What a day! That is probably an understatement; this was one of the best days of basketball of the season. I mentioned yesterday that the top two teams in the country were in trouble and that prediction was correct. Florida went to Auburn and beat the Tigers in the Jungle. The Gators are great and are going to be a tough out when the NCAA tournament comes. They are going to be a very trendy pick for the Final Four. Duke went to Littlejohn and lost to Clemson. It was a fantastic game, and it was the return of Dick Vitale to the broadcast booth. Clemson has now won 5 in a row against AP top 5 opponents.
Arkansas was given a huge opportunity to secure their spot in the NCAA tournament, at least for now, with a win over Alabama. The Razorbacks fought hard but were not good enough to secure the win. It is going to be an uphill climb for Arkansas to make the NCAA tournament now. North Carolina won a huge bubble as they beat Pitt in Chapel Hill. The Panthers have had a bad two weeks. Life on the bubble is hard and the Panthers struggle to stay afloat. The Kansas State Wildcats have now won 3 in a row, and the last two have been impressive. Kansas State has beaten Iowa State and Kansas in back-to-back games.
There were well over 100 games yesterday, it is impossible to touch on them all but outside of the games highlighted above here are some other results that caught my eye. UC San Diego went to Irvine and blew out the Anteaters. UC San Diego is now in sole possession of first place in the Big West. UCLA has now won 7 in a row with a win over Penn State. The Nittany Lions have lost 9 out of their last 10 games. Finally, Creighton has won 9 in a row and is in sole possession of second place in the Big East with their huge win over Marquette.
Happy Super Bowl Sunday. The final football game of the year takes place today, and there are some quality games today, even if there are only 8 games. The Big Ten has two huge games. One team is ranked and trying to avoid an upset at home and the other is between two bubble teams who need to win as many games as possible. The majority of the games today are from the Power Five conferences. Picks for February 9, 2025, are below.
Winner | Loser |
|---|---|
Maryland | Rutgers |
St. Bonaventure | George Washington |
Villanova | Xavier |
Memphis | Temple |
Nebraska | Ohio State |
Oklahoma State | Arizona State |
South Florida | Wichita State |
La Salle | UMass |
The best game of the day takes place in Lincoln. The Nebraska Cornhuskers return home after a huge road trip, winning games in Eugene and Seattle to pick up two huge road wins in the Big Ten. Ohio State comes to town and they have won 4 out of 5 and have one of the best shooting teams in the country. Everyone knows that Nebraska struggles with teams that can shoot the ball at a high rate. The defense for the Huskers has been much better, and Nebraska is at home. Ohio State has looked excellent under head coach Jake Diebler this year and could use another road win.