The Harder They Fall: CBB Upsets #4

Welcome to the next edition of The Harder They Fall. I will talk about Clemson, Tulsa, Texas, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State.

We will start with some close calls.

#14 Rutgers: 81, Purdue: 76

#24 Virginia Tech: 80, Miami: 78

#11 Creighton: 67, Providence: 65

#10 Iowa: 77, #14 Rutgers: 75

Now on for the fun stuff. It is time for our first upset that is an upset and not an upset.

First will Clemson upsetting #18 Florida State 77-67. The leading scorers for the Tigers were Clyde Trapp with 15 points, Nick Honor with 13 points, and Al-Amir Dawes with 11 points. They are two main things I notice about this game without looking at many stats. The first thing is the free-throws. Clemson shot thirty-three free-throws while Florida State shot only nine free-throws. That will lead to FSU to getting in foul trouble, which is what happened. The next thing I noticed was the rebounding. FSU always has good rebounders. They struggled in this game massively. They were outrebounded by the Tigers by 14. That is an insane number.

Next will be Tulsa upsetting #5 Houston 65-64 after last second free throws. The leading scorers for Tulsa was Brandon Rachal with 20 points, Curtis Haywood with 9 points, and three others with 7 points each. The first thing I notice is the shooting numbers for Tulsa. Tulsa shot 35% from three, while Houston shot 19%. This Houston team is a great shooting team. Just not that night with Tulsa’s defense.

Next will be #8 Texas upsetting #3 Kansas 84-59. The leading scorers for the Longhorns were Courtney Ramey with 20 points, Andrew Jones with 14 points, and Matt Coleman with 13 points. Where do I even begin? I will start with the shooting numbers, Texas shot 46% from three, while Kansas shot 13% from three. That is truly all you need to know but I will say one more stat that will define this game. Texas dominated the boards against a usually great rebounding Kansas team. They are missing pieces from last year’s team like a lot of the top dogs like Duke, North Carolina, and Kentucky.

Moving along, next will Oklahoma upsetting #9 West Virginia 75-71. The leading scorers for the Sooners were Umoja Gibson with 29 points, Austin Reaves with 13 points, and De’Vion Harmon with 10 points. Oklahoma won this game behind the amazing shooting of Umoja Gibson. He played super well. Oklahoma played defense when they needed to, and they did and kept West Virginia sound.

And finally, Oklahoma State upsetting #13 Texas Tech 82-77 in overtime. The leading scorers for the Cowboys were Isaac Likekele and Avery Anderson with 17 points, Bryce Williams with 15 points and Cade Cunningham with 13 points. Looking at team stats with this one. The Cowboys were better in all stats beside fouls. The most noticeable one was the amount of steals they had. They had 9 more steals than Texas Tech. This will be a scary team come March if they get to play in the NCAA Tournament.