What a Crazy weekend in College Basketball as there were 7 of the top-10 teams in College Basketball lose in a single day.
No. 1 Gonzaga, loss to No. 23 Saint Mary’s, 67-57, and it was a wild celebration in Moraga, Calif. Saint Mary’s ended Gonzaga’s 17-game winning streak and beat a No. 1 team for the first time since it knocked off the Bulldogs in the 2019 West Coast Conference tournament final.
“It’s kind of life in late February and early March, especially on the road,” Gonzaga Coach Mark Few said. His team wrapped up its 10th straight W.C.C. regular-season title the previous weekend.
No. 2 Arizona was defeated, 79-63, at unranked Colorado in the worst loss by a top-two team against an unranked opponent since No. 1 Virginia’s 20-point loss to the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, in the first round of the 2018 N.C.A.A. tournament.
No. 3 Auburn blew an 11-point second-half lead against No. 17 Tennessee and could not complete a late comeback, falling, 67-62.
No. 4 Purdue lost to Michigan State, 68-65, when Northeastern transfer, Tyson Walker, drained a 3-pointer in the final seconds. The victory gave Michigan State Coach Tom Izzo his 662nd career win in the Big Ten, tying him with the longtime Indiana coach Bob Knight for the most in league history.
No. 6 Kentucky lost at No. 18 Arkansas despite getting 30 points and 18 rebounds from Oscar Tshiebwe, a national player of the year candidate and West Virginia transfer. The Arkansas senior guard JD Notae, who transferred from Jacksonville ahead of the 2019-20 season, went for 30 points, 8 assists and a key block in the final seconds as the Razorbacks won for the 13th time in 14 games.
No. 7 Duke, defeated Syracuse, 97-72, Duke was the only top-10 team to win on Saturday. The game featured the two men’s coaches with the most career Division I wins, Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski, 75, who is retiring after the season, and Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim, 77.
