It’s just the first week in March and already the hoops are getting hot. The number one AP ranking has proved difficult to attain and even more difficult to maintain. Upsets have become the norm this basketball season and last week was no exception.
Home court advantage seemed to have played a large part on Tuesday evening when we saw three big upsets in a 3 hour period. Xavier beat #19 Memphis at home…Minnesota beat #1 Indiana at home….Tennessee beat #8 Florida at home.
The number one ranked Indiana Hoosiers led by Cody Zeller and the surprising Victor Oladipo traveled up to Minneapolis on a cold and snowy evening to take on the Minnesota Gophers who were lurking just outside the top 25 at 18-9. The game went hard and fast for the first half with Indiana taking a 4 point lead into the locker room at halftime. The Gophers poured it on a sluggish Hoosier team in the second half and came away with an impressive 77-73 victory in front of a nearly delirious home crowd. Trevor Mbakwe was the hero of the evening with 21 points and 12 rebounds.
This was the seventh time in this season that a Associated Press number one ranked team has gone down to defeat to an underdog team.
The #19 ranked Memphis Tigers took a remarkable 18 game winning streak on a short road trip up to Cincinnati to play an underdog Xavier team. The Musketeers led by 11 at half time and then proceeded to blow a 13 point lead in the second half only to come right back and take the game by a final score of 64-62… so ending the nations’ longest winning streak of the season.
Meanwhile, down in Knoxville, the Tennessee Volunteers hosted SEC arch rival Florida who came into the contest leading the SEC and ranked #4 in the AP poll.
Jordan McRae scored 27 points as the Vols got their sixth victory in a row by knocking off the Gators in front of a roaring home crowd.
On Wednesday evening the Big 10 did a total flip-flop as he lowest ranked team in the conference, Penn State managed to beat the number four team in the nation, the University of Michigan 84-78. Up to that point, the Nittany Lions had not won a game in Big 10 competition this season.
