Well, the weirdness continues this week with more ranked teams losing. There were fights last night in games and a lot of road teams winning. This week has just had a lot of strange endings to games and a lot of teams having extremely lopsided results. Let’s get into it. Gonzaga lost to Santa Clara for the first time in 13 years. It will also end a streak of Gonzaga being ranked for the first time since 2016. The Broncos look like the best team in the West Coast Conference.
Utah beat UCLA by 48 points. It was one of the worst losses in Bruins history and it looks like they have quit. Stanford came back from 12 down in the second half to beat Oregon State in overtime. Maryland outscored Michigan by 20 in the second half to win their game. Illinois escaped with a win over Michigan State. The two Michigan schools are now in last place in the Big Ten.
Florida Atlantic got a gift of a foul call at the end of the game to beat Tulane. It is a road win for the Owls, but they must learn how to finish games better. UMass Lowell and NJIT and Radford and Longwood both ended in a fight. There will be lengthy suspensions for some of the players involved which will hurt all 4 teams equally. James Madison beat a decent South Alabama team by 34. Washington crushed Arizona State and Saint Mary’s blew out Portland. That was your recap of a wild Thursday and heads into what should be a great Friday.
Yesterday I went 39-18 in my picks. That gives me a 65 day total of 1,856-686 overall. The schedule is lighter today but there are some good games in the Big Ten and a huge game in the Atlantic 10. The rest of the slate features games in the Horizon League, MAAC, American, MAC, Atlantic Sun, Big East, and Mountain West. Picks for day 66 January 12,2024, are below.
Milwaukee over Cleveland State
Indiana over Minnesota
South Florida over Rice
Duquesne over Dayton
Rider over Manhattan
Marist over Quinnipiac
Fairfield over Niagara
Canisius over Siena
Akron over Buffalo
Fort Wayne over Robert Morris
Queens over Stetson
North Florida over Jacksonville
Kennesaw State over Florida Gulf Coast
Villanova over DePaul
Youngstown State over Wright State
Nebraska over Iowa
Nevada over Boise State
This should be a relatively quiet Friday in the college hoops world but with the way this week has gone nothing is unexpected anymore. Nebraska and Iowa is the best game of the day. The Huskers are coming off a huge emotional win against Purdue on Tuesday and are going to have to figure out how to stay even keel playing at Carver. The Huskers would further cement their tournament resume with a quad 1 win in Iowa City. The Hawkeyes are a tough matchup because of their prowess on the offensive end. They are also going to get up for this game given that Nebraska swept them last year. The crowd may be a bit sparse given a huge snowstorm rolling through. Is Minnesota for real? We are all going to find out tonight as they go to Assembly Hall to face an Indiana team that is much better at home.
Duquesne over Dayton may be the best game of the day. Duquesne has gone on a little losing streak, but they are still one of the best teams in the Atlantic 10 in my eyes. They have guards who can score on Dayton and when their frontcourt is rolling, they are as good as anyone. Dayton has lost these games under Anthony Grant in the past and they must try and avoid those tonight. Duquesne needs a win to bolster their resume.