WTF was that?

This season is breaking my brain. Who's good? Who's bad? Is it the parity? The style of play? The refs? Some days, after watching an incredible Saturday of college basketball, I just sit back, exhale and marvel at how jumbled everything can be. And then I mutter, "WTF just happened?"

Well, let's break it down.

1. Let's start from the top

Nine of the top 10 teams in the AP poll played on Saturday. Four of them lost. That caps a week where 15 of the Top 25 teams had at least one slip-up, reinforcing the idea that it's a wide-open, wild season.

And yes, No. 1 Purdue is probably still the team to beat, but as in-state rival Indiana showed in its 79-74 win, the Boilermakers can be toppled — even when Zach Edey is at his best.

So let's start there. Edey was awesome (during and after the game). He scored 33 points and had 18 rebounds and three blocks, but No. 21 Indiana finally looked the part of the Big Ten preseason favorite. Trayce Jackson-Davis continued his push for Big Ten POY (25 points, 7 rebounds, 5 blocks), while Jalen Hood-Schifino (16 points, 4 assists) showed out as the perfect partner for TJD.

I mean, check this clutch basket over Edey. That's not your typical freshman move. It went beyond those two, though. Indiana's three other starters combined for 23 points and missed just six shots. The Hoosiers (16-7, 7-5 in Big Ten) also limited their turnovers (8.) They were fearless, poised and looked like a Final Four team. (Maybe celebrate with a new shirt?)

Perhaps that's not too wild if Indiana was always supposed to be capable of this. It's just that we're so used to seeing Purdue (22-2, 11-2) handle business, so any misstep is interesting.

Also interesting? Virginia Tech's sneaky resurgence.

The Hokies (14-9, 4-8 in ACC) upended their in-state rivals, 74-68, behind Sean Pedulla's 22 points and snapped the Cavs' seven-game win streak. Va. Tech had lost seven in a row but now has wins over Duke, Syracuse and Virginia in its last four games. And with its next three against BC, Notre Dame and GT, you're gonna see the ACC standings in another week and wonder where the Hokies came from.

The Cavs (17-4, 9-3) might still be at the top of the conference standings when you look, too. Because Clemson (18-6, 10-3) has now lost two straight after a 78-74 home defeat to Miami — props to the Canes (18-5, 9-4) for being a team that can grab a road win — and is now trying to fend off five teams right on its heels.

Including Duke. You might've heard that the Devils (17-6, 8-4 in ACC) and North Carolina were playing Saturday night. But the head-scratcher from their 63-57 win wasn't that Jeremy Roach (20 points) had some key baskets. It was seeing freshman big man Dereck Lively II deliver his biggest game of the season: 14 rebounds and eight blocks in 34 minutes.

Maybe Lively was the reason UNC (15-8, 7-5) never focused on getting big man Armando Bacot the ball as often as it should've (14 points on 12 shots.) Or maybe it's just that we're back to Carolina as a WTF team. In its five ACC losses, the Heels have lost by an average of 4.8 points. How can a team with this kind of experience not close?

And what about the nation's toughest conference? The Big 12 didn't have the weekend's most surprising results, but it did have three games worth noting for their overall impact.

• Texas (19-4, 8-2 in Big 12) avenged an earlier loss with a 69-66 win at Kansas State (18-5, 6-4). It wasn't a run-of-the-mill win, either. The Longhorns trailed by as many as 14 points before a massive rally, capped by Christian Bishop's go-ahead layup in the final 37 seconds. Texas is all alone atop the Big 12, more than a little surprising with the off-court aspects of this season.

• Oklahoma State (14-9, 5-5) moved closer to an NCAA Tournament berth by holding off TCU, 79-73. Two things here: The Horned Frogs (17-6, 6-4) entered as 4.5-point underdogs, so there's no shame in this loss, especially when they played without Mike Miles and Eddie Lampkin. For my money, they're the most dangerous team in the Big 12. And second, if the Cowboys make the Big Dance, they'll look back at this game with a huge sigh of relief, knowing they blew a 19-point second-half lead before winning.

• And if TCU isn't the most dangerous team in the league, that's Iowa State (16-6, 7-3), which beat a Top 10 team for the fourth time this season. The Cyclones dismantled No. 8 Kansas, 68-53, and this was with Jalen Wilson scoring 26, his sixth straight game of 20-plus points. The Jayhawks (18-5, 6-4) have lost four of six and just had their worst offensive outing since a 64-50 loss to Tennessee back in November. (KU hosts Texas tonight. It'll be favored to win, though I can't decide if that says more about Kansas, Texas, or this wacky season.)

ANYWAY, back to Iowa State. The defense isn't as efficient as last year, but that's mostly because opponents are shooting better from deep. I think it's a more imposing unit because the Cyclones force more turnovers than any other D-I team, have better size across all positions than last season and are deeper. That defense will travel, even outside of Hilton.

And the offense is significantly better. Except for a couple of Tyrese Hunter scoring outbursts, last season's offense primarily consisted of Izaiah Brockington shooting mid-range jumpers. This year's squad has a reliable post presence (Osun Osunniyi), a crafty senior who can do just about everything Brockington did (Jaren Holmes) and two guys who are capable of hitting six 3-pointers on any given night (Caleb Grill and Gabe Kalschuer).

I mean, Iowa State is alone in second place in the Big 12 after Feb. 4. Who TF saw that coming?

2. Did you see that finish?

Simply put, No. 2 Tennessee beating No. 25 Auburn 46-43 was one big WTF. The teams combined for the fourth-fewest points between ranked teams since 1985-86, and it was the lowest-scoring game between SEC teams since 1948-49.

If it sounds awful, it was. The Vols were just 27 percent from the field and made just 2-of-21 3s (9.5 percent). Auburn was 23.6 percent from the field and 3-of-27 from deep (11 percent). That's the first D-I game in which both teams shot below 30 percent from the floor and 15 from 3-point range since 2017.

And yet, it still wasn't the worst part of the game. That would be the final shot when Wendell Green was clearly fouled on what would've been a game-tying 3, but no call. (Yes, given what the rest of the game was like, the shot wasn't going in. Still.)

“At the end, Wendell Green got the shot off and got fouled,” Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said. “Nothing got called.”

However... it wasn't even the strangest finish of Saturday. Check this ending between Portland and Pepperdine. As a setup, this is the second overtime (!) with Tyler Robertson attempting a free throw that would give Portland a four-point lead. Cue the chaos.

For those who can't grok what they just saw, it goes like this:

Jay Yoon was fouled as he made a layup with 1.3 seconds left. Portland leads 91-90. Portland's Kristian Sjolund grabbed the rebound, was fouled by Jalen Pitre with 0.6 remaining and then was called for a technical foul — his fifth foul of the game — after throwing an elbow near Pitre's jaw. Jack Perry replaced Sjolund and made 1-of-2 free throws before Mallette split the technical foul shots to make it 92-91, and Pepperdine retained possession. Mike Mitchell Jr. lobbed an inbounds pass to Porter in front of the basket for a winning tip-in.

That's absurd.

Yes, even more absurd that Ray'Sean Taylor's 70-foot buzzer-beater that sent SIU Edwardsville past Little Rock, 84-81. (Even if 70-foot heaves are, by definition, absurd.)

Now, is it more absurd that the Ohio Valley had two buzzer-beaters at the end of regulation on Saturday? Jack Campion's 3-pointer pushed Southern Indiana into overtime, where it narrowly lost to Morehead State, 71-66.

Those were enough to make down-to-the-wire wins by Miami over Clemson (the Tigers have lost two straight yet are still atop the ACC) and Arkansas against South Carolina (GG Jackson does not sound happy) sound ordinary.

But ordinary does not apply to what Aidan Mahaney did in Saint Mary's 78-70 overtime thriller against Gonzaga. This one caused East Coast insomnia for anyone who stayed up to watch the freshman guard score or assist on 19 of the Gaels' 21 points in crunch time. More impressive? He started the game 1-for-10 from the field.

“He just has it,” coach Randy Bennett said. "A lot of guys would fold and just kind of hang their head and just kind of finish the game like that. That’s where he’s kind of special. He’s got great belief and he really, really competes to win. That’s where he’s special.”

His performance means the No. 18 Gaels (21-4, 10-0 in WCC) now have a two-game lead on the No. 12 Bulldogs in the conference race. Reminder: Gonzaga has won the past 10 regular-season WCC titles. (Maybe that's more of a "holy cow!" than a WTF moment.)

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3. They said what?!

Syracuse is 14-10 and might miss the NCAA Tournament for the second straight year, and its defense is perhaps the worst it has ever been under coach Jim Boeheim. One might think that's what's making Boeheim ornery, but he's always been cantankerous. Last week, it was undue grief for a student reporter.

This weekend, he sounded off to Pete Thamel of ESPN about his mindset on retirement (he's 78) and the current statement of the game. Cue angry Jim:

He also told Thamel that retirement is "my choice" and that he'll probably be back next year.

OK, but if things are so awful, why are you staying? And while Miami's NIL money moves have been well documented, Syracuse's history, coupled with the NIL deals booster Adam Weitsman has put together for recruits, makes this an incredibly bad look for Boeheim.

And what's with Pittsburgh and Wake Forest catching strays? Boeheim reached out to Forbes about the statement, but it's enough to wonder just what's going through Boeheim's head, even if he did admit to stepping into it.

Yet, Boeheim didn't even have the most questionable comments of the weekend. That would be the student section at Colorado State.

During Utah State's win on Saturday night, CSU students chanted "Russia" at Utah State forward Max Shulga, who is from Ukraine. That prompted an apology from the school and Rams coach Niko Medved. Shulga issued his own statement, via the school.

4. Results that don't seem right

Ranked teams don't have a monopoly on surprising results. Small schools, mid-majors, high-majors, you name it, there was no shortage of results that made me check the score twice to see if I read it right.

Start with the ASUN. Its top two teams, Liberty and Kennesaw State, both lost on the road. The setting helps explain things a bit, but it's still odd.

Lipscomb handed Liberty (19-6, 10-2 in ASUN) just its second loss since Dec. 12. It's not that the Flames were bad — they made 40 percent of their shots and were 36.7 percent from deep — but their offense was just not great. It was only the fourth time all season they scored less than 1 point per possession.

The silver lining for Liberty is that Kennesaw State (18-7, 10-2) lost, 77-74, to Eastern Kentucky, meaning the two programs stayed tied atop the ASUN with six games remaining, including a Feb. 16 showdown at Kennesaw.

Colgate had dominated the Patriot League this season. The Raiders (17-8, 11-1) were on their way to a 12th consecutive win with a 14-point lead on American with just under 12 minutes remaining when the team that leads the nation in effective field goal percentage couldn't hit a shot.

Colgate missed 12 field goals over an 11-minute span and ended up with a 61-60 loss as Braeden Smith's 3-pointer at the buzzer missed.

All three games were better teams simply losing on the road. There was a lot of that going around.

• UC Santa Barbara (18-4, 9-2) was a 13.5-point favorite at Cal State Northridge, but suffered just their second setback in Big West play, losing 72-67,

• Seattle U (16-8, 7-4 in WAC) fell behind early and could never rally past New Mexico State (9-14, 2-9) in its 82-75 defeat. Same for Southern Utah (16-8, 8-3 in WAC) with its 86-79 loss to Utah Tech (11-3, 3-8).

• UNC Asheville entered its road game at South Carolina Upstate as a 3.5-point favorite. It left with a 76-70 loss.

But at least those were close. Murray State went to Indiana State and lost 99-56. The Sycamores (16-9, 9-5 in MVC) were 7-point favorites, but not sure anyone predicted they would score 59 points in the second half.

5. A little normalcy, please

So, after all that, what did go according to form this weekend? Here's a rundown.

Houston 81, Temple 65The No. 3 Cougars (22-2, 10-1 in AAC) dropped 48 second-half points and avenged an earlier loss to the Owls (14-10, 8-3). Jarace Walker led the way with 23 points. Houston will likely grab a couple of votes for No. 1 when the new poll drops tomorrow, but expect Purdue to stay at the top.

Alabama 79, LSU 69The Tide (20-3, 10-0 in SEC) are just one of three teams who have yet to lose a conference game. No. 4 Bama wasn't sharp against LSU, but it did just enough in the second half for the road win. Perhaps next weekend at Auburn will be the stumbling block?

Arizona 84, Oregon State 52Wait, the Wildcats (21-3, 10-3 in Pac-12) play defense now? That's an idea that just a few weeks ago would've counted among the season's biggest surprises. Sure, the Beavers (9-15, 3-10) aren't the Warriors, but Arizona ranks No. 1 in defensive efficiency since Jan. 18, a six-game stretch. That's no small thing.

UCLA 76, Washington State 52The Bruins (19-4, 10-2 in Pac-12) always play defense, so this result wasn't surprising. But it marked just the second time in 2023 that Jamie Jaquez Jr. topped 20 points, going for 24 and 15.

Marquette 60, Butler 52The Golden Eagles (19-5, 11-2) were never really in danger in this one, even if the final margin wasn't impressive. Hey, even the nation's most efficient offense can struggle at times. No. 14 Marquette dropped from No. 1 to No. 4 on KenPom's adjusted offensive efficiency ranking. Not that Rob Dauster's worried.

UConn 68, Georgetown 62Leave it to the No. 24 Huskies (18-6, 7-6 in Big East) to barely make it to this section despite playing the lowly Hoyas. The defense isn't back to December form, but Andre Jackson might be coming closer. He filled the box score with seven points, 10 rebounds, and seven assists, and he only took seven shots.

Xavier 96, St. John's 71Huh. Would've thought the No. 16 Musketeers (19-5, 11-2 in Big East) would've topped 100 in this one. Must be saving it for the Feb. 15 showdown at Marquette.

Baylor 89, Texas Tech 62What's this? A Big 12 game that doesn't come down to the wire? Maybe No. 11 Baylor (17-6, 6-4 in Big 12) might finish as the conference's best team. But look, when Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua plays for the first time in nearly a year, you're gonna roll.

FAU 67, Charlotte 52This is how you rebound from a loss. No. 19 FAU (22-2, 12-1 in C-USA) pulled away from the 49ers (13-10, 4-8) in the second half thanks to some stingy defense and 15 points from Vlad Goldin.

Kentucky 72, Florida 67Hm. I'm still coming across things that make me go WTF.

This is actually John Calipari sending a message to Oscar Tshiebwe, you know, the reigning NPOY, that he needs to play harder and not get beat on defense. But there's also some truth to it when Tshiebwe goes 2-for-14 in a game. Maybe it's just a sign that Cason Wallace remains the key to Kentucky (16-7, 7-3 in SEC) winning games in March.

Nebraska 72, Penn State 63Keisei Tominaga has been called the best shooter in the Big Ten. Buy all of that stock after his 30-point night (12-of-18 from the floor, 5-of-10 from deep) as the Huskers (11-13, 4-9 in Big Ten) gave Penn State (14-9, 5-7) some added worry about the bubble.

Northwestern 54, Wisconsin 52The Wildcats (16-7, 7-5) swept the season series against the Badgers (13-9, 5-7) for the first time since 1995-96. That's a certified WTF stat.

San Diego State 72, Boise State 52Turns out Marcus Shaver Jr., out with a high ankle sprain, might be the Mountain West's most important player. How else to explain the Broncos (18-6, 8-3) getting crushed by the Aztecs (18-5, 9-2)? Oh yeah. Things happen in league play.

VCU 73, Saint Louis 65Sheesh. Ace Baldwin is a bad man. The Rams (18-6, 9-2 in A-10) got a season-high 37 points from its junior guard on Friday night and strengthened its league lead. The Billikens (15-8, 7-3) are in second.

Detroit Mercy 85, Purdue Fort Wayne 52OK, things feel more normal now. Antoine Davis scored 32 points — the 136th time he's hit double figures in his career, an NCAA record — leaving him 268 behind Pistol Pete with six regular-season games remaining. (Wait, is that normal?)

Charleston 84, Delaware 67This is definitely more like it. The Cougars (22-3, 10-2 in CAA) ran away from the Blue Hens (12-13, 4-8) on the road behind Dalton Bolon's 18 points.

Hofstra 79, Stony Brook 58The Pride (17-8, 10-2 in CAA) had no trouble with the Seawolves (8-16, 4-7) and kept pace atop the CAA race.

Akron 67, Kent State 55Xavier Castaneda scored 24 points as the Zips (17-6, 9-1 in MAC) won their eighth in a row, pulling away at home thanks to a big second half — and some solid perimeter defense. The Golden Flashes (18-5, 8-2) made just 6-of-26 from beyond the arc, 10 percent below their season average.

Team of the Week: Texas Longhorns

On a week when most ranked teams had at least one loss, the Longhorns beat red-hot Baylor (winners of six straight) and dealt K-State its first home loss of the season. Not too shabby.

Player of the Week: Ažuolas Tubelis, Arizona

The Wildcats' fleet-footed big dropped 40 on Oregon and its long, athletic front line — and missed just four shots doing it. He followed that with 19 and 8 against Oregon State, further strengthening his case for All-American honors.

Weekend warrior: Zeke Mayo

Speaking of efficiency, the Jackrabbits guard went for 41 points Saturday against rival North Dakota State, hitting 14-of-25 shots, adding five assists and no turnovers.

Will KU get hooked?

It's easy to understand why Kansas (18-5, 6-4 in Big 12) is just 3-4 in its last seven games. All seven came against ranked opponents, and four were on the road. And when you're trying to rebound, few places have treated Bill Self's teams better than Allen Fieldhouse, where it's 46-1 all-time on ESPN's Big Monday. Does Texas (19-4, 8-2) defy that and hand Kansas its fifth conference loss for just the third time under Self? (Man, I gotta stop with the factoids. 9 pm ET, ESPN)

• Duke (17-6, 8-4 in ACC) at Miami (18-5, 9-4), 7 pm ET (ESPN)

Lookin' Lively

Already wrote about Dereck Lively II and his impressive night against North Carolina. But I'm gonna let John Fanta, Rob Dauster and LaVall Jordan have their say about the Duke freshman.

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Links as you keep on the lookout for more balloons.

• A must-read article from the Athletic about how a new NCAA bylaw could affect NIL.

• One more, this time from Seth Davis: Scouts assess the ACC, Big Ten and Big 12 teams.

• Auburn got a commitment from 2024 point guard Labaron Philon.

• San Diego added a Top 150 recruit from the 2023 class, wing, Kevin Patton Jr.

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