NCAAM Breakdown: Purdue Back Atop Polls

There are four games this week between ranked teams with Kansas playing at Baylor, Kansas State facing Iowa State, and Xavier meeting UConn, as well as the much-anticipated Texas-Tennessee showdown as part of the Big 12/SEC Challenge.

Houston fell to No. 3 behind Purdue and Alabama in the Associated Press Top 25 poll. Tennessee and Arizona each moved up five spots to fourth and sixth while Kanas State was the biggest mover, going from 13th to fifth. Gonzaga tumbled eight spots to No. 14.

When looking at the Las Vegas odds, top-ranked Houston (+650) has the best odds to win the national title followed by Alabama (+1000, Purdue (+1100), Kansas (+1200) and UCLA (+1200).

Let’s check the latest college basketball news, stats, injury reports, and college basketball lines. We’ve got plenty of NCAA basketball picks for you to consider.

Tough Week to be a Favorite

There was another major shakeup at the top of the national polls with both No. 1 Houston and No. 2 Kansas falling over the weekend.

Kansas was absolutely obliterated by visiting Texas Christian despite a second straight 30-point game by national player of the year candidate Jalen Wilson. It was the second loss in a row for Kansas as the Jayhawks fell 83-82 in overtime at Kansas State.

On Sunday, Temple hit the road and stunned the top-ranked Cougars 56-55 despite shooting just 31% from the field. The Owls came into the game listed by the sportsbook as a 19½-point underdog.

TEAM WIN!

𝗔𝗟𝗟 𝗜𝗡! #ForPhilly pic.twitter.com/Oy6X0A4AHs

— Temple Men’s Basketball (@TUMBBHoops) January 22, 2023

Houston didn’t help itself by going 11 of 21 from the foul line.

Loyola Marymount provided a glimpse of what was to come with a 68-67 win at sixth-ranked Gonzaga as a 16-point underdog.

No. 7 Texas went down to nationally ranked Iowa State on the road and No. 8 Xavier lost at DePaul 73-72 in a truly chaotic week.

While it won’t go down as an upset since the game was listed by the Las Vegas odds as a pick’em, No. 5 UCLA lost for the first time in Pac-12 play this season with a 58-52 defeat at Arizona.

Boilermakers Back on Top

Purdue barely missed joining the list of top-10 ranked teams to lose last week as Zach Edey’s basket with three seconds left lifted the Boilermakers to a hard-earned 64-63 win at Michigan State.

After a more routine win at Minnesota, Purdue had another tussle with a 58-55 win at home against Maryland on Sunday. The Terrapins erased a double-digit lead in the second half to pull within a point before Braden Smith made a pair of foul shots with three seconds to play.

Maryland’s potential game-tying 3-pointer was no good as Purdue held on for the 58-55 win. Purdue joins Houston, Alabama and San Diego State as the only men’s Division I teams still undefeated on the road.

ACC Race Heating Up

Clemson got back to its winning ways thanks to a go-ahead 3-pointer by Hunter Tyson with 12 seconds remaining, holding on for a one-point win at home against a Virginia Tech team with one conference win.

That kept the Tigers alone in first place in the ACC standings. However, eight teams have one, two or three conference losses so that could make for quite the title chase.

Just three teams in the conference have winning records on the road so it could come down to home cooking in determining the pecking order in the ACC.

Virginia (even) is the team to beat in the ACC race according to the college basketball betting lines.

A Lucky 13

College of Charleston improved to 13-0 at home with a dominating 82-54 victory over William & Mary. That was followed by road wins of 14 points against Monmouth and 26 points versus Northeastern.

The Cougars have a week off before returning home to meet up with Hofstra.

Charleston has the longest active winning streak among Division I men’s teams with 20 wins in a row since a loss to North Carolina.

Florida Atlantic isn’t far behind with 18 straight wins. The only other teams with current double-digit winning streaks are Eastern Washington and Kent State.

FAU leads the country with a 14-3-1 record against the college basketball betting lines.

Moving on Up

Antoine Davis erupted for a season-high 42 points in Detroit Mercy’s 89-77 win over IUPUI as he moved into second place on the NCAA’s all-time scoring list.

Davis, in his fifth season at Detroit Mercy, has 3,274 points. He has some work to do to catch the legendary Pete Maravich’s Division I record of 3,667 points. Maravich accomplished that feat without a 3-point line and at a time when players weren’t eligible to play as freshmen. Maravich played in 83 games while Davis has played in 131 career games.

Davis, who is the leading scorer in the nation with an average of 27 points per game, already has set the men’s Division I record with 521 career 3-pointers.

Team of the Week

Arizona Wildcats

Arizona rebounded from a 19-point loss to Oregon in impressive fashion with wins over Southern California and UCLA, both at home.

Azuolas Tubelis had back-to-back double-doubles as he averaged 14.5 points and 13.5 rebounds in the two wins.

The story was the defense as the Wildcats held two of the better offensive teams in the Pac-12 to 34% and 22% shooting from 3-point range.

Player of the Week

Trayce Jackson-Davis, Indiana

Jackson-Davis averaged 33 points on 64% shooting as the Hoosiers topped Illinois and Michigan State by an average of 14 points.

Jackson-Davis also averaged 12 points, 4.5 assists and 4.0 blocked shots per game in the two wins.

Game of the Week

Texas vs Tennessee

• Date, time (TV): Saturday, Jan. 28th, 6:00 p.m. ET (ESPN)

Thanks to the Big 12/SEC Challenge, there are some compelling non-conference games this week.

The Texas-Tennessee tops the list as both teams step out of conference play for a top-10 matchup.

Marcus Carr leads Texas in both scoring (17.4 points per game) and assists (4.2) while Santiago Vescovi tops a balanced Tennessee offense with an average of 12.5 points.