The theme heading into this weekend was that there were not many must-see games. But with college basketball, the sheer volume of games ensures there will always be a few surprises.

Surprise #1: Florida St. beat North Carolina by 33 

I think the proper metaphor for the Seminoles this year is Virginia Tech football. The Hokies are usually ranked high in the preseason poll, lose their key non-conference games, and then absolutely dominate the ACC. For ACC fans this is extremely frustrating. By losing in the non-conference, Virginia Tech does nothing to help the ACC’s football reputation. The Hokies do nothing to help the league’s football power ranking. And yet the Hokies steal all the key conference wins.

I like to think of it this way. Every year there are conference “givers” and conference “takers”. This year Minnesota basketball is likely to be a conference giver. They only lost one game in the non-conference schedule meaning every Big Ten team that beats them is going to get some credit. Without Trevor Mbakwe, whether Minnesota is good or not is debatable. But by winning the games they were supposed to win outside the league, the Gophers are the gift that just keeps giving to other Big Ten schools.

On the flip side, Florida St. is a conference taker. After losing to Harvard, Connecticut, Michigan St., Florida, and Princeton in the non-conference schedule, Florida St. has done little to help the ACC’s reputation. But the reality is that Florida St. is a good team. Deividas Dulkys isn’t going to shoot lights out every game, but he is one of several players that have some offensive talent for the Seminoles. And Leonard Hamilton has proven that he is an elite defensive coach over the last four years. With that formula, Florida St. should win a lot of ACC games. And that means that playing Florida St. is a lose-lose for ACC teams.  If you lose to Florida St. you have another loss, and if you beat Florida St, you don’t get enough credit.

There are other conference takers this year. Notre Dame, Iowa, South Florida, and Boston College have been much better in conference than out of conference. But none are likely to finish with as good a conference record as Florida St.

As for the Tar Heels, this type of blowout is almost impossible to diagnose. Are the Tar Heels a fatally flawed team? Or are they imitating the Lakers when Shaq was in his prime? I.e., are they a team that can coast through the regular season and then win in the playoffs regardless of seed? I don’t know the answer, but I can say that the difference between this game at Florida St. and last March’s game at Florida St. is stark. Last year, the Tar Heels were hungry to prove themselves. The team had struggled through much of the year, and the chance to win an ACC title meant everything. Despite numerous chances to fold, North Carolina kept fighting and eventually beat the Seminoles with a basket in the final seconds. This year the team left the walk-ons to be crushed by the fans storming the floor.

After the lost to Minnesota on Thursday, Tom Crean referred to his team as needing to play with an edge. And to some extent he is right. Teams that fight for every loose ball and battle for every rebound will win more games. But when the opponent has a bunch of losses next to its name, it is hard to play with that same edge. Whatever that edge might be, North Carolina needs to find it again soon.

Surprise #2: Northwestern looks good in black. 

Why is the protocol in college basketball that the home team wears white? With more and more fan-bases choosing a matching color code, (painting the stands purple/orange/red), it seems sort of silly that the home team doesn’t wear a dark color. Cincinnati looked great in its home red uniforms on Saturday, and Northwestern looked even better with a dark look thanks to the upset of Michigan St.

I’m not going to get too excited about Northwestern yet. They need several more quality wins before I’ll start to discuss them in the same sentence as the NCAA tournament. Instead I will talk about the Spartans. Like most Michigan St. players, Keith Appling didn’t have a great day on Saturday. But Appling’s relentless effort taking the ball to the basket was the only thing that kept Michigan St. close. I completely agree with Dan Dakich who says that Appling is one of the most improved players in the nation from November until now.

Surprise #3: Stupid behavior leads to bad luck 

Xavier’s Tu Holloway instigated his team’s brawl with Cincinnati. And while he received only a one game suspension, the basketball gods inflicted a greater punishment, as Xavier has struggled to win games for the last month.

On Thursday, Kyle Fogg essentially sealed an OT victory for Arizona with his basket and one against Oregon St. But then Fogg foolishly walked into OSU’s Jared Cunningham during his celebration and nearly caused the season’s second brawl. Luckily no punches were thrown, and Arizona head coach Sean Miller did an absolutely fabulous job pulling players apart before things got out of hand. But Fogg came across poorly for his move towards Cunningham, and on Saturday the basketball gods fired back as Fogg missed what would have been the game-tying shot in a home loss to Oregon.

Bonus note on the Arizona-Oregon game: If you look at his great shooting stats and happen to think that Oregon’s Garret Sim is just an immobile three-point shooter, think again. His block of a three-point attempt in the final minutes was special.

Surprise #4: The margin-of-victory numbers might be wrong about San Diego St. 

A few days after narrowly defeating Chicago St., and causing computers and humans to scratch their head about SDSU’s viability, the Aztecs held off UNLV at home. The key sequence involved SDSU’s Jamal Franklin playing the hero. Franklin was pushed into a cameraman by a UNLV player while going for a rebound and limped to the bench with one minute to go in regulation. But in the final seconds he was on the floor to hit the game-winning runner in the lane.

Surprise #5: Jarnell Stokes not only debuted for Tennesee, he played well against Kentucky

Kentucky beat Tennesse on Saturday, but all my comments are about Tennessee. First, after graduating from high school a few weeks ago, Top 30 recruit Jarnell Stokes has enrolled at Tennessee. And Stokes scored 9 points on 4-of-5 shooting in his debut. But while Stokes proved he had some offensive skills, Cuonzo Martin had to pull him to prevent John Calipari’s team from taking advantage of Stokes limited defensive experience. Speaking of Tennessee, Skylar McBee is definitely winning the Adam Morrison, questionable mustache and hair award this year.

Two Final Thoughts 

I really hate bracketology this time of year. It is way to early to talk about which teams are in or out. Let it play out.

The Big 12 is playing without any “byes” in the conference schedule this year. Teams will play two games a week for nine straight weeks. That can be really difficult when a team is struggling. Teams get stuck in a rhythm of constantly preparing for the next opponent and never have a chance to fix their own internal issues. For example, I have to believe that Travis Ford would love to have a few days off in one of the upcoming weeks to try to fix some of the Oklahoma St.’s problems. But that break isn’t going to happen this year.