Holiday Hoops Recap: Thanksgiving College Basketball

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This holiday weekend was anything but boring when you consider all of the sports that were played. I have a ton of stuff to get caught up on, but first I am going to start with college basketball. Let's start with Monday night when there were eight top 25 games played.

If you don't recall, some of these games were one-off contests, and then some of them were early round games of holiday tournaments that get played in exotic locations like the Bahamas and what not. It's a pretty exciting time of year because you can often see some match-ups that you might not see again until the big dance in March.

It's also a time of year when upset can happen at any time. Okay, that's all through the season, but you know what I mean.

For example, let's look at Wisconsin taking down #24 Virginia 65 to 41. I'd also like to point out that Saint Joseph's took #16 into overtime, but fell short 88 to 96. Also, UCLA came close to beating #4 Marquette, but they lost by two points 69 to 71.

On Tuesday night we had six games in the top 25. Thankfully, we got some early Thanksgiving upsets as well. Florida State took down #18 Colorado 77 to 71, and even more impressive #4 Marquette beat #1 Kansas 73 to 59. I can't say I am sad about that. I have liked Kansas in the past, but I can't stand that Dickenson kid, so the fact that he is their new star is a huge nope from me.

He is a jerk and he has proven it time and again through is behavior and attitude. I don't expect much will change in a different conference.

Wednesday night gave us 8 more top 25 games heading into the long Thanksgiving weekend. Kansas was able to rebound and beat #7 Tennessee 69 to 60, meanwhile, Virginia also had a close win over West Virginia 56 to 54. #2 Purdue had a close game against #4 Marquette and came away with a 78 to 75 victory. Finally, #20 Arkansas needed two overtimes to close the game against Stanford 77 to 74.

Thanksgiving day we had that really close game between Michigan State and Arizona that I already talked about. MSU started out slow, but by the second half they were playing some great basketball. I'm not mad about this loss at all. I think it finally shows what they are capable of this season. I am quite hopeful!

#11 Gonzaga had a close game against UCLA but came away with a 69 to 65 win. I would expect UCLA to break into the top 25 sometime soon. Colorado State which has a beautiful campus in Fort Collins, CO had a huge upset win over #8 Creighton. Meanwhile, Memphis had a good win over #20 Arkansas.

Oh, there was also one more upset with Villanova taking down #14 North Carolina in overtime 83 to 81.

Friday gave us 10 big games with #19 Florida Atlantic upsetting #12 Texas A&M 96 to 89. It also gave us Oklahoma shocking #23 USC with a 72 to 70 victory. #16 Kentucky had a huge 118 to 82 win over Marshall. That's a whole lot of offense!

Finally, Ohio State was hungry for at least one win this weekend and they upset #17 Alabama 92 to 81.

Saturday Alabama had to bounce back and play in the consolation bracket and they beat Oregon 99 to 91.

Finally, Sunday we had four top 25 games. None of them were upsets. None of them were really even close. I was watching part of the Villanova versus Memphis game and I have to say that Villanova is looking really good. I'm pretty sure they are making it into the top 25 this week.

I look forward to teams finishing out their preseason schedule and digging into conference play soon. It's going to be an exciting time!

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All pictures/screenshots taken by myself or @mrsbozz unless otherwise sourced