College Basketball Weekly: A Calipari Redemption + Saturday's Biggest Headlines

Although painful for Kentucky fans, the first college hoops Saturday of February delivered a noon-to-midnight slate of tremendous action, aside from that travesty at Cameron Indoor Stadium. On this edition of College Basketball Weekly, we’ll give good old John Calipari some credit and address the other storylines of the week.

Here’s the menu:

• Notable Results
• John Calipari: When You Least Expect It
• Hubert Davis: One Foot In The Grave?
• Iowa State: Ames to Ashes
• Muss Buss Gains Steam
• Mississippi State: Things Fall Apart
• Kansas: How To Blow A Game

Notable Results

(3) Iowa State 75 @ Arizona 86
(12) Kentucky 78 @ (8) Tennessee 73
Baylor 89 @ BYU 93
(4) Alabama 88 @ (14) Mississippi State 84
(17) Wisconsin 68 @ Maryland 76
Texas 69 @ (23) Ole Miss 72
(16) Oregon 52 @ UCLA 78
(18) Illinois 74 @ Nebraska 80
(1) Auburn 92 @ (23) Ole Miss 82
North Carolina 70 @ (2) Duke 87
Kansas State 80 @ (3) Iowa State 61
(5) Florida 44 @ (8) Tennessee 64
(22) Texas Tech 82 @ (6) Houston 81
(7) Michigan State 64 @ USC 70
(25) UConn 77 @ (9) Marquette 69
(11) Kansas 70 @ Baylor 81
Arkansas 89 @ (12) Kentucky 79
(20) Missouri 88 @ (14) Mississippi State 61
(21) Louisville 70 @ Georgia Tech 77
(24) Vanderbilt 67 @ Oklahoma 97

Quick Hitters

John Calipari: When You Least Expect It

See, it’s the irony within sports that really makes the storylines. John Calipari disappointed and angered many Kentucky fans with one brutal postseason after another to end his tenure in Lexington, then absconded to Arkansas and started out 1-6 in SEC play while Mark Pope’s first squad looked much superior, which actually won him the tiniest bit of sympathy heading into a massive return matchup in Lexington (but not enough to drown out the boos).

And John Calipari led Arkansas to victory for one more sweet victory in Rupp Arena, because of course he did. When you least expected first-round losses to Saint Peter’s and Oakland, he delivered those. But when you least expect him to pull a rabbit out of the hat, even in his older years, he often finds a way, and did so again. Saturday’s result may not signal a full turnaround for the Razorbacks, but at least for one night, a man who took a ton of punishment for the last 10 months got a win in the biggest game of his season (and Kentucky’s, frankly). I’ll say it, good for Cal, he earned this one.

Hubert Davis: One Foot In The Grave?

Duke started out with a 90% chance of victory at home over North Carolina, per ESPN, and their win probability never dropped below 89% and maintained at 99% for the final 29 minutes of gametime. The Blue Devils were up by as much as 30 in the second half. I mean, this wasn’t even a game.

For Hubert Davis, a win with this spiraling Tar Heel club felt unrealistic, but the humiliating manner in which it went down, coupled with a 13-10 record and 6-5 mark in the horrible ACC as of Sunday morning has UNC in its worst spot of the Davis era.

Is he on thin ice? You’d certainly think so. But that’s a conversation Chapel Hill faithful will have to reckon with if the year continues to unspool in such ugly fashion. Heck, it may even be past the point of no return with a weak schedule to come, putting all of the pressure on the Heels in the return matchup vs. Duke.

Iowa State: Ames to Ashes

Arizona’s Caleb Love nailed a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from beyond half-court to send last Monday’s home contest vs. the Cyclones to overtime, where the Wildcats clawed to victory. The ‘Cats are surging and the McKale Center has claimed many a top-five victim, so no huge deal there. However, the follow-up was much more unsettling.

A crappy Kansas State team went into Ames and boatraced Iowa State by nearly 20 on Saturday, shooting just 32% from 2-point range in their worst performance of the season by a mile. A week ago, Iowa State could be included among Auburn, Duke and Alabama as one of the premier national title contenders. Obviously, one sour week doesn’t cast off the Cyclones for good, but those losses are a gut punch that could leave ISU stumbling back toward the pack.

Mus Buss Gains Steam

Through the end of the 2024 calander year, USC racked up several losses and zero wins of any quality but has since put together a resume in Big Ten play. The Trojans just handed No. 7 Michigan State their first conference loss, and Musselman’s squad is now 3-6 in Quad 1 with two more opportunities this week and a slew of them down the stretch.

USC was sort of forgotten, but let’s not forget that Eric Musselman did string together three straight trips to the second weekend prior to his final season at Arkansas and still has plenty of talent out in LA.

Mississippi State: Things Fall Apart

Mississippi State came into the week ranked 14th in the nation and heads toward a plummet in Monday’s next poll. Similar to Iowa State, the Bulldogs seemed to let one loss beat them twice, falling in brutal fashion at home, 88-84, vs. Alabama and then by 27 points to Missouri, also at home.

Josh Hubbard and Hail State showed their top-15 upside in the admirable losing effort vs. the Crimson Tide, but just came out rudderless in an all-systems-failure against a Mizzou team they probably ought to take care of on their home court. State’s had some brutal valleys of late losing five of their last seven, but will they rally for a stronger February or allow this tough string of results to cut the wind from their sails?

Kansas: How To Blow A Game

The Jayhawks played victim in the most improbable late-game comeback of recent memory at home vs. Houston last weekend. Then, this past Saturday, a reinvigorated Kansas jumped on top of Baylor with a 21-point first half lead only to allow the Bears to outscore them by 32 points the rest of the way in a collapse that was less shocking but even more painful than the blown opportunity seven days ago. This Bill Self squad just may not have the juice, because they’re looking much more like the 2024 team than the 2022-2023 teams.