College Basketball Power Rankings: Kansas, Kentucky, Arizona In Top 10

These two teams will meet again on February 13, in Norman, Oklahoma in what should be another fantastic game. Their respective quests toward a national title, however, didn’t make Monday’s triple-overtime thriller any less spectacular.

It’s only January 4, but we’ve already seen the game of the season so far in college basketball – which took three overtimes to complete. Oklahoma and Kansas took everything they had from each other and the 16,300 in attendance over 55 minutes of epic basketball. He might look older than Tim Duncan, but the Jayhawks senior forward, who amassed 27 points and 13 rebounds against the Sooners, takes opponents to school on a routine basis.

“If we’d have lost the game, I would have walked into the locker room and said, ‘You’ll never forget that one, ‘” Kansas coach Bill Self said.

While I’m not yet convinced that Hield is now the Player of the Year frontrunner just yet – my POY Power Rankings come out tomorrow – I wouldn’t necessarily argue with anyone that put him there.

Graham hit a free throw with 16 seconds left in the third OT to tie it 106-106, then sank the second and KU was ahead to stay.

“Craziest game I’ve ever been a part of”, Mason said.

Carrington Love scored 11 of his 15 points in the second half as Green Bay erased a 10-point deficit.

Then, Mason came up with a steal on a Hield inbound pass, which led to two more KU free throws, as Kansas led it 109-106 with 8 second to play. Georges Niang scored 29 for Iowa State and reminded everyone why he’s one of the most versatile players in college. Fortunately for college basketball fans, but unfortunately for the Sooners, Khadeem Lattin (a 52% free-throw shooter) missed a potential game-winning free throw (there were three seconds left).

The Big Eight, the forerunner of the Big 12 which has Kansas and Oklahoma on Monday night, had two a month apart in 1990 when it was Oklahoma-Kansas and Missouri-Kansas.

Selden had 21, Perry Ellis had 27, and Devonte’ Graham finished with 22 to lead the way for the Jayhawks. He’s hitting 49.5% of his field goals, 49.4% of his threes and 90.5% of his free throws.

It was Kansas who would have the chance to win at the buzzer at the end of the first and second overtimes. Iowa State, 11-2, dropped two spots to No. 13 after opening Big 12 play with a road loss at Oklahoma. Kansas and OU are now ranked one and two in the nation, respectively, so this match up is as good as it gets. The lead exchanged sides 10 times in the three overtime sessions. 23 Cincinnati, rallied from its big loss to Villanova last week by beating No. 9 Butler on Saturday. In the end, the Jayhawks beat the Sooners, 109-106, cementing their status as the top team in the country right now.

For those who missed it, the rematch will arrive Saturday, Feb. 13. After making both, the Sooners still had a chance.

Texas Tech is vastly improved, and Baylor should be an NCAA tourney team.

But it didn’t happen during the four years he coached his alma mater, Kansas State, or during his previous four seasons with the Sooners.