While most sports fans spent Friday night focused on the Pac-12 Championship game that launched Washington into the College Football Playoff and/or Kansas‘ 69-65 victory over UConn inside Allen Fieldhouse, the No. 1 team in the country was upset on the road.
Final score: Northwestern 92, Purdue 88 in OT.
The Wildcats’ Boo Buie took 20 shots, made half of them and finished with 31 points, nine assists, two steals and zero turnovers. Purdue’s Zach Edey, the reigning CBS Sports National Player of the Year, got 35 points, 14 rebounds and three blocks in defeat.
“Boo was just sensational,” said Northwestern coach Chris Collins. “Forget about the 31 points, but nine assists and no turnovers? … To me, [that’s] as good [of] a performance as he’s had — and any Northwestern player’s had.”
So now what?
Based on Friday morning’s CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings, it might seem like Marquette, which was No. 2 on Friday morning, should now elevate to No. 1 — but that feels wrong. The Golden Eagles at No. 2 behind only an undefeated Purdue team that beat them in last month’s title game of the Maui Invitational made sense Friday morning. But Marquette is no longer a team whose only loss is to undefeated Purdue because Marquette is now a team whose only loss is to a one-loss Purdue team that just fell at Northwestern. In other words, Marquette’s body of work also took a hit on Friday night, and that’s why I’ve elevated undefeated Arizona to No. 1 in Saturday morning’s updated Top 25 And 1.
Arizona is 6-0 with a road win over the school ranked 10th (Duke) in the Top 25 And 1 and a neutral-court victory over the school ranked 20th (Michigan State) in the Top 25 And 1. That means the Wildcats are the sport’s only undefeated team with multiple wins over schools also ranked in the Top 25 And 1 now that Purdue, which owns three such victories, is no longer undefeated. That’s why it’s appropriate to move Arizona to No. 1 in Saturday morning’s Top 25 And 1, and I suspect the Wildcats will also take the top spot in the Associated Press Top 25 poll and USA Today Coaches poll when those rankings update Monday provided, of course, that Arizona handles Colgate Saturday inside the McKale Center and improves to 7-0.
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Top 25 And 1 rankings
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