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Being ranked doesn’t guarantee a win

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If you love upsets, you loved Saturday.

No. 5 UConn lost to No. 19 Louisville at home. No. 7 Villanova fell to No. 20 Georgetown in Philly. No. 23 Florida lost their second SEC game on the season to Mississippi State. And, of course, the No. 9 BYU Fighting Fredettes lost to New Mexico at the Pit.

Busy day, right?

Well, that is far from it.

Penn State 56, No. 15 Wisconsin 52: The Bryce Jordan Center might be the toughest place to play in the Big Ten this season. Don’t believe me? Ask Michigan State, Illinois, and now Wisconsin. All three have lost to the Nittany Lions there. Today, Talor Battle scored 20 of his 22 points in the second half as the Nits overcame an 29-20 halftime deficit. Jeff Brooks added 12 points and Andrew Jones had 14 rebounds.

But Battle was the star. He was the guy that made all the big plays for Penn State. He capped off a 12-2 run midway through the second half that made the score 38-35, Penn State’s first lead of the game. He hit another three with five minutes left that put Penn State up for good 43-42. He also hit 5-6 from the line down the stretch to ice the game.

Marquette 76, No. 10 Syracuse 70: This may not have actually been an upset, but based on the rankings of both teams, we’ll go with it. If you remember, last season Marquette knocked off UConn on January 29th on a Jimmy Butler bucket on the road that turned around their season. Up until that point in the year, they had lost seemingly every close game they had played. From then on, the Golden Eagles won their close games and proceeded to earn a six seed in the NCAA Tournament.

This season, Marquette again hasn’t able to close out their close games. They have eight losses on the year, but none have been by more than eight points. Things went differently this afternoon, as Jimmy Butler and Darius Johnson-Odom both hit big threes in the last two minutes that sealed the win. While this could be a turning point for Marquette, it is the fourth straight loss for Syracuse, who have apparently forgotten how to defend in their 2-3 zone. Could Syracuse be headed for a Texas-like collapse? (We’ll get to that later this weekend.)

Nebraska 57, No. 11 Texas A&M 48: Nebraska came into this game 13-0 at home, and thanks to a late 10-1 run, the Cornhuskers remained undefeated at home. Jorge Brian Diaz, who hopped on a plane back to his native Puerto Rico to attend a funeral after the game, had 16 points to lead the way while Lance Jeter and Brandon Richardson both added 10 points. But it was a three point play from Eshaunte Jones with a minute left in the game, making the score 49-43, that sealed it for Nebraska.

Arkansas 89, No. 22 Vanderbilt 78: Rotnei Clarke caught fire, going for 36 points on 12-16 shooting, and Michael Sanchez added 20 points on the bench as the Razorbacks jumped out to an early lead and knocked off Vanderbilt in Nashville. The Commodores didn’t play poorly on the offensive end of the floor, but they simply could not string together the stops they needed to come back.

Rob Dauster is the editor of the college basketball website Ballin’ is a Habit. You can find him on twitter @ballinisahabit.