Bleacher Report
Tennessee remains No. 1 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll after a dramatic win over Illinois improved their start to 10-0 for the 2024-25 season.
Overtime between the Volunteers and Illinois beckoned before Jordan Gainey’s buzzer-beater broke Fighting Illini hearts in Champaign.
The result meant nobody was challenging the Vols’ top-ranked status this week.
In a change of pace, men’s basketball wasn’t littered with upsets and big results that required a lot of movement in the polls.
Marquette, which was sixth in the Week 6 AP poll, was the highest-ranked team to go down. The Golden Eagles blew a 10-point halftime lead en route to a 71-63 defeat to Dayton.
The Flyers had a decided edge around the basket, finishing plus-seven in total rebounds and owning a 20-point edge in paint scoring. Senior forward Nate Santos had a double-double for Dayton with 12 points and 13 rebounds, while the 11 assists for junior guard Malachi Smith surpassed Marquette’s team-wide total.
Gonzaga was the only other Top-10 squad to suffer a loss. The Zags, who had been No. 8, dropped their second game in a row after UConn beat them 77-71 at Madison Square Garden.
The result might have revealed more about the Huskies, who look like a different team from the one that went winless in the Maui Invitational. They nearly fell out of the Top 25 entirely after that and now find themselves in 11th.
Aaron Torres @Aaron_Torres
UConn since returning from Maui:
4-0. Win over No. 18 Baylor. Win at Texas. Win over No. 8 Gonzaga
Truthfully, all that the fake-outrage, Dan Hurley narrative did was give this program the chip on the shoulder they needed.
Congrats college hoops. You awoke a MONSTER pic.twitter.com/mqp0PFOZss
Freshman forward Liam McNeely finished with a game-high 26 points against Gonzaga along with eight rebounds and four assists. It was the kind of performance NBA talent evaluators go back to when they’re scouting the young star for the next level.
While UConn isn’t where it hoped to be at this point in its three-peat bid, you’re feeling much better about the Huskies if you’re a fan of the program now than you were when December opened.
For college basketball followers, this is the worst stretch of the season. The biggest nonconference battles have already happened and we’re not yet into the meat of conference play.
This week is fairly light on exciting matchups, but there are a few to whet your appetite.
Oklahoma, which actually fell to 14th in the newest poll, will put its unbeaten 10-0 start on the line against Michigan on Wednesday. Purdue is in danger of slipping further down the rankings as it heads to Birmingham, Alabama, to play Auburn on Saturday. On Friday night, Cincinnati vs. Dayton got a little more interesting thanks the Flyers’ upset of Marquette.
