NCAA Basketball: A look at the major upsets in Week 2 of 2020-21 season
By Ryan Kay
Let’s once again take our weekly look at some of the upsets that happened in week 2 of the 2020-21 NCAA Basketball season.
Like last week most college sports fans are still watching and keeping close tabs on their favorite football teams. NCAA Basketball still has not garnered as much attention as college football but it is starting to get the attention it deserves.
As stated last week, there are people who are fans of college basketball but they may have bigger things to think and worry about this holiday season with the rise in COVID-19 cases nationwide and the financial hardships that have come with it. Not as many as the week prior but still there are many scheduled games that were canceled or postponed this week.
Some mid-major programs played their first game of the season this week and their fans were happy to see their favorite teams begin the season to play in week 2 of the college basketball season.
Last week witnessed numerous upsets in the first week and last week didn’t start until Wednesday and it still was filled with a number well known-name teams being defeated but teams that on paper should not have defeated by in a few cases, by ten or more points and on their home floor.
It is still within reason that certain big-name teams are not having the seeing instant wins in their second week of play as many programs have had long stoppages in being unable to practice due to various positive COVID-19 cases within their program.
As stated last week, technically, the start of the new week begins on Sunday, and for numerous teams from well-known programs and the Power Five conferences, it once again is a fresh week to look back at the previous week of play and game plan for their games for the following week. Let’s take a look, conference by conference at the upsets that occurred this past week.
Big 12 Conference
Iowa State lost on their home court to South Dakota State and ended up losing by a final score of 71-68.
Kansas State was beaten on their home floor by previously winless UNLV by a final score of 68-58.
Big East Conference
Georgetown lost on their home court to Navy by a final score of 78-71.
Seton Hall lost by13 points to Rhode Island on the road by a final score of 76-63.
Pac-12 Conference
Washington lost on a neutral court by 15 points to UC Riverside as the Huskies fell to the Highlanders by a final score of 57-42.
SEC Conference
No. 10 Kentucky lost to Richmond by double digits and lost by a final score of 76-64.
Auburn loses on the road to UCF as the final score was 63-55.
The Big Ten and ACC conferences both avoided upsets this past week even though there were some close games. Overall week two of play in college basketball had fewer upsets than the first week of play.
However, the amount of total upsets still is on pace to easily surpass last season’s upsets percentage-wise based on non-conference games played. Week three may or may not witness a ton of upsets but we shall see.