The day before Kentucky‘s 63-56 win over No. 5 Tennessee on Saturday, Wildcats coach John Calipari took his team’s devices.
“You know what we did last night?” Calipari said after the game. “I not only collected the phones, I collected the iPads and everything else. And all I told them is we’re getting after this tomorrow. You go and have a great night’s sleep and you’re not looking at anything.”
That game was the beginning of a chaotic Saturday, when 11 ranked teams lost on a single day, tying an AP poll record dating back to Jan. 29, 2011, according to ESPN Stats & Information research.
Nine of the 11 teams that lost on Saturday were on the road. And two of them faced ranked opponents.
On Saturday, No. 5 Tennessee, No. 9 Arizona (87-68 at Oregon), No. 11 Kansas State (82-68 at No. 17 TCU), No. 14 Iowa State (62-60 at No. 2 Kansas), No. 15 Arkansas (97-84 at Vanderbilt), No. 16 Miami (83-81 at NC State), No. 18 Wisconsin (63-45 at Indiana), No. 19 Providence (73-67 at Creighton), No. 20 Missouri (73-64 at Florida), No. 23 San Diego State (76-67 vs. New Mexico) and No. 24 Duke (72-64 at Clemson) all lost.
Some of those losses had an impact on current conference races. Wisconsin has now lost three in a row in the Big Ten after a 3-0 start. Arizona fell to 4-3 in league play, a significant distance from a first-place UCLA team that’s 7-0. Providence (6-1) is now tied with Marquette for second place behind first-place Xavier in the Big East race. And Clemson is in first place at 7-0 in the ACC, far ahead of a Duke team that’s now 4-3 in league play in Jon Scheyer’s first year as head coach.
“Great environment, great opportunity for us and I know clearly it meant a lot to them,” Scheyer said after his team’s loss to Clemson on Saturday. “[Clemson] played great. Especially in that second half, I think it came down to them getting in our paint too easily. Back and forth the whole way, I thought it was a great game. Both teams struggled to shoot. Disappointed for our guys, thought we were ready to play, thought we fought, thought we were right there. … Disappointed for our guys and we have to learn and grow.”
