The second weekend of December provided us with one of the best two-day stretches of the young 2025-26 men’s college basketball season so far. Here are the 10 teams that got the biggest boosts from the mid-December madness that just transpired. 10. St. John’s The Johnnies had no problem with Iona in a 91-64 win […]
The second weekend of December provided us with one of the best two-day stretches of the young 2025-26 men’s college basketball season so far.
Here are the 10 teams that got the biggest boosts from the mid-December madness that just transpired.
10. St. John’s
The Johnnies had no problem with Iona in a 91-64 win that had special meaning to head coach Rick Pitino. After being essentially exiled from the sport following his dismissal at Louisville, Pitino was thrown a lifeline by Iona in 2021, and then led the Gaels to two NCAA Tournament appearances in three seasons.
“Iona’s got a really good team,” Pitino said after the game. “Iona’s such a special place with great tradition. I owe them so much. We’re going to play this game every year that I’m the coach.”
9. Ohio State
The Buckeyes avoided what would have been a big hit to their early NCAA Tournament resume by roaring back from a 16-point second half deficit (regardless of what the tweet below says) and taking down West Virginia in double overtime.
Bruce Thornton was the hero.
These are the types of games and moments that are easy to gloss over in the dead of December, but often ultimately decide the last teams in or out of the NCAA Tournament.
8. Oklahoma
Conference realignment might have ruined the football version of “Bedlam,” but props to the basketball programs for carrying the torch.
Like Ohio State, Oklahoma really needed this win to keep a “ok, not great” early season resume before diving head first into a conference play gauntlet. The Sooners exploded for 13 made three-pointers to win their fourth consecutive game over Oklahoma State.
7. Kentucky
Yes, Kentucky finally got a win over a team with a pulse, but perhaps more importantly, the Wildcats avoided a loss that felt like it had the potential to push Big Blue Nation over the edge.
The Wildcats had been the most disappointing team in college basketball through the season’s first six weeks. The fan base did not love the way Mark Pope handled his first real dose of adversity. A home loss to a hated rival that every member of the UK program has looked down at for the entirety of their existence would have created a blue Christmas across the Commonwealth.
In his first game back from injury, Mo Dioubate was the ultimate difference-maker for Kentucky. The power forward transfer from Alabama scored 14 points and pulled down a season-high 12 rebounds in his first game action since Nov. 13. That’s a huge boost for a team that was in desperate need of one.
6. Boise State
The Broncos continue their early recovery from one of the worst opening night losses in the history of college basketball, their 79-78 defeat at the hands of Division-II opponent Hawaii Pacific. Since then, Boise has taken two far more understandable losses (USC and NC State in Maui) and has knocked off Wichita State, Butler, and now Saint Mary’s in a 68-67 thriller on Sunday.
Suddenly, Boise State finds itself inside the top 40 at No. 39 in the latest NET Rankings. That’s the second-best ranking of any team from the Mountain West, trailing only No. 30 Utah State.
The Mountain West is down this season, so Boise will need to be near-perfect in conference play to have a shot at an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. Thanks to Sunday’s win, though, there is at least a path.
5. Gonzaga
The Zags got the better of modern rival UCLA in a late-night neutral court battle in Seattle. Graham Ike’s 28 points and overall inside dominance proved to be the biggest difference, as Mark Few’s team withstood a strong shooting performance from the Bruins’ Tyler Bilodeau to win, 82-72.
If Gonzaga is able to take care of Oregon this Sunday, they’re almost certain to begin play in their final season as a member of the West Coast Conference with just one defeat (a 40-point blowout against Michigan in the Players Era Festival championship game). A gaudy overall record, a top 3 national seed, and a 752nd national debate over whether the Zags are actually good enough to win the national championship appears to be on the horizon for yet another March.
It’s nice for college basketball to have at least a few unvarying North Stars during this period of overwhelming change.
4. Kansas
It feels a little wrong to call Kansas a “winner” after a weekend where star freshman Darryn Peterson was forced to leave the team’s game at NC State after appearing to aggravate the hamstring injury that has been bothering him since the beginning of the season. Still, the Jayhawks got a miraculous performance from Melvin Council Jr. as they outlasted the Wolfpack, 77-76 in overtime.
Council, who said afterwards that the most three-pointers he’d ever made in a game at any level was “two or three,” buried a whopping nine triples and netted a career-high 36 points to keep KU from dropping its fourth game before Christmas.
The issue with Peterson — who reportedly said on Monday that his issue during the game wasn’t hamstring related — is still of significant concern, but this was a win that Kansas really needed to get in order to round out its non-conference resume. The Jayhawks now have a pretty light slate until the middle of January, which will hopefully give the superstar freshman ample time to heal whatever needs healing.
3. Arkansas
Are the Razorbacks the best team in the SEC? They’re certainly playing like it.
Arkansas notched its second top 20 win in two weeks with a 93-86 triumph over No. 16 Texas Tech Saturday afternoon in Dallas. The win was extra sweet considering it came eight months after the Red Raiders eliminated John Calipari’s team from the NCAA Tournament with a soul-crushing overtime comeback in the Sweet 16.
The difference for Arkansas against Tech was the continued uptick in production from forward Trevon Brazile. The versatile 6’10 senior hit 4 of his 5 three-point attempts and scored 18 of his team-high 24 points in the second half to help the Razorbacks overcome a double-digit deficit. Brazile also added 10 rebounds.
The performance of Brazile, coupled with 20-point efforts by both Darius Acuff and Karter Knox, lifted Arkansas to victory despite a 30-point, 11-rebound effort from Texas Tech All-American JT Toppin.
Arkansas has one major test — a neutral court showdown against No. 7 Houston on Saturday — remaining before the start of conference play.
2. Arizona
Before this weekend, Arizona already had the best resume in college basketball and a team that appeared fully capable of winning the program’s second national championship.
Now, Tommy Lloyd appears to have unlocked the full potential of 5-star freshman Brayden Burries. That’s not great news for the rest of the Big 12.
Burries, the No. 9 overall player in the 2025 recruiting class according to 247 Sports, averaged just 7.8 points in Arizona’s first five games this season, and didn’t score more than 5 points in the team’s spotlight wins over UConn, Florida and UCLA. Against Alabama on Saturday, the 6’4 shooting guard exploded for a career-high 28 points as the Wildcats stomped No. 12 Alabama in Birmingham, 96-75.
Burries, who hit five three-pointers and was 11-of-19 from the field overall, scored 15 points in four minutes during a game-defining stretch in the second half. For a team whose lone weakness this season had seemed to be outside shooting, the Burries performance proved that Arizona can win big games in virtually any way it needs to.
With the win over ‘Bama, Arizona is now the first team in 30 years to have five wins over AP top 25 opponents in its first nine games of a season.
1. Nebraska
Nebrasketball secured the best start in the history of the program (11-0) with easily its most impressive win of the season (and arguably the most impressive win of the Fred Hoiberg era), with a thrilling 83-80 road triumph over No. 13 Illinois.
Jamarques Lawrence’s game-winning three just before the buzzer also gave us one of the best moments of the first month and-a-half of the season, and nearly killed Cornhusker play-by-play man Kent Pavelka in the process.
We also got this on-court view of the game-winner and resulting celebration via injured Cornhuskers guard Connor Essegian.
The ending was dramatic, but this was no fluke result. For 40 minutes, Nebraska — who had yet to notch a truly head-turning victory or play a true road game before Saturday — was the better team. They led Illinois by as many as 14 points in the first half and by as many as 10 in the second.
Lawrence got all the glory, but it was Pryce Sandfort and his career-high 32 points that did the most damage for the Huskers in Champaign. Rienk Mast added 17 points and 7 boards.
With the combination of their 11-0 start and last season’s championship in the inaugural College Basketball Crown post-season tournament, Nebraska has now won 15 consecutive games. That’s both the longest streak in program history and the longest active streak in men’s college basketball.
Infamously, Nebraska is the only power conference program to have never won a game in the NCAA Tournament. Suddenly, it seems like we might very well be just a few months away from that not-so-fun fact disappearing from the Huskers’ resume forever.
Category: General Sports
