Regular listeners of the CBS Sports Eye On College Basketball Podcast might know that I invented the term “building-truster” in recent years as a way to justify, with my tongue firmly planted in my cheek, picking certain home teams all the time. I only tell you that now so that I can also tell you that this weekend was a bad weekend to be a building-truster — especially in the Big Ten.
Did you see what happened at the Breslin Center? Can you believe what happened at Mackey Arena? Of the 365 teams playing Division I men’s basketball, only nine of them remain undefeated — and two of those nine recorded massive victories Saturday on the road.
Final score: Duke 66, Michigan State 60
Final score: Iowa State 81, Purdue 58
The Blue Devils and Cyclones, two elite teams built in two totally different ways, went into two of the best buildings in college basketball to play two of the best teams in college basketball, guided by two of the best coaches in college basketball — and they both won. And Iowa State won by a historically relevant margin, specifically by 23 points. Because, remember, Purdue is No. 1 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll, at least until Monday, and no team ranked No. 1 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll has ever lost a game at home by more points than the number of points Iowa State just beat Purdue by inside Mackey Arena.
“We played our absolute best,” said Iowa State coach TJ Otzelberger. “When you play an elite competitor and tremendous program, and have the respect we have for the program, you know it’s going to take your best, and we were fortunate enough to do that. We made enough shots and made enough plays.”
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Indeed, they did. They’ve been doing it all season.
Thanks to the strength of undefeated Duke’s latest road win, and to the strength of undefeated Iowa State’s latest road win, I decided to jump the Blue Devils and Cyclones above one-loss UConn and one-loss BYU, which means Duke is No. 3, and Iowa State is No. 4, in Sunday morning’s updated CBS Sports Top 25 And daily college basketball rankings, and UConn is down to No. 5 while BYU is down to No. 6, no fault of their own.
Arizona remains No. 1 for the 18th consecutive day.
Michigan is No. 2.
And it should be noted that ESPN had an interesting graphic during Arizona’s 97-68 win over Auburn late Saturday, one that detailed how 15 of the past 20 national champions were ranked and undefeated at the end of November. If that trend holds true this season, one of the schools in the top four of the Top 25 And 1 right now could be the one to extend it..
So who’s it gonna be?
Arizona? Michigan? Duke? Iowa State?
(Note: Purdue, Michigan State, Louisville and Vanderbilt also technically meet this criteria — but, for these purposes, I just wanted to highlight the top four that are all still undefeated.)
Arizona, Michigan, Duke and Iowa State all have net ratings above 30, according to KenPom.com. I realize that sentence doesn’t mean much without context, but just know that schools have won national championships with lower net-ratings than the net-ratings those four teams all currently possess with a combined record of 35-0 featuring 26 double-digit victories.
