A wild week of heavy favorites taking losses to underdogs continued into the weekend. Perhaps no conference was more affected by the results than the Atlantic Coast Conference. No. 6 Florida State, No. 9 North Carolina, and No. 14 Notre Dame all went down in surprising upsets on Saturday.
Even as favorites, Saturday's ACC action proved just how difficult it is to notch a road win in conference. With most teams now nine games deep into conference play, it makes it even more difficult to come away unscathed. It's a grind at this point in the season. Of the five games, only two came away as road victors -- and Duke squeezed it's road win out in the closing seconds.
Here's more winners and losers from Saturday:
Loser: Florida State's credibility as an ACC contender
A 6-1 start in ACC play for the Seminoles had many prognosticators jumping on the Florida State bandwagon. But that momentum has cooled quickly. After dropping a head-scratcher to Georgia Tech earlier in the week, the 'Noles fell to Syracuse 82-72. Orange fans even stormed the court!
Leonard Hamilton's team had a front-heavy home schedule, which could explain its early success -- and also its recent struggles with all three ACC losses on the road. But after being tied for first place in the conference a week ago, the team is tied for third place with two consecutive inexplicable losses. Coach Hamilton's assessement that his team "stinks" is probably a little over-exagerated, though.
Winner: Luke Kennard, who can claim that Duke is his team
Playing from behind for more than 30 minutes on the road against Wake Forest, Duke's sophomore star Luke Kennard took matters into his own hands to lead his team to an improbable comeback. Kennard, who went quietly in the opening frame with just 4 points, exploded to shoot a perfect 10 for 10 from the floor and hit all six of his 3-point attempts to close the final 20 minutes with 30 points -- and the eventual game-winner. As Matt Norlander wrote, it's time this team accepts Kennard is its best player.
He singlehandedly saved Duke from falling into dangerous territory to help the Blue Devils get back on track in conference play.
Loser: North Carolina after losing to Miami
North Carolina wasn't immune to the ACC bug that bit three of the top four ACC teams on the day. The Tar Heels struggled to find any offense outside Justin Jackson, with the other four starters being held to single digits. Roy Williams was not pleased.
On the day UNC shot just 35 percent from the floor and struggled to find any success from the 3-point line, managing to make just 7 of its 24 attempts. And Jackson made four of those. Miami took advantage and handled North Carolina 77-62.
Altogether, this team has notched some solid wins -- namely against Wisconsin, Florida State and Virginia Tech. But losses to Georgia Tech and now Miami are both head scratchers and raise some concerns about the team's focus in games in which the Tar Heels likely should have won.
Winner: Maryland's surprising run in the Big Ten
With as much firepower as Maryland lost last season, this season -- at least one paper -- could easy be seen as a rebuilding one. But Mark Turgeon begs to differ. And his team has outperformed all expectations so far.
As an underdog traveling to Minnesota, Maryland put together a dominating second-half performance and won 85-78 behind Justin Jackson's 28 points. While Wisconsin and Purdue have gotten all the pub as potential conference favorites, it's Maryland who stands tied for first place with the Badgers in first place.
Tie: SEC/Big 12 challenge
Ah, yes. Our first tie. 10 SEC teams faced 10 Big 12 teams in the annual SEC-Big 12 challenge. And after three years of Big 12 dominance, the challenge ends in a straight up tie for the first time. The SEC held a 5-4 advantage going into Saturday night's primetime matchup between Kansas and Kentucky, but the Jayhawks stole a win at Rupp Arena to even things up.
The Big 12 won 7-3 in both 2013 and 2015, and 6-4 in 2014. But this year's challenge proved to be the tightest since the challenge began. The total point tallies? SEC: 745. Big 12: 739. Pretty, pretty good basketball action for January.
Loser: This LSU player's awareness
If we're talking about an awareness rating a la Madden, Skylar Mays may have a negative rating. After taking possession on offense, Mays thought he found a perfectly sealed off teammate outside the arc. But as it turns out .... he was fooled.
Yep, that's a Texas Tech player on the bench who called for the ball. The gaffe was an embarassing one, but didn't make a difference in the long run. LSU turned the ball over 12 times and fell to Texas Tech 64-77.
Winner: Georgia Tech's continued success under Pastner
Under Josh Pastner in year one, no one expected Georgia Tech to find as much success as it has. And against some really, really good teams, too. The Yellow Jackets held a win over top-10 North Carolina going into this week, and bolstered its NCAA tournament resume with back-to-back wins over top-15 teams in Florida State on Wednesday and Notre Dame on Saturday.
As Gary Parrish noted, the Yellow Jackets are massively overachieving this season. He's essentially gone from a Memphis castoff to a legitimate ACC Coach of the Year candidate. And that's been a key part of the Yellow Jackets' surprising success this season. They've gone from a passed over ACC team to potential bubble team with an interesting NCAA tournament resume.
Loser: Duke under Jeff Capel
Duke beat Wake Forest 85-83, so this will get swept under the rug mostly. But it's important to note that Duke is maybe one 20-minute Superman act from Luke Kennard away from being 1-4 under Capel.
Winning on the road in any league is a difficult task. And when Coach K stepped aside, he did so with three of the next five games being road tilts in the ACC. So it's not a knock on Capel. Even if it's a sidenote, it's still something to keep in mind. Duke has some glaring deficiencies. Getting back in the win column doesn't mean those are necessarily fixed.
Winner: Florida's statement to the rest of the SEC
The SEC has represented well in the Big 12/SEC challenge taking place this weekend. But no SEC team can hold a candle to the dominance that Florida displayed against Oklahoma, winning by 32 points on the Sooners' home court.
The Gators flexed their muscles on the defensive end of the ball, limiting OU's leading scorer Jordan Woodard to zero points in 14 minutes of action, and holding the Sooners to just .684 points per possession. 52 points is the teams second lowest scoring output all season.
Winner: Syracuse's chances to pop onto the bubble
Before today, Syracuse's best win on the season was arguably over an unranked Miami team. Jim Boeheim's crew has been mostly unimpressive, and missing the NCAA tournament doesn't seem out of the realm of possibility.
But that could change after the Orange got their first marquee win on Saturday with a win over Florida State.
Tyler Lydon is rounding into shape, Andrew White is picking up the Syracuse zone defense, and all of a sudden there's at least a scenario in which Syracuse can find itself on the bubble for the NCAA tournament. The bad news: KenPom gives Syracuse less than a 50 percent chance to win each of its next 8 games. But a win over a top-10 team could shift not only the team's mindset, but swing momentum for the rest of the season.
Loser: Kentucky's chances to grab a No. 1 seed.
Saturday night's primetime showdown between Kansas and Kentucky had major implications both in the immediate term and the long-term. Both teams were coming off losses, looking to bounce back and thrust back into conference play on a high note.
But with Kentucky's loss to Kansas, it could prove to be particularly damaging for the Wildcats. Even if they run the table in the SEC as they should, Kentucky is now 3-4 against top-50 teams as Gary Parrish noted. And the lack of quality opponents in the league could prove to be damaging -- even if it does run the table -- because of a lack of opportunities to bolster its case as a No. 1 seed.
Winner: Kansas' championship mettle.
If you didn't think Kansas was a legitimate national title contender before today, maybe it's time you reconsider. The sh0rt-handed Jayhawks rolled into Rupp Arena and escaped with its biggest win of the season. Beating Kentucky anywhere is difficult. Beating them on their home floor is pretty near impossible. In its win over No. 4 Kentucky, the Jayhawks proved they are already in shape to assume a spot as No. 1 seed in March. A case can be made they deserve consideration as a favorite after what they did to Kentucky.