Now, that was one odd Tuesday night. It was Mardi Gras, and college basketball certainly knew how to throw a parade of craziness. Such as . . .
Auburn was 27-2 and No. 1 by general acclimation, a physical juggernaut steamrolling all before it. Texas A&M had lost four games in a row and was 0-9 all-time against top-ranked opponents. Yeah, you know what happened. The Aggies put a 41-25 whipping on the Tigers in rebounding, including grabbing 24 offensive boards, and took down Auburn 83-72. Say hello to No. 1, Duke, unless Saturday’s North Carolina game gets in the way.
MORE FROM TUESDAY NIGHT’S HOOPS: No. 1 Auburn falls to Aggies, BYU upsets No. 10 Iowa State
Arizona outran Arizona State 113-100 in a game that had 70 free throws but only 10 turnovers. In other words, poor Arizona State scored 100 points, committed only four turnovers and lost by double digits.
BYU suffered 29 turnovers and 18 steals, blew a 21-point lead in the last 14 minutes of regulation, but still beat Iowa State 88-85 in two overtimes. It was the Cougars’ first-ever win in Ames. Sounds like a real shootout, right? It hardly began that way. The score after nearly six minutes was Iowa State 2, BYU 0.
Memphis had 22 turnovers but still defeated UTSA 75-70 to clinch at least a share of its first conference season title in 12 years.
Purdue walloped Rutgers 100-71, the second time this season the Boilermakers hit the century mark in a Big Ten game. They hadn’t done that in 50 years.
Ohio State outlasted Nebraska 116-114 in a double overtime battle that went nearly three hours. The Buckeyes had four players score at least 20 points. Brice Williams set a Nebraska record with 43 points. The Cornhuskers have lost 13 games and seven of them were either by a single possession or in overtime.
2025 MARCH MADNESS: Bracket predictions in the last week of the regular season
Lafayette edged Holy Cross 69-68 in the first round of the Patriot League tournament. You could say the free throw line made an impact. Lafayette shot 21 and made 15. Holy Cross shot none.
North Carolina rolled over Virginia Tech 91-59. For the fourth ACC game in a row, the Tar Heels had five players score in double figures. That had never happened before in the history of North Carolina basketball.
Central Michigan’s 69-67 win at Ball State was on the unusual side. The Chippewas trailed by 21 points with 19 minutes left, leading for only 45 seconds in the entire game.
Virginia had scoring droughts of 6:08 and 5:11 in the first half and was outscored 20-0 in bench points by Florida State. Never mind all that, the Cavaliers won 60-57.
BREAKING DOWN THE STATS: 19 jaw-dropping numbers behind the 2024-2025 men’s basketball season
Baylor got by TCU 61-58 in Fort Worth, continuing possibly the screwiest series in college basketball. The home team has lost eight consecutive times.
Villanova led Georgetown by nine points with under four minutes left but lost 75-73 on Jayden Epps’ layup in the final five seconds. That’s not to be confused with Jan. 20, when Villanova led Georgetown by eight with three minutes remaining but lost 64-63 on Micah Peavy’s basket at 1.8 seconds. Add that up and you get Georgetown’s first season sweep of Villanova in 32 years.
Texas made its first visit to Starkville since 1976 and upset No. 25 Mississippi State 87-82 in overtime. The Longhorns might be 6-11 in SEC play, but four of the six wins are over top-25 ranked league teams.
Finally, Kentucky pounded LSU 95-64. That makes the Wildcats 3-0 against the Bayou Bengals on Mardi Gras. At least this one didn’t hurt LSU as much as the great Mardi Gras Meltdown of 1994 when Kentucky rallied from 31 points down in the second half to win 99-95. That remains tied for the biggest second-half comeback in Division I history.
