Christmas comes early for some schools

It seems that upsets were in the air in college basketball tonight.

Stanford upset #9 Texas in OT.  After loosing to BYU last week, Stanford was looking for redemption and it happened to be wearing orange.  With a jump shot from the free throw line in the final seconds, Chasson Randle contributed 22 points and teammate Anthony Brown added 25 more.  Texas outshot Stanford 52% to 38% in second half, but Stanford stayed in the game with offensive rebounds and 9 second chance points to the Longhorns 0.  This is the first top ten win for Stanford since 2008.

In a shocking (to me at least, I’ve not had my eye on UNLV), the Running Rebels dethrone #3 Arizona from the realm of the unbeatens.  I would describe UNLV as inconsistent at best.  They have talent, but have had some eye catching losses.  It seemed to come together for them tonight as Arizona generally fell apart.  The Wildcats struggled all around with some of their starters in foul trouble.

Another OT surprise was #11 Wichita States 1 point win against Hawaii.  I watched the beginning of this game and had I known there would be 22 lead changes, 5 in OT alone, I’d have made more of an effort to stay awake.  I thought the Shockers had this one in the bag.  The final OT play, which looked really similar to their only loss to Utah last year, let them slip by Hawaii to meet George Washington in the final.

In Women’s news, congratulations to South Carolina for topping the AP poll for the fifth straight week.  The Gamecocks are ahead of traditional powerhouses UConn (2), Texas (3), and surprisingly Stanford (16).  This is the first time the Cardinal has been out of the top ten since 2009 and the lowest they have ranked since 2006 after two surprising losses to Tennessee and Chattanooga (go SoCon!).  Welcome Oregon State Lady Beavers (10); they have cracked the top ten for the first time in school history.  Always nice to see some new faces at the top!