Last night was a fun night of basketball. There were some huge wins that moved the needle and there were some previously undefeated teams in their conferences who lost. Nebraska came back from 19 down and 16 at halftime to beat Wisconsin in Lincoln. Wisconsin was 120-0 since 2020 in games they led by 16 at the half and Nebraska was 1-60 in games they trailed by that amount at half. AP top 10 teams had won 1,458 consecutive games when leading by 16 or more points at halftime. It was the first time a team had come back against a top-10 team being down by that much since 2002. That was a huge comeback by Nebraska and the Huskers now hold wins over both Purdue and Wisconsin.
In other results Green Bay moved to 10-3 in the Horizon after beating IUPUI. Vermont beat Albany to remain undefeated in the America East. Eastern Kentucky lost at Queens and are no longer undefeated in the Atlantic Sun. Montana State beat Eastern Washington. Eastern Washington is no longer undefeated in the Big Sky. Grand Canyon kept their at large hopes alive with an overtime win against Seattle. Sam Houston won the battle of first place against Western Kentucky. Stanford beat Arizona State. Oregon beat USC. UCLA has gone on a little winning streak after they beat Oregon State. UC San Diego and UC Irvine both remain on top of the Big West at 9-1 in the league.
Yesterday I went 40-25 in my picks. That brings my 86-day total to 2,462-987 overall. There are only 15 games on the schedule today and of those 15, 5 of them are between power teams or teams that need as many wins as they can for the NCAA tournament. There are games in the MAC, Atlantic 10, Big Ten, MAAC, Ivy League, Big East, and Mountain West. Picks for day 87 February 2, 2024 are below.
Kent State over Buffalo
Dayton over Saint Bonaventure
Iowa over Ohio State
Cornell over Dartmouth
Rider over Siena
Quinnipiac over Manhattan
Saint Peter’s over Niagara
Marist over Mount St. Mary’s
Iona over Fairfield
Yale over Princeton
Harvard over Columbia
Penn over Brown
Creighton over Butler
Akron over Toledo
Nevada over San Jose State.
Let’s start with the Creighton and Butler game. The Bulldogs have played themselves back onto the NCAA tournament bubble and Creighton is tough to beat in Omaha. The Bluejays are not as good this year but are still a signature win in the Big East. It would be a huge step forward if Butler can keep that game close.
Will Princeton really lose two games in a row in the Ivy? They have a very tough game with Yale. Dayton is looking for a bounce back at home against a good Saint Bonaventure team and finally can Ohio State figure out their road woes in Carver? Akron and Toledo is for outright first place in the MAC.