The last Saturday of 2024, we had some great college basketball games. There was conference play and a lot of games that came down to the wire. Let’s start with the best games of the day. Memphis blew out Ole Miss. The Rebels do not have much on the resume in the non-conference portion of the schedule. Ole Miss will need to do some work in the SEC to secure their NCAA tournament spot.
UCLA beat Gonzaga in Inglewood. The game was sloppy, just how the Bruins liked it, and Gonzaga just couldn’t make enough shots down the stretch to close the game out. Khalif Battle was ejected with a Flagrant 2 foul near the end of the first half, and the Bulldogs still almost won. UCLA got another signature win before heading into the Big Ten. Utah State came back from 18 points down at Viejas to beat San Diego State. San Diego State rarely blows leads, and they rarely lose at home. It was a huge win for Utah State, and they look good for an at-large bid if they don’t win the Mountain West.
Here are some other results. Hampton improves to 8-5 with a win over Howard in the HBCU Showcase. Louisville needed all 40 minutes to beat Eastern Kentucky. The Cardinals have not looked anywhere close to the team they were in Atlantis. They need to find it quickly with ACC play coming up. Washington State got their first win as a member of the WCC, with a win in Portland. Wyoming beat Nevada, Boise State beat San Jose State, and UNLV beat Fresno State in the Mountain West. Finally, Saint Mary’s beat Pacific, and San Francisco beat LMU in the WCC. That may be a competitive league this year.
The Sunday schedule has a lot of ranked teams in action. It is also the final Sunday before conference play begins in the major conferences for the year. Many of the games today could end in blowouts, but any day with college basketball is a great day. Picks for day 52 December 29, 2024, are below.
Winner | Loser |
|---|---|
Ohio State | Indiana State |
Texas | Northwestern State |
Florida | Stetson |
Quinnipiac | Hofstra |
Lafayette | Stonehill |
William & Mary | Navy |
Penn State | Penn |
Iona | Harvard |
Northwestern | Northeastern |
Oklahoma | Prairie View |
Illinois | Chicago State |
Northern Iowa | Southern Illinois |
Albany | Stony Brook |
Marist | Binghamton |
Maine | Boston University |
Niagara | Le Moyne |
High Point | Norfolk State |
Minnesota | Morgan State |
Georgia | South Carolina State |
Youngstown State | Detroit Mercy |
Fort Wayne | Green Bay |
Milwaukee | IU Indy |
Robert Morris | Northern Kentucky |
SMU | Longwood |
Alabama | South Dakota State |
Drake | Belmont |
Temple | Buffalo |
UTSA | Army |
Washington | NJIT |
Cleveland State | Wright State |
Missouri State | Evansville |
Bradley | Valpo |
American | UMBC |
Indiana | Winthrop |
Oregon | Weber State |
Texas State | UT Arlington |
Illinois State | Illinois-Chicago |
Tarleton State | Florida A&M |
LSU | Mississippi Valley State |
Michigan | Western Kentucky |
North Carolina | Campbell |
It is hard to pick a game to talk about on the schedule today because there are not many good ones. The best game on the schedule is going to take place in Des Moines, Iowa when Drake plays Belmont in a Missouri Valley conference game. Drake has been a huge surprise this year as they are one of the final undefeated teams.
Belmont has a team that can pressure the Bulldogs but likely won’t end with a win. Crazier things have happened, especially in conference games.