On Saturday, a young Texas team, led by Tristan Thompson and Jordan Hamilton, went into Phog Allen Field House and snapped Kansas’ 69 game home-winning streak, handing them their first home loss since Feb. 3, 2007.
The Longhorns found themselves trailing at the half 35-23, but outscored the Jayhawks 51-28 in the second half behind a 23-point performance by J’Covan Brown, who knocked down many key shots down the stretch.
With the loss, Ohio State and San Diego State remain the only unbeaten teams left in the nation.
The Buckeyes sit 20-0 overall and 7-0 in the Big Ten, while the Aztecs are also 20-0 and 5-0 in the Mountain West.
Of the two, the Aztecs have a much easier road to the undefeated glory.
The Buckeyes, led by freshman phenom Jared Sullinger, escaped with a win in Champaign against a very good Illinois squad. It doesn’t get any easier from here for the Buckeyes.
On Tuesday, the Bucks have possibly their toughest test of the season when they host Purdue. After that, they have two easier games at Northwestern and one at home against Michigan.
That’s when the road starts to get very rocky for the Buckeyes, when in a three-week period, they play at Minnesota, at Wisconsin, home against Michigan State, at Purdue and home to play Illinois—finishing up a deadly stretch of games.
The chances of Ohio State going through that stretch of games still unbeaten, you ask? Very slim.
In doing so, the Buckeyes would need to pick up a win at the Kohl Center, a place where Wisconsin very rarely loses.
On the other hand, San Diego State has a much easier path of finishing with a 31-0 undefeated record.
In fact, it is very realistic.
The Aztecs, led by Kawhi Leonard and D.J. Gay, have their toughest test of the season Wednesday when they travel to Brigham Young University to try to knock off the Cougars and senior guard Jimmer Fredette, who leads the nation in scoring.
If the Aztecs can survive that challenge, their only other test will come on Feb. 12, when the travel to Las Vegas to play the Runnin’ Rebels of UNLV.
Both these teams have already accomplished a tremendous amount this year and both have a very good shot at claiming a No. 1 seed in March.
Although Ohio State’s path to an undefeated season seems a little more foggy than the Aztecs, both teams have a legitimate shot at doing the impossible. But for now, we’ll have to look it on a game-by-game basis.
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