Men's College Basketball

The better the opponent, the better the victory looks to the NCAA men's basketball tournament selection committee.

Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes understands that and wants his team's fans to as well.

"Wherever I have been, when fans start doing that, I am like, 'Stop,'" Barnes said while explaining why he signaled for fans to stop chanting "overrated" during the closing moments of Saturday's 67-62 win over No. 3 Auburn, per Mike Wilson of the Knoxville News Sentinel. "Give us credit. Don't demean what we just did. We just beat an outstanding basketball team."

He continued: "You just had a great, quality win against a team that first of all is not (overrated). Your fans are acting like you beat nobody. Well, we did. We just beat a top-five team."

The win was part of a wild day in college basketball when No. 23 Saint Mary's defeated No. 1 Gonzaga, Colorado beat No. 2 Arizona, Michigan State won against No. 4 Purdue, No. 10 Baylor toppled No. 5 Kansas, No. 18 Arkansas outlasted No. 6 Kentucky and TCU handled No. 9 Texas Tech.

Santiago Vescovi led the way for the Volunteers with 14 points, five rebounds, two assists, two blocks and one steal.

They are now 7-1 in their last eight as they continue to play their way up the seed line with Selection Sunday approaching.

For the first time since 2019, the Gonzaga Bulldogs have lost to the Saint Mary's Gaels. 

The No. 23 Gaels dominated the No. 1 Bulldogs from start to finish Saturday at University Credit Union Pavilion for a 67-57 win. Saint Mary's improved to 24-6 with the victory, while Gonzaga dropped to 24-3. 

Gonzaga entered Saturday's game having not lost since a 91-82 loss to the Alabama Crimson Tide on Dec. 4. This weekend's upset could affect their ranking in the Associated Press' Top 25 poll. 

Both Chet Holmgren and Drew Timme had underwhelming performances for the Bulldogs. Holmgren finished with six points, six rebounds and one assist while shooting 3-of-7 from the floor.

Timme, meanwhile, had one of his worst games of the season as he finished with six points, eight rebounds and two assists on 2-of-10 shooting from the floor. If the duo had played even slightly better, things could have turned out differently on Saturday night. 

As a team, the Bulldogs struggled on offense, shooting just 36.7 percent from the floor. In addition, they turned the ball over 14 times. 

As for Saint Mary's, Tommy Kuhse and Matthias Tass combined for 27 points, nine rebounds and four assists. Performances off the bench from Mitchell Saxen and Jabe Mullins were also critical in the Gaels' victory. 

With the Gaels' upset of Gonzaga, every team ranked in the top six of the AP Top 25 lost on Saturday. It is the first time ever that the top six ranked teams all lost in the same day. 

The second-ranked Arizona Wildcats were stunned Saturday in a 79-63 loss to Colorado at the CU Events Center.

Riding a nine-game winning streak that moved them up to No. 2 in the Associated Press Top 25 for the first time since November 2017, the Wildcats suffered their first loss since Jan. 25 against UCLA.

Arizona collapsed on both ends of the court in the second half. The Buffaloes had a 47-26 scoring advantage after halftime to earn their first win over a ranked opponent this season.

Tristan da Silva scored a game-high 19 points on 7-of-10 shooting. Jabari Walker put up a double-double with 15 points and 14 rebounds in 33 minutes.

Bennedict Mathurin had one of his worst performances of the season. The Wildcats sophomore star scored 12 points and went 3-of-11 from the field.

Saturday was a bad day to be a ranked team in college basketball:

That list doesn't even include top-ranked Gonzaga, which lost 67-57 to St. Mary's.

Arizona had been steadily moving up the rankings all season as it kept winning and other teams kept losing. Its only losses prior to Saturday were against UCLA and Tennessee, two teams ranked in the Top 20 of the current Associated Press poll.

Since their 75-59 loss to UCLA on Jan. 25, the Wildcats were averaging 81.6 points per game during their nine-game winning streak. They scored at least 83 points in four straight contests.

This game looked like it was going to be more of the same for Arizona in the first half. The offense dropped 37 points through the first 20 minutes.

Things fell apart quickly coming out of the intermission with Colorado scoring on back-to-back possessions to make it a 37-36 game. Da Silva's layup with 17:24 remaining put the Buffaloes up 43-42, a lead they wouldn't relinquish the rest of the game.

K.J. Simpson scored five consecutive points early in the second half that helped Colorado open up an eight-point lead.

Simpson had 13 points total, with 12 coming in the second half. The sophomore guard had more points in this game than he did in the previous two combined (12).

Mathurin and Azuolas Tubelis were the only Arizona players who scored in double figures, but they shot a combined 6-of-20 from the field. The entire Wildcats team had 16 turnovers to 11 assists.

Things don't figure to get easier for Arizona with a game against No. 16 USC on Tuesday. The Wildcats won the first meeting between those two teams, 72-63, on Feb. 5 at McKale Memorial Center.

Colorado will wrap up the regular season on March 5 against Utah at the Jon M. Huntsman Center.    

No. 10 Baylor has kept its hopes for a Big 12 regular-season title alive thanks to an 80-70 victory over No. 5 Kansas on Saturday night at the Ferrell Center.

This was the second time these two heavyweight programs have met in the past three weeks. Kansas dominated the first meeting, 83-59, at Allen Fieldhouse on Feb. 5. Head coach Bill Self's squad was riding a four-game winning streak coming into this matchup.

The Bears got a much-needed win over one of their key conference rivals. Their last two losses were against Kansas and Texas Tech (83-73 on Feb. 16). They are now 12-4 in Big 12 play, one game behind Kansas in the loss column with two games left in the regular season.

Fresh off shooting 64.1 percent from the field and scoring 102 points against Kansas State on Tuesday, the Jayhawks' offense went cold against a much better defense. They only made 34.3 percent of their attempts, including 7-of-28 from three-point range.

Ochai Agbaji did his best to carry the unit with 27 points. David McCormack and Christian Braun both recorded a double-double in the loss. 

This game initially looked like it would be a blowout for Kansas after taking a 21-9 lead midway through the first half. 

Baylor settled in at that point, closing the first half on a 22-11 run to close the deficit to one point. Kendall Brown gave the Bears their first lead of the game with a dunk to open the second half. 

The Jayhawks cut the lead to three with just under two minutes to play, but the Bears scored seven unanswered points to seal the victory.

Flo Thamba was the star of the game for the Bears with a career-high 18 points. 

Notable Game Stats

• Flo Thamba (Baylor): 18 points (8-of-13 FG), 9 rebounds
• James Akinjo (Baylor): 12 points (8-of-9 FT), 6 assists
  
• Jeremy Sochan (Baylor): 17 points (5-of-9 FG), 5 rebounds
• Ochai Agbaji (Kansas): 27 points (8-of-21 FG), 6 rebounds
• David McCormack (Kansas): 10 points (4-of-11 FG), 13 rebounds
  
• Christian Braun (Kansas): 17 points (6-of-13 FG), 10 rebounds

Thamba, Sochan Step Up for Bears in Marquee Win

It's a testament to how well head coach Scott Drew has done at building depth on the roster that Baylor has been able to stay in the Top 10 of the Associated Press poll for most of the season, despite dealing with injury issues this season. 

It was only two weeks ago that Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua suffered a season-ending knee injury in an 80-63 win over Texas on Feb. 12. 

Thamba and Kendall Brown are the only two players on the roster who have appeared in all 29 games.

Thamba did his best to keep Baylor's offense afloat early in this game when it was struggling. 

Freshman Jeremy Sochan provided a huge spark off the bench. The England native dropped 17 points and grabbed five rebounds. He has now scored at least 17 points in two of the past three games.

This wasn't the best performance for the Bears, but they were able to grind out a win over one of the top teams in the nation. 

Baylor did most of its work on the offensive end inside the three-point line. It went 25-of-44 on two-pointers, compared to 3-of-14 from behind the arc. This was the team's first game with at least 80 points since Feb. 12 (four games). 

If they can get LJ Cryer back healthy before the NCAA tournament begins, the Bears will be one of the most difficult teams to beat. The sophomore guard sat out his third straight game with a foot injury.     

Cold Shooting Dooms Jayhawks

If the theory about a team needing to peak at the right time is true, Kansas looked to be well on its way to making a deep run in the NCAA tournament before Saturday night. 

Per ESPN's College Basketball Power Index, Kansas entered this week ranked No. 1 in strength of record that measures how successful a team has been relative to its schedule. They rank fourth in adjusted offensive efficiency and 33rd in adjusted defensive efficiency, per KenPom rankings. 

One reason to be encouraged coming out of this game is that Kansas has not shot this poorly in a loss all season. The closest it came was a 39.1 field-goal percentage in a 76-62 win over Oklahoma State on Feb. 12.

Agbaji has shot 51 percent from the field (44.5 percent from behind the arc) this season, but he made just eight of his 22 attempts on Saturday. 

Even on a night when he was struggling, at least by his own standards, Agbaji was a one-man wrecking crew for Kansas early in the second half. He scored 10 of the team's first 12 points coming out of the intermission. 

Christian Braun was the only Jayhawks starter who made at least 40 percent of his field-goal attempts. Dajuan Harris Jr.'s late-season struggles continued against Baylor. He went scoreless in 31 minutes and missed all six of his shot attempts.

One positive is that Harris had seven assists with just one turnover. The sophomore has never been a dominant scoring guard, but he had been shooting 45.7 percent from the field coming into this game.

In his last three games, Harris has scored a combined total of eight points on 4-of-16 shooting. 

The strength of this Jayhawks roster is offense. They entered Saturday ranked 14th in points per game (80.0) and 18th in offensive rating (112.9), per Sports-Reference.com. 

A one-game sample against Baylor isn't reason for panic. As long as Self can get his team to regroup, especially with a favorable schedule to end the regular season heading into the conference tournament, this loss will only be a blip on the radar of the 2021-22 season.    

What's Next?

Kansas will play its final road game of the regular season against TCU on Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET. Baylor will take on No. 20 Texas at the Erwin Events Center on Monday at 9 p.m. ET.

The penultimate Saturday of regular-season action in college basketball turned into a day of upsets across the country.

No. 3 Auburn suffered its fourth loss of the season with a 67-62 defeat at the hands of No. 17 Tennessee at Thompson-Boling Arena.

Jabari Smith didn't have an efficient scoring day with 27 points on 9-of-21 shooting (3-of-9 behind the arc) from the field.

Four Tennessee players scored in double figures, led by Santiago Vescovi's 14 points. He only went 3-of-9 from the field but made all six of his free-throw attempts.

The Vols only shot 32.8 percent in the game, but they had a 21-10 advantage in offensive rebounds. John Fulkerson had six of those boards off the bench.

Head coach Bruce Pearl's team is limping to the finish line after being one of the best teams in the nation for most of the year. The Tigers have lost two of their last three games, including a 63-62 defeat against Florida on Feb. 19.

Saturday's loss leaves the door open for the SEC regular-season title. Auburn still leads the pack with a 13-3 record in conference games, but Tennessee, Kentucky and Arkansas are all tied for second at 12-4.

The Volunteers are 2-1 against those three teams, with all three games coming in the past 11 days. They beat Kentucky on Feb. 15, lost at Arkansas on Feb. 19 and now hold a win over Auburn.

Each of Auburn's four losses this season have come on the road or at a neutral site.

The Vols outscored Auburn 42-31 in the second half after trailing by six points at halftime.

After Smith made two free throws to put the Tigers ahead 41-39 with 12:21 remaining, Tennessee took the lead for good on Kennedy Chandler's layup two minutes later.

Tennessee did lead by as many as 10 points with 2:48 left in regulation, but Auburn went on a 9-2 run that cut the deficit to 63-60. Smith's four-point play was the exclamation point on that drive to put pressure back on the Vols.

Chandler responded on Tennessee's ensuing possession to get the lead back to 65-60. Wendell Green Jr.'s missed three-pointer for the Tigers, followed by Vescovi making two free throws, sealed the win.

Auburn is one of three teams ranked in the Top 10 of the current Associated Press Top 25 poll that lost Saturday afternoon. Unranked Michigan State upset No. 4 Purdue 68-65. No. 6 Kentucky lost 75-73 to No. 18 Arkansas.

Since a 107-79 loss to Kentucky on Jan. 15 that dropped its record to 11-5, Tennessee has won 10 of its last 12 games.

Auburn is just 3-3 in its past six games after winning 22 of its first 23 games to start the season.

The Vols will wrap up the regular season at Georgia on Tuesday before hosting No. 18 Arkansas on March 5. Auburn plays at Mississippi State on Wednesday and returns home to take on South Carolina on March 5.    

Tyson Walker drilled a three-pointer with 1.4 seconds remaining as the unranked Michigan State men's basketball team upset No. 4 Purdue 68-65 at East Lansing's Breslin Center on Saturday afternoon.

Purdue tied the game at 65 with 30 seconds left when big man Trevion Williams followed his own miss with a putback.

After a Spartans timeout, Williams was left to guard Walker behind the three-point line. The junior guard then drained a long-range shot for the upset.

Purdue still had a chance for a miracle finish, but a long inbounds pass caromed out of bounds.

There were still four-tenths of a second remaining, though, with some drama to resolve.

Malik Hall's inbounds pass sailed over Walker's head, and as he tried to save it, Walker was called out of bounds. After a lengthy review, the call stood, and Purdue had another chance.

However, Hall deflected the inbounds pass, and the clock hit zero.

Michigan State benefitted from a balanced scoring attack led by Gabe Brown's 13 points. Julius Marble II (12 points), Max Christie (11) and A.J. Hoggard (11) also scored in double figures, while Hoggard pitched in six assists. Walker had eight points off the bench.

Purdue sophomore center Zach Edey scored 25 points on 10-of-15 shooting, and Jaden Ivey added 16 points. Williams had 11 off the bench. The Boilermakers shot 52.1 percent from the field but made just one of nine three-point attempts.

Purdue out-rebounded Michigan State 34-24 but committed 17 turnovers to the Spartans' 10.

MSU led by as many as 11 points after Marble's Iayup with 10:43 left. Purdue chipped away at the lead, though, with some great defense and eight points from Edey.

Ivey went to the free throw line with 52 seconds remaining and a chance to put the Boilermakers up 64-63. He made the first and missed the second, but Edey committed a loose ball foul on the rebound to send Marble to the line for a one-and-one. He hit both free throws for a 65-63 advantage, leading to the game's final moments.

Purdue fell to 24-5 overall and 13-5 in the Big Ten. Michigan State is 19-9 and 10-7.

The Boilermakers will close the regular season at Wisconsin and at home versus Indiana. MSU has road tilts with Michigan and Ohio State before it hosts Maryland.

Former South Carolina State women's basketball head coach Audra Smith filed a Title IX lawsuit against the school in federal court Wednesday, citing "Title IX violations and discriminatory practices at the university," per Pete Iacobelli of the Associated Press (h/t Charlotte Observer).

One day later, the school fired her.

A release from South Carolina State on Thursday stated the school decided to "end the contract" of Smith "effective immediately."

"We would like to thank Coach Smith for her dedication to our student-athletes and for the hard work she has committed to the women's basketball program," athletic director Stacy Danley said. "We wish her and her family well."

Smith was in her fourth year. She has also been the head coach at UAB (2004-2013) and Clemson (2013-2018).

Smith filed the lawsuit to obtain a response from the university to a Freedom of Information Act request Smith filed in January. She initially asked for information concerning whether the school "gave more resources to male athletes, coaches and teams than to its women's programs, players and coaches," per Iacobelli.

Samantha Albrecht, Smith's attorney, said the lawsuit's purpose was "to remedy professional wrongs done to our named client for years of being disadvantaged by systemic sex-based discrimination."

Another of Smith's attorneys, Paul Porter, said the firing was "unlawful, retaliatory, and it invites more legal action."

Sam Watson, a spokesperson for South Carolina State, wrote in an email to the AP that the school "cannot comment on pending or current litigation."

The NCAA is raising the marijuana-testing threshold for student-athletes. 

In a press release issued Friday, the Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports increased the THC threshold from 35 to 150 nanograms per milliliter. 

The committee is also recommending that each division "consider changes to the current penalty structure for student-athletes who test positive for THC during NCAA drug testing."

Under the NCAA's proposed penalty structure, student-athletes wouldn't be at risk of missing games until a second positive test:

Dr. Stephanie Chu, Colorado team physician and CSMAS chair, issued a statement about the changes in the press release:

"These adjustments to the NCAA drug testing program were approved after careful consideration and extensive discussion of the recommendations made by the Drug Testing Subcommittee, which has been meeting since last fall. The updated cannabis testing policies create a clear pathway for student-athletes to participate in education and management programs specific to their needs at the campus level."

The last time the NCAA increased the THC threshold was in 2019. It went from 15 to 35 milligrams. The move was designed to "prevent those who have inhaled cannabis via secondhand smoke from triggering a positive test and facing penalties."

The NCAA's announcement comes as the stigma around marijuana use has dramatically decreased in recent years. It has been fully legalized in 18 different states and decriminalized in 13 others. 

The new adjustment to the testing threshold goes into effect immediately and will apply to all drug tests administered since the fall 2021 semester. 

Since drug-testing penalties are legislated under NCAA bylaws, each division is required to adopt the new legislation before any changes are made to discipline for potential violations.