The Harder They Fall: CBB Upsets #2

Welcome to another edition The Harder They Fall. And today we will talk about upsets that happened over the last week.

I will start with some close calls. This will be when a ranked team wins by 5 or less.

#5 Kansas: 58, #14 Texas Tech: 57

#8 West Virginia: 70, Iowa St: 65

#9 Creighton: 76, UConn: 74

#11 Texas: 77, Oklahoma St: 74

#14 Missouri: 54, Bradley: 53

#15 Texas Tech: 69, Oklahoma: 67

First, will be BYU upsetting #18 San Diego State 82-72. The leading scorer for BYU was Alex Barcello with 22 points. BYU truly won this game because of two things. One is BYU shot super well. They shot 94% from the free throw line and shot 10% from the field the whole game. BYU also won the rebounding battle with the size of Matt Haarms, Caleb Lohner and in this game Alex Barcello. It seems like BYU had control of this game because the last time San Diego State had the lead was 16:28 in the first half. They were up 35-20 at halftime and did not let them come back.

Next, is UCF upsetting #15 Florida State 86-74 and giving the Seminoles their first loss of the year. The leading scorers were Brandon Mahan with 32 points, Isaiah Adams with 22 points, and Darin Green Jr with 20 points. UCF just did what Florida State usually does. UCF did the same things as BYU did. UCF shot better in all ways including the three-point line and the free throw line. UCF won the rebounding battle.

Next, is #19 Rutgers upsetting #13 Illinois 91-88 in a high scoring battle. It is truly hard to understand how Rutgers truly won this game. They won because Illinois had some foul trouble towards the end of the game with three people fouling out leaving Cockburn and Dosunmu out there without their help around them.

Next, is Northwestern upsetting #4 Michigan State 79-65. The BIG 10 is the best conference in college basketball. The leading scorers for Northwestern was Boo Buie with 30 points, Pete Nance with 15 points, Ty Berry with 12 points. What I am going to say for this one is. Northwestern shot 48% from three while Michigan State shot 26%. The last lead Michigan State had was 16:32 left in the first half. Northwestern was just the smarter, more efficient team.

And finally, NC State upsetting their rivals #17 North Carolina 79-76. The leading scorers were Devon Daniels with 21 points, Shakeel Moore with 17 points, and Manny Bates with 14 points. The only way NC State could have won this game would be the three-point shooting. They shot 47% while UNC shot 17%. It is hard to win a game shooting like that. UNC almost came back though.

That was this weeks “The Harder They Fall” Edition #2. Hope you enjoy this and have a great day.