Saturday saw a whole lot of craziness in college basketball, from St. John’s snapping an 11-game losing streak with an 81-77 win over No. 4 Duke to Oklahoma State knocking off No.7 Kansas, Washington downing No. 9 Arizona with a last-second buzzer-beater, No. 12 Oklahoma falling to Texas, and Missouri getting their first win ever over No. 21 Kentucky.
But the part that makes it particularly historic comes from those Kansas, Duke and Kentucky losses. As per Kyle Boone of CBS Sports, Feb. 15, 1969 was the last time Duke, Kansas and Kentucky all lost to unranked teams on the same day.
That’s pretty amazing, considering how much has happened since then. And it’s not like these teams fell to incredible powerhouses, either; St. John’s is only 11-13 on the season, while Oklahoma State is 14-9 and Missouri is 15-8. The latter two teams are reasonably good and could have NCAA tournament potential, while St. John’s is showing improvement of their own, but these weren’t games many figured these teams could lose.
For example, Kansas’ loss was only the 13th time the Jayhawks had ever fallen at Allen Fieldhouse in Bill Self’s tenure (he’s coached them since 2003-04), while Oklahoma State had lost four out of five games heading into this one, making the Cowboys’ post-game celebration seem pretty deserved:
This is how you celebrate when you win in Allen Fieldhouse. 😎 #LetsWork #okstate pic.twitter.com/Rm8sqlimYF
— OSU Cowboy Basketball (@OSUMBB) February 3, 2018
And Kentucky’s road loss to Missouri was the first time the Wildcats had ever fallen to the Tigers in 11 meetings. It came after Kentucky had won three straight and looked to be building towards something impressive, too. But their team shooting percentage of just 31.3 percent helps to explain that.
The Duke loss is really tough to wrap your head around, though, considering how the Blue Devils had picked up a lot of impressive wins this year (including over Miami, Florida and Michigan State) and how the Red Storm hadn’t won a game since December and had lost multiple games by double digits. That was perhaps the least likely in a string of remarkable upsets, and it helped make for a historic day.
