Good morning! Hope everyone had a restful weekend and enjoyed plenty of good food during the big game yesterday (Tulsa @ South Florida)! Now grab your coffee and catch up on the last week of college hoops!

At the top, (1) Arizona stayed perfect by flattening Oklahoma State by 37 points. That’s notable because the same Cowboys squad was riding high after upsetting (16) BYU at home earlier in the week! The Wildcats made history in becoming the first Big 12 team to ever start 23-0. (2) Michigan kept rolling with blowout wins over Penn State and Ohio St. (3) UConn split the week, first routing Xavier before getting clipped by (22) St. John’s!

(4) Duke beat Boston College, then took a last second rivalry loss when (14) North Carolina beat them 71–68. (5) Illinois crushed Northwestern but lost their marquee matchup of the week, suffering an OT defeat to (10) Michigan State. The Spartans needed that one after blowing their game at Minnesota earlier in the week!

(6) Gonzaga fell victim to the upset of the season… losing at Portland (before stabilizing with a win over Oregon State). A lot of “firsts” for the Pilots behind this victory. (7) Iowa State survived a tight one against Baylor in their lone game this week, while (8) Houston handled UCF with ease before limiting BYU to its lowest point total of the year in their Saturday tilt!

Also in the polls: (11) Kansas beat (13) Texas Tech thanks to Darryn Peterson’s heroics. (15) Vanderbilt continued its recent slide, taking a 1-point loss to Oklahoma (92–91). Conversely, (17) Florida is surging! (25) Tennessee allowed Kentucky to comeback from a double-digit deficit AGAIN (happened in their first matchup too) and suffered a loss in Rupp.

Elsewhere, (18) Virginia, (19) Saint Louis, (20) Clemson, (22) St. John’s, and (23) Miami (OH) held steady with 2-0 weeks.

The Portland Pilots just had their best week in a LONG time! As we mentioned above, they toppled (6) Gonzaga for the first time since 2014 but then followed it up with a game-winning putback to beat Seattle. Congrats to the Pilots! The Zags are now 0.5 games back of Santa Clara in the conference standings. Both Utah State and San Diego State turned in 2-0 weeks to stay on top of the Mountain West. New Mexico dropped games to the Aggies and Boise State and now are two games back of the lead.

George Mason lost a surprising one to Duquesne thanks to their 17 TOs. They are now two games behind front runners Saint Louis and tied with VCU for second place in the A10. South Florida secured a big win over Tulsa on Sunday and now both teams share the top spot in the American. Temple (0.5 games back), Wichita State, Charlotte, and Memphis (all one game back) are nipping at their heels. Harvard and Yale are tied for first in the Ivy League after the Crimson took down the Bulldogs before winning at Dartmouth. Akron remains a game behind Miami (OH) in the MAC in what is becoming a two-team race. In the WAC, California Baptist went 2-0 this week to hold their top spot. Utah Valley and Utah Tech were also perfect this week to stay right behind the Lancers. UT Arlington has dropped three straight and now is two games out of first.

The Big South isn’t just all about High Point either! While the Panthers have won 12 of their last 13 games against D1 teams, their one loss was to Winthrop who has strung together 10 straight victories. Liberty got wins over Delaware and Missouri State to keep their CUSA record unblemished. Sadly, North Dakota State suffered their first Summit League loss courtesy of the Denver Pioneers. That leaves just three teams in non-Power 4 conferences without a loss in conference play.

Other Storylines: 

A quick Hot Seat check

Here is what we will be watching this coming week! Reply to this email and let us know what you will be tuning into!

We are truly blessed to have a game as tasty as this one the day after the Super Bowl! Arizona is clearly the top team in the country. They are balanced, deep, and uber-talented. Hardly anyone plays a road game at Phog Allen Fieldhouse and is the betting favorite, but Arizona is just that. They are 2.5 pt favorites in this one. Vegas may have missed the Darryn Peterson highlight we shared above. He and the Jayhawks have rattled off seven straight wins since their road loss to West Virginia. Perhaps more importantly, Peterson has logged the most minutes he has played to date in his last two games. How big of a storyline would it be if the future #1 pick in this year’s NBA Draft went OFF and handed Arizona their first loss of the year??

Honorable Mentions:

NC State @ (24) Louisville - Wolfpack have won 6 straight, Cardinals have won 5 of their last 6
UNC Wilmington @ College of Charleston - A battle for sole possession of 1st place in the CAA

The Cornhuskers bounced back nicely in defeating Rutgers after suffering losses #1 and #2 on the season (Michigan, Illinois, respectively). They will face their next big test on Tuesday, however, when they host the Boilermakers for the first and only time this season. Purdue is looking to recover from its own mid-season slide - they lost 3 games in a row before winning their last two (@ Maryland, vs Oregon). This Big 10 matchup will help at least one team get back on track!

Honorable Mentions: 

(15) Vanderbilt @ Auburn - when will Vandy self-correct?

Notre Dame @ SMU - Mustangs need a win to stay in bubble contention

You may be wondering why a game between two teams with 7-6 conference records is important. The NCAA Tournament makes you care about some wild things! The loser of this game will take a massive hit to their tournament resume. USC is currently the fifth-to-last team in the field per Joe Lunardi. Ohio State is quite literally his last team projected to be in the field. A loss for the Buckeyes will have them on the outside looking in. If the Trojans stumble, they may find themselves as the “last team in”.

Honorable Mentions:

(17) Florida @ Georgia - only Arizona is hotter than the Gators right now

Austin Peay @ Queens - Can the Monarchs claw back within a game of the Governors?

New Mexico @ Grand Canyon - Both teams vying for Top 4 seeds in the MW Tournament

Thursday night. Missouri Valley Conference contenders.. Curb Event Center Arena in Nashville, TN. The preview writes itself!

The Bruins enter on a 9-game winning streak and 2-game lead over 2nd place Murray State in the MVC table and already beat UNI in early January. That loss subsequently kicked off a 5-game losing streak for the Panthers, who are playing better as of late. Belmont should handle business here.

Honorable Mentions:

Hofstra @ Charleston - 3 visits 1 in CAA play

Utah Valley @ Utah Tech - Will shakeup WAC standings either way!

Fridays are for Mid-Major Basketball! If you have watched either of these teams play so far this year, I am confident this was how you looked while watching. This game has major implications for the MAAC tournament - a one-bid league if you couldn’t guess. Quinnipiac currently sits 2.5 games out of first and Siena is only 0.5 games ahead of them. Watch for the battle between Quinnipiac’s Jaden Zimmerman (16.3 pgg) and Siena’s Gavin Doty (17.0 ppg, 7.0 rpg). They should be matched up against each other and are both 1st Team All-MAAC caliber players.

Honorable Mentions:

(10) Michigan State @ Wisconsin - Both coming off an OT game and B1G tourney seeding at stake

Is it Saturday yet?? If Texas Tech is going to be the first team to defeat Arizona this year, they’ll need a fully healthy Christian Anderson (20 ppg, 8 apg) and LeJuan Watts to find his shooting stroke again (11-39 FG last 3 games). To their credit, the Wildcats have not slowed down whatsoever in Big 12 conference play, failing to score more than 80 points just once (77–51 win over Cincinnati).

Honorable Mentions: 

(6) Gonzaga @ Santa Clara - 1st place on the line in the WCC!

(11) Kansas @ (7) Iowa St - get the popcorn ready!

Villanova @ Creighton - Jays likely need this to stay on the bubble

Not many teams get a double feature in our Games of the Day segment. Belmont deserves the honor as much as anyone. They could enter this game on an 11 game winning streak and a 2 game lead over their opponent. If they roll in this one, they will have a 3 game lead with only 3 games left to play. This would all but wrap up the MVC Regular Season Championship for the Bruins. Murray State has won two in a row after dropping their previous four. Also of note, this will be the third game in seven days for both teams.

Honorable Mentions:

Merrimack @ Quinnipiac - Merrimack looks to hang onto 1st in the MAAC against the hot Bobcats

Siena @ Marist - Another MAAC matchup? Saints vs. Red Foxes in Poughkeepsie!

This week’s Banjo String came in the MAC - SBC Challenge (we need more conference challenges in the middle of the season!), where UMass and Coastal Carolina battled into triple overtime before the Chanticleers escaped 94-91 at the HTC Center in Conway.

There were so many nerve-racking highlights in this one, I’m just going to post the video showing them all!

To summarize…

The Minutemen jumped out early on by double digits, but Coastal clawed back to lead by 3 with 20 seconds left, until K’Jei Parker sent the game into extra time with a deep triple! The first OT saw Coastal’s AJ Dancler hit a wild, one-legged three to send it to 2OT. The second extra period saw both sides trade buckets before Marcus Banks’ 37’ BOMB tied it AGAIN as time expired. Finally, in the third overtime, Joshua Beadle hit a nasty, step back go-ahead triple with under two seconds left to lift the Chanticleers!

I’m exhausted just writing that! 😮‍💨

The 4th year Senior from Benton Harbor, MI has spent his entire career at Kent State - a rare feat in college basketball these days! Gillespie’s patience has paid off; he started just 1 game in his first two seasons, before becoming a permanent starter midway through last year’s campaign. The senior has started every game this year and more than doubled his scoring averages, now sitting at 19.3 points per contest! He also pulls in 12 boards each night and blocks 1.6 shots on average. The all-around star has his team 3rd in MAC standings and is looking to get back to the NCAA tournament (played just 1 minute in a R64 loss to Indiana in 2023).

Collin’s model had one really good day (59-43), but then two really bad days (combined 196-238) that dragged this week’s performance down. Hopefully some of that Seahawks good luck will rub off on his projections!