Unranked Nebraska, Iowa St

Jeff Borzello, ESPN Personnel WriterJan 9, 2024, 11:59 PM ET

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• Basketball recruiting expert.
• Joined ESPN in 2014.
• Graduate of University of Delaware.With the college football season

ending Monday, college basketball took center stage Tuesday– and right away saw its top 2 groups suffer upsets at the hands of unranked opponents.No. 1 Purdue fell at Nebraska 88-72, while No. 2 Houston lost its first game of the season at Iowa State 57-53. According to ESPN Stats & Information, it was the first time because Feb. 6,

2016, that the top two teams in the AP males’s college basketball poll lost to unranked challengers on the exact same day, and only the 8th time in the survey’s history.The Boilermakers went into Tuesday on a seven-game winning streak, including success over Arizona,

Illinois and Alabama. However Nebraska matched them shot for shot in the very first half and completed the opening duration on a 13-0 go to lead by 11 at halftime.Purdue cut Nebraska’s result in one within the first 6 minutes of the 2nd half, however the Cornhuskers instantly responded with a 14-2 go to take their most significant lead of the game with 11:53 staying. Purdue wouldn’t get closer than 6 points the rest of the game, and Nebraska finished on an 11-2 run. “That was the distinction in the game,”Purdue coach Matt Painter said of Nebraska’s halftime lead. “We had a couple great battles there in the second half to where pulled within single digits and one time we got it to 2, then they pressed it right back to double digits. “The Cornhuskers shot 14-for-23 from 3-point variety as a team, with seven players making a shot from behind the arc. Keisei Tominaga blazed a trail with 19 points, while

Rienk Mast had 18. It was Nebraska’s very first win over an AP No. 1 group considering that Feb. 6, 1982, and its 4th such win in program history. The very first came March 3, 1958, under coach Jerry Bush, grandpa of current coach Fred Hoiberg. “It does not get much larger than this one, the No. 1 team, the reigning national player of the year, “Mast said. “I just see that as a challenge and luckily, the shots were going in the beginning and offered the team a little stimulate and everybody began believing.”Tuesday marked the 4th time in the previous 2 seasons that a No. 1-ranked Purdue team has actually lost to an unranked challenger. Last season, the Boilermakers fell to Rutgers and Northwestern. Earlier this season, they again lost at Northwestern.Purdue becomes just the second team in AP poll history to lose multiple games as No. 1 to unranked opponents in consecutive seasons, the other being North Carolina in 1985-86 and 1986-87, according to ESPN Statistics & Information.Earlier in the night, Houston ended up being the last team in males’s college basketball to lose a game this season, falling at Iowa State in the Cougars’ very first conference roadway game as a member of the Big 12. Kelvin Sampson’s group was introduced quickly to”Hilton Magic”

as the Cyclones leapt out to a 14-0 lead and required 12 first-half turnovers.”I do not know if it was as much Iowa State. It was us,”Sampson said.”We were just, I don’t know what. I want I did.

“Iowa State led the whole very first half, but a 7-0 Houston run required a 41-41 tie with 10:48 remaining. Neither team led by more than five points the remainder of the method, with Houston taking its only lead of the game on a Jamal Shead jumper with 3:17 remaining.With the game connected at 53 in the last minute, Iowa State freshman Milan

Momcilovic captured the ball along the left baseline, turned and struck an objected to fadeaway over 2 Houston protectors to give the Cyclones a two-point lead. Momcilovic would ice the game with two free tosses with 10 seconds left.”It was essential that we came out and set the tone with the game,”Iowa State coach T.J. Otzelberger said after the game. “We discussed we need to throw the very first punch, we require to be the aggressor, we require to be the team that sets the tone. And I think we set the tone immediately. Certainly, there was points in the game where it practically seemed like we were hanging on, but I think our guys had the ability to dig deep. I think it was setting the tone and being the assailant, and after that it was simply a group of guys who are truly linked and had willpower. “The losses by Purdue (14-2) and Houston (14-1)open the door for No. 3 Kansas (13-1 )to go back to No. 1, where the Jayhawks opened the season. Costs Self’s team, which got two first-place votes in today’s AP Top 25 survey, dips into UCF on Wednesday night before hosting No. 9 Oklahoma on Saturday.The Associated Press added to this story.