College Basketball is the sport of chaos. Every week, something unpredictable and unprecedented happens. Case in point, take a look at what happened in the TCU/Kansas game Tuesday night. The Jayhawks trailed by 15 points with about 4 minutes to play, and proceeded to tie the game with 3 free throws from Darryn Peterson with a second left. Then, Darryn Peterson proceeds to not play the entire overtime period, which Kansas wins! Who would have thought? Not me. So let’s see if we can identify what else outrageous events will occur this week.
James Nnaji records a double-double as Baylor upsets Houston
The breakout game is coming for James Nnaji, who is the first player to have played a college game after being drafted by the NBA. His size and athleticism is going to be needed against Houston’s frontcourt. Nnaji hasn’t topped 20 minutes in a game yet, but I think he’ll see additional run in this game and have his coming out party – which would make national headlines.
Indiana gives Nebraska their first loss in over 9 months
Thanks to their run in the College Basketball Crown last season, and unbeaten start to this one, it’s been quite a while since Nebraska has lost a college basketball game. I think that run ends in Assembly Hall on Saturday. Indiana will have the two best players on the court in Lamar Wilkerson and Tayton Conerway, and I expect Wilkerson to score 25+ points in this one as I have concerns about Nebraska’s ability to defend guards.
Wisconsin takes Michigan down to the wire and gives the Wolverines a chance to lose their first game
Michigan has been a complete machine to this point in the season. Prior to the Penn State game, which the Nittany Lions kept surprisingly close, they had won their previous 3 games by an average margin of 41 points. It is incredibly hard to score against the Michigan frontline of Lendeborg, Johnson, and Mara. But Wisconsin does a lot of their damage from the outside with guards John Blackwell and Nick Boyd, giving them the right offensive setup to attack the Michigan defense, and I expect them to be able to keep this one close and give Michigan a true scare.
Texas and Alabama combine for more than 190 points in a thriller
This game is the perfect combination of good offenses meeting bad defenses, as both teams rank inside the top-25 in offensive efficiency and outside the top-60 in defensive efficiency, per KenPom. Both teams combined have played 6 games that have hit that 190 number. It is going to be a long season in Austin if Sean Miller can’t get his Longhorns to start playing better defensively.
West Virginia upsets Kansas in Morgantown
We already discussed how Kansas escaped Tuesday night with a win over TCU, and I don’t think they will be so lucky against WVU. We still don’t know the status of Darryn Peterson for this game, and the Jayhawks were oh-so-close to starting conference play 0-2. Meanwhile, WVU is fully healthy for the first time all season, and plays a style that lends itself to pulling off upsets with an extremely slow pace and high volume of 3-pointers.
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