Rivalry Week Review

Here are your Points of Interest from this past week:

• With their emphatic 78-58 slaughtering of #8 Florida on Tuesday night, the undisputed #1 team in the country is Kentucky. The Wildcats are simply heads and tails above the rest of the field right now. Their second game of the week against unranked Vanderbilt…
• The #3 Ohio State Buckeyes held off a feisty Purdue squad in a great game, 87-84, Tuesday night. In a back and forth forty minutes, in which no team led by more than four, Ohio State pulled away late to hold off the upset by the Boilermakers.
• The Bluejays of Creighton, formerly ranked #17, dropped to Evansville on Tuesday night, 65-57. The Jays, having lost two in a row, played Wichita State on Saturday, winning xx-xx. Despite the win, the Jays drop in the Ap Poll to #xx.
• The Baylor bears (#6) hosted the #10 Kansas Jayhawks on Wednesday nights, in one of two Top Ten meetings this week.
• The other game featured #10 Duke at #6 North Carolina, Wednesday night in Chapel Hill. Always a classic game, North Carolina led by 11 with less than 2:30 to play. After consecutive threes and some key layups, with Duke down by two, freshmen Austin Rivers forever etched his name in this storied rivalry by hitting a buzzer-beating three over Tyler Zeller, to propel the Blue Devils to an 85-84 win.
• The Orangemen of Syracuse (#2), hosted their conference rivals, #11 Georgetown, Wednesday night and knocked them off in overtime, 64-61.
• #7 Kansas dismantled #6 Baylor on their own floor, routing the Bears 68-54 on Wednesday night. The win moves Kansas up to #4 and drops Baylor to #9.
• After winning seven in a row, #15 Florida State drops to unranked Boston College, Wednesday night. Although their win on Saturday against Miami kept the Seminole atop the ACC standings, their loss drops them to #20 in the AP Poll.
• The #9 Murray State Racers, the last unbeaten team in the NCAA, fell to Tennessee State on Thursday night, 72-68. The Racers fall to #16.
• North Carolina bounced back from their heart-breaking loss to Duke by beating up on #19 Virginia Saturday afternoon. The Tar Heels dominated the second half, finishing with a 70-52 victory.
• Conference rivals #3 Ohio State and #11 Michigan State also met Saturday afternoon, with the Spartans coming out on top, 58-48. The win moves MSU up to #7 and drops Ohio State to #6.
• After beating Kansas on Wednesday, Baylor‘s reward was a trip down to #4 Missouri. The Tigers dominated the second half, pulling out a 72-57 win. Missouri moves up to #3 with the win.
• #17 Creighton fell to the unranked Wichita State Shockers on Saturday, 89-68. The dominating performance moves Wichita State into #24 and drops the Bluejays from the Poll.
• UNLV is for real. The #14 Running Rebels knocked off #13 San Diego State Saturday afternoon, 65-63. They move up to #11 and are one of my dark horses to make a deep run in March Madness.

This week’s upcoming Games of Interest:

• #15 Wisconsin at #7 Michigan State; Thursday night, 7PM EST.
• #16 Murray State hosts #21 St. Mary’s; Saturday, 6PM EST.
• #6 Ohio State hosts #17 Michigan; Saturday, 9PM EST.

One Rivalry Week down, one to go (the last week of Feb/first week of March). The pretenders fall to the wayside, while the contenders rise to the top.

… and that’s the last word.