The best part of having a weekly feature that highlights the weekend’s upsets is that no matter how stable the college basketball world feels, chaos will inevitably reign. Such was yet again true this last weekend as ranked teams from the ACC, Big 12 and Big Ten all went down to unranked opponents.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkOP__QEzok
In the ACC, things started off with North Carolina State going on the road and taking down No. 9 Louisville. Terry Rozier and Montrezl Harrell combined to shoot just 4-of-16 from the field and just four free throws, numbers that will rarely bode well for Rick Pitino’s group. On the other side, neither Anthony Barber nor Trevor Lacey were incredibly efficient, but both paced the Wolfpack’s offense attack. Pitt got a key conference win by shooting 65-percent from the field against North Carolina, an upset that the Tar Heels will look to rebound from on Wednesday when they take on Duke.
Both Oklahoma and Oklahoma State went down to unranked opponents on Saturday. The Sooners fell in Manhattan to Kansas State thanks to a controversial three from KSU and once against showed that as good as they can be at times, and it’s quite good, their inability to avoid the let down is a prime reason we’re not ready to trust them in March. Meanwhile, OSU dropped one to TCU, giving the Horned Frogs just their second conference win on the season.
Elsewhere, Michigan State upset Ohio State on a late three to give them another quality resume win and further this writer’s belief that they are a serious NCAA Tournament sleeper. Cincinnati also fell at home to Tulane, a loss that could make Selection Sunday a bit more dicey from the Bearcats.
