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NCAA Week Ahead: Top Teams Take Tumble

Minnesota Holds Best ATS Record Nationally

· Jan 15 - 5 minutes read

No. 1 Purdue lost by 16 points to Nebraska, a buzzer-beating layup lifted TCU past second-ranked Houston, No. 3 Kansas suffered a five-point loss to unranked UCF, No. 5 Tennessee fell to Mississippi State and No. 6 Kentucky tumbled in overtime against Texas A&M.

When looking at the college basketball betting lines, the first game of the week featuring a ranked team comes on Monday when unranked Villanova hits the road to face Marquette. The Golden Eagles are favored by six points.

NCAA Week Ahead: Top Teams Take Tumble — Donovan Clingan #32 of the Connecticut Huskies | Carmen Mandato/Getty Images/AFP

Not only are there no more undefeated teams in the country, Ole Miss is one of four one-loss teams and the only one from the Power-5 conferences. Detroit Mercy and Mississippi Valley State are the only winless teams. Minnesota (14-2) has the best mark against the NCAA basketball spread.

In the USA Today Coaches Poll, UConn received 20 of the 32 first-place votes to take over the top spot. The Huskies received 39 of the 63 No. 1 votes in the Associated Press poll.

The Boilermakers are still listed by the college basketball futures odds with the best odds of +850 of winning the NCAAM title. Arizona and Houston are the closest challengers at +1000.

New No. 1 to Be Tested Right Away

UConn moved into the top spot in the Associated Press poll for the first time since 2009. Will the Huskies stay there? Well, the first game as the No. 1 team will be no easy task with Creighton coming to town.

Creighton has won six of the seven meetings between the schools. The last time the teams met, the Blue Jays escaped with a 56-53 win as a 4½-point favorite. The lone win happened the last time UConn played Creighton at home on Jan. 13, 2023. Tristen Newton had 13 points in the 69-60 win by the Huskies.

There have been some rumblings that Huskies 7-foot-2 sophomore center Donovan Clingan could be back for the game. Clingan, who is averaging 13.9 points and 6.2 rebounds in 20.8 minutes per game, hasn’t played since a Dec. 20 loss to Seton Hall.

Creighton plays both teams tied for the Big East lead this week, with the Bluejays remaining on the road to meet up with Seton Hall on Saturday.

A Look at the Polls

In the coaches poll, the biggest move was made by Wisconsin going from 15th to eighth. Baylor and Auburn each moved up five spots to No. 9 and 11, respectively. UConn went from fourth to first with North Carolina going from seventh to third.

Oklahoma fell seven spots to No. 16 while Marquette dropped from 12th to 18th.

North Carolina is fourth in the AP poll and Duke comes in at No. 7. No. 9 Baylor, No. 10 Memphis and No. 11 Wisconsin were among the other teams on the rise.

Game of the Week

Houston Cougars at Texas Tech Red Raiders

Wednesday, Jan. 17, 9 p.m. ET (ESPNU)

There are nine teams from the Power-5 conferences with either one or two losses and this is the only matchup this week featuring two of those teams.

This will be just the second meeting between the teams in the last nine years, with the Cougars winning 64-53 in the Southwest Showcase in Fort Worth, Texas on Nov. 29, 2020.

Texas Tech is tied with Baylor atop the Big 12 standings with a 3-0 record and is 10-0 at home. The Red Raiders won their only game this season against a ranked team with a 76-67 win at Texas on Jan 6.

Never stopped fighting 💯#TTW | #WreckEm pic.twitter.com/m4foOfimpi

— Texas Tech Basketball (@TexasTechMBB) January 15, 2024

Both of the losses for Houston this season have come on the road. That resulted in the Cougars going from second to fifth in the coaches poll.

Sophomore Pop Isaacs is the top scorer for Texas Tech with an average of 16.3 points per game. However, he was just 2-of-11 from the field in his most recent game.

Houston’s top scorer L.J. Cryer was 4 of 23 from the field and 2 of 13 from 3-point range as the Cougars have dropped their last two games.

Player of the Week

Isaac Jones, Washington State

The senior forward averaged 25 points and 12 rebounds to lead the Cougars to wins over USC and No. 8 Arizona.

Jones had 24 points and 13 rebounds in the 73-70 upset of Arizona with the host Cougars listed by the Las Vegas College Basketball odds as 8½-point favorites at home.

It was just the third win in the last 23 meetings against Arizona.

Team Of the Week

TCU Horned Frogs

Upsetting one ranked team wasn’t enough for the Horned Frogs. TCU topped Oklahoma 80-71 on Wednesday and then stunned No. 2-ranked Houston on Saturday.