On paper it was the most enticing poster since the start of the season, and in fact this shock kept all its promises. Friday night, Kansas And UConnthe 2022 and 2023 NCAA champions, actually faced each other in “prime time” on the floor of an Allen Fieldhouse that was always packed to capacity.
A true clash of the titans, between these two recently titled programs and still in a position this season to glean a new banner of champions, which at the end of the suspense turned to the advantage of the Jayhawks (69-65), led by their pair of interiors KJ Adams (18 points and 5 rebounds and 2 blocks) – Hunter Dickinson (15 points, 9 rebounds and 4 blocks), in the oven and at the mill on both sides of the court.
The two Kansas interiors were indeed very productive in the paint for the Huskies, who suffered from their lack of size despite the efforts of the pivot Donovan Clingan (8 points, 7 rebounds and 3 blocks). Especially since Bill Self's men also shone behind the arc, finishing the match at 9/14 at 3-points, notably like the big match in the outside sector of winger Kevin McCullar (21 points to 3/4 to 3-points).
Despite this offensive domination of Kansas (50% on shots including 64% on three-pointers), Dan Hurley's players, themselves in great difficulty in attack (41% on shots), nevertheless only failed by 4 small points in the final, and can certainly congratulate themselves on their effort in hostile territory, despite the defeat.
It's chaos in the Top 25!
If Kansas (#5) won and UConn (#4) can take some positives from its performance despite the defeat, this is not quite the case for certain other juggernauts of the NCAA season: eight ranked teams in the AP Top 25 lost to unranked teams last week!
In order of ranking: Purdue (#1) against Northwestern, Marquette (#3) against Wisconsin, Duke (#7) against Arkansas and Georgia Tech, Kentucky (#12) against North Carolina Wilmington, Texas A&M (#14) against Virginia, Villanova (#18) against St. Joseph and Drexel, Mississippi State (#21) between Georgia Tech and finally Alabama (#22) against Clemson!
In fact, among the big ranked teams, besides Kansas of course, only Arizona (new #1 this Monday) and North Carolina (went from #17 to #9 this Monday) held their rank last week. It's very open this season in the NCAA!
