College basketball scores, winners and losers: Kentucky is fifth top-six team to lose this week; Bronny starts

A weak showing from the best teams in college basketball led to some wild and wondrously mad outcomes this week -- like No. 1, No. 2, No. 3 and No. 5 all losing within a span of 48 hours on Tuesday and Wednesday. So it was only fitting that we cap the week with another dose of mayhem on Saturday.

No. 6 Kentucky made sure of that, following in the footsteps of the other top-ranked teams with a tumble in the loss column after dropping a road game to Texas A&M 97-92 in overtime. The Wildcats had won six straight entering their game vs. the Aggies, but had no answers for Wade Taylor and Tyrece Radford down the stretch, as UK fell to 12-3 on the season.

With so much chaos atop the sport, Kentucky seemed like a shoo-in to sneak up the rankings into the top three -- and maybe higher. But another top team losing only muddies an already cloudy picture with the latest polls set to drop Monday. 

The Aggies' upset of UK meant five of the top six teams in the AP Top 25 poll lost this week to unranked conference opponents. A 73-70 loss by No. 8 Arizona at Washington State gave seven teams in the top 10 a loss this week. The only top-six team which didn't lose this week was No. 4 UConn -- which plays host to Georgetown on Sunday.

If you know an AP Top 25 voter this week, send them a note to let them know you're thinking of them. Tough decisions are on deck for Monday. I do not envy them having to try and analyze all the outcomes this week that made very little sense.

Let's get to the winners and losers from Saturday. 

Winner: Bronny James makes first start for USC

The minutes restriction for USC's James is over. The Trojans' star freshman and son of LeBron James made the first start of his college career against Colorado after recent injuries to starting guards Isaiah Collier and Boogie Ellis. 

James struggled in his starting debut, shooting 0 for 7 from the floor and failing to score in 25 minutes of action in USC's 68-58 loss at Colorado, but it was a sign James might be seeing an increased role after he had been on a strict restriction due to a scary cardiac incident over the summer. -- Salerno

Winner: Taylor lV shines in Aggies upset over UK 

After opening SEC play with double-digit losses to Auburn and LSU, Texas A&M bounced back with a statement win over No. 6 Kentucky. Preseason SEC Player of the Year Wade Taylor lV broke his shooting slump and scored a game-high 31 points with six 3-pointers to give the Aggies their first win vs. a ranked team since the 2023-24 season. The SEC is wide open and this win by Texas A&M gets it right back into the race. -- Salerno

Winner: Tennessee rallies at Georgia

No. 5 Tennessee looked destined for an 0-2 week in SEC play when Georgia's Blue Cain hit a 3-pointer with 6:24 left to put the Bulldogs ahead 75-64. The freshman guard, who played high school basketball just minutes from Tennessee's campus, hit another big 3-pointer with 5:03 left to make it 78-70. But the Volunteers outscored the Bulldogs 15-1 from there behind a huge performance from Dalton Knecht to escape with a 85-79 win. Knecht finished with 36 points, becoming the first Tennessee player in the Rick Barnes era to score 35-plus points twice in a season. -- Cobb

Loser: Rick Pitino takes loss a little too hard

St. John's put up a valiant effort on the road in a 66-65 loss at No. 22 Creighton, but Red Storm coach Rick Pitino is not about to take a moral victory lap. Pitino instead took the loss right on the chin, admitting in no uncertain times that he, uh, functions best when his team is winning.

"I don't feel good when we lose," Pitino said. "I f****** hate the world. I don't feel good after a loss. I don't believe in 'valiant efforts' on the road. I feel like I want to kill myself, jump into the cold and die of frostbite."

Dramatic, much? -- Boone

Loser: Arizona stumbles at Washington State

The No. 8 Wildcats became the ninth top-10 team to fall to an unranked opponent this week in a 73-70 loss to Washington State. It was the second consecutive Pac-12 road loss after starting the season 10-1 for Arizona, which has gone 3-3 in its last six games.

The preseason conference favorite will look to get back on track when it faces a shorthanded USC team at home. As for Washington State, this marks one of the biggest wins of the Kyle Smith era and the Cougars have won three of their last four conference games after an 0-2 start to conference play. -- Salerno

Winner: Bacot reaches milestone in UNC win

Armando Bacot joined exclusive company Saturday when the North Carolina star big man pulled down his 1,500th career rebound in the No. 7 Tar Heels' 103-67 victory vs. Syracuse. Bacot joined Tim Duncan, Ronnie Shavlik and Ralph Sampson as only the fourth player in the history of the ACC to record at least 1,5000 boards. North Carolina moved to 5-0 in conference play and the 36-point loss by the Orange marked their largest margin of defeat since a 39-point loss to DePaul in 2006. -- Salerno

Winner: TCU hands Houston another Big 12 loss

There are not many teams off to a better start to Big 12 play than TCU. After falling in heartbreaking fashion at Kansas in the conference opener last week, the Horned Frogs not only beat No. 9 Oklahoma earlier this week, but capped the week with a thrilling 68-67 win over No. 2 Houston. 

With TCU trailing by one in the final moments, Emanuel Miller converted a contested layup with :06 left and Micah Peavy got a steal on the other end to seal the upset. Houston has now lost back-to-back games after starting the season 13-0. -- Salerno

Loser: Providence is fading fast

 When the calendar flipped to 2024, Providence stood at 11-2 (2-0 Big East) and was inside the projected NCAA Tournament field of CBS Sports Bracketology Expert Jerry Palm. The new year has been unkind to the Friars, who fell 85-65 at home against Xavier for their fourth-straight loss. 

Providence led 28-17 in the first half before disintegrating in the latest sign of how much they miss Bryce Hopkins. The dynamic wing was lost for the season with a torn ACL in the Friars' loss to Seton Hall on Jan. 3. To its credit, Providence remained competitive without him in losses at Creighton and St. John's. But they were flat against the mediocre Musketeers on Saturday and may face a long road ahead under first-year coach Kim English. -- Cobb

Winner: Wisconsin firmly in the Big Ten driver's seat

Forget No. 1 Purdue. The Big Ten runs through Wisconsin, at least for the time being. A year after finishing 9-11 in league play and missing the NCAA Tournament, the Badgers are 13-3 and 5-0 in the Big Ten after beating Northwestern 71-63. Wisconsin closed the game on an 8-0 run, holding the Wildcats scoreless over the final 2:51. Keying the Badgers' win was Max Klesmit, who followed an 18-point performance at Ohio State on Wednesday with 24 against Northwestern. The 6-foot-3 guard was 14 of 22 from the field and 8 of 12 from 3-point range over those two wins. Wisconsin is the last unbeaten team in Big Ten play, and with Purdue already owning a pair of league losses, the Badgers must be considered a legitimate threat to the Boilermakers in the conference race. -- Cobb

Loser: UNLV squanders lead against Utah State

No. 20 Utah State led for a total of eight seconds in its 87-86 win at UNLV, but that was all it needed to extend the nation's longest winning streak to 15 games. UNLV stood on the cusp of victory after a pair of Luis Rodriguez free throws put the Runnin' Rebels ahead 86-82 with 14 seconds left. 

Then, disaster struck for UNLV.

As Darius Brown hit a 3-pointer for Utah State on the other end, UNLV forward Kalib Boone was called for a foul away from the shot with eight seconds remaining. The whistle sent Great Osobor to the free-throw line with a chance to make it a 5-point possession and give the Aggies their first lead of the game. He hit both free throws, and UNLV's Dedan Thomas Jr. missed a potential game-winner, leaving the Runnin' Rebels as stunned losers. -- Salerno

Winner: Kansas bounces back big with blowout of OU

No. 3 Kansas buried a baffling middle-of-the-week road loss with a resounding 78-66 home win over No. 9 Oklahoma. in a game that was nowhere near as close as the final score would indicate. KU big man Hunter Dickinson led the way with 24 points and 14 rebounds in a complete showing, and the team – days after giving up a ghastly 18 turnovers in a road loss to UCF– committed just two the entire game. -- Boone

Loser: Texas waste Abmas' effort in loss to  West Virginia

It's been a rough start to 2024 for No. 25 Texas and it got rougher with a 76-73 loss at West Virginia despite a 32-point outburst from star guard Max Abmas. 

The Longhorns fell in the Big 12 opener last weekend to in-state rival Texas Tech and needed heroics from Abmas to knock off Cincinnati days later. Texas now finds itself sitting at 1-2 in conference play and the schedule doesn't get any easier with games against UCF, Baylor, Oklahoma, BYU, Houston and TCU on the horizon. -- Salerno

Loser: Penn State's futile efforts to contain Zacharius Edey

You cannot stop Zach Edey. You can only hope, pray and wish to contain him.

And even that is frequently not enough. Penn State learned as much Saturday as No. 1 Purdue throttled the Nittany Lions inside Mackey Arena 95-78 behind a stunning final stat line from Edey: 30 points, 20 rebounds, three assists, three blocks. -- Boone

Loser: UVa can't win on the road

A perplexingly unpredictable – and underperforming – Virginia team showed us more of the same Saturday. The Cavaliers still have yet to lose on their home court but they've been abysmal away from home, with the latest example coming on the road at Wake Forest in a 66-47 defeat. Virginia posted its second-lowest point total of the season in the loss, and adding insult to injury, coach Tony Bennett took it as a (jokingly, but still) personal attack.

"My daughter graduated here last year and I'm done paying tuition at Wake, so I guess they decided to take it out on us," Bennett quipped. 

At least he could have a laugh over it. -- Boone

Loser: Basketball around the Motor City

The Detroit Pistons have lost 35 of their last 36 games since a 2-1 start and stand at 3-36 entering Monday's game against the Wizards. Not to be outdone, the local college team is now 0-18 after Detroit Mercy fell 81-76 to Northern Kentucky. The misery extends to nearby Ann Arbor, Michigan, where Michigan is 6-10 and on a five-game losing streak entering Monday's game against Ohio State. 

Things are marginally better in East Lansing, Michigan, where Michigan State is 9-7. But even the Spartans are struggling as they are just 1-4 in Big Ten play and in need of a turnaround to avoid missing the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1997. It's just an all-around bad season of basketball in Michigan. Thankfully, there's been significant football success to help ease the pain. -- Cobb