of sales volume.”

Winner: The Zags announce they’re back

Early in the season, Gonzaga was spotty as a competitor with some impressive wins—over Kentucky, over Xavier—and some heavy losses (to Texas, often to Purdue, to Baylor, to little). Wake up vitriol. In a (semi) road environment, Gonzaga defeated No. 4 Alabama—a team that has already defeated a No. 1 ranked team in the AP twice this season, most recently Houston last weekend—by a final margin of 100-90. It was the first time Gonzaga had ever scored 100 points against a top-five team, and the first time since Duke’s 118-84 victory in 2018 that a team had scored 100 or more points in the league away from home, per Matt Eisenberg.

WINNER: Bama’s Brandon Miller flashes his star (again)

Just a week after his lowest-scoring game of the season last weekend — an eight-point game in which he went 0-of-8 from the field against #1 Houston — Miller turned Saturday in his most complete game in the league. season. It came at a loss, but can’t overshadow the impact it had in keeping Bama in it against Gonzaga. He was energetic on defense, assertive in getting into his offensive positions and putting the basketball inside the hoop, and finished with 36 points — tied for the most in a game by a strong conference player this season.

Loser: DePaul is put on blast

Three days after losing 11 at Duquesne, things went from bad to worse for DePaul as the Blue Devils lost 83-45 at Northwestern. The Wildcats outgained DePaul 44-19 in the second half and forced 22 turnovers as the Blue Demons fell to 6-6. Despite acknowledging that injuries played a role in the team’s poor performance, athletic director DeWayne Peevy issued a surprising assessment of the program’s performance in the wake of the 38-point loss.

“I’m very disappointed in our performance over the last two games,” he said. Biffy wrote in the first thread. “Blue Demon Nation deserves better. I know today wasn’t what we had hoped for, and I understand if you’re feeling frustrated and upset. I also want to thank you for your continued support and passion for our team.”

Peavy’s candid assessment of the program isn’t a good sign for Blue Devils coach Tony Stubblefield, who is going 21-22 in his second season at DePaul.

Winner: Houston Bounce

Just a week after taking a 15-point second-half lead at home to Alabama in a loss that cost them the program’s first ranking since the 1982-83 season, No. 5 Houston took full advantage of their excellent payback opportunity. Beating No. 2 Virginia 69-61 on the road. Five players have reached double figures with the Cougars, led by five-star freshman Kharas Walker with 17. Walker scored 13 goals in the second period and finished with seven rebounds, four assists, a block and a steal. The Cougars assisted on 17 of 25 baskets made and handled Virginia’s notoriously strong defense in the second half without much trouble and were especially solid in a hostile environment.

Loser: UCF loses in heartbreaking fashion

Missouri led by 14 points in the second half but needed a miracle at the buzzer to defeat UCF 68-66. Deandre Gholston swooped in a 3-pointer from about 10 feet behind the arc as time expired but only after D’moi Hodge slipped and fell with the basketball and essentially rolled it back to Gholston. It was a very heartbreaking finish for the Golden Knights after a 3 pointer from Jayhlon Young with seven seconds remaining. If Young’s jump had fallen, he would have given UCF a four-point lead. Instead, the door stayed open and Missouri took advantage in the miraculous final sequence.

Winner: North Carolina gets late championships

North Carolina freshmen Caleb Love, RJ Davis and Armando Pacotte surpassed 20 points against No. 23 Ohio State, while Leakey Black embraced tough defensive duties. The fifth player, Pete Nance, was relatively quiet except when his team needed him most. Nance hit a jump turnaround off a lateral pass from the Lions as time expired in regulation. The Miracle Nance sent Game 1 of the CBS Sports Classic into overtime, which the Tar Heels won 89-84.

Ohio State led most of the game and had 14 points at one point late in the first half. But after Nance shot at the buzzer, UNC took control of overtime by holding Ohio State to only 2 of 7 shootouts in the extra period.

Loser: Kentucky flop

Kentucky’s non-conference appeal up to this point was highlighted by wins over Michigan and losses to Michigan State, Gonzaga and now UCLA. No. 16 Bruins UK crime choked on Saturday for a 63-53 win in the CBS Sports Classic that dropped the No. 13 Wildcats to 7-3. Aside from a win over the Wolverines on Dec. 4 in London, there isn’t anything of interest on the Wildcats’ resume. Given Michigan’s struggles, even this win is somewhat impressive.

Were it not for an offensive blast in the second half from freshman winger Chris Livingston, the Wildcats might have been blown away by the Bruins. As it stands, they were held scoreless at 4:31 as superstar Oscar Cheppuis hit only 4 of his 12 shots from the floor and went 0-for-4 from the free throw line.

Winner: Purdue Outstanding

Purdue Davidson led by just one point with 11:30 remaining and didn’t lead by double digits in the second half, but the #1 Boilermakers held on for a 69-61 win over the Wildcats. Zack Eddy led the way with 29 points and 16 rebounds for Purdue, which will stand a great chance of staying in first place after holding the lead for just one week last season after claiming the title for the first time in program history.

But, if UConn has anything to say on the subject, the Boilermakers could drop first place even after winning both games this week if enough of the AP Top 25 voters who voted for Virginia last week change their first place votes to Strongmen. structure. instead of boilers.

Winner: UConn dominates again

No. 3 UConn improved to 12-0 with another dominant win as the Huskies opened the Big East game with a 68-46 victory over Butler on the road. All 12 of UConn’s wins this season have come in double digits, including victories over power conference foes Oregon, Alabama, Iowa State, Oklahoma State, Florida and now Butler.

With #2 Virginia losing, the #1 Boilermakers barely escaping Davidson and Yukon dominating once again, it only makes sense for the Huskies to challenge Purdue for #1 when the new AP Top 25 launches Monday. Adama Sanogo led the Huskies with 27 points and 14 rebounds on Saturday.