The weekend’s slate of games didn’t quite turn out to be the barn burner that many of us expected, but three upsets of ranked teams did shake up the NCAA Tournament Bubble, with Ohio State, Butler and Utah all failing to take care of business on the road.
In addition to those three upsets, West Virginia went on the road and knocked off the ranked Oklahoma State Cowboys, furthering their momentum from Juwan Staten’s last second winner against Kansas last week. The Mountaineers look to be playing their best basketball of the season at this point, and continue to see their seed potential for March Madness increase.
Things really got started when the Buckeyes traveled to Ann Arbor to take on rival Michigan, where the Wolverines were waiting in hopes of ending a five-game losing streak. Spike Albrecht and Zach Irvin combined for 31 points in helping UM move to 14-13 on the season. On the other side, Ohio State has now lost two straight and hasn’t beaten a tournament team since a Jan. 29 win over Maryland. It may not be time to hit the panic button on Thad Matta’s group, but D’Angelo Russell needs some help, and Shannon Scott has not given it to him enough recently.
As we’ve talked about before here on GMS, playing at Xavier is like walking into a house of horrors. In keeping with that narrative, a short-handed Butler group got slapped around to the tune of 73-56. With the win, Xavier moved firmly into the field of 68 for the NCAA Tournament.
On Sunday night, Oregon’s Dillon Brooks cemented the Ducks’ upset of No. 9 Utah with a thunderous dunk over two Ute defenders. Dana Altman’s team looked like one of the most unlikely tournament hopefuls before the season, yet here they are. Oregon’s win moved them off the bubble and solidly into the field.
