Men’s college basketball, women’s college basketball – there’s no shortage of college ball, every night.
Don’t worry, we’re here to help you figure out what you missed but shouldn’t have. Here are all the best moments from last night in college basketball.
Kansas shocks undefeated Iowa State
Kansas hasn’t been quite right this season, owing to injuries and lineup changes, while Iowa State just moved up to No. 2 in the poll and has stuck around 3rd in the NCAA Evaluation Tool, or NET, for much of the season. On Tuesday, however, in a key Big 12 matchup, the Jayhawks looked like the team that they always were supposed to be, and it was bad news for the Cyclones.
Kansas dominated Iowa State from the opening tip, as the Jayhawks jumped out to a 20-9 lead. Senior guard Tre White hit a right-wing 3-pointer sending Phog Allen Fieldhouse into a frenzy. Kansas’ homecourt advantage played a huge role in the result, urging the Jayhawks on with its roars, chanting “Rock Chalk, Jayhawk” into the depths of the night, and that energy sustained Kansas throughout.
White was the star, with a game-high 19 points paired with 10 rebounds for a double-double, and he had 3 assists and a block, too. Freshman guard and presumptive top-NBA Draft pick Darryn Peterson played 27 minutes — he is still being limited while his calf fully heals — but scored 16 with 5 rebounds, an assist, 2 steals and a block in that time. The most notable thing, however, was the Jayhawks’ defense: they stole the ball 8 times and blocked it 8 times, as well, while limiting Iowa State to 37% shooting overall. Kansas’ defense has been huge this season and is why it’s been as good as it has been despite Peterson’s recurring injuries, ranking 15th in KenPom in Defensive Rating for limiting opponents to 95.8 points per 100 possessions. And sure, Iowa State’s defense has been even better than that this year… but not on Tuesday, it wasn’t.
Now, Iowa State is still intimidating: even after the loss, it still sits 7th in NET among Division I squads, and KenPom has it 4th. What the Cyclones are not anymore, however, is undefeated. For those on undefeated watch, just four such teams remain following the Cyclones’ surprise (and thorough) defeat.
Speaking of undefeated teams
Iowa State wasn’t able to keep it going, but the lone undefeated team in action on the women’s side on Tuesday, Texas Tech, pushed its record to 19-0 with a 71-59 win over Houston. The Lady Raiders held the Cougars to 37% shooting overall and just 4-for-14 from three, so even with 21 turnovers and sending Houston to the line 26 times — where it sank 19 free throws — Texas Tech was able to win with plenty of cushion.
Part of that is because the Lady Raiders forced 27 turnovers themselves and scored 23 points off of them — it didn’t make up for Houston converting turnovers into 18 points itself so much as cancel it out, given where Texas Tech succeeded elsewhere. It dominated in the paint, 40 to 22, and with the Cougars unable to generate offense from deep or reliably sink even high-percentage shots from much closer, it’s no wonder that they never led against Texas Tech at any point.
It also doesn’t help that the Lady Raiders had shots like this falling: check out junior guard Jalyn Bristow’s 45-foot buzzer beater from beyond the halfcourt logo just before halftime.
Sometimes, the universe gives you signs that it just isn’t your night.
Blackwell Sustains Wisconsin’s Good Vibes
For the majority of Tuesday’s game against Wisconsin, Minnesota controlled the tempo, holding a lead over the Badgers for 26 minutes. In the final 10 minutes, the game swung back and forth, up until the final sequence when Minnesota senior guard Cade Tyson hit a game-tying 3-pointer from 25 feet out before Wisconsin junior guard John Blackwell answered with “Whatever you can do, I can do better.”
With three seconds left and the game tied at 75, the Badgers kept their final timeout in their pocket. Instead, Blackwell hurried up the court, pulled up from 26 feet and struck nylon as the buzzer sounded.
For much of Tuesday’s game, it seemed Wisconsin wouldn’t extend its win streak, which included a win to break now-No. 4 Michigan’s undefeated season. Minnesota won the first half, 35-28, and it took an immense, 50-point second half — and the clock expiring — for Wisconsin to go ahead for good. Minnesota led for 67% of the game’s 40 minutes, going up by as many as 11 points, and that it shot 52% overall made it difficult for Wisconsin to either grab that lead back or stay ahead for very long whenever it did. In the end, though, Minnesota simply ran out of clock at the wrong time, and now Wisconsin is 4-2 in Big Ten play, while the Gophers dropped to 3-3.
A rare ranked-ranked Big East matchup
Thanks to the struggles of the Big East this season — as documented by FOX Sports analyst Michael Cohen — UConn has not, and is unlikely to, have many ranked-ranked games left in conference play. On Tuesday, though, one such occasion came up, with No. 25 Seton Hall playing host to the No. 3 Huskies. Thanks to UConn struggling from three — it shot just 3-for-17, or 18% from beyond the arc — and a dominant showing from the Pirates in the second half, the Huskies won by the slim margin of 69-64.
That’s the more pessimistic way to look at things, but the glass-half-full perspective is that UConn might have uncharacteristically had trouble scoring from deep, but it much more characteristically played shutdown defense. Seton Hall was held to just 22 points in the first half, and while it was more explosive in the second, it was still a 42-point showing. The Pirates were even worse from three, hitting exactly one 3-pointer in 16 tries, and shot 41% overall — basically, the Huskies showed why they rank sixth in KenPom’s Defensive Rating this season, and were able to defeat Seton Hall even while the three wasn’t there for them and their free throws weren’t falling.
Maybe not the win you would prefer as a showcase of dominance, but it’s one you would take in March. And “how UConn does against March-caliber teams” — which Seton Hall certainly qualifies as — is the thing that truly matters.
UConn also stepped up when it mattered. Freshman guard Braylon Mullins did so very literally, even, blocking a 3-point attempt from junior guard Mike Williams with just under 18 seconds left in the game and the Huskies up by 3. The Huskies’ defense kept fighting under the basket, ensuring that no points would come of the possession before junior guard Silas Demary Jr. grabbed the defensive rebound and immediately drew a foul.
UConn is now 17-1 overall and 7-0 in Big East play. Seton Hall will get another crack at the Huskies on Feb. 28 at Gampel Pavilion.
Nicastro dominated in a battle for Illinois
Senior combo guard/forward Mia Nicastro has been having a hell of a season for Western Illinois, and that continued on Tuesday when it took on Eastern Illinois. Nicastro scored 33 points — the most of anyone in Division I women’s basketball on Tuesday, and tied with her season high set Nov. 17 against Chicago State — while also leading D-I in blocks with 3, but it didn’t end there. She also had a game-high 12 rebounds — fifth in D-I for the night — an assist and 4 steals. The result? The highest Game Score on the women’s side, 33.8, and the second-highest of anyone on either the men’s or women’s. It was also Nicastro’s third game with at least 30 points this season, as well as her eighth double-double of the year. Oh, and she was a perfect 11-for-11 from the line in addition to 11-for-18 from the field.
In less personal news, it also meant a win for Western Illinois over its geographically-based Ohio Valley Conference rivals, 74-61, which pushed the Leathernecks to 14-2 on the season and 6-1 in OVC play.
Nicastro remains the scoring leader for the OVC, at 23.8 points per game, while also leading in rebounds at 10.1. She’s fifth in all of Division I women’s basketball in the former, behind Iowa State junior center Audi Crooks, Notre Dame junior guard Hannah Hidalgo, Vanderbilt sophomore guard Mikayla Brooks and Richmond senior forward Maggie Doogan, who had her own dominant game over the weekend in a 48-point effort.
A 35-point game for Johnson
The only game bigger than Nicastro’s on Tuesday was that of Bradley’s Jaquan Johnson. The sophomore guard dominated against Evansville in a game the Braves would win, 94-90, in overtime: he scored a Division I-high 35 points on 12-for-22 shooting, hit 9-of-10 from the line, pulled down 5 rebounds, dished out 7 assists and stole the ball 6 times in 35 minutes.
Johnson also hit a 24-foot 3-pointer with 46 seconds left to go to put Bradley ahead, 79-77. While Evansville would end up sinking a pair of free throws to force overtime, the extra time doesn’t even happen without that huge shot, which was also the culmination of a comeback: Bradley was down at halftime, 36-29, and it took a 50-point second half for them to be ahead with so little time left in the first place.
Johnson would score his final 4 points of the night in overtime — out of 15 Bradley points total — on a layup and a pair of free throws at the end to put the game out of reach for the Purple Aces, while also adding a couple of rebounds. Just a dominant performance for the Missouri Valley Conference’s leader in both points (17.9) and steals (3.3) per game. Bradley, by the way, is tied for second in the MVC at 6-2 behind Murray State following the W.
Nebraska extends the longest win streak in college basketball
Oregon visited Nebraska on Tuesday, and the result was the same as it’s been for the Huskers previous 20 opponents: a loss. Nebraska has now won 21-straight games dating back to last season and is 17-0 in the 2025-2026 season alone, and it managed this in dominating fashion by beating Oregon by 35 points.
The Cornhuskers, now 6-0 in the Big Ten, dropped 90 points on Oregon while limiting them to 55. The Ducks’ bench was held to just 7 points, and it wasn’t for a lack of minutes, with five different players combining for 61 minutes on the floor. It’s not as if the starters fared much better, either: three reached double-digits, sure, but topped out at 14 points, and as a team Oregon turned the ball over 10 more times than Nebraska did, 16 to 6.
Nebraska junior forward Pryce Sandfort led all scorers with 28 points, a total he racked up with 7-for-11 3-point shooting; he also had 4 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals. Freshman forward Braden Frager made his presence felt off the bench with 23 points in 30 minutes on 8-for-13 shooting, and he had 3 boards and an assist and steal each, too.
Nebraska is ranked No. 8 in the poll, the highest it’s been since 1966. It’s 11th in NET, inching closer to the top 10. The Huskers’ 17-0 start is its greatest in program history, and they sit atop the Big Ten, with Purdue the only other team undefeated in conference play, albeit with one fewer win to point to. What a season it’s been for Nebraska so far.
It took Double OT, but Tennessee avoided an upset
No. 24 Tennessee hasn’t had the greatest January in history, with an 86-75 loss to Arkansas to kick off the new year that, one week later, was followed by then-unranked Florida crushing them, 91-67. Things almost got much, much worse on Tuesday night, as unranked Texas A&M was ahead at halftime, 34-30, and despite a reversal of fortune in the second half was still ahead, 71-69, with all of 16 seconds left in regulation.
Tennessee would make a couple of free throws in that time — by different players on different fouls — to tie things up and force overtime, however. Barely anything could get going there for either team, with the two entering the first overtime period tied 71-71, and exiting it still tied 75-75: each team made a pair of free throws and a layup across those five minutes. The offenses opened up in the second OT, at least, with freshman forward Nate Ament — who would lead all scorers with 23 points — sinking a layup 14 seconds in, and then another to tie things back up at 3:29 to go. Junior forward Jaylen Carey would get credit for an offensive rebound and a tip-in to make it 83-79, Tennessee, and give the Volunteers the lead for good with just over a minute to go, helping to bring an end to what was an ugly game offensively.
There might have been a lot of points on both sides, but Tennessee shot just 37% overall, and it had the higher percentage between the two teams: Texas A&M made 13 threes, sure, but they shot 43 of the things. If not for the 52 free throws sunk between the two teams, this one would have looked a whole lot differently. Tennessee will surely take the W, though, given not just that it’s in a conference matchup but also because of how poorly 2026 has gone for it to this point. With Kentucky, No. 18 Alabama, No. 21 Georgia and then Auburn still to go in January, every dub counts regardless of whether it was a pretty one or not.
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