Tuesday night was a great night for ranked teams. Heading into the day, it looked like three of them could lose, but seven of them won, and the only loss was Tennessee losing to Kentucky. Kentucky came out of the game firing and hit a ton of threes to take an early lead and outside of a big run by the Volunteers at the end of the first half controlled the game. Tennessee desperately needs a huge win; they have failed in all of their attempts for a top win in the SEC.
The rest of the ranked results saw Michigan State blow out Minnesota, Marquette beat Butler, St. John’s blew out Georgetown, Texas A&M beat Oklahoma, Louisville blew out Wake Forest, and finally Kansas hung on to beat UCF. The Knights gave Kansas everything they could handle before eventually losing. Kansas was without DeJuan Harris and still managed to get a win against a good UCF team. UCF needed that win for their resume, as few would have a win at Phog Allen.
There were a lot of bubble teams in action on Tuesday night as well. Pitt beat North Carolina in a game between two bubble teams. Zach Austin was excellent for the Panthers. The Tar Heels are getting dangerously close to the cut line for the NCAA tournament. BYU, also on the bubble, beat Baylor in Provo. The Bears are not nearly as good this year as they have been but that is going to turn out to be a good win for the Cougars. Utah beat Cincinnati, that loss might be all for the Bearcats for the NCAA tournament. It has been a very disappointing season for Cincinnati, especially since they were preseason ranked.
The Wednesday schedule might be better than what we saw on Tuesday night. There are eight ranked teams in action, and three of them are on upset watch. There is a game between two top 15 teams in the SEC; an undefeated Summit League team hopes to stay undefeated, and a giant game in the West Coast Conference. Picks for day 82, January 29, 2025, are below.
Winner | Loser |
|---|---|
South Carolina Upstate | Charleston Southern |
Colgate | Army |
Samford | Furman |
UNC Asheville | Radford |
Winthrop | Presbyterian |
App State | Old Dominion |
Auburn | LSU |
Houston | West Virginia |
Maryland | Wisconsin |
Texas Tech | TCU |
Longwood | Gardner-Webb |
FAU | UTSA |
Temple | Charlotte |
Virginia | Miami |
Florida State | Virginia Tech |
Rhode Island | UMass |
George Washington | Richmond |
George Mason | Loyola Chicago |
Saint Joseph's | Duquesne |
La Salle | Fordham |
Drake | Northern Iowa |
Indiana State | Missouri State |
Bucknell | Loyola MD |
Lehigh | Navy |
Lafayette | American |
North Florida | Stetson |
Queens | North Alabama |
Jacksonville | Florida Gulf Coast |
Wofford | VMI |
Chattanooga | Western Carolina |
UNC Greensboro | ETSU |
Mercer | The Citadel |
North Texas | Wichita State |
Central Arkansas | West Georgia |
UConn | DePaul |
Kansas State | Oklahoma State |
Tulsa | UAB |
Bradley | Illinois-Chicago |
Murray State | Evansville |
Creighton | Xavier |
Arkansas State | Southern Mississippi |
St Thomas | Oral Roberts |
Omaha | South Dakota |
Mississippi State | Alabama |
Ole Miss | Texas |
SMU | California |
Illinois State | Belmont |
Northwestern | Rutgers |
Santa Clara | Saint Mary's |
Boise State | Nevada |
Utah State | UNLV |
Stanford | Syracuse |
The top team in the country plays, but they should cruise to a victory. The top game tonight is between 4th-ranked Alabama and 14th-ranked Mississippi State. The Bulldogs get the Tide at the Hump, and that usually means a Mississippi State win. The Bulldogs use their defense to get out in transition and have two guards who can score from all over the floor. Josh Hubbard can be a game-changer on the offensive and defensive ends of the floor in this one.
Alabama should need no introduction. They play as fast as possible, have one of the best offenses in the sport and will shoot as many threes as possible and likely will make most of them. Mark Sears and Grant Nelson are the best players on the floor every night, and they will do the heavy lifting for Alabama like they do every night. Enjoy the hoops!