The last day of the year saw some great games, and there were a few big-time upsets. West Virginia beat Kansas in Phog Allen. That is a feat that so few can claim, but on a deeper level, it is a huge win for the Mountaineers. West Virginia has a neutral court win over Gonzaga in the Bahamas and just got a huge road win over Kansas. There is no combination of teams in the NCAA tournament mix that will have that combination of wins come Selection Sunday. Those wins should be enough to qualify them for the tournament, provided they don’t lose a ton of games.
Here are some other results from the Big 12 today. UCF beat Texas Tech in Lubbock, the Golden Knights are sneaky and are going to be tough to beat. Baylor blew out Utah, BYU beat Arizona State. The earlier version of Arizona State seems to have disappeared. The Big East saw Creighton beat St. John’s in Omaha, Marquette blew out Providence, and Xavier blew out Seton Hall. The ACC saw Virginia beat NC State, Georgia Tech blew out Notre Dame, Wake Forest beat Syracuse, Duke beat Virginia Tech.
The Atlantic 10 was a lot of fun today: Dayton beat La Salle, Duquesne upset Rhode Island in Pittsburgh, Saint Louis blew out Fordham, and St. Bonaventure survived a very game VCU team. It was rowdy in Olean tonight. Saint Joseph’s beat UMass, George Mason beat Davidson, Richmond beat George Washington. The Revolutionaries started off 11-2 last year and faltered in a big way in A10 play. Hopefully, that won’t happen again.
The American Conference play also kicked off today, and there were some surprises in that league as well. North Texas needed a late comeback to beat UAB in Denton, Tulane blew out Charlotte. That was surprising given that Charlotte is built to perform in the American, but their stars did nothing. South Florida beat East Carolina. The Mountain West saw UNLV, Colorado State, New Mexico, Boise State, and Utah State all win; the Aggies are awfully good and will be a pain come March.
Happy New Year, everyone. I hope you have a great 2025, and it has been a pleasure providing content for you all every day. The slate for New Year's provides us with basketball all day long, and everyone gets deeper into conference play. ACC conference play, Horizon League, Big East, Missouri Valley, and American all resume. Southern Conference play begins today. Picks for day 55, January 1, 2025, are below.
Winner | Loser |
|---|---|
Boston College | Miami |
Youngstown State | IU Indy |
Fort Wayne | Northern Kentucky |
Wofford | UNC Greensboro |
ETSU | VMI |
Yale | Howard |
Western Carolina | Furman |
UConn | DePaul |
Pitt | California |
Southern Illinois | Evansville |
Tulsa | Rice |
Drake | UIC |
Chattanooga | Mercer |
Clemson | Stanford |
North Carolina | Louisville |
Butler | Villanova |
Bradley | Indiana State |
Samford | The Citadel |
Missouri State | Valpo |
Northern Iowa | Belmont |
The best game of the day is North Carolina and Louisville. The Cardinals have a couple of good wins on their resume, but they have fallen off over the month of December. The Cardinals are 1-1 in the ACC and need to protect homecourt if they want to reach their goals this year. North Carolina has not been nearly as advertised this year and they need to get themselves on the right track as the new year starts. The Tar Heels have a roster that should be an easy tournament team. Enjoy the Hoop,s and Happy New Year.