It was a light Monday on the schedule, but the day was not without a devastating loss by a bubble team. North Carolina is firmly on the bubble and if the field was selected today, they would be out of the NCAA tournament. The Tar Heels need all the wins they can get, especially when they are playing ranked teams. North Carolina got smoked at Littlejohn Coliseum by the Clemson Tigers. Clemson was coming off a huge win against Duke, and many thought a letdown may be in order, but they blew out North Carolina. The Tar Heels have a lot of work to do to find themselves in the tournament field.
There was one more ranked team in action yesterday, and that was the Houston Cougars. Houston blew out Baylor at the Fertitta Center. The Cougars are now 12-1 in the Big 12, 20-4 overall, and are a threat to make a Final Four again. The country will learn a lot about Houston next week when they travel to Arizona for two huge games. Given how Kelvin Sampson has built this program, don’t be surprised when the Cougars go 2-0 in Arizona next week.
The Super Bowl is over, and it is now time to fully focus on basketball and the schedule on Tuesday is going to put a huge focus on basketball for the entire country to get excited about the games today. 15 ranked teams play today. There are three games between teams ranked in the top 25, and the rest of the games are mostly Power 5 schools. There is a great game in the Big 10 between two teams near the top of the standings that are close to being ranked. The SEC is the conference everyone is going to pay attention to today having three huge games on the schedule today. All of them featuring a ranked team. Picks for February 11, 2025, are below.
Winner | Loser |
|---|---|
Auburn | Vanderbilt |
Florida | Mississippi State |
Tennessee | Kentucky |
Michigan | Purdue |
Iowa State | UCF |
Cincinnati | Utah |
West Virginia | BYU |
UAB | East Carolina |
Miami | Syracuse |
Richmond | Loyola Chicago |
Akron | Western Michigan |
Miami Ohio | Toledo |
Bowling Green | Ohio |
Ball State | Eastern Michigan |
Kent State | Central Michigan |
Northern Illinois | Buffalo |
Kansas State | Arizona |
Saint Louis | George Mason |
Northern Iowa | Indiana State |
Murray State | Illinois Chicago |
Illinois | UCLA |
Little Rock | SEMO |
Marquette | DePaul |
Alabama | Texas |
Texas A&M | Georgia |
Michigan State | Indiana |
Kansas | Colorado |
Creighton | UConn |
LMU | Pepperdine |
SMU | Pitt |
USC | Penn State |
UNLV | Air Force |
Utah State | Colorado State |
San Diego State | San Jose State |
Oregon | Northwestern |
Saint Mary's | Santa Clara |
It is hard to pick just one game to highlight today, but the game that stands out above the rest, at least for me, is Kentucky and Tennessee. The Volunteers travel to Rupp Arena for a game with Kentucky. This is round two; the two teams played each other a little over 2 weeks ago. Kentucky comes into this game losing 2 out of their last three games and has slid a little bit after their huge win in Knoxville. Tennessee has gone the other way and has secured three huge wins over the last week and a half after their loss to Kentucky. The Wildcats need to have this win to improve their tournament seeding, and Tennessee needs to have it because they can still get a 1 seed. High powered offense in Kentucky vs great defense in Tennessee. Offense won the first time. Will the Defense win this time? Enjoy the hoops!