The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Arizona goes home winless
No. 2 Wildcats lose all three games in Bahamas tourney.
Good luck finding anybody who has ever had a worse week in the Bahamas than Sean Miller.
His second-ranked Arizona team headed to the Battle 4 Atlantis poised for a championship showdown with No. 5 Villanova. Instead, the Wildcats dropped three games in three days to finish last in the eight-team tournament, and could plummet all the way out of the Top 25 today.
“I wouldn’t have predicted we would come down here and finish 0-3. That wasn’t the goal,” Miller said before heading home, “but nothing’s ever as bad as it seems.”
The Wildcats (3-3) lost close games to North Carolina State and SMU before getting routed by No. 18 Purdue in the seventh-place game. But that’s still three straight losses, and that could make Arizona the first time since Louisville in 1986 to go from No. 2 to unranked in the AP Top 25.
“Hey, look, I want to win,” said Miller, whose team still has back-to-back games against No. 16 Texas A&M and No. 25 Alabama before Pac-12 play. “We have to make it so we don’t lose four.”
The Wildcats weren’t the only ranked team to take some lumps last week.
The Boilermakers lost twice in the Bahamas before beating Arizona. Sixthranked Wichita State rallied to reach the finals of the Maui Invitational, where the Shockers lost a nip-and-tuck game to No. 13 Notre Dame. No. 15 Xavier was throttled by Arizona State in the finals of the Las Vegas Invitational, and No. 20 Seton Hall, No. 21 Saint Mary’s and No. 23 UCLA all suffered losses.
Then there are the Top 25 teams that had no problem whatsoever.
Third-ranked Kansas beat Texas Southern and Oakland by an average of 43 points. No. 11 Miami won two games easily, while No. 12 Cincinnati rolled to the title of the Cayman Islands Classic.
Yes, Bearcats coach Mick Cronin was far happier heading home from paradise.
“This is a good start to the season,” said Cronin, whose team is one of the favorites in the American Athletic Conference. “You practice winning three in row, but down here you have to focus especially with fun in sun.”
Just ask Arizona how difficult that task can be.
Three’s company
Perhaps the most bizarre matchup of ranked teams took place Saturday in New York, when the Crimson Tide’s bench was ejected for coming out to scuffle in a loss to No. 14 Minnesota.
When the Tide’s Dazon Ingram fouled out and John Petty hurt his ankle, they were down to three players the rest of the way.
They still trimmed a 14-point deficit to three before ultimately losing 89-84.
“We fought to the very end,” Crimson Tide coach Avery Johnson said. “There was no surrender in our team. That’s the bright spot in today’s game.”
Handing out hardware
Texas A&M rolled through Oklahoma State and Penn State to win the Legends Classic in New York, while No. 22 Baylor beat Wisconsin and Creighton to win the Hall of Fame Classic in Kansas City. Virginia topped Rhode Island in the NIT Season TipOff, where No. 23 Seton Hall finished third.
Poised to pounce
The Cavaliers’ tournament title in New York should get them ranked this week; they were the top team receiving votes last week. Texas Tech and TCU were next in the pecking order and both improved to 6-0 with easy wins last week, giving the Big 12 a chance to flood today’s new Top 25.
Sunday funday
Move over, NFL. You’ll have a hard time finding a bigger day of big-time college basketball — until March Madness, at least — than on Sunday, when 11 ranked teams were in action.
Six played each other on the West Coast.
The No. 16 Aggies headed cross country and faced No. 10 USC at the Galen Center on Sunday night, while the championship games of the two-bracket PK80 tournament in Portland featured ninth-ranked North Carolina against No. 4 Michigan State and top-ranked Duke against No. 7 Florida.
No. 17 Gonzaga held off Texas 76-71 in a consolation game of Nike founder Phil Knight’s tournament. No. 23 West Virginia and Missouri met in the Advocare Invitational; Georgia upset No. 21 St. Mary’s 83-81 in overtime in the Wooden Legacy; and eighth-ranked Kentucky routed Illinois-Chicago 107-73 in the Adolph Rupp Classic.
Women
No. 13 Florida State 87, Samford 62: Shakayla Thomas scored 29 points, and Imani Wright and Nausia Woolfolk each added 14 points for the host Seminoles (6-0). Hannah Nichols scored 20 points for the Bulldogs (2-4).
No. 15 Maryland 79, Miami 71: Ieshia Small had a career-high 23 points and 10 rebounds for her first double as Maryland (5-2) held off Miami (4-2) to win the Miami Thanksgiving Tournament.
No. 17 USF 68, St. John’s 59: Maria Jespersen scored 25 points and Kitija Laksa scored 18 for the Bulls (6-1). They shot 48 percent from 3-point range.
No. 19 Texas A&M 90, Texas Tech 56: Chennedy Carter scored a Texas A&M freshman record 30 points. Texas A&M (4-1) scored the opening 10 points and led by 29 points at the end of the first quarter with a program-record 34 points. Brittany Brewer led Texas Tech (3-2) with 12 points.
No. 25 Kentucky 69, Marshall 39: Alyssa Rice scored a career-high 19 points and had 10 rebounds, and Kentucky used a 20-0 second-quarter run to rout Marshall. Maci Morris added 15 points for Wildcats (6-0). Asheika Alexander scored 18 points for the Thundering Herd (1-4).