NCAA Top 25: No. 3 Syracuse falls to Temple

One thing is certain, the NCAA Top 25 polls due out on Monday will have a change or two on it. OK, reality is, it’s going to look like someone tossed all the names in a hat and just started drawing them out randomly. Three top 25 teams were beaten by unranked teams, including two Top 10s and two other Top 10s were beaten by lower ranked teams. Making matters worse, two Top 10s were beaten at home.

Syracuse (3) – Temple, 79:83
No. 3 ranked Syracuse (10-1) squared off against unranked Temple (9-2) in the first Chevrolet Gotham Classic at Madison Square Garden on Saturday. Syracuse came into this contest undefeated at 10-0 and sporting a 52-game regular season non-conference game winning streak, and Temple came in fresh off a 62:72 loss to Canisius on Wednesday at home. They also took a 90:67 beat down at the hands of the current No. 1 squad, Duke, two weeks ago.

The Orangemen opened up a small 40:38 margin at halftime, but Temple was a much better shooting team throughout the contest, including 80.6% (29 of 36) from the line, while Syracuse shot a dismal 55.9% (19 of 34). Temple also dropped 8 of 24 from behind the arc while Syracuse could only manage to connect on 2 of 12. Syracuse stayed close throughout the second half, but the Owls hit 11 of 15 singles to close out their scoring and keep their hosts at bay. Temple’s Khalif Wyatt had a game-high 33 points, including 15 of 15 from the free throw line.

Since the 2008-09 season, an unranked Temple squad has upset one top 10 team a year as they’ve defeated No. 8 Tennessee, No. 3 Villanova, No. 9 Georgetown, No. 5 Duke and No. 3 Syracuse.

Kansas State – Florida (8), 67:61
The Florida Gators came into their non-conference contest with 7-2 Kansas State ranked No. 8 in the country, fresh off an 82:43 rout of SE Louisiana on Wednesday. They lost their first game of the year last Saturday at Arizona, which dropped them from No. 5 in the country.

Kansas State got off to a big start getting out to a 33:23 advantage at the half playing tenacious defense, keeping the Gators off balance and not giving up easy shots. The offensive difference was at the line where KState dropped in 20 of 29 (69.0%), while Florida only traveled to the line 15 times, connecting on 10. The Wildcats also outrebounded their visitors 35-25 and had seven blocks to Florida’s 2.

New Mexico (16) – South Dakota State, 65:70
South Dakota State traveled to Albuquerque, New Mexico to take on the No. 16 ranked Lobos of New Mexico. On Wednesday the Jackrabbits fell 76:49 to Belmont, but they had been on a three-game winning streak since their last loss, an 88:64 decision at Minnesota, currently ranked No. 13 by the Associated Press. Compounding the trip for SD State was the fact that they were forced to hop a bus and travel over 1,000 miles due to a snowstorm that grounded planes.

South Dakota State got their first lead with an 8:0 run shortly after tip-off and never looked back as they held the lead through the end and didn’t let the Lobos closer than three all the way though.

Ohio State (7) – Kansas (9), 66:74
The Jayhawks had won eight straight since being upset by Michigan State, 65:67 in week 2 of the season at home, but they also haven’t played anyone since then. Ohio State came in having only lost to then No. 2 Duke (currently No. 1), but having beaten a handful of opponents by substantial margins including a 40-point win over Savannah State two weeks ago.

Kansas, led by redshirt freshman Ben McLemore’s game-high 22 points, took control in the second half when the Buckeyes found it tough to get the ball to fall through the hole and went over 10 minutes without scoring a field goal.

Missouri (12) – Illinois (10), 82:73
It took Illinois four weeks and seven wins to earn enough respect to see the light of the Top 25 polls, cracking in at No. 22. When they made the short trip to St. Louis to square off  against No. 12 Missouri they had climbed the ladder all the way to No. 10 on the heals of a win over Gonzaga and a 12-0 record. Missouri was No. 15 on pre-season polls and moved up the list on a 9-1 record with their only loss being against Louisville, who was No. 2 at the time.

It was a tight game all the way until the end, when Missouri pulled away. The squads traded the lead throughout the first half, but the Tigers did build a six-point margin at the half, 41:35. Illinois cut the deficit and took the lead mid-way through the second half, but Missouri used a 9:0 run to come from three down to a 70:64 advantage and they never gave it up from there.