College basketball should send the NFL a fruit basket. Every fall Sunday has the same moment, somewhere in the third quarter of a game that was decided at halftime, when you start looking for the exit. The weeknight Group of Five games that used to fill the gap are getting scarcer as November arrives (I say that with love for the Group of Five), so college basketball is back at exactly the right time.
The first two days did not waste any time. A top-five team lost its opener, and a team picked last in its league went into Norman and won. Let’s go through all of it, then look at the week ahead.
Rome, Vegas and Tampa
Notre Dame beat Villanova 74-72 on Sunday at the Eternal City Tip-Off in Rome, a doubleheader where both teams met Pope Leo XIV, a Villanova alum, the day before. I’d love to tell you I gave it my full attention. The NFL had the main screen, and this one was on in the background until the end, when it got good. Notre Dame trailed for most of the second half. Brady Koehler dunked to cut it to one, Logan Duncomb hit a three to put the Irish up 70-68 with just over a minute left, and Koehler made two free throws to close it out. Villanova has been in a tough situation for years now. Good win for Notre Dame, I guess.
Monday night gave us the first top-five upset of the season, and it came in Arizona’s opener. No. 22 UCLA beat No. 5 Arizona 84-75 in Las Vegas. Trent Perry scored 21 for the Bruins. The number I keep thinking about belongs to the other side: Arizona’s Ivan Kharchenkov scored a career-high 38 in the loss. Game one, that kind of night, and he’s definitely raising his draft stock early.
I watched almost all of No. 1 Florida against No. 14 Miami, a 77-67 Florida win in Tampa. Florida led by about 10 the whole night. Miami would cut it to five or six, and then the Gators would remember who they were. Thomas Haugh had 19 and 10. Miami is a really good team, by the way, and 14 might even be a little low for them. Florida looked like a No. 1 team, which will not stop the Duke fans, spread far and wide as they are, from arguing that Duke should be No. 1. The season is long. They’ll have time.
East Texas A&M at Oklahoma
This is what we watch college basketball for. The team with no business being in the game is suddenly in the game, then ahead in the game, then up 16 in the second half, and you can’t look away. East Texas A&M beat Oklahoma 68-64 in Norman. The Lions were picked last in the 12-team Southland, they’re in their fifth year at the Division I level, and NCAA.com says it was their first win over a power-conference opponent. They took the lead in the first half and never trailed again. Bo Aldridge had 22 points on 8-of-12 shooting and added five assists.
The record book got involved, too. According to ESPN Research, it was the second-largest point-spread upset in Division I in the last 30 years, and Oklahoma was a 28.5-point favorite. It ended Oklahoma’s 30-game home winning streak against nonconference opponents, and it’s only the second season opener the Sooners have lost in the past 24 seasons. Porter Moser apologized after the game.
It’s fun when you have no dog in the fight and stressful when you do. I’m a Wisconsin fan, so I’ve been on the upset side of plenty of these lately, and it stings. But when the little school beats the big school, you can’t help but cheer for the little school. It’s almost like Rutgers, or whatever team is last in the Big Ten or the ACC, getting to play the Jets or some other lower-tier NFL team. On paper the Jets should win that every time. College basketball gives us these upsets instead, and that’s one of the reasons the sport is so great. I think there’s going to be a lot of parity this year.
The other Monday result I can’t let go of is North Carolina 80, Western Carolina 72. UNC absolutely had the refs on its side. Late in the game the calls went the Tar Heels’ way, and by the end Western Carolina had a technical and a flagrant foul on its line while North Carolina had neither. I thought it should have been a technical on each team. Western Carolina was whistled for 28 fouls to UNC’s 17, and UNC shot 35 free throws to the Catamounts’ 27. The Tar Heels escaped what would have been an absolutely embarrassing loss, and instead we’re all talking about Oklahoma.
Illinois 120, FDU 45
Illinois wins that game 999 times out of 1,000, and I’d love to see the other one, if only to find out what happened. The Illini made 19 threes, shot 27 of 32 on twos, grabbed 21 offensive rebounds and had 30 assists against seven turnovers. They led 67-20 at halftime, a score I had to read twice.
If they shoot the three like that, that is the best team in the country, and it isn’t close. They make games dirty. They play good defense, they out-rebound you and they beat you in the post. They play the right way, and I don’t know how anybody beats them. I can’t wait to see what Brad Underwood’s squad does from here.
What to watch this week
The big one is Friday night: No. 4 UConn against No. 16 Michigan at 7 p.m. Central on TNT, at TD Garden in Boston. It’s a rematch of the national title game, which Michigan won 69-63 in April. The defending champs open the season ranked 16th and get a chance to do it again to the same team. I’ll take that setup.
Arkansas at Virginia is Sunday at noon Central on ESPN, No. 12 at No. 9, and it’s the best matchup of the week that doesn’t involve the champs. Illinois plays Penn on Thursday at 7:30 Central on FS1, and I want to see what the Illini do for an encore. Penn, I wish you well. Illinois goes to Texas Tech the following Tuesday, which will be a better test.
Wisconsin hosts Delaware on Friday at 6:30 Central, after beating Denver 75-68 on Monday. After what happened in Norman, no Wisconsin fan is treating that one as a formality. Same goes for Duke, Florida, Texas, Michigan State and Arizona, who all have opponents this week that look like tune-ups on paper. Oklahoma had one of those on Monday, too.
Back to that fruit basket. Arkansas and Virginia tip at noon Central on Sunday, the same time the early NFL games kick off. If one of those is over by halftime, I know where I’ll be. The basket’s in the mail, NFL.
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