The first Saturday of 2021 did not disappoint. There was one wild result after another. There were crazy upsets from coast to coast — most notably Shaka Smart's Texas Longhorns dealing Bill Self the most lopsided loss Kansas' Hall of Fame coach has ever suffered inside Allen Fieldhouse.
Final score: Texas 84, Kansas 59.
That's a 25-point win for UT.
I'm just going to assume that Self will never suffer another home loss that lopsided, in part because I'm assuming this is the last season in Self's coaching career that Allen Fieldhouse will ever be that empty because of a global pandemic. Nothing is guaranteed, of course. But with multiple COVID-19 vaccines approved and in the process of being distributed, there's at least a chance college basketball arenas will look something close to normal next season, at which point home-court advantage would be a real thing again.
Because, right now, it's not.
"This doesn't happen in the Fieldhouse," Kansas forward Jalen Wilson said after Saturday's beatdown. "This is very embarrassing."
And yet totally understandable.
To be clear, Kansas losing by 25 points to Texas (or anybody else) isn't totally understandable (even if this KU roster is far from the most talented Self has ever coached). What's totally understandable is a visitor accomplishing something inside Allen Fieldhouse that no other visitor had accomplished in more than 30 years — i.e., beat the Jayhawks by 25 points — because this is the first time Allen Fieldhouse has ever looked or felt this way. Normally, opposing teams walk into this historic building and are forced to deal with 16,300 fans well-versed in the Rock Chalk Chant. It's cool and intimidating in a way that influences both visiting teams and referees. But on Saturday, there were only 2,500 fans in attendance. So the place doesn't have the same edge, and it's likely among of the reasons the Jayhawks never made a real run to get back in the game when they went down big, because there wasn't a crowd sizable enough to push them and/or cause problems for a Texas team that grabbed momentum and never let go.
Anyway ...
Texas moved up to No. 4 in Sunday morning's updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings. Kansas dropped to No. 5. And Baylor remained No. 2. So that's three Big 12 school in the top five -- all of which are, like everybody else, looking up at Gonzaga, which improved to 10-0 Saturday with an 85-62 victory over San Francisco. Nine of the Zags' 10 wins have come by double-digits. And Gonzaga is now the first team to score 85 points in each of its first 10 games since the 1993-94 Arkansas Razorbacks.
That Arkansas team won the national title.
The Zags look equipped to follow that pattern.
Sunday's Top 25 And 1 rankings
Rk | Teams | Chg | Rcrd | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  | Drew Timme finished with 20 points and 11 rebounds in Saturday's 85-62 victory over San Francisco. The Zags' perfect record also includes double-digit wins over Kansas, Iowa and Virginia. | -- | 27-8 |
| 2 |  | Jared Butler finished with 21 points, five assists and four steals in Saturday's 76-65 victory at Iowa State. The Bears' perfect record is highlighted by a double-digit win over Illinois. | -- | 24-11 |
| 3 |  | Collin Gillespie made six 3-pointers and finished with 22 points in Wednesday's 85-68 victory at Marquette. The Wildcats' lone loss is an overtime loss to Virginia Tech. | 2 | 18-16 |
| 4 |  | Courtney Ramey made three 3-pointers and finished with 18 points in Saturday's 84-59 victory at Kansas. The Longhorns' lone loss is a single-digit loss to Villanova. | 3 | 21-13 |
| 5 |  | The Jayhawks missed 20 of the 23 3-pointers they attempted in Saturday's 84-59 loss to Texas. KU's other loss is a neutral-court loss to Gonzaga. | 2 | 23-11 |
| 6 |  | Marcus Zegarowski made six 3-pointers and finished with 20 points, seven rebounds and four assists in Saturday's 67-65 victory at Providence. The Bluejays' resume also features wins over UConn and Xavier. | 3 | 25-10 |
| 7 |  | Kofi Cockburn finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds in Saturday's 66-58 victory over Purdue. All three of the Illini's losses are to schools also ranked in the Top 25 And 1. | 3 | 29-9 |
| 8 |  | Hunter Dickinson finished with 26 points and 11 rebounds in Thursday's 84-73 victory at Maryland. The Wolverines' perfect record also includes wins over Penn State and UCF. | 3 | 8-24 |
| 9 |  | Luka Garza finished with 25 points on 11 field goal attempts in Saturday's 77-75 victory at Rutgers. The Hawkeyes' resume also includes wins over Northwestern and North Carolina. | 4 | 19-15 |
| 10 |  | The Vols missed 17 of the 21 3-pointers they attempted in Saturday's 71-63 loss to Alabama. Tennessee's resume is highlighted by wins over Missouri and Colorado. | 6 | 27-9 |
| 11 |  | Derek Culver scored a season-low two points in Saturday's 75-71 loss at Oklahoma. The loss doubled as West Virginia's first game without Oscar Tshiebwe. | 5 | 9-23 |
| 12 |  | The Scarlet Knights allowed Iowa to shoot 46.4% from the field in Saturday's 77-75 loss to the Hawkeyes. It was only Rutgers' second loss at home in its past 26 games at the RAC. | -- | 15-17 |
| 13 |  | The Cougars missed 17 of the 21 3-pointers they attempted in Tuesday's 65-64 loss at Tulsa. Houston is still projected by KenPom to win the AAC by multiple games. | 1 | 32-5 |
| 14 |  | Kevin McCullar missed nine of the 11 shots he took in Saturday's 82-77 overtime loss to Oklahoma State. Texas Tech is 1-3 in games against top-50 KenPom teams. | 6 | 23-11 |
| 15 |  | Micah Potter finished with 18 points and 11 rebounds in Thursday's 71-59 victory over Minnesota. The Badgers' resume also features wins over Louisville and Loyola Chicago. | -- | 22-14 |
| 16 |  | Jeremiah Tilmon finished with 25 points and 11 rebounds in Saturday's 81-68 victory at Arkansas. The Tigers' lone loss is a home loss to Tennessee. | -- | 8-24 |
| 17 |  | The Wildcats allowed Iowa to shoot 48.3% from the field in Tuesday's 87-72 loss to the Hawkeyes. Northwestern is 3-1 in the Big Ten heading into Sunday's game at Michigan. | -- | 22-12 |
| 18 |  | Justin Aherns made six 3-pointers and finished with 18 points in Wednesday's 90-54 victory over Nebraska. Ohio State's resume also features wins over Rutgers, UCLA and Notre Dame. | -- | 22-14 |
| 19 |  | Matthew Hurt finished with 18 points and five rebounds in Wednesday's 75-65 victory at Notre Dame. The Blue Devils have only played one game in the past three weeks. | -- | 27-9 |
| 20 |  | The Gophers missed 24 of the 31 3-pointers they attempted in Thursday's 71-59 loss at Wisconsin. Minnesota's only other loss came at Illinois. | -- | 19-15 |
| 21 |  | Chris Duarte finished with 23 points and six rebounds in Saturday's 73-56 victory over Stanford. The Ducks' lone loss is a season-opening loss to Missouri. | -- | 24-12 |
| 22 |  | David Johnson made four 3-pointers and finished with 20 points and eight rebounds in Saturday's 76-64 victory at Boston College. The Cardinals' lone loss is a shorthanded loss at Wisconsin. | 1 | 8-24 |
| 23 |  | Jordan Goodwin finished with 23 points and 13 rebounds in Wednesday's 62-46 victory over UM Kansas City. The Billikens' lone loss is a single-digit loss at Minnesota. | 1 | 13-20 |
| 24 |  | DJ Funderburk finished with 21 points and five rebounds off of the bench in Wednesday's 79-76 victory over Boston College. The Wolfpack's lone loss came at Saint Louis. | 2 | 26-15 |
| 25 |  | Aamir Simms finished with 25 points, seven rebounds and four assists in Saturday's 66-65 victory at Miami. Six of Clemson's eight wins are over top-100 KenPom teams. | NR | 24-12 |
| 26 |  | Tyrese Martin finished with 22 points and 10 rebounds in Wednesday's 82-61 victory over DePaul. The Huskies' lone loss is an overtime loss to Creighton. | NR | 37-3 |
