Eight days after Indiana (Indiana!) won the football national championship, the unranked Hoosiers basketball team hit 12 3-pointers to upset No. 4 Purdue despite a furious late rally by the Boilermakers to hold on for its second-biggest win this month in Bloomington. Lamar Wilkerson scored 19 points and Nick Dorn hit four threes for IU. Tucker DeVries scored 9 points and 10 rebounds.
I wonder what Bob Knight would have said next. Would there have been more or fewer F-bombs?
The Hoosiers’ victory capped a strange night in college basketball full of near upsets. Six different ranked teams fought back from double-digit deficits, according to Jeff Borzello of ESPN and ESPN Research: No. No. 17 Virginia needed two overtimes to come back from 19 at Notre Dame, No. 7 Michigan State needed one overtime to come back from 12 at Rutgers and No. 21 Saint Louis got a buzzer-beater to outlast George Washington. Meanwhile, No. 15 Arkansas held Oklahoma scoreless for the final 87 seconds to pick up a road win, while Providence pushed UConn in Storrs before the Huskies prevailed, 87-81.
Wow. And that doesn’t even mention the game of the evening (week?): No. 3 Michigan at No. 5 Nebraska, where the Wolverines handed the Cornhuskers their first loss of the season. But take heart, NU fans: If we learned anything Tuesday, it’s that Nebraska really can play with anyone. The Huskers are legit, and if you’re rooting for Big Red, you should feel good about everything to come, including a (likely) top-four seed in the NCAA Tournament.
The Huskers’ loss leaves only two undefeated in college hoops: No. 1 Arizona and No. 24 Miami (Ohio). The Redhawks kept things interesting again, surviving 86-84 against Massachusetts, but hey, it’s better to win ugly than lose pretty, as the saying goes.
More about Tuesday’s action below.
Spartan survival
Among the many ranked teams that survived serious testing Tuesday night, Michigan State was perhaps the unlikeliest of the bunch. The Spartans trailed Rutgers by double digits with ten minutes to go, and they trailed 67-60 with less than three minutes to go. With less than 20 seconds left, Tom Izzo’s team still trailed by three.
But the Spartans stayed patient and took away the lead despite clearly not having their A-game. On their final possession, Izzo put the ball in the hands of his star point guard and let him play. Jeremy Fears Jr., the nation’s leader in assists and second in assists per game, stepped into the paint and found an open Divine Ugochukwu for a huge game-tying triple (note Jaxon Kohler’s smart flare screen to help free him):
CLUTCH THREE FOR THE SPARTANS! @MSU_Basketball
Divine Ugochukwu drains it, and we have OT in Piscataway! pic.twitter.com/p4IGO7QVpx
— FOX College Hoops (@CBbonFOX) January 28, 2026
On the ensuing final possession of regulation, Rutgers’ Tariq Francis found his way into the lane, but his soft floater somehow rolled off the front of the rim after bouncing around the bucket. That gave the heavily favored Spartans the momentum they needed to get the victory in overtime, thanks in large part to a key and-1 from Kohler in the post. Michigan State ultimately prevailed, 88-79, after overtime.
That was far from an encouraging performance for Michigan State, with Izzo telling reporters that Rutgers “outscored us for 90 percent of the game.” However, the Spartans found a way and that keeps them in the thick of the Big Ten title race. Combined with Michigan coming off a win over Nebraska, that trio forms a three-way tie atop the standings at 9-1, while Illinois is a half game back at 8-1.
A showdown looms in East Lansing on Friday, with Michigan facing a vicious interstate clash. The winner could have a slight edge in the battle for the league title – and perhaps end up at No. 1 on selection Sunday. – Jim Wortel
Sweet dreams after a 25-point win
If you have to sleep in the office, at least you can do it after a big win.
As of Tuesday morning, more than 100,000 Nashville residents were still without power after a major winter storm hit over the weekend. One of those residents is Vanderbilt coach Mark Byington, who has spent the past few nights on an air mattress in his office on campus. That’s probably not great for his back, but he will certainly sleep easy after the No. 18 Commodores beat Kentucky 80-55.
Nashville’s power outages have been so bad that Vandy head coach Mark Byington has been sleeping in the athletic center
Woke up today and went down to coach his team against Kentucky pic.twitter.com/vFl7pfh7yc
— Nick Bateman (CBB Guru) (@nickbateman33) January 28, 2026
Vandy’s victory snapped a five-game win streak for Kentucky and came despite the absence of starting guard Duke Miles, who sat out with an undisclosed injury. –Lindsay Schnell
Robbie comes to the rescue
No. 21 Saint Louis is one of the darlings of the college basketball world, thanks in large part to its bespectacled center, the smooth-shooting Robbie Avila (aka Larry Nerd, aka Cream Abdul-Jabbar). Along with head coach Josh Schertz, Avila has the Billikens at 20-1 and undefeated atop the Atlantic 10 standings.
On Tuesday night, it took all 40 minutes – and all of Avila’s heroics – for the Billikens to narrowly defeat a talented and spirited George Washington squad. Trailing for most of the game, including by double digits for extended periods, SLU briefly took the lead in the second half thanks to a lightning bolt of a 15-0 run. However, the visiting Revolutionaries struck back and the game was tied with 17 seconds left. SLU relied on its signature unselfish ball movement to find open looks for its veteran leader, and Avila delivered:
OH MY! Robbie!!!!! @SaintLouisMBB @ESPNAssignDesk #SCTop10#A10MBB Instant classic pic.twitter.com/BGDBt3RAfX
— Atlantic 10 Men’s Basketball (@A10MBB) January 28, 2026
In the fevered aftermath of the dramatic victory, Avila coolly summed up his contribution to the broadcast: “I mean, it’s just what I do. We’ve had a lot of moments in my career where we’ve gone to me, and I’ve been known to make those shots. I’m comfortable with that. (Kellen Thames) trusts me with that: pull two, kick it out and hit the shot.”
For all of Avila’s fame in the sport, he never made it to the NCAA tournament. Thanks in large part to its own clutch performance, SLU is creeping toward that goal in Schertz’s second season in charge.
It is striking, however, that a large part of the country missed the dramatic final minutes. With about three minutes left to play, the ESPN+ feed mysteriously went out for many subscribers (although, oddly enough, not all). The link disappeared from the app on both mobile and TV, leaving many viewers frustrated and unable to find the game. Sadly, many missed a dagger thrown by one of the sport’s best personalities. — Root
No. 15 Arkansas escapes from Oklahoma
Man, this would have been a nice win for Oklahoma and coach Porter Moser, whose seat is getting warmer by the day. The Sooners built a 13-point lead midway through the first half and led by four at halftime, but Arkansas closed the game with a 6-0 run in the final 61 seconds to come back and steal a win.
It stings even more when you realize that Arkansas hit just two 3s (2-of-17 from long range, a paltry 12 percent) and Oklahoma hit 10. The Sooners were also smothered in the paint to the tune of 56-30.
All of this leads to a new athletics director who may soon be looking for a new men’s basketball coach. The SEC isn’t the juggernaut it was last season, but it’s no cakewalk, and the Sooners currently sit in last place at 1-7 in conference play. – Quick
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