The college basketball season is off and running. Throughout the first two weeks there have been buzzer beaters, overtime games, shocking blowouts, and some amazing upsets. If one didn’t look at the calendar and see that it is only November 18 it could easily be mistaking for March. Feast week has made its way to the forefront and will stay until after Thanksgiving giving the college basketball community it’s premier matchups everyone looks forward to in the early season. With the start of feast week lets take a look at the five biggest takeaways from week two.
- Michigan leads the way as the Big Ten is dominating
- The Big Ten sat at 38-4 going into Sunday’s games. The four losses came at the hands of Kansas, St. John’s, DePaul, and Georgetown. Three of those losses to the teams projected to finish at the bottom of the Big Ten. The Big Ten can boast the best win percentage as a conference and has wins over Villanova, UConn, Oregon, Cincinnati, Creighton, Marquette, Seton Hall, Xavier, and Providence while also beating three ranked opponents while as the lower or unseeded team. They were the only conference to date who has not lost a game to anyone besides a major conference opponent and can even claim a Michigan team that went to Villanova and dominated from start to finish winning 73-46.
- The A-10 and AAC are in danger of being one bid leagues
- The A-10 is 30-20 as a conference and has home losses to Layfayette, Drexel, Stony Brook, Siena, Bucknell, Harvard, Howard, and Longwood. Saint Louis, Dayton, VCU and St. Joe’s are holding their own but with loses inside the conference it will be difficult for an at-large bid. The AAC is in the same boat as they are 29-13 they don’t hold as many hurtful losses but cannot seem to get the wins needed to build their resumes. UConn’s win over Syracuse is by far the marquee win of the season so far for the AAC.
- Furman stock is on the rise
- Furman has now beaten two teams who played in last years Final Four. They are now 5-0 and can claim a win at Loyola-Chicago and Villanova. Jordan Lyons tied an NCAA record by knocking in 15 3-pointers in one game. And they won two games in overtime. Furman was picked to finish fourth in the Southern conference behind UNC Greensboro (who took LSU to the wire on the road), Wofford (took North Carolina and Oklahoma to the wire), and East Tennessee State (who alsmost knocked off Creighton). The Southern conference is habitually a one bid league but if Furman, UNC Greensboro, or Wofford can stay away from a bad loss they could be in the conversation for an at-large birth, at the very least the Southern Conference champion will be a dangerous test in March.
- Villanova and Syracuse struggle
- Villanova and Syracuse entered the week 2-0 and now sit at 2-2. Villanova hosted Michigan is what was to be a rematch of the 2018 National Championship game and turned into a Wildcat sacrafice. Michigan never allowed Villanova to get comfortable on offense and had their way with the Villanova defense winning by 27 points. Following that up Villanova hosted Furman and were stunned as the Paladins just continued to hang around forcing overtime and before the upset was complete. Villanova doesn’t seem to be strong on defense and their offense has no one that can break down their opponents to open up the threes for their sharp shooters. It’s still early but it is very obvious that this is not the same Villanova team that we are used to seeing. Syracuse lost a tough battle to UConn before coming out flat and losing to Oregon by 15. Frank Howard is really missed for this team and they have no idea when he will be coming back. The Orange have a struggle scoring the ball and need to really sharpen up on that end if they look to contend in the ACC.
- Four ranked teams fall
- #8 Villanova lost to #18 Michigan and to Furman
- #13 Oregon fell to Iowa
- #15 Syracuse lost to UConn and #13 Oregon
- #24 Marquette fell at Indiana