It was set to be a fantastic Saturday of basketball games, and it delivered on that promise. Iowa State came back from a huge deficit in the second half to defeat Arizona State. The Cyclones are one of the top teams in the country for a reason. Texas came back from 25 down to beat Texas A&M by one point. Houston was down by 6 points with 18 seconds to go in overtime before winning at Phog Allen Fieldhouse.
Let’s talk about the Houston game for a minute. The Cougars were down six with 18 seconds left. They hit a three after two Dejuan Harris missed free throws. Then they stole the inbounds pass, and Mylik Wilson hit a huge three to tie it. Houston dominated the second overtime period to move to 8-0 in the Big 12. Vanderbilt beat Kentucky. It is the Wildcats second straight loss and they have Tennessee looming.
The SEC grabbed all of the headlines on Saturday. Alabama beat LSU, Mississippi State beat South Carolina, Missouri beat Ole Miss. It was the fourth straight loss for the Rebels, and they fell to 1-4 against ranked teams this season. Auburn beat Tennessee in Auburn in a game that was very low-scoring. Zakai Ziegler and Johni Broome dominated as expected but the Tigers survived.
Upsets were aplenty on Saturday. Kansas State beat West Virginia. The Wildcats ended a six-game losing streak. Minnesota beat Oregon. The Gophers have now won 3 in a row after losing their first six games in the Big Ten. Xavier beat UConn, which isn’t really an upset, given how each team had been playing recently.
Today, it doesn’t have as many games because they don’t want to compete with the NFL playoffs. The day is going to be dominated by the Big Ten and there are some huge games in that league. One team that still has NCAA tournament hopes tries to break a long losing streak, Another team tries to get back on track after getting blown out, and another team tries to right the ship with a much-needed win. Picks for day 80 January 26, 2025, are below.
Winner | Loser |
|---|---|
Duquesne | Fordham |
Indiana | Maryland |
Memphis | UAB |
Wisconsin | Nebraska |
Long Island | Mercyhurst |
Central Connecticut | Chicago State |
North Texas | Florida Atlantic |
St Francis | Wagner |
Stonehill | Fairleigh Dickinson |
Illinois | Northwestern |
Texas Tech | Oklahoma State |
Wichita State | Tulsa |
Army | Navy |
The Big Ten has huge games every night but there is one game that stands out above the rest. Nebraska travels to Madison to face Wisconsin. At the start of the month, this game would have seeding implications for the NCAA tournament, and now it is a game that Nebraska needs to break their huge losing streak. During that losing streak, Brice Williams was not dominant and struggled a lot. The Huskers desperately need something to go right. This game does have the chance to go south quickly for the Huskers and could be a game they get pounded in.
Wisconsin has been lighting the nets on fire, shooting threes well, and being very good at home. Nebraska is likely not going to win the game but they need to keep this close and potentially pull an upset to gain some confidence.