Conference play takes flight in NCAA basketball

The GIST: With conference play in full swing, the fight for standings supremacy upped the ante in this weekend’s jam-packed schedule, especially on the men’s court: A whopping seven ranked squads fell to unranked opponents, bringing heat to the dead of winter.

Chaos reigns in the Big East…: The “Power Six” conference continues to be a gong show, with No. 7 Marquette falling to Seton Hall 78–75 and Creighton beating an injury-hobbled No. 23 Providence 69–60 on Saturday. These guys love mess.

…and in the Big 12: Upsets also rocked the south-central conference, where Cincinnati and Texas Tech earned decisive Saturday road wins over No. 12 BYU and No. 20 Texas, respectively.

• But earlier that day, the Big 12 narrowly avoided the upset of the season when No. 2 Kansas escaped TCU 83–81 thanks to senior center Hunter Dickinson (and the refs).

No. 1 Purdue tops No. 9 Illinois 83–78: The Boilermakers shut down the Illini’s second-half surge, capturing their fourth Top-10 dub on Friday. This runaway train shows no signs of slowing down as senior center Zach Edey, who put up 10 points and 15 rebounds, builds his repeat–Player of the Year campaign.

No. 3 Houston stays perfect: The Cougars are the only undefeated Division I (DI) men’s team still standing after No. 19 James Madison and No. 22 Ole Miss suffered their first losses on Saturday.

• On that note, six unbeaten DI women’s teams entered the weekend, but only three survived: No. 1 South Carolina, No. 2 UCLA, and No. 6 Baylor. No. 24 West Virginia and Oregon State both saw their undefeated seasons slip away, and as for the sixth…

Buzzer-beaters upend the women’s court: A pair of one-point upsets brought down the house yesterday. No. 13 Virginia Tech ruined No. 3 NC State’s perfect record 63–62 with center Elizabeth Kitley’s last-second layup, and unranked Arizona took down No. 15 Utah 71–70 after guard Kailyn Gilbert’s two free throws delivered the dagger in overtime’s final second. Chills.