By: Mike Guerriere
The men’s college basketball season is full steam ahead and week one has been a cake walk for 20 of the 21 schools that made it into the Associated Press Top 25.
What was just another Monday for No. 3 Purdue who outscored their unranked opponent (Samford) 20-1 in the first half of play, and No. 23 St. Mary’s curb stomping vs Stanislaus State winning that game 107-28, turned into an absolute NIGHTMARE for top 5 Michigan State.
Falling to unranked opponent James Madison University, this head-scratching loss gives head coach Tom Izzo his first loss at home since taking the Spartans coaching job in 1995. Izzo falls to 74-1 at home after this painful defeat, which I’m sure he is going to lose some sleep over, but we get our first groundbreaking upset of the college basketball season.
Embed from Getty ImagesJMU wrapped up last season finishing 4th in the Sun Belt conference going 22-11 during their regular season slate. Although finishing above .500 in 2022-23, losses to 9-23 Coppin State, 11-21 Valparaiso in the Hosltio Community Classic, and 16-19 Texas State it truly makes zero sense as to how MSU lost this game. The biggest addition that JMU added this season was a 5th year graduate transfer from High Point University who shot under 27% from the 3pt line, while Michigan State had the 3rd ranked recruiting class this season. How does that add up? They become the only ranked team so far this season to suffer the heartbreak of a loss to a non top 25 opponent.
On a more positive note, Miami walked all over NJIT winning their matchup 101-60 with two huge performances from Guard Wooga Polar (21pts, 8-16 FG, 5-9 3PT) and 2nd year Hurricane Norchad Omier (20pts, 8-11 FG, 2-2 3PT, 10 Rebs), and up north the Huskies took care of business out scoring the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks 48-22 in the second half. Uconn won that game 95-52. The average scoring margin for the ranked teams that played so far is 37.65pts making up for what was a highlight packed weekend.
Tonight features two matchups with top 25 teams, the Auburn Tigers get ready to face the 20th ranked Baylor Bears, and #8 Creighton squares off against Florida A&M. What should be a walk in the park for Creighton, will unfortunately not be for Baylor. Auburn finished last season going 3-3 against top 15 opponents defeating the likes of Tennessee and Arkansas, so be on the look for the tigers because when the spotlight is on they somehow find a way to prevail.
