The college basketball season witnessed a wild night on Tuesday night, as the No. 1, 2 and 4 teams in the country – Villanova, Kansas and Kentucky – all lost. However, all those were tough conference games on the road. It is hard enough to win those games in any situation, harder still in the middle of the season when players are beginning to get tired and freshmen can lose focus amidst the grind. Other college basketball losses are a lot more unforgivable, and while one could come up with 10 or 15, these five seem to stand out the most.
Florida State-Temple
The Seminoles are at the top of the ACC standings, and Temple is a team that is hovering near the .500 mark. How did this game get away from Florida State? That’s a puzzling question without any context. However, it gets worse for the Seminoles. They had an 18-point lead with roughly 14 minutes left in this game. They were controlling the action and doing anything they wanted at the offensive end of the floor. They lost focus on defense and enabled Temple to get into a shooting rhythm from three-point range. That was bad enough. Yet, the crowning moment of misery came at the very end. Temple was up by one, and Florida State inbounded the ball in the final seven seconds. The pass was executed perfectly to the left side of the basket. FSU got a dunk opportunity with no one on Temple able to get there in time to block the shot. However, the Florida State player lost the ball when going up to lay the ball in. Temple held on.
Michigan State-Northeastern
There are many problems with Michigan State and many reasons this team is in trouble in terms of getting to the NCAA Tournament. However, some losses are more allowable than others. Michigan State has lost to Kentucky and Baylor and Purdue. Those are quality teams which will be seeded highly in the NCAA Tournament. Northeastern has to win its conference tournament to get into March Madness. Playing on the road (which MSU did at Northeastern a year ago) is risky, but playing a mid-major team at home should be a routine victory. Yet, Michigan State did not show up to play and got smoked.
Nebraska – Gardner-Webb
This is another power college basketball conference team losing at home to a mid-major. Gardner-Webb is actually worse than Northeastern, so this result helps to show why Nebraska is in such bad shape in its pursuit of the NCAA Tournament despite wins at Indiana and Maryland. Nebraska can be so good when at its best, but that only makes losses such as this one even more puzzling and frustrating.
New Mexico-Nevada
This is the craziest comeback win and loss of the season. New Mexico led by 25 at one stage of this game. The Lobos still led by 19 with a little over 4:20 left in this game. They led by 17 with just over 2:40 left, and they still led by 14 with 1:29 left.
They still lost. Nevada tossed in a lot of threes, and New Mexico missed a significant number of free throws down the stretch. That simply should not happen, but it did.
Connecticut-Wagner
The UConn Huskies won the national title three years ago, so how can they lose at home to a lowly Wagner team? This is notable because UConn had not suffered as many injuries at this point in the college basketball season – this was the opener for the Huskies. They had a fuller roster and were the No. 18 ranked team in the country entering the season. This was an immensely disappointing effort which set the tone for a very miserable season in New England.
At this point, they are 9-11 on the year, which is as pathetic as can be for a team that was once one of the powerhouses in the Big East/American Athletic Conference. Head Coach Kevin Ollie was once one of the hottest commodities on the market after the Huskies won the National Championship but the luster has worn off his star. He could squarely be on the hot seat unless this team turns things around.
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