Busting Brackets
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NCAA Basketball: Florida’s struggles, Oregon’s dominance & more weekly takeaways

By Brian Rauf

PORTLAND, OREGON - NOVEMBER 12: Payton Pritchard #3 of the Oregon Ducks brings the ball up the court on Boogie Ellis #5 of the Memphis Tigers during the second half of the game at Moda Center on November 12, 2019 in Portland, Oregon. Oregon won the game 82-74. (Photo by Steve Dykes/Getty Images) (Photo by Steve Dykes/Getty Images)
PORTLAND, OREGON - NOVEMBER 12: Payton Pritchard #3 of the Oregon Ducks brings the ball up the court on Boogie Ellis #5 of the Memphis Tigers during the second half of the game at Moda Center on November 12, 2019 in Portland, Oregon. Oregon won the game 82-74. (Photo by Steve Dykes/Getty Images) (Photo by Steve Dykes/Getty Images) /
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NEW YORK, NEW YORK – DECEMBER 04: Head coach Mike White of the Florida Gators directs his players during the first half of the game against the West Virginia Mountaineers at Madison Square Garden on December 04, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – DECEMBER 04: Head coach Mike White of the Florida Gators directs his players during the first half of the game against the West Virginia Mountaineers at Madison Square Garden on December 04, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images) /

Here are the biggest takeaways from the past week in NCAA Basketball, including a look at Florida’s struggles and Oregon’s high upside.

The second week of the NCAA Basketball season brought about a number of high-profile matchups across the country, headlined by the Gavitt Games. The Big Ten won this year’s edition of the games by taking five of the eight matchups against the Big East, including both of the ranked-vs.-ranked contests with Michigan State taking down Seton Hall and Ohio State blowing out Villanova.

We will touch on both of those games later in this week’s Rauf Report, but we’d be remiss if we didn’t look at the most surprising on-court result of the week – Evansville’s upset victory over Kentucky.

The Purple Aces exposed and exploited several weaknesses with the Wildcats, including sloppy defensive rotations and poor perimeter shooting. However, the biggest thing we learned (or, rather, had reinforced) was that there is no clear top group of teams this year. Anyone can be beat. Monday will bring about the third No. 1 team in the season’s first three weeks. The parity we’ve seen across the country will bring about plenty of exciting games and upsets, which should make for a really fun season.

Memphis is expected to be a factor at the top of the rankings, yet that took a hit this week when top freshman and projected No. 1 overall pick James Wiseman dropped his lawsuit against the NCAA and will be ineligible for the foreseeable future. It remains to be seen how long he’ll be held out for and how the Tigers perform in his absence, but it is the major off-court storyline to follow.

Now, back to the on-court games from the past week. We break down the biggest things we learned in this week’s Rauf Report:

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