It was a busy week in the world of college basketball
College Basketball has returned and is here (hopefully) to stay. As many teams kicked off their season last Wednesday, the Thanksgiving break brought many good games and even a few upsets.
Number eight Illinois brought the thunder against North Carolina A&T, winning in a lopsided affair 122-60. Illinois guards Adam Miller and Ayo Dosunmu both finished the game with 28 points each.
San Diego State brought the first upset of the season to the number 22 team UCLA. The Aztecs won in decisive fashion 73-58.
The first real clash of the season came on Thanksgiving when number six Kansas took on the number one ranked Gonzaga. The game quickly turned into a shootout, but Mark Few’s Bulldogs outlasted Kansas 102-90.
Another big upset came last Saturday when unranked Virginia Tech took down the number three team in the country Villanova. Keve Aluma and Nahiem Alleyne lead the way for the Hokies, with Aluma with 23 points and Alleyne came off the bench scoring 20.
The annual State Farm champion’s classic tipped off Tuesday, and as always there were some marquee matchups.
Kansas was able to outlast Kentucky thanks to a big second half from Jalen Wilson. Wilson scored 21 of his 23 points in the second half as the Jayhawks slipped by the Wildcats. Seventh-ranked KU, who is still set to play NDSU on Dec 5., moves to 2-1 as Kentucky dropped to 1-2.
Eighth-ranked Michigan State was able to top sixth-ranked Duke in the other matchup at the Champions Classic. Spartans head coach Dom Izzo is now 3-12 when coaching against the Blue Devils.
A poor shooting performance from Duke (the Blue Devils shot just 32% from the field) was too much for Coach K’s squad to overcome. Neither team seemed to get things going from deep with the Spartans and Blue Devils combining to go just 10-43 from three.
While it is still extremely early, it was a great start to the college basketball season. Players, coaches and fans were robbed of a March Madness tournament last spring, so the first week of games was a welcomed sight.