Losing record: 11 ranked teams fall, tying mark
The day before Kentucky’s 63-56 win over No. 5 Tennessee on Saturday, Wildcats coach John Calipari took his group’s gadgets.
“You know what we did last night?” Calipari said after the game. “I not just collected the phones, I collected the iPads and everything else. And all I told them is we’re getting after this tomorrow. You go and have an excellent night’s sleep and you’re not looking at anything.”
That game was the start of a chaotic Saturday, when 11 ranked teams lost on a single day, connecting an AP survey record dating back to Jan. 29, 2011, according to ESPN Stats & Information research.Nine of the 11 teams that lost on Saturday were on the roadway. And two of them dealt with ranked opponents.On Saturday, No. 5 Tennessee, No. 9 Arizona(87-68 at Oregon ), No. 11 Kansas State(82-68 at No. 17 TCU), No. 14 Iowa State (62-60 at No. 2 Kansas ), No. 15 Arkansas (97-84 at Vanderbilt), No. 16 Miami (83-81 at NC State), No. 18 Wisconsin (63-45 at Indiana), No. 19 Providence (73-67 at Creighton), No. 20 Missouri (73-64 at Florida), No. 23 San Diego State (76-67 vs. New Mexico) and No. 24 Duke (72-64 at Clemson) all lost.Some of those losses had an impact on existing conference races. Wisconsin has actually now lost 3 in a row in the Big 10 after a 3-0 start. Arizona was up to 4-3 in league play, a significant range from a first-place UCLA team that’s 7-0. Providence (6-1) is now connected with Marquette for second place behind first-place Xavier in the Big East race. And Clemson remains in top place at 7-0 in the ACC, far ahead of a Duke group that’s now 4-3 in league play in Jon Scheyer’s very first year as head coach.
“Fantastic environment, terrific opportunity for us and I know plainly it meant a lot to them,” Scheyer stated after his team’s loss to Clemson on Saturday.” [Clemson] played fantastic. Particularly because second half, I think it boiled down to them getting in our paint too easily. Back and forth the whole way, I believed it was a great game. Both teams had a hard time to shoot. Dissatisfied for our guys, thought we were prepared to play, thought we fought, believed we were right there. … Disappointed for our guys and we have to learn and grow.”