Sunday, January 09, 2011

8 Top 25 Teams Dropped; #23 Washington Wins 6th Straight

College Hoops Player of the Day for Saturday, January 8, 2011

No fewer than eight teams ranked in the Top 25 - some close to the top of the list - were defeated on Saturday, making it one of the biggest upset days of the season.

Before venturing into that morass of missed opportunity, a number of ranked teams managed wins, notably in the Big East, where Syracuse, Pitt, Notre Dame and UConn all came away victorious, but the performance of the day was by 6'9" senior forward Matthew Bryan-Amaning, who scored 24 points to go with 15 rebounds for the 12-3 Washington Huskies in their 103-72 win over Oregon State, their sixth straight win and fourth in the PAC-10 without a loss.

Bryan-Amaning hit 11-of-14 shots from the field, mostly in the paint and around the rim, notching his fifth double-double and scoring in double figures for the 12th time this season. In the rebounding department, five of his were on the offensive glass.

As for the upsets, there were so many it was difficult to keep track. Early in the day, Colorado bumped off #9 Missouri, 89-76, West Virginia hammered #13 Georgetown, 65-59, and Georgia held court at home to down #10 Kentucky, 77-70.

As the afternoon wore on, many fans glued to the NFL playoff games, Houston bumped off #19 UCF, Oklahoma St. dumped #17 Kansas State and Penn State kicked #18 Michigan State.

Two overtime games capped the day's action, as South Carolina outscored #22 Vanderbilt, 11-3 in the extra session for an 83-75 win and #8 UConn survived a trip to the Lone Star State with an 82-81 OT win over the Longhorns.

The day added up to one which should provide significant movement in the rankings due out on Monday, and highlights the intense competitiveness operating in the college hoops sphere. No game is a gimmie now that January has arrived.

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