Last Night in College Basketball: Unranked Wisconsin Gets 2nd Top-10 Road W

Men’s college basketball, women’s college basketball – there’s no shortage of college ball, every night. Don’t worry, we’re here to help you figure out what you missed but shouldn’t have. Here are all the best moments from last night in college basketball. Wisconsin beats Illinois in OT What is going on with Wisconsin? The Badgers have not had a particularly special season when you take the zoomed out view. They are 2-6 in Quad 1 games and have 7 losses overall. Wisconsin is sixth in the Big Ten, which means not in position for a double-bye in the conference tournament. The Badgers have not been ranked in the poll since the week of Nov. 17, and topped out at No. 23. And yet! Those two Quad 1 wins have absolutely been special. Wisconsin ended then-No. 2 Michigan’s undefeated season on the road on Jan. 10, and then exactly one month later upset No. 8 Illinois on the road. That’s two top-10 wins — on the road — for a team that hasn’t been ranked in months and even now sits just 37th in the NCAA Evaluation Tool. Wisconsin joins — funnily enough — Illinois and Purdue as the only other Division I teams with a pair of top-10 road wins in 2025-2026. Wisconsin got there by coming back from being down 12 with 11:21 to go in the second half, and then, after briefly clawing back a bit, fell 12 behind again with 8:10 remaining. With just 2:19 on the clock, however, Wisconsin would tie things up at 76 thanks to a 3-pointer from sophomore forward Austin Rapp. Freshman guard Keaton Wagler would put another 5 points on the board for Illinois to keep it afloat and force overtime, but it was Nick Boyd that stood out in overtime to help Wisconsin to the W. The senior guard scored 5 of his team-leading 25 points in overtime to help the Badgers to an 11-9 lead in the period, and Wisconsin came away the winner. Wagler had a huge game, with 34 points on 12-for-23 shooting along with 7 assists, and every other Illinois starter scored between 10 and 19 points. The bench contributed 4 points in 31 minutes — though, junior center Zvonimir Ivisic did have 9 boards — so all of that scoring from the starters was necessary, but also wasn’t enough. Not when Wisconsin got 18 out of Rapp and 24 out of junior guard John Blackwell to go along with Boyd’s big game — and not when Wisconsin scored 23 points off of 13 turnovers, compared to Illinois converting 4 Badgers’ turnovers into 6 points. That was the real difference: a less sloppy approach — or a less aggressive Wisconsin defense — would have meant a Fighting Illini dub. Wisconsin shot worse but made an additional bucket, anyway, had fewer free throw opportunities but hit them at a higher rate to make up for it. If Illinois had done a better job of protecting the ball, well. Then it wouldn’t be two losses back of Michigan in the Big Ten standings right now, while Wisconsin starts to consider the possibility it can catch up to one of Michigan State or Nebraska or Purdue — all 10-3 — for the last conference tourney double-bye. Purdue outlasts Nebraska in OT Speaking of Purdue and Nebraska. The Boilermakers managed to upset the Huskers on Tuesday in their own overtime showdown, also on the road and also against a top-10 opponent. After a catastrophic three-game losing streak, Purdue now finds itself in a three-way tie for third in the Big Ten, alongside Michigan State and Nebraska. And it would have been very easy for things to have gone differently here — as coach Matt Painter said, his team was just one possession better here. And Purdue’s willingness to go after the basketball is what allowed it that opportunity. The Boilermakers outrebounded Nebraska, 54 to 37. Senior forward Trey Kaufman-Renn had a game-high 19 boards, while senior center Oscar Cluff recorded a double-double with 12 points and 14 rebounds of his own. Senior guard Braden Smith didn’t get to double-digits in rebounds, but he nabbed 8 with 13 points and 10 assists, just missing a triple-double. Smith also set the new program record for career minutes, as he finished the game with 4,529, passing E’Twaun Moore’s mark set back in 2011. [Purdue vs. Nebraska: 4 Takeaways From a Thrilling OT Win] Those rebounds allowed for second-chance points: Purdue had 21 offensive boards, which is where most of the difference in the totals between the Boilermakers and Cornhuskers lived. On a night where they shot just 28% from deep and 37% overall, where they sank just 11 of 20 free throws, those second chances were what won the game. Including on the play that put Purdue ahead for good in OT. BYU’s big 3rd quarter upsets Iowa State Iowa State responded to a five-game losing streak in junior forward Addy Brown’s absence by then rattling off five wins in a row, and things are looking up overall: Brown might even be back from an unnamed lower body injury at some point this season, per coach Bill Fennelly, though nothing is for certain just yet. If the three-way threat of Brown — she’s second on the team in scoring per game, and first in both rebounds and assists — does return before Big 12 tournament time, at least, that would go a long way toward improving Iowa State’s chances both there and in the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament. Things did not go the Cyclones’ way on Tuesday against BYU, however. While Iowa State kept things close at first, a huge third quarter by the Cougars, in which they outscored the Cyclones 26-10, resulted in a 20-point lead and little chance that Iowa State would come back given how it was shooting compared to BYU: the Cougars shot 52% for the game, and Iowa State just 39%. The result was an 83-69 loss, with the highlight for BYU being the performance of freshman guard Olivia Hamlin off the bench. In 30 minutes, she scored 23 on 9-for-18 shooting with 3 rebounds and a steal, helping to lift a starting unit that was a bit boom or bust with its performance. Iowa State is now just 7-6 in conference play, tied for eighth in the Big 12 with Kansas State. That puts them a couple of spots outside a first-round bye in the four-round Big 12 tournament, but there is still some season left for that to change. Mikayla Blakes is now the scoring leader One other downriver impact from Iowa State’s loss is that junior center Audi Crooks, who was held to just 18 points against BYU, is no longer the Division I scoring leader. Crooks has seen her performance drop off a bit in Brown’s absence, given the best passer on the team was no longer around to feed her in the paint and help her be the dominating force she is capable of, and a lack of other rebounding help meant that she was also needed more on the glass, too. She’s still been playing well — Crooks has averaged 21 points since the Jan. 4 game against Baylor in which Brown first hurt herself and Iowa State first suffered a loss — but she had been at 29.4 per game with Brown healthy and alongside her. Vanderbilt sophomore guard Mikayla Blakes, who scored 34 points against No. 10 Oklahoma on Monday night, is now all alone as the Division I women’s scoring leader, at 25.9 points per game. Blakes averaged 23.3 points as a freshman with the Commodores last year, winning AP All-American 3rd Team honors in the process, and this year was one of 25 players selected for the Wooden Award midseason watch list. Crooks, meanwhile, still leads the Big 12 in scoring at 25.5 points per game — she also led the conference last year, at 23.4, and was an AP 3rd Team All-American, as well. TCU upsets Iowa State TCU managed to add another impressive win to its résumé for March, upsetting Iowa State’s men’s team. The Horned Frogs would win, 62-55, thanks to a strong second half that saw TCU outscore Iowa State 33-25 to come from behind. TCU was not good from deep, shooting 5-for-18, but luckily for the Horned Frogs the Cyclones shot even worse from beyond the arc. Iowa State also sank 5 3s and missed just as many additional attempts, and its inability to draw fouls to get to the line or hit the free-throw attempts the Cyclones did get doomed them. Both teams played it a bit too loose with turnovers, but TCU ended up making a couple fewer and scored more points off of the ones it forced, as well. After the late comeback, the Horned Frogs now have four Quad 1 wins, which are going to be very necessary on Selection Sunday considering that TCU also has one loss each in the Quad 2, Quad 3 and Quad 4 categories — that 78-74 loss to New Orleans to open the season looks worse with every subsequent game the 221st-ranked Privateers play, TCU also lost to Utah and even the early win against Florida came at a time when the Gators were playing nothing like they are now. Which is to say that managing to defeat a team that was 5th in NET before the loss is about as significant an apology as a school can present to the Selection Committee for earlier transgressions. Meanwhile, Iowa State has just three losses all season, but they are all in conference play, leaving the Cyclones in fourth place in the Big 12 at 8-3, behind Arizona, Houston and Kansas. TCU is 5-6 and in ninth, but just a game back of sixth, which is currently in a three-way tie featuring BYU, UCF and West Virginia. If TCU can get a bye and make some noise in the tourney, combined with the impressive Quad 1 wins it does have… well, it will be hard to ignore the Horned Frogs then. New Orleans was a long time ago, after all. Western Illinois drops 93, Nicastro stars Senior combo guard-forward Mia Nicastro had a double-double with 22 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists and a steal, leading Western Illinois to a 93-49 drubbing of Eastern Illinois. Nicastro shot 9-for-15 from the field and hit all three of her free-throw attempts, and her rebounding helped ensure that the Leathernecks won the battle at the glass, too. Western Illinois shot 55% while limiting the Panthers to just 28% — Eastern Illinois scored just 49 points and got that much mostly because it was given opportunities to shoot from 3, and did, sinking 9 of 21 attempts. The Leathernecks owned the paint and wouldn’t give an inch there, however, and outscored the Panthers 56-16 there. If that’s how the game is going to go near the basket, then yeah, let your opponent shoot a few harmless 3-pointers, why not. [Get to Know a Mid-Major: Ohio Valley Conference] The Leathernecks are atop the Ohio Valley with a 12-3 record, and Nicastro has a whole lot to do with that. She is first in the conference in points per game, second in rebounds, roughly a mile ahead in Player Efficiency Rating (PER), at 37.7 with the next-best at 30.6, tops in both offensive and defensive win shares, third in Offensive Rating, fifth in Defensive Rating, and fourth in plus/minus. She also has the lowest turnover percentage in the OVC, at 7.6%, and is fifth in Division I overall in scoring. Just a great season from both the Leathernecks and Nicastro. Yessoufou, Dybantsa duel The two scoring leaders on Tuesday actually went head-to-head, with Baylor’s Tounde Yessoufou facing off against BYU’s AJ Dybantsa. Baylor’s freshman guard would lead all scorers in Division I with 37 points, with BYU’s freshman forward falling just short with 36. Both players were efficient — Yessoufou shot 12-for-19 and 5-for-8 from 3 with a perfect 8-for-8 from the stripe, while Dybantsa was 12-for-21, 2-for-5 and 4-for-6 — and also contributed beyond scoring. Yessoufou picked up 6 rebounds, 3 assists and a steal, while Dybantsa had 5 boards, 7 dimes and a theft of his own. In the end, while Dybantsa might have scored fewer points than Yessoufou, the Cougars did not. BYU would win the shootout, 99-94, climbing over .500 to 6-5 in Big 12 play, while the Bears sank to 3-9. The difference? The second-leading scorer for the two teams. While Baylor’s sophomore guard Cameron Carr had a hell of a game himself with 24 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists and 3 blocks, BYU’s own sophomore guard, Robert Wright III, reached 30 points with 4 boards, 3 assists and 4 steals. The difference was slight, but so too was the gap in the final score. Rice comes back for 16th-straight W It took coming back from being down 12 to do it, but Rice won its 16th-straight game, moved to 11-0 in American Conference play and clinched a spot in the conference tournament, as well. North Texas lost a tough one here, as the Mean Green are now tied for fifth after having a chance to move into fourth with the upset W — that matters, since the third- and fourth-ranked teams in the conference get a first-round bye in the tournament, while teams 5-10 have to play every round. [Get to Know a Mid-Major: American Conference] Senior forward Megan Nestor logged a double-double with 14 points on 6-for-9 shooting and a game-high 15 rebounds; she is averaging 13.8 boards per game, tops in Division I. That the Mean Green had a 45-30 advantage on the glass, though, and that they dominated the paint, 40-18, did not result in a W, and for two reasons. The first is that Rice scored more than twice as many points off of turnovers as North Texas did, 25-12, with the Mean Green turning the ball over 22 times. The second is that North Texas could not hit a 3-pointer. Well, correction. It did hit a 3-pointer, but a second one was elusive all night. Rice made up the difference in the paint with a 9-for-21 performance from deep and those converted turnovers, and ended up winning a game that the Mean Green led for two-thirds of its 40 minutes. No one player on Rice stood out with a huge game-long performance, but instead, four different players scored between 11 and 16 points, and drawing enough fouls to sink 19 free throws helped, too. It took until there were under two minutes remaining before the Owls went ahead for good, when junior guard and bench player Louann Battison hit back-to-back 3s around 33 seconds apart to tie the game then put Rice up by 3. UNC now on the other side of an upset UNC upset Duke, and moved to No. 11 in the poll because of it. North Carolina’s followup? Losing to unranked Miami, 75-66. That’s basketball, baby. The Tar Heels just couldn’t get anything going, and just three players scored in double-digits, with the leader, junior forward Jarin Stevenson, managing all of 13. They were outrebounded, they turned the ball over more, they were dominated in the paint, 46-28, and they were also called for more fouls than is usual, as well. Sorry, Duke fans, consider it the cosmic payback for the Blue Devils easily shutting down California and Stanford’s offenses right after UNC was stymied by them. Miami, conversely, shot 47% overall despite going just 3-for-13 from 3, and took advantage of 23 trips to the line by sinking 14 free throws. Senior forward Malik Reneau and senior center Ernest Udeh Jr. both had double-doubles, with the former picking up 16 points and 10 rebounds while the latter had 15 and 10. Because of the upset W, Miami is now actually ahead of UNC in the ACC standings, at 8-3 and in fifth place. North Carolina is a game back and in seventh, making it a difficult proposition to get to one of the four double-byes even if the Tar Heels are nearly a top-10 team by the poll. Well, were nearly a top-10 team. Miami is a good one, at 36th in NET, but North Carolina was already 22nd in the same rankings even before the loss, and now sits 26th.