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UNC, Michigan State, Houston the weekend’s big winners and more college basketball thoughts

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UNC, Michigan State, Houston the weekend’s big winners and more college basketball thoughts

The best rivalry in college basketball is Duke-North Carolina, and Saturday’s instant classic proved exactly why. UNC pulled off a stunner, coming back from 13 down to steal it just before the buzzer, 71-68. Seth Trimble’s clutch triple gave UNC its only lead of the entire game and sent the Dean Dome into a frenzy — including a premature court storm that had to be cleared to play out the final 0.4 seconds.

The Smith Center crew frantically had to clean the court, but in the end, the result was the same: a Tar Heel victory and another chapter of the story between two of the best basketball programs in the entire sport.

No. 4 Duke (21-2, 10-1 ACC) appeared to be in control the whole way. It owned the paint early, quickly building a 20-9 advantage via that interior dominance. Case in point: No UNC player had a rebound in the first eight minutes of the game. Only Caleb Wilson’s individual brilliance kept the Tar Heels (19-4, 7-3) in range.

Even late in the game, No. 14 UNC trailed 68-62, and it looked like it would come up just short in its bid for its biggest comeback in this rivalry in 25 years. But Derek Dixon and Henri Veesaar each connected on enormous shots to tie the game, and the Heels’ defense held up against a physical Cameron Boozer drive, setting the stage for Trimble’s heroics. Dixon’s game-winning assist should not go uncredited, either — the freshman guard, who recently entered the starting lineup, displayed sublime vision to find Trimble in the opposite corner:

Both bluebloods got outstanding games from their star freshmen: Boozer had 24 points and 11 rebounds, while Wilson went for 23 points and four boards.

Our own Brendan Marks was at the Smith Center on Saturday, so be sure to check out his firsthand documentation of one of the games of the season.

Though Duke/UNC certainly stole the show as the day’s headliner, Saturday was a busy day in the sport all over the country. Catch up on all the action – headliner matchups, bubble ups and downs, controversial calls — with our Saturday wrap-up below.

Fears leads Michigan State to thrilling win

Jeremy Fears Jr. needed a night to begin rehabilitating his reputation and No. 10 Michigan State needed a win after a two-game losing streak.

Done and done.

The Spartans kept their Big Ten title chances alive with an 85-82 overtime win over No. 5 Illinois, led by Fears’ 26 points and 15 assists.

This was one of the most physical games of the season, with the two teams combining for 40 personal fouls. Fears found success zigzagging into the lane and either throwing alley-oops or using screens from his bigs to score at the basket. He also had what might have been the best alley-oop pass and finish of the season to Coen Carr.

It was the first time the Illini have really missed Kylan Boswell, the senior guard who has missed six games with a broken hand. Boswell is one of the best defenders in the country and would have had the Fears assignment and it’s hard to believe he would have dominated like he did.

Defensively, Michigan State was able to slow Illini freshman Keaton Wagler, who came in playing better than anyone in college basketball, but he struggled to find any space against the Spartans, who crowded him on the perimeter and met him at the rim with vertical contests. Wagler still managed to score 16 points but was 2-of-16 from the field, with one of those makes on a deep 3 in the final seconds of OT that cut Michigan State’s lead to 3. Wagler then stole the inbound, passed the ball and Zvonimir Ivisic threw up a desperation shot at the buzzer that wasn’t close.

Fears had been under scrutiny all week after Michigan coach Dusty May called out his trip of Yaxel Lendeborg last week, and then a technical foul against Minnesota for his backward kick of Langston Reynolds in the groin area after Reynolds fouled him.

The Illini (20-4, 11-2 Big Ten) turned to David Mirkovic to be the freshman star for the day. Mirkovic was able to score in the paint with some crafty finishes, and he finished with 18 points and six assists. Illini senior Jake Davis nearly was the hero. Davis got an offensive rebound and was fouled with one second left in regulation and made both free throws to force overtime.

Fears did appear to accidentally trip Mirkovic in the first half, who was trailing him from behind when Fears stuck out his left foot. Illinois coach Brad Underwood appealed to have the play reviewed, and the officials determined it was incidental. Fears told Fox’s Steve Smith after the game that the last week “was kind of rough” and he’s “trying to make sure that’s not my character and who I am.”

The Spartans (20-4, 10-3) are now one game back of second place and two games back of Michigan, with whom they close the season in Ann Arbor. — CJ Moore

Kingston Flemings and Houston have played their way into contention for a No. 1 seed with another win over a ranked team. (Chris Gardner / Getty Images)

Here comes Houston

On a weekend when three teams vying for a No. 1 seed all lost — UConn, Duke and Illinois — No. 8 Houston won at No. 16 BYU, 77-66, and got its best win of the season to improve its resume.

Houston (21-2, 9-1 Big 12) continued to be the best road team in college basketball the last two seasons, improving to 14-1 in true road games over that time.

BYU (17-6, 5-5 Big 12) has now lost four straight games and is 0-5 against ranked opponents this season. BYU did play and defend with a different intensity in this game, but the one thing its defense could not handle was the speed of Houston freshman point guard Kingston Flemings, who finished with 19 points and five assists.

Houston freshman Chris Cenac Jr. also made some timely jumpers and added 16 points.

BYU freshman AJ Dybantsa had his best performance against a ranked opponent, scoring an efficient 28 points on 9-of-14 shooting and also adding four assists. Robert Wright also showed up with 17 points. Those two were a combined 6-of-7 from 3; the issue was the other Cougars went a combined 2-of-15.

Houston remains just one game back of Arizona, which has to travel to Allen Fieldhouse to play Kansas on Monday. — Moore

Bubble watch

With exactly four weeks until Selection Sunday, the race for NCAA Tournament at-large bids is reaching the home stretch. Saturday’s immense slate — 155 games between Division I opponents — brought crucial clashes in the bubble realm, and the results meant major movers in both directions.

The biggest bubble battle of the day was in Bloomington, Ind., where host Indiana and visiting Wisconsin are both still in need of notable wins to firmly position themselves in the NCAA Tournament field. The game delivered on those stakes, a nip-and-tuck affair that Indiana won in overtime, 78-77, after a couple of controversial calls.

With Wisconsin leading 77-76 in the final seconds, a charging foul on Nick Boyd gave the ball back to the Hoosiers with the shot clock off. Then, officials blew the whistle again as Lamar Wilkerson tried to work his way to the basket against John Blackwell:

Wilkerson sank two free throws to give Indiana the lead. That turned out to be the difference as Wisconsin’s last gasp went awry, earning the Hoosiers another vital victory.

After the game, Wisconsin coach Greg Gard took more issue with the charge than the final game-deciding call, calmly voicing his discontent with what he believed was IU intentionally trying to foul:

The Hoosiers (16-8, 7-6 Big Ten) may have already been in the field before that result — our Joe Rexrode had IU as a 10 seed this past week — and this helped build on IU’s recent key wins over Purdue and UCLA. Wisconsin (16-7, 8-4), meanwhile, missed out on another massive road win to supplement its elite triumph at Michigan. This loss does not hurt the Badgers, but they remain in need of more wins.

Other winners

Outside of Indiana, not many bubble teams made huge pushes towards the field. But at this point in the season, taking care of business in tricky road games is gold. That is exactly what many bubblers did: Villanova (at Georgetown), Missouri (at South Carolina), Miami (at Boston College), Georgia (at LSU), Santa Clara (at Washington State) and SMU (at Pitt) all dispatched lesser teams in their conferences.

Notably, Villanova (18-5, 9-3 Big East) has likely elevated itself above the true bubble fray at this stage.

It may be difficult to call Texas (15-9, 6-5 SEC) a winner after the Longhorns flirted with disaster against Ole Miss, but a 14-0 run to end the game gave Sean Miller’s team the juice it needed to avoid a possible Q3 home loss. The same goes for TCU (14-9, 4-6 Big 12), which erased an 18-point deficit to escape with an 84-82 win against Kansas State, and UCLA (17-7, 9-4 Big Ten), which edged out Washington at home, 77-73. Avoiding bad losses is the bare minimum for bubble teams. For the Bruins, Washington would not have been a bad loss per se, but Mick Cronin’s team stays on the right side of the cut line for now.

Bubble losers

Wisconsin’s missed opportunity on the road will be a sore spot, particularly if the Badgers fade and end up missing the NCAA Tournament. But they remain in decent shape — something that Virginia Tech cannot say. The Hokies (16-8, 5-6 ACC) need to make up ground but could not get it done in Raleigh against NC State, falling 82-73. Mike Young’s team needs to take advantage of their big win chances over the next few weeks.

Seton Hall (16-8, 6-7 Big East) continues to fade from the picture after a 14-2 start to the season. After losing a heartbreaker at Creighton, 69-68, the Pirates have now lost six of their last eight in an underwhelming Big East and may have played themselves out of the field. The end of the season still offers swings at UConn (away) and St. John’s (home), but the Big East looks like a three-bid league this season.

The Mountain West is in a similar predicament after New Mexico lost at home to Boise State, 91-90. The Lobos (18-6, 9-4) have now dropped two in a row, putting them in a precarious position. Fortunately for the league, fellow bubbler San Diego State (17-6, 11-2) blasted Air Force, 88-54.

There is no shame in losing to No. 1 Arizona, but the fashion in which Oklahoma State lost was concerning. Yes, the Cowboys (16-7, 4-6 Big 12) just beat BYU, but shooting 24.5 percent from the field and losing by 37 in Tucson will damage their metrics and could shade the opinion of committee members who value the eye test. Similarly, California never had a chance against Clemson, trailing by 20 for essentially the entire game en route to an ugly 77-55 home loss. The Golden Bears (17-7, 5-6 ACC) have plenty of work to do. — Jim Root

Standings shakeup in the SEC

There is one team all alone atop the SEC standings: the defending national champion Florida Gators.

No. 17 Florida defeated Texas A&M 86-67 in College Station, locking down the Aggies for the Gators’ eighth win in nine games. Florida (17-6, 8-2) is in sole possession of first place in the conference for the first time since 2014.

It was nearly a wire-to-wire road win for the Gators, as Texas A&M (17-6, 7-3) made just one of its first 27 shots from the field, quickly falling behind by double digits. Florida never relented, punishing the Aggies inside with a 48-24 advantage on points in the paint while holding A&M to 31 percent shooting and just 9 for 34 from 3-point range. Thomas Haugh led all scorers with 22, one of five Gators in double figures, as coach Todd Golden adjusts this team from one that won a title with guard scoring to one that wins games defensively and in the frontcourt. UF plays Wednesday at Georgia, which won at LSU on Saturday.

After a discouraging start to the season, it’s suddenly Kentucky (17-7, 8-3) that’s chasing Florida, now a half-game back after a 74-71 comeback win over No. 25 Tennessee. The Vols (16-7, 6-4) went up by as many as 13 in the second half at Rupp, but Kentucky fought back with defense and buckets at the rim. Tennessee shot 1 for 16 during an extended stretch and the Wildcats went 18-for-25 on dunks and layups, led by 21 from Otega Oweh. Though it was a clutch 3-pointer by Collin Chandler that gave Kentucky a 71-69 lead with 33 seconds and swung momentum in the final moments. It was enough to overcome a game-high 29 points from Vols star freshman Nate Ament.

Kentucky has a week off before playing at Florida next Saturday.

Another rivalry game on Saturday that did not disappoint? The basketball Iron Bowl. Alabama toppled Auburn 96-92 on the road. Bama shot its way back from a 7-point deficit in the second half, making 54 percent from the field, 12-for-23 from deep and 20-for-23 on free throws. Crimson Tide sophomore Labaron Philon Jr., who was a game-time decision due to injury, led the way with 25 points.

Charles Bediako scored 12 points (5-of-5 from the field) in 22 minutes off the bench for Alabama as well, one day after a hearing on Friday in Tuscaloosa Circuit Court for Bediako’s ongoing lawsuit against the NCAA. The 7-footer, who previously declared for the 2023 NBA Draft and played in the G League, participated in his fifth game since returning to the Crimson Tide under a temporary restraining order (TRO). Friday’s hearing for a preliminary injunction was to determine whether Bediako can continue playing the rest of the season for the Tide, but the judge did not offer an immediate ruling, allowing Bediako to play under the existing TRO. A decision could come on Monday.

Auburn fans showered Bediako with chants of “G League drop out” while he was at the free-throw line on Saturday.

“He had a huge impact…That’s the difference in the game right there,” Auburn coach Steven Pearl said after the game. “He makes that team better.”

Elsewhere, No. 21 Arkansas stayed a game out of first place with a road win over Mississippi State, and No. 15 Vanderbilt lost by 1 at home to last-place Oklahoma, despite the Commodores nearly erasing a 21-point deficit in the final five minutes. — Justin Williams

Arizona and Miami (Ohio) keep winning

There are still a pair of undefeated teams in men’s college basketball, with No. 1 Arizona and No. 23 Miami (Ohio) both winning on Saturday to maintain unblemished records. The Wildcats improved to 23-0 with a dominant 84-47 home win over Oklahoma State, while the RedHawks are now 24-0 with a 90-74 victory at Marshall.

Arizona continues to be an absolute wagon. After a sloppy start, the Cats ripped off a 40-10 run over the end of the first half and start of the second. Arizona shot 52 percent, outscored the Cowboys by 40 points in the paint and led by as much as 43 in the final minutes. It looked like a varsity team playing middle schoolers.

The Wildcats keep validating that No. 1 ranking, at the top of an elite tier alongside Michigan. And Zona does it without relying on 3-pointers: the team is in the bottom five out of 365 Division I schools in terms of its rate of attempts and percentage of points from beyond the arc.

That undefeated record is about to face its toughest stretch of the season, starting with a trip to Kansas on Big Monday, followed by home games against Texas Tech and BYU and a road game at Houston over the next two weeks.

Miami (Ohio) shot the stripes off the ball yet again. The RedHawks converted 56 percent from the field and 44 percent from deep at Marshall, hitting the 90-point mark for the eleventh time this season and eighth in regulation. The team’s effective field goal rate of 60.1 percent ranks top five in the country according to KenPom, bolstered by junior guard Eian Elmer on Saturday, who led Miami with 18 points and 4-for-4 on 3-pointers.

Miami’s resume weaknesses are obvious: three games against non-DI opponents, 13 Quad 4 wins, zero Quad 1 games and a strength-of-schedule hovering around 350. There’s a good chance it will need to be the automatic qualifier out of the MAC to make the NCAA Tournament, no matter how many wins it racks up along the way. The RedHawks don’t sit at the same lunch table as Arizona. And none of it means this run hasn’t been fun to watch.

It’s earned the RedHawks a marquee showcase in their next game on ESPN proper: 9 p.m. on Friday at home against rival Ohio in the Battle of the Bricks. — Williams

Orange is the new bad

A disappointing Syracuse season got worse. And weirder.

The Orange lost 72-59 at No. 18 Virginia on Saturday, falling to 13-11 overall and 4-7 in the ACC. Syracuse made just three of 11 attempts on 3-pointers and turned the ball over 13 times. Freshman Kiyan Anthony, the son of Syracuse legend Carmelo Anthony, was benched for the game as a coach’s decision, his first game without seeing the floor this season.

“No injury concerns. It was just my decision,” coach Adrian Autry said after the game.

Anthony is averaging 8.9 points in 19.3 minutes this season. Autry is squarely on the hot seat in his third year at the helm for his alma mater.

Earlier this week, Carmelo Anthony seemed to signal some frustration, posting a comment that read “SMFH” on the team’s Instagram post of highlights from a loss to North Carolina. On Saturday, he commented on an Instagram post about his son’s benching: “He’ll be Good! THEY SAY it’s part of the Journey. A little adversity don’t hurt.”

The ESPN broadcast of Saturday’s loss to Virginia also showed Syracuse forward Donnie Freeman peeling the (un)crust off an … Uncrustable … during pregame warmups. Freeman finished with 5 points and 9 rebounds. — Williams

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