Last Night in College Basketball: Nebraska Finally Lost, But Miami (OH) Is 21-0

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Nebraska undefeated no more

Well, it was fun while it lasted. Nebraska’s undefeated season and winning streak are over, however, after the Huskers fell to Michigan on the road, 75-72. Look at that score again, though: Nebraska’s undefeated season might be finished, but the idea of Nebraska as a legitimately great basketball team, and what else is still possible for it to achieve this season? Oh, that’s alive and well.

Michigan has the second-best defense in the nation, per KenPom’s ratings, as it allows 89.8 points per 100 possessions. Nebraska’s defense is just about as good, coming in at 8th and at 94.3 points per 100 possessions, but the gap between the offenses has been more significant, with Michigan 8th and Nebraska 22nd. And yet, when thrown in the ring against each other, Nebraska lost by just 3 points, and on account of two things: going uncharacteristically cold from deep in the second half, and the Wolverines handing the Hoosiers just four free-throw attempts compared to the 23 they got… 19 of which were makes.

What this tells you is that Nebraska can absolutely hang in a competitive Big Ten, and that it’s deserving of its best-ever spot in the poll. The NCAA Evaluation Tool, or NET, still has Nebraska 5th after losing to Michigan, just as it did before the matchup. Michigan is still 3rd, same as it was at this time Tuesday morning, as this was a real close affair between two great teams so there’s no need for a reshuffling.

Still, Nebraska has to figure out how to stop fouling so much down the stretch and keep a more composed defense against a physical team like Michigan if it wants to come out on top next time — free throws brought the Wolverines right back into the game while Nebraska couldn’t find the basket in the fourth. And Michigan needs to work on its shooting in case it can’t be saved by sinking 83% of its free throws in a game that, otherwise, would not have been close at all. Let’s hope for a rematch down the line, whether in the Big Ten tourney or in the tourney, to see which team took the lessons of this game to heart.

Michigan State survives Rutgers in OT

Michigan State nearly had a disaster on its hands against Rutgers on Tuesday. The Scarlet Knights, despite being 2-7 in Big Ten play and 9-11 overall, were up 37-28 at halftime, and then expanded that lead to 12 with 10:34 left in the second half. Michigan State would wake up from that point forward, however, scoring 29 points against just 17 more from Rutgers to force overtime. 

With the way the Spartans took control of the game as the remaining time in the second half dwindled, it felt like their victory in overtime was an inevitability — Rutgers blew its chance by failing to hit all of its late free throws, and by letting Michigan State go to the line, too, setting them up for a game-tying 3, which came out of the hands of sophomore guard Divine Ugochukwu.

And that feeling played out in OT, as Michigan State continued to outscore Rutgers in bunches, this time 15-6 over the period’s five minutes, allowing for another Big Ten win and a tie with now-defeated Nebraska in the conference standings.

Despite Michigan State battling back, coach Tom Izzo stressed that the Spartans "were lucky," and that they have things to learn before facing off against Michigan this weekend. He’s not wrong — it’s a lot easier to make up for your mistakes against a Rutgers than it is a Michigan, and as is, it took the entirety of regulation for the Spartans to pull that off against the Scarlet Knights.

Utah upsets No. 22 West Virginia

While Rutgers failed to pull off the upset, Tuesday wasn’t lacking for them. No. 22 West Virginia has been in and out of the back-end of the poll for much of this season, but might be on the way out again after Tuesday night’s loss to Utah. The Utes are a top-50 team, and were before this dub, but that only softens the blow so much.

The Mountaineers lost in a frustrating way, too. They outscored Utah in the paint, 44-30. They had more steals, and scored more points off of turnovers — 23 to 12 — than the Utes. West Virginia went 10-for-11 at the line, turned the ball over less and committed exactly as many fouls. Senior guard Jordan Harrison had a hell of a game, too, with 18 points, 7 rebounds, 8 assists and 7 steals — the last two of which were both the most from anyone in women’s Division I college basketball on Tuesday — but it still wasn’t enough to stop the Utes from earning the upset. And that’s because the Mountaineers couldn’t hit from beyond the arc.

West Virginia shot 2-for-12 from 3; Utah was 10-for-18. The Mountaineers outplayed the Utes in essentially every way on Tuesday, except for in the one that got Utah an additional 24 points in a game the former lost by just 7.

It’s a bit of an unexpected way to lose, since West Virginia isn’t amazing from deep by any means, but it has shot 33% on 3s for the season and nearly 34% in conference play. What was expected was an opponent finding more success from 3, however: the Mountaineers have allowed the third-worst opponent 3-point percentage in Division I women’s college basketball at 36.3%, and Utah ranks 36th in 3-point shooting. A perfect matchup there, just not for the Mountaineers.

Purdue lost again

Purdue was upset by UCLA last Tuesday, spoiling its then-perfect record in Big Ten play. The Boilermakers then lost to Illinois in their next game, which wasn’t a surprise given how good the Fighting Illini are, but was still an unfortunate sequence of events. Said sequence just got a lot more unfortunate, as now Purdue has dropped a third-straight game, this time to Indiana. While Indiana isn’t bad by any means — the Hoosiers came into the matchup ranked 35th in NET — it has also been pretty mediocre in conference play, with Tuesday’s W moving them to 5-5 there.

None of that stopped Indiana from picking up the dub, though. Purdue did not come out looking like a team ready to put its losses behind it, but instead, fell behind 40-29 in the first half, and was down by as much as 14 at one point. While the Boilermakers did battle back in the second half, they just couldn’t get enough buckets to dig out of the hole. Purdue shot 7-for-20 on 3s, which isn’t terrible rate-wise but in volume was too low, and hit just 8-of-15 free throws — not great on a night where Indiana sank 14 of them and had a dozen 3-pointers, too.

The Boilermakers are now 7-3 in the Big Ten, which doesn’t sound all that terrible in comparison until you remember which teams are in front of them and what their records are. Nebraska, Michigan and Michigan State are all 9-1, and Illinois is 8-1. The top four seeds in the conference receive double byes in the Big Ten tournament in March, which would be huge for a team that’s already lost to UCLA, Indiana and Purdue, one that’s racked up three defeats despite playing just one of the teams in front of them in the standings.

That Purdue hasn’t played the Huskers, Wolverines or Spartans yet does potentially work in its favor, though. The Boilermakers’ seeding destiny is in its hands to a degree, in that if it can inflict losses on those squads then it can make its chances of nabbing a double bye that much higher. Conversely, the losses are going to pile up and push teams like Wisconsin, Ohio State and UCLA ahead of them in the standings, but it’s still January. There’s time to think positively!

Villanova beats Providence from deep

Maybe no one is going to catch UConn in the Big East, but the teams trailing it do have to be set up for the most success possible in the conference tournament in March, especially to have a chance at an at-large bid for March Madness should no one manage to upset the Huskies. That makes games like Villanova’s Tuesday matchup against Providence significant for the Wildcats, since they need all the wins they can muster to earn a bye and stay well-rested across the four-day March tournament.

To beat the Friars, Villanova did what it does best: shot 3-pointers. The Wildcats are 20th in Division I women’s basketball in 3-point percentage, at 36.5%, and 28th in 3-point attempts. Volume is the strategy, and Villanova certainly had that against Providence, letting loose shots from beyond the arc while tying a season-high for makes with 15. 

The Wildcats shot 34 3s and made 15 of them; that’s 44% shooting. It resulted in 83 points and 51% overall shooting, as well as no one worrying even a little about drawing just enough fouls for all of two free throws. The Friars were comparatively shut out from deep with a 4-for-11 showing from 3, and Villanova’s high-volume attack loudly erased that Providence shot 50% overall and still ended up with just 68 points.

The Wildcats are now 9-3 in Big East play, second in the conference, and 16-5 overall. NET has them at 38th, which also is second in the Big East — more wins like this one will ensure Villanova still has attention on it come March, even if UConn is crowned conference champion once again.

Virginia outlasts Notre Dame, Certa

No. 17 Virginia, coming off an upset against then-No. 22 UNC, very nearly suffered its second defeat in a row. Unranked — and not even a bubble team at this point — Notre Dame got out to a 19-point lead on the Cavaliers, powered in large part by the performance of sophomore guard Cole Certa. Certa scored a career-high 34 points — also the most of anyone in D-I basketball on Tuesday — on 10-for-19 shooting while pulling down a couple of rebounds and adding an assist, while the Fighting Irish as a whole sank 8 of their first 11 3-pointers, and would have had a more significant lead at the half if not for a 15-5 Virginia run to end it and narrow the gap to 44-35.

Virginia kept fighting back, and forced overtime with a couple of free throws by senior forward Devin Tillis — and Notre Dame missing back-to-back 3s on the final possession. One overtime was not enough, however. Notre Dame went out ahead again, but Virginia once again tied it late, this time on a 3-pointer from junior guard Sam Lewis with 3.5 seconds left on the clock. Lewis would finish with 21 points and team-highs in both rebounds (9) and assists (6).

Freshman forward Thijs De Ridder led the Cavaliers with 32 points and a 14-for-15 showing from the line, but he fouled out with 45 seconds left in the second overtime. Lewis stepped up once again after that, scoring what would be the game-winning layup as well as a couple more free throws to give the Cavaliers some breathing room, and Virginia avoided the upset, 100-97.

Campbell’s block party

The three leaders for blocks in Division I women’s basketball on Tuesday all played for Campbell, and those weren’t even all the blocks that the Fighting Camels racked up against UNC Wilmington. Sophomore guard Jasmine Felton led with 5 blocks to go with 10 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals. Freshman forward N’na Konate had 3 blocks as well as 8 points and 9 rebounds, and freshman guard Jasmine Navar had 3 rejections, too, to go with 10 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists and a steal. Each of the other two starters added a block for good measure, giving Campbell a program record 13 of the things.

The Fighting Camels needed all of those rejections, too, as the offense fell apart in the fourth quarter and was outscored 19-9, setting up overtime in a game that Campbell had been winning by 10 points to start the final frame. The Camels ended up coming out ahead in the end, 67-61, thanks to a strong OT performance with 14 points in just five minutes, breaking a tie for third place in the Coast Athletic Association and leaving Campbell at 6-2 in conference play.

Nebraska isn’t undefeated, but Miami (OH) still is

Miami (OH) entered Tuesday’s matchup against UMass undefeated at 20-0. The RedHawks very nearly exited it with an L just like Nebraska had against Michigan, but their last few minutes ended up being a lot different than those of the Huskers. Despite being down 10 in the first half, Miami (OH) rallied to cut that lead to 47-43 at the half, and then outplayed the Minutemen over the last five minutes of regulation to come away with another dramatic late-game dub.

With 4:36 remaining, UMass was in the lead thanks to a jumper from senior guard Marcus Banks Jr. that put them up 75-74. The Redhawks would then go on an 8-0 run to go up 82-75, and then junior guard Eian Elmer would hit a trio of free throws across two trips to the line to give Miami (OH) all the points it would need. Elmer scored a game-high 30 on 9-for-14 shooting with 7 rebounds, an assist and 2 steals, an excellent complement to senior guard Peter Suder who had 5 boards and 9 assists to help make up for his 3-for-10 shooting.

The RedHawks are now 21-0, the best start in MAC history and tied for the longest win streak ever in the conference, as well. Miami (OH), along with Arizona, are the lone undefeated teams left in men’s Division I college basketball.