The sport of college football spent Saturday playing games designed to help determine which schools should be invited to the four-team playoff that finally seems too small. Meantime, the sport of college basketball spent Saturday making things difficult for anybody dumb enough to rank 26 teams every morning.
What a wild afternoon!
Georgia Tech upset Duke, 72-68. UNC Wilmington upset Kentucky, 80-73. Drexel upset Villanova, 57-55. Those are three of the biggest brands in the sport — three programs that have combined to win 16 NCAA Tournaments — all losing to schools that were ranked outside of the top 125 at KenPom.com at tipoff. It was bad losses all around — especially Kentucky’s defeat inside Rupp Arena.
John Calipari’s Wildcats were coming off of a 22-point victory over Miami. They closed as 17.5-point favorites over UNC Wilmington. And yet they lost by seven points to a Coastal Athletic Association program that had previously lost 86-56 to Appalachian State (No. 94 at KenPom) and 74-66 to East Carolina (No. 200 at KenPom).
“All I know,” said Kentucky coach John Calipari, “is [that] we didn’t play the way we’ve been playing,”
Kentucky is down to No. 15 in Sunday morning’s updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings, where Arizona remains No. 1 following Saturday’s 82-55 win over Colgate that pushed Tommy Lloyd’s Wildcats to 7-0. They are the only undefeated team in the country with multiple wins over schools also in the Top 25 And 1. Barring a surprise, Arizona should move to No.1 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll and the USA Today Coaches poll when those rankings update Monday.
