Duke improved to No. 16 in the AP poll following a victory against Baylor. After another eventful week of college basketball, the Blue Zone is here to break down the Christmas edition of the poll:
Bears down, Devils up
Christmas came early for Duke fans, as the Blue Devils got a 78-70 victory against then-No. 10 Baylor Wednesday at Madison Square Garden. The arena nicknamed “Cameron North” was energized by a career night from freshman guard Jared McCain, who shot 7-of-11 with 21 points to lead the way for the Blue Devils. Duke held tough throughout the game, and battled to a seven-point lead with four minutes to play after trailing most of the second half. With the win, Duke bumped up five spots in this week’s poll to No. 16, just one above the Bears, who dropped seven places to No. 17. The Blue Devils will face one more test in 2023, a home matchup against Queens University Dec. 30.
First loss for the Sooners
Wednesday saw another high-profile matchup as then-No. 11 North Carolina faced off against undefeated then-No. 7 Oklahoma at the Jumpman Classic in Charlotte. From the jump it was all Tar Heels, who got out to a 12-2 lead and held on for a 81-69 win, giving the Sooners their first loss of the year. Senior guard RJ Davis continued an impressive campaign with a 23-point performance in the win, and North Carolina moved into the top 10 at No. 9 in this week’s poll. Oklahoma fell five spots to No. 12, and left just three undefeated teams: No. 3 Houston, No. 20 James Madison and No. 24 Ole Miss.
Florida Atlantic defeats Arizona in thriller
In a candidate for game of the year, then-No. 14 Florida Atlantic took down No. 4 Arizona 96-95 in a double-overtime thriller. It was the Owls’ first win over a top-10 team in school history, one which vaulted them to No. 7 in the AP poll. The Wildcats remained at No. 4 in an unchanged top five from last week’s poll. Florida Atlantic was down 19-5 late in the first half before going on a massive run to cut the deficit to 37-31 at the break. Arizona’s fast-paced offense was slowed by the Owls, who also dominated second half shooting. The game remained back-and-forth to the end, before Wildcat star Caleb Love — who shot 8-for-25 from the field — missed a three to give Florida Atlantic the win. Both teams begin conference play shortly and will be looking to make deep runs in March.
Bedlam in the Big East
This week also kicked off the Big East conference season for some teams, three of whom were upset. Unranked Providence knocked off then-No. 6 Marquette at home Tuesday in a big 72-57 victory. The Friars then beat Butler Saturday, and the perfect week saw them enter the poll at No. 25 this week. The Golden Eagles bounced back with a 30-point win against Georgetown, but they still fell four places to No. 10 in this week’s poll. Seton Hall also got a strong win to open its conference slate, defeating No. 5 UConn 75-60 at home. The unranked Pirates joined fellow unranked squad Villanova in getting top-25 upsets; the Wildcats went on the road and narrowly defeated then-No. 12 Creighton 68-66 Wednesday. The Huskies then got a win over St. John’s to remain at No. 5, but the Blue Jays’ loss dropped them all the way to No. 22.
Full Rankings
- Purdue
- Kansas
- Houston
- Arizona
- UConn
- Tennessee
- Florida Atlantic
- Kentucky
- North Carolina
- Marquette
- Illinois
- Oklahoma
- Gonzaga
- BYU
- Colorado State
- Duke
- Baylor
- Clemson
- Memphis
- James Madison
- Texas
- Creighton
- Wisconsin
- Ole Miss
- Providence
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