It was another one of those nights in College Basketball. In the last 48 hours Purdue, Houston, Kansas, and Tennessee have all lost to unranked teams. They were ranked number 1, 2, 3 and 5 in the latest AP Poll. The number 4 team is the UConn Huskies, and they were tested last night by Xavier and escaped with a 5 point win. Kansas blew a 16 point lead and lost to UCF in Florida. Mississippi State beat Tennessee at the Hump for their signature win of the season. Clemson was ranked 21 and they also lost in Blacksburg to Virginia Tech. Apparently, it is a bad week to be ranked.
There were some other very surprising results last night as well. Louisville went on the road and beat the Miami Hurricanes. That is the biggest win for the Cardinals under Kenny Payne, and it was a loss that Miami can’t take as a bubble team. Colgate, who usually dominates within the Patriot League, lost to Lafayette at home. Lafayette had only beaten one Division 1 team this year before winning last night.
It was a weird night, and the last two nights have been some of the best basketball nights of the season. Some other eye-popping results especially for bubble teams were California beating bubble team Colorado. Colorado also blew a huge lead in that game. Washington State beat USC. Saint Louis beat Saint Joseph’s. Jacksonville State beat Liberty. Memphis needed overtime to beat UTSA in Memphis. TCU beat Oklahoma, who was ranked at the number 9 team in the country. Butler beat 11th ranked Marquette in Milwaukee and finally Georgia beat Arkansas. It has been a disappointing season for the Razorbacks, and it doesn’t look like they are going to get going anytime soon.
Yesterday I went 30-19 in my picks. That brings my 64 day total to 1,817-668 overall. After two weird nights that saw a ton of upsets today should be quieter but there are still games with tremendous upset potential especially in the American and the Big Ten. The rest of the schedule is games in the America East, CAA, Southern, Sun Belt, Conference USA, Summit, Ohio Valley, SWAC, Pac 12, Big West, WAC, Big Sky, and WCC. There are some ranked teams playing tonight so be on alert for those teams to fall. Picks for day 65 January 11, 2024, are below.
Maine over New Hampshire
UMass Lowell over NJIT
Tulane over Florida Atlantic
Hampton over William & Mary
Towson over Stony Brook
UNC Wilmington over Monmouth
Hofstra over Northeastern
Charleston over Elon
Drexel over North Carolina A&T
Delaware over Campbell
Maryland over Michigan
Chattanooga over VMI
James Madison over South Alabama
Georgia State over Old Dominion
Appalachian State over Coastal Carolina
Vermont over UMBC
Bryant over Binghamton
FIU over New Mexico State
Seattle over UT Rio Grande Valley
Alcorn State over Alabama A&M
Samford over UNC Greensboro
Kansas City over North Dakota State
St Thomas over South Dakota State
Omaha over North Dakota
Oral Roberts over South Dakota
UT Arlington over Utah Valley
UT Martin over Western Illinois
SIU Edwardsville over Southern Indiana
Lindenwood over Southeast Missouri State
Eastern Illinois over Morehead State
Alabama State over Jackson State
Southern Mississippi over Louisiana-Monroe
Arkansas State over Texas State
Eastern Kentucky over Central Arkansas
North Alabama over Bellarmine
Illinois over Michigan State
Utah over UCLA
Longwood over Radford
Utah Tech over Stephen F. Austin
Grand Canyon over Abilene Christian
Louisiana Tech and Middle Tennessee
Northridge over UC Davis
Weber State over Sacramento State
Montana State over Northern Arizona
Montana over Northern Colorado
Gonzaga over Santa Clara
San Francisco over San Diego
Pepperdine over Pacific
Cal Baptist over Tarleton State
UC San Diego over Long Beach
Riverside over Cal Poly
Santa Barbara over Bakersfield
Portland State over Idaho State
Washington over Arizona State
Oregon State over Stanford
Saint Mary’s over Portland
Hawaii over UC Irvine
There are a lot of games on the schedule today and there are some that I would like to point out as upsets. This week has gotten weird so let’s continue to get weird. Tulane is one of the best teams in the American and have the guards and a big man in Kevin Cross who will constantly pressure Florida Atlantic. The Owls have not responded as well as some would have thought with a target on their back and winning on the road is never easy.
Maryland beating Michigan would not be an upset, but Michigan will not have their star Dug McDaniel tonight as he starts his 6 suspension for only road games tonight against Maryland. Michigan State was challenged by coach Izzo after their latest loss to Northwestern and they travel to Illinois tonight. The last time they were challenged they beat Baylor by 24 points. The Spartans are always capable of going on a long run.
A mid major game is the game of the night between two Big South contenders in Longwood and Radford. The game is on ESPNU and features a team in Radford who is a Big South power against Longwood who has been one of the best in the league over the last 3 years. The Lancers have one of the best coaches in all of basketball and Radford has Kenyon Giles who is one of the best players in the league. That will be a fun game.