The Harder They Fall: CBB Upsets #1
As many know. They are many college basketball upsets weekly. I will be doing this every week. May not be the same day. It will depend on the number of upsets in a certain week. But we will start this now. As I am doing this on the 17th. I will go back to 10th and start from there.
We will start with #24 San Diego State upsetting #23 Arizona State 80-68. Jordan Schakel led San Diego State with 25 points. It may be not look like an upset now, but Arizona St was higher ranked and was favored by 2. San Diego State had a better shooting percentage by almost ten percent. San Diego State outscored Arizona State 45 – 35 in the second half.
Next, we will have to skip until Saturday for the Bragging Rights. Missouri upsets #6 Illinois 81-78. Dru Smith led Mizzou with 18 points, with Xavier Pinson right behind him with 17 points. This game was all down to the free throw battle which Illinois lost by 23 percent and they lost the rebound battle by nine.
Next will be the game I thought could be an upset. Marquette upset #9 Creighton 89-84. DJ Carton led Marquette in scoring with 20 points and Koby McEwen with 18 points right behind him. Marquette won this game ultimately because of their rebounding and three-point shooting. Marquette out-rebounded Creighton by 15. And was more efficient from 3. They had 14 percent better. Creighton is definitely one of the better teams in the country, but they will struggle if they go up against teams that are bigger than them. You seen it when they played Kansas even though they almsot won that game.
This one really is not an upset, but it is. Virginia Tech upsets #24 Clemson 66-60. Tyrece Radford led the Hokies with 15 points and Nahiem Alleyne and Keve Aluma had 13 points each. The Hokies won this game because the number of free throws they had and how many free throws they made. They won the rebounding battle as well.
Next is the BIG 10 game I thought could be an upset. Purdue upsets #20 Ohio State. Trevion Williams led the Boilermakers with 16 points and Eric Hunter Jr had 15 points right behind him. They won this game because Purdue won the rebounding battle. They had more efficient shooting. Ohio State will still be one of the top teams in the tough BIG 10.
If Texas Tech upsets Kansas tonight it will be on next week's edition.