College Basketball Roundup: SEC Wins (Almost) Every High Profile Matchup

For many casual sports fans, the college basketball season doesn’t tip-off until the CFB Playoff Rankings are unveiled in between a pair of high-profile matchups in the Champions Classic. This year, the big-name matchups started a few days early.

In the SEC, It Just Means More, and this year that applies to college basketball as well. One of the deepest and most talented leagues in the country proved that on the opening Saturday of the season.

Kentucky’s Old Coach Lost to the Guy We Thought Was Going to Be Kentucky’s New Coach

“Unique” is an overused descriptor, but there has never been another moment like what Kentucky fans experienced while watching Saturday night’s game in Dallas. One one sideline, a coach who spent 15 years with the Wildcats. On the other sideline, the guy whose flight we tracked from Waco to Lexington. There was a 24-hour period where it felt like the National Championship-winning coach was coming to Kentucky until he shared a pic of him eating chips and salsa.

It’s impossible to ignore the connections to Kentucky from afar, but they didn’t have any real impact on this game, although UK fans had seen this story before.

John Calipari’s team missed its first nine three-point attempts. Arkansas only hit two shots during one four-minute period in the second half that allowed Baylor to extend its lead to 11. The Razorbacks had one final run in them, limiting Baylor to only three buckets over the final eight minutes. Boogie Fland hit a long three to cut the deficit to three, but it was too little too late.

No. 8 Baylor knocked off No. 16 Arkansas 72-67. Five Baylor Bears scored in double figures, while Fland’s three threes led to 17 points. Adou Thiero led all scorers with 24 points on 10-15 shooting.

Tennessee Thumps Louisville in Embarrassing Fashion

Growing up in the city of Louisville, I could smell a Cardinal win from a mile away. It was a whiteout for the biggest home game in five years, setting the table for Pat Kelsey’s coming out party and a return to the elite company of college basketball.

Tennessee had different plans.

The Vols are a defense-first program under Rick Barnes who just lost their best offensive player. Louisville is going to live and die by the three. Boy, did they die by it in a 77-55 loss.

The Cards shot 10-39 from three-point land and only made 26.7% of their field goals. Meanwhile, Tennessee was lights out, going 10-19 from three and sinking 56.6% of their shots. The 12th-ranked Vols controlled the whole game, but Louisville made one run in the second half to cut it to nine when Zakai Zeigler, a career 33% three-point shooter, sunk this bomb from the Louisville logo.

ZAKAI ZEIGLER FROM WAY DOWNTOWN 🌆

(via @Vol_Hoops)

pic.twitter.com/VFPN0J74tR

— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) November 9, 2024

Auburn Soars Despite Grounded Flight

Auburn’s road trip was grounded before leaving the state of Alabama. Initial reports attempted to diminish the on-flight altercation between Jahki Howard and Ja’Heim Hudson. Nevertheless, the plane was turned around and the two reserves were sent home while the rest of the team boarded another plane.

Once the game actually began in Houston, we got a thrilling back-and-forth affair with 13 lead changes and six ties between a pair of teams that met in the second round of the 2023 NCAA Tournament. Auburn got their long-awaited revenge thanks to a couple of big games from Tahaad Pettiford (21 points) and Johni Broome (20 points, 9 rebounds).

A transition three by Houston’s Emanuel Sharp gave the Cougs the advantage with 2:14 remaining. After that, it was all Auburn, ending the game on an 8-2 run to secure a 74-69 victory. The Tigers are now the No. 1 ranked team in Kenpom.