Adam Zagoria covers basketball at all levels. He is the author of two books and an award-winning journalist whose articles have appeared in ESPN The Magazine, SLAM, Sheridan Hoops, Sports Illustrated, Basketball Times and in newspapers nationwide.
No. 1 Purdue, No. 2 Houston both lose on wild night of college basketball
By DYLAN LUTEY
The No. 1 and 2 teams in college basketball went down on the road on a wild night of college basketball.
First, No. 2 Houston (14-1, 1-1) suffered its first loss of the season with a 57-53 defeat against Iowa State (12-3, 1-1) With 56 seconds left and the game tied, Milan Momcilovic hit the go-ahead shot.
“I mean it felt pretty good,” Momcilovic told Cyclone Fanatic in a post game interview. “I had a mismatch in the post with a smaller defender on me… so I got the ball and faded away. He’s smaller, so not a big contest and it’s a shot I work on a lot, so I knew it was going in.”
The Cyclones notched their first Big 12 win after previously losing to Oklahoma (13-1, 1-0) in their conference opener and also remained unbeaten (10-0) at home.
Later in the night No. 1 Purdue (14-2, 3-2) took a 88-72 loss against Nebraska (13-3, 3-2). It was the first time since 1982 that the Cornhuskers took down the No. 1 team in the country.
“Did I enjoy it? Hell yeah I did,” head coach Fred Hoiberg said in a post game press conference. “Certainly shows what we are capable of. I thought both ends we were really good for the most part besides that run they went on in the second half, but overall [from] start to finish I was really pleased with the effort.
“This was the best team effort I’ve seen in my career,” Cornhuskers’ forward Rienk Mast, who scored 18 points, told reporters after the game.
Despite the excitement around this statement win, Hoiberg and Mast made it clear that they don’t want to get complacent.
“I think we all know wins are great, but we have to show up for the next one,” Mast said.
“This can’t be the highlight of our year,” Hoiberg said. “We’ve got to build on this.”
The Cornhuskers will look to continue their momentum when they face Iowa (9-6, 1-3) on Friday while the Boilermakers will look to bounce back against Penn State (8-7, 2-2) on Saturday.
No. 3 Kansas and No. 4 UConn stand to benefit in the polls if they take care of business the rest of the week.
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Adam Zagoria is a Basketball Insider who covers basketball at all levels. A contributor to The New York Times and SportsNet New York (SNY), he is also the author of two books and is an award-winning journalist and filmmaker. His articles have appeared in ESPN The Magazine, SLAM, Sheridan Hoops, Basketball Times and in newspapers nationwide. He also won an Emmy award for his work on the SNY mini-documentary on Syracuse guard Tyus Battle.
A veteran Ultimate Frisbee player, he has competed in numerous National and World Championships and, perhaps more importantly, his teams won the Westchester Summer League (WSL) championships in 2011 and 2013.
He lives in Manhattan with his wife and children.
