College basketball scores, winners and losers: Kentucky rebounds, Kansas falls to rival, top two teams go down

There were plenty of surprisng results in college basketball on Saturday with two of the biggest shockers coming when No. 1 Auburn and No. 2 Duke both lost. The Tigers were upset at home 90-81 by No. 6 Florida. The Blue Devils met the same fate losing 77-71 at Clemson. Those losses could lead to Alabama taking over No. 1 in the major polls after the No. 3 Crimson Tide defeated Arkansas 85-81.   

Speaking of the SEC, opportunities to catch your breath in the naton’s best conference and get back on track are few and far between 2025, which is why No. 14 Kentucky’s home game vs. South Carolina on Saturday was so significant. The Wildcats entered having lost four of their previous five and in serious need of a palate-cleanser. 

That’s exactly what UK got in an 80-57 victory over South Carolina. Starting point guard Lamont Butler returned after a three-game absence due to a shoulder injury and played 23 minutes. Key players Andrew Carr and Jaxson Robinson also logged substantive action, despite being considered game-time decisions entering the game.

If Kentucky is going to reach the potential it showed with six victories over top-15 opponents, it will need all three players healthy down the stretch. Thankfully for first-year coach Mark Pope, the ease of Saturday’s win kept him from playing anyone more than 30 minutes ahead of a showdown with No. 4 Tennessee on Tuesday.

Things didn’t go nearly as well for another struggling blue blood on Saturday, as No. 16 Kansas fell to 3-3 over its last six games with an 81-73 loss at Kansas State. It was the defense which let the Jayhawks down as they suffered their fifth Big 12 loss.

Here is the full rundown of the winners and losers from a loaded Saturday of college basketball action.

Loser: Flagg falls as Duke falters

Clemson delivered one of the most shocking upsets of the season Saturday with a 77-71 win over No. 2 Duke at Littlejohn Coliseum. Trailing 73-71 with under 20 seconds to play, Duke turned to freshman phenom Cooper Flagg, who was in the midst of a late-game offensive barrage. But as he tried to plant and elevate for a potential game-tying shot, he slipped to the floor and was called for a traveling violation. Clemson subsequently took care of business at the free-throw line in the final seconds as Duke’s nation-best 16-game winning streak came to an anticlimactic end. – David Cobb

Loser: Auburn stunned at home by Florida

Florida earned its first-ever road win over a top-ranked team Saturday as the No. 6 Gators dismantled No. 1 Auburn 90-81 to hand the Tigers their first SEC loss. The win is Florida’s second blowout victory over a No. 1 team this season after UF crushed then-No. 1 Tennessee 73-43 on Jan. 7. Florida’s dominance in a hostile environment made for a stunning end to Auburn’s 14-game winning streak, which was the nation’s second-longest. The Gators (20-3, 7-3 SEC) got it done without second-leading scorer Alijah Martin, who was injured in Florida’s win over Vanderbilt earlier in the week. — Cobb

Winner: Akron Zips own longest active win streak

Thanks to Saturday losses by No. 1 Auburn and No. 2 Duke, the MAC-leading Akron Zips – a perfect 10-0 in conference play and winners of 11-straight after defeating South Alabama 80-65 – own the longest active winning streak in college basketball. The Zips (18-5) have yet to lose in the 2025 calendar year after starting the season 7-5. They return to conference play Tuesday with a home test vs. Western Michigan and figure to be favored in each of their remaining eight games, according to KenPom projections. – Kyle Boone

Loser: Defense betrays Kansas

Few are better than Bill Self, but the Kansas coach has his work cut out for him down the stretch if the No. 16 Jayhawks are going to make good on lofty preseason expectations. Kansas has dropped three of its past six games and is fading fast in the Big 12 title race after falling 81-73 at Kansas State. Defense was the culprit as the Wildcats shot 50% from the floor. No. 2 Duke is the only other team to reach that threshold against the Jayhawks this season. 

The good news is that four of KU’s next five are against teams currently projected outside the NCAA Tournament field, which could give Self some time to get his team back on track before the stretch run. But it’s become painfully obvious that the Jayhawks were overrated when AP voters deemed them the preseason No. 1 team. — Cobb

Winner: Kansas State is making an incredible turnaround

Kansas State’s resurrection is now impossible to ignore or dismiss as a fluke. After beating Kansas 81-73 and dominating the entire second half, the Wildcats are officially vying to be college basketball’s top turnaround team of the 2024-25 season. The win was the fifth straight for the Wildcats, and four of them have come in convincing fashion. A team that seemed like roadkill at 7-11 (1-6 Big 12) just a few weeks ago is now 12-11 (6-6) and in possession of three Quad 1 wins. This team still has some ugly blemishes on its ledger, but it is inching toward the NCAA Tournament bubble, which would have been unthinkable not long ago. — Cobb

Winner: Army wins record-breaking shootout in Patriot League thriller

Army outlasted Bucknell in a Patriot League shootout that ended with the Black Knights setting a program-high in a 116-110 double OT victory. The new record-high in points scored for Army bested a previous record vs. a Division I opponent of 104 that came on Jan. 27, 2001, vs. Lafayette, which it won in OT.

The win moved Army to 10-1 all-time when scoring 100 or more points, per CBB Reference data, with its only loss of those 11 games coming back in 1988 when it fell to Holy Cross 122-100. 

Ryan Curry cooked up 30 points for Army in the win, 17 of which came in the overtime periods. – Boone

Winner: Kentucky shakes off skid, gets right vs. Gamecocks

Kentucky unleashed a week’s worth of pent-up frustration following back-to-back double-digit losses to Arkansas and Ole Miss with an 80-57 beatdown of South Carolina – its largest margin of victory yet vs. an SEC opponent under first-year coach Mark Pope. Otega Oweh scored a team-high 17 points and three other Wildcats – led by Brandon Garrison’s big 15-point outing – reached double figures. The win snaps a two-game skid for UK, which had lost four of its last five entering the day as well, with No. 4 Tennessee coming to Lexington on Tuesday. — Boone

Winner: Jase Richardson tallies career-high in front of pops

No. 9 Michigan State erased a 14-point deficit in an 86-74 win over Oregon in the Breslin Center led by a career-high 29 points from freshman Spartans guard Jase Richardson. Richardson, the son of Michigan State legend Jason Richardson, had 18 of his 29 in the second half, keying the comeback to help coach Tom Izzo match Bob Knight’s Big Ten wins record. The performance was doubly sweet as his pops and the 2000 national title-winning Spartans team looked on courtside. — Boone

Loser: Oregon hits worst skid in a decade

In coughing up a 14-point lead to a top-10 Michigan State team Saturday, Oregon – 16-3 overall and 5-3 in Big Ten play just two weeks ago – suffered its fifth consecutive loss and fell to 5-8 in conference play. The skid is Oregon’s longest losing streak under Dana Altman since 2013-14 and just its second-ever losing streak of five or more consecutive games since Altman took over in 2010-11. The Ducks, a No. 7 seed in Jerry Palm’s Bracetology entering Saturday, head back to Eugene on Tuesday in desperate need of a win facing shorthanded Northwestern. — Boone

Winner: Tennessee gets back to spirit-breaking ways

No. 4 Tennessee and its soul-crushing squad took its show on the road Saturday and squeezed the life out of Oklahoma in Norman, holding the Sooners to a season-low 52 points in an 18-point victory. It’s the 12th win of the season for the Vols by a margin of 18 or larger, the second-most by any team in college basketball behind only Duke. — Boone

Loser: Texas squanders lead, falls to Vandy

Texas entered the day as one of the “first four out” of Jerry Palm’s projected NCAA Tournament field and owned a 10-point second half lead at Vanderbilt. But the Longhorns couldn’t reach the finish line, falling 86-78 to the plucky Commodores. Vandy scored 51 points in the second half on 56.7% shooting while picking up an important win for its own NCAA Tournament chances. The ‘Dores entered as a projected No. 11 seed with games against No. 1 Auburn and No. 4 Tennessee coming up next week. 

Suffering a third straight loss with the Tigers and Vols up next would have put first-year coach Mark Byington’s club in a tight spot. But the backcourt duo of Jason Edwards and A.J. Hoggard combined for 29 points in the second half, and Jaylen Carey owned the paint with 18 points and 14 rebounds as the ‘Dores improved to 17-6 (5-5). Now it’s Texas (15-9, 4-7) with some ground to make up over the last four weeks of the regular season, starting with massive home games against No. 3 Alabama and No. 14 Kentucky next week. — Cobb

Winner: Iowa State gets back on track

Few teams needed a win more Saturday than Iowa State, which had dropped three straight entering a home tilt with TCU. After a 17-2 start, the Cyclones were officially reeling on the heels of blowout losses to Kansas State and Kansas. Cyclones fans can officially exhale now after ISU’s 82-52 dismantling of TCU. A torrid 59.2% shooting performance was its best since Dec. 22, and it included a 5 of 9 showing from Milan Momcilovic. The sophomore forward had missed seven games due to a hand injury but looked just fine in his first game back. — Cobb

Winner: Creighton picks up key Big East win over Marquette 

A team that’s flown under the radar over the last month has been Creighton. The Bluejays are just one game back of first place in the Big East standings behind St. John’s. Creighton won its ninth consecutive game with a 77-67 win at home over No. 11 Marquette behind big performances from Ryan Kalkbrenner and Steven Ashworth. The Bluejays’ last loss came against this Golden Eagles team. They have been on a roll since. — Cameron Salerno

Loser: Well-being of trash cans in Omaha

Omaha basketball’s continued tradition of destroying trash cans in postgame victories continued in glorious fashion Saturday as Brandt Daniels, the team’s director of operations, tagged in to spearhead a poor receptacle after the Mavericks downed North Dakota State 85-74 to remain alone atop the Summit League standings. Omaha was picked to finish eighth in the nine-team Summit League in the preseason poll but has been one of this season’s biggest surprises at the mid-major level. After starting the season 4-9 it has now won 12 of its last 13 games and is leading the regular season conference race with a 10-1 start in the Summit. — Boone

Winner: UNC-Wilmington beats the buzzer in double-OT

UNC Wilmington downed Drexel 81-79 in double-overtime when Greedy Williams beat the buzzer on a coast-to-coast layup as time expired. Williams scored eight of his 14 points after regulation as the Seahawks stayed one game back of Towson in the CAA standings by winning their eighth straight game in dramatic fashion. — Cobb

Loser: Seton Hall’s nightmare season continues

Seton Hall suffered its ninth consecutive loss in Big East play Saturday, falling 60-46 to Georgetown as it dropped to 6-18 on the season and 1-12 in Big East play. It’s the worst start to conference play for the Pirates since opening the 1984-85 season 0-15 and finishing 1-15, and ironically the worst start by a team in the league since the Hoyas went 0-19 in 2021-22. — Boone

Winner: Texas A&M wins a thriller on the road over Missouri 

There was never a doubt about who was getting the ball for Texas A&M in a tie game down the stretch. Star guard Wade Taylor lV knocked down a 3-pointer with 2.1 seconds remaining that proved to be the game-winner in the Aggies’ 67-64 win over Missouri. Texas A&M has won five of its last six games and now sits at 7-3 in SEC play. — Salerno

Winner: UNC survives, keeps NCAA Tournament hopes alive

North Carolina entered the weekend just outside the bubble in CBS Sports’ latest Bracketology projections by Jerry Palm. The Tar Heels 67-66 win over Pitt at home could go a long way toward getting back above the cut line. Pitt had a chance to win the game multiple times down the stretch but couldn’t capitalize. Pitt was one of the “First Four Out” in the latest projections, and this loss could ultimately hurt its chances. This result will be one to reflect on in about a month on Selection Sunday. — Salerno