Welcome back to College Basketball Weekly, folks! We followed Feast Week up with a decent slate of action, headlined by the conference showdowns between the ACC-SEC and Big 12-Big East throughout the week.
Let’s look at the top scores from the last seven days, break down some more SEC dominance, and even take a look at the top Wooden Award front-runners through a month. Here we go…
Notable Results
(4) Kentucky 66 @ Clemson 70
(14) Cincinnati 60 @ Villanova 68
Michigan 67 @ (11) Wisconsin 64
(23) Ole Miss 86 @ Louisville 63
BYU 64 @ Providence 83
(15) Baylor 72 @ (25) UConn 76
(10) Alabama 94 @ (20) North Carolina 79
(5) Marquette 70 @ (6) Iowa State 81
(1) Kansas 63 @ Creighton 76
(18) Pittsburgh @ Mississippi State 90
Texas 63 @ NC State 59
(2) Auburn 78 @ (9) Duke 84
(8) Purdue 70 @ Penn State 81
(19) Illinois 66 @ Northwestern 70
(4) Kentucky 90 vs. (7) Gonzaga 89
(11) Wisconsin 74 @ (5) Marquette 88
Conference showdowns
Last week, we broke down the SEC’s dominant start to non-conference play, and this past week, the league doubled down and laid the hammer in the ACC vs. SEC Challenge. The SEC won 14 of the 16 matchups with the league’s only two losses coming from its highest-ranked teams, Auburn and Kentucky, who went on the road and lost to the ACC’s two Elite Eight representatives from last spring in Duke and Clemson.
But in those 14 wins, the SEC wasn’t lucky, they absolutely decimated their foes in most of those matchups. Five SEC teams won by 20 points or more and 12 out of 14 won by double digits. Overall, the SEC outscored the ACC by 201 total points across the 16 games. Is it possible to be more dominant? Technically yes, but realistically, no.
Meanwhile, the Big 12 and Big East also locked horns this weekend with the 10 Big East teams taking on 10 of the 16 squads in the new Big 12. Through nine of those 10 matchups, it was a clean sweep… for the home team. Oklahoma State is pounding Seton Hall on the road as this is being written, so it looks like that streak will break, but otherwise, the Big 12 and Big East struggled mightily away from home this week.
In total, the Big 12 leads 6-3 and is closing in on a 7-3 mark, which isn’t quite as dominant as the SEC vs. ACC, but nonetheless proves once again that the Big 12 is one of the top conferences in the country — it’s just that the SEC may finally have the upper hand this season.
And then there were nine…
Heading into Sunday’s slate of action, nine college basketball teams are still undefeated. They are as follows:
Loyola Chicago (8-0)
Rhode Island (9-0)
Oregon (9-0)
UC Irvine (9-0)
Drake (8-0)
Utah State (9-0)
Oklahoma (9-0)
Florida (9-0)
Tennessee (8-0)
Again, ring the bell for the SEC as they lead the way with three undefeated teams and also have 12 of their 16 teams with just one loss or less. The Big Ten has six such teams, the Big 12 has five, the Big East has two and the ACC has just one single team (Clemson) with one loss or less.
We’ve done a lot of conference talk, SEC talk mainly, on these posts the last few weeks, and it won’t continue forever. However, the SEC’s sheer dominance through a little over a month of ball is staggering and worth noting. When the league has 10-12 bids on Selection Sunday, reference these non-conference stats as a large reason why.
A Wooden Award peek
After reaching the one-month mark, let’s look at the early candidates to populate the Wooden Award finalists’ list later this season. A few guys who have stuck out so far…
Kam Jones (Marquette): Shaka Smart’s revival with the Golden Eagles succeeded largely on the back of Tyler Kolek the previous two seasons — an All-American pure point guard who led the NCAA in assists per game in 2023-24 while averaging 15 points per game. Well, Jones was Marquette’s lead scorer last year and returned to an average north of 20 points while also sliding into the Kolek role, now running point and averaging 6.6 assists per game as the engine of a top-five team.
Johni Broome (Auburn): In the 2020s, the Wooden has been a big man’s award, going to Luka Garza, Oscar Tshiebwe and then Zach Edey in the last four seasons. In fact, Jalen Brunson is the last guard to win the award back in 2017-18. So if it’s another big, Broome looks to be the man, averaging 20.6 points, 12.6 rebounds (leads the NCAA!) and a staggering 2.9 blocks per game.
PJ Haggerty (Memphis): The Tulsa import and bonafide bucket drove the Tigers to a runner-up finish in Maui and a No. 16 ranking in the AP Poll this week. As Memphis prepares to enter the top 15 and Haggerty’s scoring average remains above 22 points per game, he needs to be in consideration for the Wooden and potential All-American honors. It’s still early, and we’ve seen the wheels fall off the bus for Penny Hardaway before, but if Memphis storms through the AAC and these stats keep up, expect the Tiger guard to get some attention.
Games to watch
Here are some of the key matchups to keep up with this upcoming week…
(11) Wisconsin @ (19) Illinois | Tues.
(6) Iowa State @ Iowa | Thurs.
(16) Memphis @ Clemson | Sat.
(22) Texas A&M vs. (8) Purdue | Sat.
Arizona State vs. (13) Florida | Sat.
(3) Tennessee @ (19) Illinois | Sat.
(5) Marquette @ Dayton | Sat.
Creighton @ (10) Alabama | Sat.
