Saturday, February 4, 2017

Saturday Recap

We saw 6 (6!) top ten teams go down on Saturday. (2) Kansas, (3) Baylor, (5) Arizona, (7) West Virginia, (8) Kentucky and (9) Virginia all lost, four of them to untangled opponents. 

For Kansas, a 54-game home winning streak was snapped as they fell in OT to Iowa State. Baylor was caught sleeping against an underrated Kansas State team. Arizona was blown straight out of Eugene by Oregon. West Virginia never got going against another sneaky Big 12 team in Oklahoma State. Kentucky was dominated by Florida. Finally, Virginia couldn't reconcile last year's Elite Eight collapse against Syracuse, as they lost at the Carrier Dome. 

Out of all these, Arizona's loss against Oregon was the most shocking, not because they lost, but because how they lost. Oregon walloped them, winning 85-58 and shooting 65.2% from the floor. Oregon couldn't miss, and that's why I don't think this was Arizona's poor play as much as it was Oregon's phenomenal play that caused this. Oregon has quietly had a great Pac12  
season, currently sitting at 10-1. Watch out for the Quack Attack come March.

Kentucky has now lost three of their last four and didn't even look good in their win over Georgia earlier this week. Every team goes through slumps, but this Kentucky team has to start playing like we know they are capable of. 

In other news, Purdue scraped by Maryland on the road, with Caleb Swanigan recording his NCAA-leading 20th double-double. Purdue is a team that can do serious damage in the tournament but could also lose in the first round. They are one of those teams where we just can't tell how they'll turn out. Regardless, the win was a huge step forward for their Big Ten championship hopes. 

Who I'm impressed with: Oregon, Purdue, Florida, Syracuse, Iowa State

Who I'm concerned about: Kentucky, Virginia, Baylor, West Virginia

Teams that didn't change my opinion:
Kansas, Arizona, Maryland

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