The unpredicatability of this college basketball season was in full effect last week as 15 of the RTC25 suffered defeats. For example, archrivals #8 North Carolina and #11 Duke both experienced the thrill of victory and agony of defeat in a matter of just four days. In last Wednesday evening’s showdown between the two teams, Duke stormed back from a significant second half deficit to grab an impressive road victory — all the more impressive when considering it came without the services of injured forward Amile Jefferson or guard Matt Jones, who left the game with an ankle injury. The Blue Devils, however, could not keep the winning ways going, falling at #16 Louisville on Saturday. On the other hand, North Carolina bounced back from its defeat in a major way, dominating #17 Miami (FL) from start to finish. Just another week in a wacky season. This week’s Quick N’ Dirty after the jump.

Quick N’ Dirty Analysis.

• Kansas remains #1. The Jayhawks moved their winning streak to seven games with a 27-point home victory over Oklahoma State and a nine-point road win at intrastate rival Kansas State. Now at 11-3 in Big 12 play, Kansas has a two-game lead in the conference standings and appears primed to take home its 12th consecutive league crown. The terrain gets a bit rockier for Bill Self’s group this week, however, as it travels to Waco to take on #19 Baylor on Tuesday before hosting upstart Texas Tech on Saturday afternoon.
• #7 Iowa and #10 Maryland suffered unexpected road defeats. When Iowa lost at #18 Indiana on February 11, there was not much reason for concern. The Hoosiers are an excellent offensive unit and are very difficult to beat in Bloomington. It was a different story last Wednesday, however, when the Hawkeyes suffered a surprising defeat at 14-13 Penn State. The next night Maryland experienced an even more inexplicable road defeat, as it fell by five points to a Minnesota squad that had been winless in Big Ten play. The road can be a very unforgiving place, as we all know, and both Iowa and Maryland experienced that misfortune last week.
• Utah returns at #22. After falling to Oregon on February 7, the Utes stood at 6-5 in Pac-12 play. Since then, Larry Krystkowiak’s unit has notched four consecutive victories — the final two of which came in a Thursday/Sunday SoCal road sweep of UCLA and USC. In a season that at one time did not appear to have much promise, the Utes are now just a half-game behind #9 Arizona and #12 Oregon in the league standings. Utah will have a chance to climb to the top of the heap this week when it hosts Arizona on Saturday in what should be considered a must-watch game for college hoops fans.

Game of the Week. #2 Villanova vs. #6 Xavier. The Big East will take center stage on Wednesday night when Villanova travels to Xavier in what should be a hotly-contested affair between the conference’s two best teams. The Musketeers will likely have revenge on their mind, as conference play commenced with Xavier getting waxed by 31 points at Villanova. If Chris Mack’s team wants a different result this time around, it is going to need to focus on slowing Wildcats senior guard Ryan Arcidiacono, who exploded for 27 points (10-of-19 FG) in their first meeting.

Keep Tabs On. #3 Virginia vs. #17 Miami (FL); #12 West Virginia vs. #14 Iowa State; #1 Kansas vs. #19 Baylor; #4 Iowa vs. Wisconsin; #1 Kansas vs. Texas Tech; #16 Louisville vs. #17 Miami (FL); #5 Oklahoma vs. #24 Texas; #9 Arizona vs. #22 Utah; #10 Maryland vs. #20 Purdue; #3 Virginia vs. #8 North Carolina.

Conference Call.  ACC (6), Big 12 (6), Big Ten (5), Pac-12 (3), Big East (2), SEC (2), Missouri Valley (1). 

WCarey (318 Posts)

This entry was posted on Monday, February 22nd, 2016 at 10:01 am by Walker Carey and is filed under blogpoll, feature, Regular Features. Tagged: duke, iowa, kansas, louisville, maryland, miami (fl), north carolina, rtc25, utah, villanova, xavier. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.