NCAA Men's Basketball Recap: A Slow Weekend

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As I mentioned last week, it was a pretty quiet night on Friday as far as basketball goes. The NCAA top 25 only had two games being played, and my niece had a home game for her high school varsity team. @mrsbozz and I settled into the couch and pulled up the NFHS app so we could watch the stream of her team playing.

It was a good game with them pulling ahead right away and not really letting up most of the game. There was a point where the other teams looked like they might be mounting a comeback, but it was ultimately shot down.

It's been really impressive to watch this team play. There was some debate about whether they would be as good as previous teams. I think on some level they aren't, but on other levels, they are actually better. They still play a bit sloppy, but not as sloppy as they have previous years before those players moved on.

It's been really awesome to watch them grow. I think they have already won more games than a lot of people thought they were going to. They have even held their own quite well against teams that everyone thought was going to blow them out of the water.

The plan is to head down to Ohio this coming weekend to watch her play a couple of games. We will see if the weather cooperates and allows us to do that. Word is there is a big winter storm heading this way and I have zero desire to be stuck in that!

I threw some money down on Butler to beat #4 UConn on Friday night and for the first half of the game, it looked like they were going to hand me the win. By the end of the game though it was a different story and The Huskies won 88 to 81.

#1 Purdue had a closer game against Illinois, but ultimately beat them 83 to 78.

Do you remember me talking about how crazy the Big East is this year? Seton Hall beat #7 Marquette 78 to 75 for a big win on Saturday. I should have bet on that game!

#6 Kentucky had a close one, but they ultimately held off Florida 87 to 85. Meanwhile, Creighton took down #23 Providence 69 to 60. That's another one I was going to put money on and I didn't. There are either going to be a lot of Big East teams in the big dance this year or none the way it is going.

#2 Kansas had a close game against TCU and honestly it was only because of a lucky call for Kansas that they won. I personally have never had a problem with Kansas, but the fact that they picked up Hunter Dickenson makes me hate them now. The kid is a jerk. He always has been. Just look at his past history and you will see how classless he is.

Oklahoma State took #18 Baylor to overtime, but ultimately fell short 70 to 75.

#19 James Madison was handed their first loss of the season getting upset by Southern Miss. Meanwhile, #17 Florida Atlantic also suffered an upset loss at the hands of Charlotte.

Finally, three of the late games on Saturday were also upset losses. Texas Tech took down #20 Texas 78 to 67, Utah State beat #13 Colorado State 77 to 72, and Cincinnati beat #12 BYU 71 to 60.

Sunday only have us #15 Memphis beating SMU 62 to 59 in the top 25. SMU played a good game and didn't make it easy for Memphis. My hats off to them for the effort.

Sadly, despite the Lions win, Sunday wasn't a happy day for me as Michigan State fell to Northwestern in what should have been a decent win for the Spartans. Once again they were out played and they just looked bad on the court.

I think there was a lot of hope that Izzo had finally set the ship right, but this setback is going to be bad I think. They need to get some big wins under their belt again if they have any hope of making it to the tournament in March.

We have seen them do better. We know they can. Games like last night are just unacceptable.

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