Last Night in College Basketball: Kansas Tops Houston, Big 12 Remains Chaotic

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. Kansas took down Houston Don’t bother trying to make sense of the Big 12. All you need to know about it for sure is that basically anyone within it can win at any time against anyone. Kansas, especially, is confounding: the Jayhawks are good with star freshman guard Darryn Peterson, but also still good without the future lottery pick in the lineup. They beat former No. 1 and undefeated Arizona, then got hit hard by Iowa State and lost to unranked Cincinnati. Sure, why not. Houston has been confusing for its own reasons. The Cougars found themselves all the way at No. 2 in the poll after a strong start to the month with wins against UCF, BYU, Utah and Kansas State, then played Iowa State close in a loss, got beat by an undermanned Arizona team and, on Monday, lost to No. 14 Kansas after falling to No. 5 in the poll. Again, don’t try to make sense of it — just know that the Big 12 tournament is going to be a banger. Just to make it all that much tougher to figure out, Kansas took down Houston without the aforementioned Peterson having a big game. He played 30 minutes, and scored 14 points on just 5-for-14 shooting, to go with 4 rebounds and an assist. Not a bad game, no, but not a star-level performance, which is what you’d expect in an upset like this. The Jayhawks got plenty from their other starters, however, with Peterson doing what was needed: freshman forward Bryson Tiller had an 11-point, 10-rebound double-double, while senior guard Tre White led all scorers with 23 points. What truly mattered for Kansas was how good the defense was against Houston. The Cougars shot just 32% overall and 5-for-21 from 3, with the Jayhawks fouling just 9 times despite keeping Houston from getting enough quality looks to catch up. The Cougars were down by just 4 points at halftime, but Kansas stretched that lead further, getting it to 20 at one point before settling for a 69-56 dub. The two are now tied for second in the Big 12 at 11-4, behind 12-2 Arizona, but ahead of 10-4 Iowa State and Texas Tech. There are just four double-byes to go around, which means one of these five teams is going to be left with a single one — Kansas did its part against Houston to make sure it’s not the one left behind, but the Jayhawks still have to face Arizona, Arizona State and K-State before the regular season is a wrap. Baylor beats Kansas State Kansas State’s women’s team is hovering somewhere between the bubble and not getting anywhere close to March Madness. It’s 56th in the NCAA Evaluation Tool, having gone 2-4 in Quad 1 matchups, but it also committed the cardinal sin of losing a Quad 4 game, which is the kind of thing that hammers a team’s Wins Above Bubble rating — K-State ranks just 86th there. In order to reverse that damage, the Wildcats need upset wins; a faceoff against No. 18 Baylor on Monday presented such an opportunity. The Bears were 17th in WAB heading into the matchup, as well as 33rd in NET, so this was a chance for K-State to make a late attempt at March relevancy. If anything, though, Baylor showed how much of a long shot that is going to be. The Bears held the Wildcats to just 34% shooting, outrebounded them 43-29 and shrugged off committing more turnovers to rout Kansas State 80-54. Things were still close enough at the half, with Baylor up 35-26, but the Bears turned it on in the third quarter and outscored K-State 45-28 the rest of the way. Sophomore guard Taliah Scott, who is once again averaging 20.3 points just as she did last year for Auburn, led all scorers with 20 while grabbing 3 rebounds with 2 assists. Senior guard Jana Van Gytenbeek had just 5 points, but played the role of facilitator with 8 assists while grabbing a pair of steals and rebounds each. Senior forward Darianna Littlepage-Buggs had a double-double, with 10 points and 11 boards. Things were well in hand enough for the Bears because of the starters that the bench ended up playing 68 minutes, and added another 22 points, 13 rebounds and 6 dimes. Baylor is now 13-4, half-a-game behind conference leader TCU in the Big 12 and a full game up on West Virginia. The Bears have locked in a double-bye for the conference tournament, as they have just one game left — against No. 11 TCU — on the schedule. UNC held off Louisville There wasn’t a ton of basketball on Monday, either for men’s or women’s, but we did manage to get a pair of ranked-ranked matchups. Kansas vs. Houston was one, the other was No. 24 Louisville visiting No. 18 UNC. North Carolina is and has been shorthanded, with leading scorer Caleb Wilson missing time due to a broken bone in his hand — the freshman forward could be back before the ACC tournament, but the Tar Heels need to get there with the best seeding possible, too. That made the Cardinals a serious test for UNC, but one that North Carolina was able to pass, even if barely: the Tar Heels would win, 77-74, on the strength of shooting 54% as a team. North Carolina’s defense wasn’t able to do much to stop freshman and senior guards Mikel Brown Jr. and Ryan Conwell — the two scored a combined 47 points — but that was also the majority of Louisville’s scoring. And the two had to work to get that many points on the boards, too, as they shot a combined 16-for-44. The rest of the Cardinals went 10-for-23. Limiting the other options while making life difficult for the two leading scorers worked out well enough, even if, again, UNC won by just 3 points. Winning at all without Wilson around to help, and against a ranked conference opponent, is significant. The Tar Heels also didn’t just get there by keeping the rest of the Cardinals in check. Senior guard Seth Trimble scored a career-high 30 points on 11-for-16 shooting, along with 4 rebounds, 4 assists and a steal. UNC was outrebounded, but still won the battle in the paint 40-24, which helped make up for Louisville sinking 14 3-pointers — the Cardinals nearly took 40 attempts from deep on the night, but with UNC avoiding sending them to the stripe with regularity and controlling the paint, Louisville still fell short. Georgia picks up needed W Georgia might be ranked No. 23 in the poll, but what the voters think of the Lady Bulldogs has little do with their standing in the hotly contested SEC. Georgia came into its matchup with Auburn just 6-7 in conference play, in 10th place — the possibility of falling further, and creating a tougher SEC tournament than what already has to be faced, was very real, especially with No. 4 Texas still left on the schedule. With Auburn just 3-10, this was one of those games that isn’t “must-win” by the strictest definition, but would help in a whole bunch of ways when it comes to upcoming tourneys. Luckily for Georgia, it got a convincing win, defeating Auburn 74-52 to push the Bulldogs into a three-way tie for eighth in the SEC with a Tennessee team that’s fallen off the cliff and a Kentucky team ranked ahead of Georgia in the poll. Sophomore guard Dani Carnegie stood out, with a game-high 17 points in 34 minutes on 7-for-14 shooting — she was inaccurate from deep, going 1-for-6, but found much more success from 2. Carnegie also had 4 rebounds, 2 assists, a block and 4 steals against the Tigers. The real killer for Auburn was turnovers: the Tigers made 17 forced turnovers, and Georgia pounced on them, converting them into 28 points. Georgia was better in the paint, better on the boards, better from deep, better at holding onto the ball — just better. And despite Auburn’s SEC record, that’s a potential tourney team, too, as it ranks 58th in WAB even after taking this L. A serious showing in the SEC tournament could change the Tigers’ fortunes for the better, but losing to Georgia by this much, when the Bulldogs themselves are just trying to stay afloat in D-I’s most loaded conference, does not inspire confidence there. McNeese finishes undefeated at home McNeese has been on a pretty great run in Southland play, as it’s 17-3 overall and in second place, as well as winners of six in a row following Monday’s 75-68 victory over UTRGV — a win the Cowboys picked up despite the Vaqueros shooting 50% from the field. McNeese was able to withstand that thanks to UTRGV fouling 21 times, sending the Cowboys to the line to sink just as many free throws — that, plus 17 points off turnovers, made up for the comparative lack of 3s and success from the field. Freshman guard Larry Johnson had a game-high 20 points with 8 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals to go with them in 36 minutes. Despite all the successful shooting UTRGV did, no one quite stepped up like that, and the result was falling short of a needed win. The win also means that McNeese finished its regular season undefeated at home, 14-0. And every little thing the Cowboys can point to matters right now, as they are 58th in WAB, at -0.82 — so close to being the very definition of on the bubble, but not quite there yet. McNeese is also 57th in NET, and could win the Southland regular-season title as well as the championship and the automatic bid that comes with it. Another 30-point game leads to upset Seth Trimble’s 30-point showing wasn’t just a career-best and game-high, but also tied for the most points anyone in Division I basketball — men’s or women’s — scored on Monday. Trimble was joined by New Orleans senior guard and Texas State transfer, Coleton Benson, who dropped 30 on Stephen F. Austin. Not just that, but Benson also had the best night of anyone in D-I ball on Monday by GameScore, at an even 25.0. To go with the 30 points, Benson had 5 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals, and shot a perfect 7-for-7 from the line. He was also 10-for-17 from the field and played all 40 minutes for the Privateers in a huge 77-73 upset win over the Lumberjacks — SFA was 81st in NET but now finds itself 87th, and has a WAB of -0.40 following its defeat. New Orleans, even after the win, isn’t even a top-200 team in D-I by NET. This was a W against the top team in the Southland conference, and New Orleans first win facing SFA on the road in the Sawmill. New Orleans is now tied for third in the conference with McNeese defeating UGRTV, as well, which is huge for the Privateers since the third- and fourth-ranked teams get a bye into the Southland conference quarterfinals. A tourney win is the only way New Orleans will get into March Madness, but after snapping a 13-game win streak and beating a team of SFA’s caliber, we now know that’s possible.