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Free throw fest at the Kohl Center as Wisconsin upsets #9 Arizona

Friday brought us the best slate of the season so far, with plenty of power conference matchups and a handful of elite mid-major battles. The slate started at 1:00 eastern time and didn’t end until the other side of midnight, but through it all, no one scored more than Missouri transfer John Tonje for Wisconsin. Tonje scored 41 on just 14 shots to lead the Badgers to a home upset over #9 Arizona, living at the free throw line where he went 21-22 on the night.

Right from the start Tonje showed the Wildcats where he wanted to go to work, drawing an and-one to open the scoring and hitting two more free throws a minute later to make it 5-0 Badgers. Wisconsin went up 9-2 before Arizona got into the flow of things, but the Badgers would hold the lead the entirety of the first half, as a pair of Xavier Amos free throws made it 55-44 in favor of the home side headed into the break.

The first six minutes of the second half belonged to Arizona, and it seemed as if this was where the #9 team in the country would begin to pull away. KJ Lewis scored to complete an 8-0 run for the Wildcats, tying the game at 65-65 with just over 14 minutes to play. Greg Gard used his first timeout of the second half on Wisconsin’s next possession, and the game was never quite the same for Arizona afterwards. The Badgers would go on a 14-5 run out of the timeout, until the game evened out with both teams getting to the free throw line a bit too frequently. Wisconsin kept Arizona at arm’s length through the final several minutes though, winning 103-88 on their home floor.

This game was exciting to watch until it wasn’t, with a whistle seemingly every possession in the second half. Wisconsin would finish 41-47 from the free throw line while the visiting Wildcats went 28-40 from the stripe. As a team, the Badgers went 12-27 from three-point range, led by Tonje who finished with 41 points and four triples. Tonje battled injury at Missouri last season after being an All-Mountain West player at Colorado State, and now healthy, he looks as if he’s a step ahead of where he left off in Fort Collins. Trailing for most of the game, Arizona never quite got in the flow of things, finishing with just six assists on 28 made baskets while the Badgers assisted on 17 of 25.

Trey Kaufman-Renn shines as #13 Purdue upsets #2 Alabama inside Mackey Arena

Things haven’t quite clicked for Alabama yet this season, with the Crimson Tide dropping their first game Friday after two close wins over Arkansas State and McNeese State. It wasn’t a bad spot to drop a game, inside Mackey Arena against a top 15 Purdue team, but the fact the Crimson Tide continue to struggle from three is becoming worrisome. Alabama hit just nine of their 29 attempts from long distance in the loss to the Boilermakers.

For the first 38 minutes of the game, neither team led by more than seven points, with the lead teetering back and forth early on in the second half. This was one of the better games I’ve watched so far this season, as seemingly every time one team would be looking to stake control, the momentum would flip right back the opposite way. With 11 minutes to go, Aden Holloway knocked down a three to make it 65-59 Crimson Tide, and I thought that could be the run to seal it for the country’s #2 team.

Just 30 seconds later, Trey Kaufman-Renn had other ideas, hitting a short jumper to cut the lead back down to four, then assisting Braden Smith on the following offensive possession. Then came the C.J. Cox explosion. Cox had 15 points in the Boilermakers’ first three games of the season, but a minute after Smith’s bucket, Cox began a 54-second shooting spree that tallied him nine points, all from three-pointers, and all relatively difficult looks. The solo 9-0 run from Cox that made it a 13-0 run for Purdue is what gave the Boilermakers the lead for good.

Cox would finish with 11 points on the night, and star junior guards Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer would each tally 17, but the leader for Purdue on the night was Kaufman-Renn. Nate Oats couldn’t find a matchup for TKR, and the junior forward would finish the night with 26 points on 12-23 shooting. Mark Sears had another off night for the Crimson Tide, finishing with 15 points while shooting 5-15 in the game.

Game of the year candidate in Charleston as Ante Brzovic lifts Cougars past FAU in 2OT at the buzzer

There’s been plenty of fantastic games already this season, but I don’t know if anything tops a double-overtime game between two of the country’s best mid-majors that was capped off by a desperation three to win the game at this point in the season. Maybe the best part about this game though? The fact that it could be streamed for free on Field of 68’s YouTube channel. The college basketball media group has done a fantastic job at highlighting mid-majors already this season, giving us three games in Sioux Falls to tip off the season, and now three more in Charleston this weekend.

I only tuned in for the final minutes of regulation and the two overtime periods, but based on how those went I can only assume how great this game was for all 50 minutes. Charleston led by 12 in the second half and by six with under two minutes to play, but the visiting Owls never gave up hope, sending the game to overtime with two late free throws from Illinois transfer Niccolo Moretti. There were more heroics from the Owls in the first overtime period, with Ken Evans Jr. hitting a three to tie it at 105-105 with 40 seconds to go.

Neither team capitalized on their final chance of the first overtime, so we were treated to five more minutes of free hoops on YouTube. In the second overtime, FAU seemed to finally be the ones in control, with Louisville transfer Kaleb Glenn scoring back-to-back buckets to put the Owls in front 114-110. Then Ante Brzovic reinstated himself into the game. Already with 30 on the night, Brzovic scored the final nine for the Cougars, including the game-winning three-pointer at the buzzer after Moretti had retied the game at 116-116.

Brzovic finished with 39 points and 13 rebounds, now averaging 33.3 ppg, 10.3 rpg, and 4.0 apg on the young season. He should be on your All-American radars now if he wasn’t already. Leading the way for FAU was Glenn, who finished with 27 points in 36 minutes off the bench. With 235 total points, two overtimes, and a game-winner, it will be hard for a game to top this showdown this season.

Other Things to Note:

• #15 Marquette wins at Maryland 78-74 behind Kam Jones’ 28 points
• #23 Texas A&M picks up home win over #21 Ohio State
• Ace Bailey goes for 17 in his debut as #24 Rutgers handles Monmouth
• Isaac McKneely scores 23 as Virginia hands Villanova its third loss
• Wake Forest visits Xavier for the Skip Prosser Classic in Saturday’s marquee matchup (12:00 ET, FS1)