Busting Brackets
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NCAA Basketball: 68 defining moments of the 2019-20 season

By Lukas Harkins

DAYTON, OH - MARCH 07: Rodney Chatman #0, Obi Toppin #1 and Jalen Crutcher #10 of the Dayton Flyers celebrate during a game against the George Washington Colonials at UD Arena on March 7, 2020 in Dayton, Ohio. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)
DAYTON, OH - MARCH 07: Rodney Chatman #0, Obi Toppin #1 and Jalen Crutcher #10 of the Dayton Flyers celebrate during a game against the George Washington Colonials at UD Arena on March 7, 2020 in Dayton, Ohio. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /
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CHICAGO, ILLINOIS – DECEMBER 04: DePaul celebrates. (Photo by Quinn Harris/Getty Images)
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS – DECEMBER 04: DePaul celebrates. (Photo by Quinn Harris/Getty Images) /

13. #RankDePaul hype gains momentum. (Dec. 4th)

DePaul started this season at 9-0 and its peak came on Dec. 4th. Even though the Blue Demons already secured road wins over Iowa and Minnesota by this point, the looming home game against Texas Tech showed an exciting possibility. Many knew that a win over the Red Raiders would likely mean an AP Top 25 appearance in the following week for the Blue Demons.

While it certainly wasn’t easy and it required an extra period, DePaul was able to come away with the victory. Jalen Coleman-Lands, most notably, hit four 3-pointers en route to scoring 18 points as the star of the game. This set the #RankDePaul hype into an absolutely frenzy just in time for the team to drop an untimely game to Buffalo over the ensuing weekend.

DePaul still has not been ranked in the AP Poll since it started 1-0 in the 2000-01 season. It ended that campaign at just 12-18.

14. Luka Garza ignites an NPOY campaign. (Dec. 6th)

Iowa lost its third game of the early season on Dec. 6th as it fell on the road to Michigan. This game, though, was the real emergence of Luka Garza as a National Player of the Year contender. Even though the big man had huge games in several wins for the Hawkeyes (definitely after but also before this loss), his performance against the then-highly-regarded Wolverines opened the eyes of many to his talent.

Iowa’s defense was absolutely gouged in that game but Garza filled it up with 44 points on 17-for-32 shooting from the floor. The Hawkeyes seemingly went to him on every single possession and he mostly got the job done. It’s hard to say that someone really started their NPOY campaign in a loss but that might’ve been the case for Garza.

He was already having a big season before the game but putting up monstrous numbers on the road against the No. 4 team in the country at the time was impressive.

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