Purdue held their ground at the top of the varsity basketball world this week, but just below them there was a massive loss in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge.
Here’s everything you missed from Week 12 of the season and the latest college basketball poll from the Associated Press.
Alabama’s wild blowout loss ends the dominant stretch
Alabama has already proven that it has one of the best teams in the country. The Crimson Tide, who had risen to second place in the leaderboard, already had plenty of marquee wins on their résumé prior to Saturday’s performance in Norman.
That’s why her blowout loss was so surprising.
Oklahoma stunned Alabama 93-69 in Saturday’s SEC/Big 12 Challenge, ending by far the Sooners’ biggest win of the season.
Alabama shot just under 38% from the field as a team in the loss and collectively scored six 3-pointers. There was a stretch in the second half where Oklahoma also put on a massive 16-2 run spanning nearly eight minutes.
As a result, Alabama dropped two places to No. 4 this week.
“It doesn’t affect the SEC rankings, which is the only good thing,” Alabama coach Nate Oats said via The Associated Press. “Hopefully we’ll recover from a loss from the conference, but it’s not good. We needed the SEC to do well in this Big 12 challenge. We obviously haven’t done our job.”
Alabama was one of several notable teams to fall over the past week. Tennessee passed Texas behind 27 points from Olivier Nkamhoua, who put the Vols in 2nd place. The loss was Texas’ fourth of the season and second in four games, though it didn’t budge in this week’s poll.
UCLA also stumbled again after last week’s loss to Arizona. USC defeated the Bruins by 13 on Thursday night, giving them their second straight loss after an impressive 14-game winning streak. They fell to No. 9 this week.
Charleston’s run ends, Kansas eventually slips
Charleston’s incredible run is over.
Hofstra defeated the Cougars 85-81 on Friday night, officially ending a 20-game winning streak that launched them into the rankings from nowhere. Aaron Estrada lost 25 points for the Pride, all but two of which came in the first half, and they held on in the final minutes to eclipse the four-point win in South Carolina.
Charleston’s last loss came back in November when it fell to the then no. 1 North Carolina in just his second game of the season. Saturday’s loss dropped the Cougars entirely from the rankings. They received 68 votes in the poll, which makes them unofficially 27th.
Kansas, on the other hand, eventually managed to stop the bleeding.
The Jayhawks ended their brutal three-game losing streak on Saturday with an away win over Kentucky. This came after losses to Kansas State, TCU and Baylor. Although all were ranked, a fourth straight loss would have been the worst streak of Bill Self’s era.
Kansas actually moved up a spot to 8th in the rankings.
It’s not getting any easier for the Jayhawks either. They will host No. 7 Kansas State next Tuesday before games against No. 13 Iowa State and No. 10 Texas on Saturday and Monday, which will complete a stretch of seven ranked opponents in eight games.
Full AP Top 25
The full AP Top 25 poll of Monday 30 January:
-
Purdue (21-1)
-
Tennessee (18-3)
-
Houston (20-2)
-
Alabama (18-3)
-
Arizona (19-3)
-
Virginia (16-3)
-
State of Kansas (18-3)
-
Kansas (17-4)
-
UCLA (17-4)
-
Texas (17-4)
-
Baylor (16-5)
-
Gonzaga (18-4)
-
State of Iowa (15-5)
-
Markette (17-5)
-
TCU (16-5)
-
Xavier (17-5)
-
Providence (17-5)
-
Saint Mary (19-4)
-
FAU (21-1)
-
Clemson (18-4)
-
Indiana (15-6)
-
San Diego State (17-4)
-
Miami (16-5)
-
UConn (16-6)
-
Maroon (16-5)
Others receiving votes: Missouri 74, Charleston 68, Illinois 56, Creighton 51, New Mexico 47, North Carolina 47, North Carolina State 39, Boise State 31, Duke 24, Rutgers 17, Texas A&M 16, Northwestern 13, Memphis 10, Arkansas 9, Pittsburgh 9 , West Virginia 2, Nevada 2, Oral Roberts 2, Saint Louis 1