NCAA Basketball: A one-bid Pac-12, overrated Oklahoma and more takeaways
By Brian Rauf
The non-conference season of NCAA Basketball is almost at its conclusion and this week was highlighted by several high-profile games. Here are the week’s biggest takeaways.
What a week of NCAA Basketball, huh?
It’s almost Christmas and the end of the non-conference schedule is fast approaching, but there were plenty of early presents in the form of quality games before many programs take their own holiday break.
Kansas, the No. 1 team in the country, lost to Arizona State for the second year in a row and showed a lot of their flaws in the process (more on that later). For the Sun Devils, it was the first time they beat a top-ranked team in Tempe in program history, and they continue to serve as perhaps the only good team in the Pac-12.
Duke is expected to take over the top spot in the polls following KU’s loss thanks to their impressive victory over Texas Tech. Point guard Tre Jones stepped up and had his best game of the year, proving that the Blue Devils are much more than just the RJ & Zion Show.
The good thing about the holidays is there are is always a number of good games on – the bad news is that there are so many other things going on during the holidays that it’s hard to find time to sneak away from your family to watch all of them. Heck, I missed most of Kentucky’s win over UNC because I had to help fix a broken toilet. Aren’t the holidays great?
Well, we’re here to cover you if you’re like me and missed something and what those things mean. Here are the eight biggest takeaways from the week in this edition of the Rauf Report.