Tennessee
College basketball rankings: Tennessee upset loss results in drastic changes to CBS Sports top 25 and 1
There are no more teams in the AP Top 25 who are undefeated after No. 1 Tennessee‘s shocking 73-43 loss to No. 8 Florida on the road on Tuesday night.
The SEC has provided no shortage of action across the first two games of conference play, either. No. 6 Kentucky, who defeated Florida in the conference opener, was upset by unranked Georgia on the road as well.
Tuesday also featured No. 21 West Virginia losing to Arizona, a dominant performance by No. 4 Duke over Pitt, a ranked matchup that saw No. 24 Michigan defeat No. 22 UCLA by 19 points on the road and more.
As usual, CBS Sports’ Gary Parrish adjusted his college basketball Top 25 and 1 rankings accordingly. The fallout from the mid-week slate now includes a new team at No. 1.
Johni Broome scored 20 points and pulled down 12 rebounds during Auburn’s 87-82 win over Texas in Austin on Tuesday. The win not only helped them secure the top spot in the updated rankings, but it was also the win that earned Bruce Pearl the school record for career wins.
The only blemish on the Tigers’ record remains against the Duke Blue Devils on the road during the first week of December. They’re off to a hot start in SEC play, too, and look to continue that trend against South Carolina on the road on Saturday.
Iowa State has won its last 10 games dating back to mid-November — an 83-81 loss to Auburn. The Cyclones have won all but two of their 13 wins decided by 10 or more points, and are outscoring their Big 12 opponents by 17.3 points through three games.
Curtis Jones leads the charge with 16.6 points per game, but T.J. Otzelberger has five players scoring in double figures and another that averages 9.6. In their most recent matchup, an 82-59 win over Utah, saw Jones and Tamin Lipsey combine for 43 points during the contest.
Duke is playing its best basketball of the season to start ACC play, and are riding a nine-game winning streak after defeating Pitt 76-47 on Tuesday. Cooper Flagg scored 14 of his 19 points in the second half to help the Blue Devils outscore the Pantheres 42-23 during the final 20 minutes.
They continue to boast the best true freshman class in the country. Teams haven’t figured out the freshman tandom of Flagg and Kon Knueppel, and 7-foot-2 Khaman Maluach is an oak tree in the paint.
Florida is 1-1 in SEC play, but might have the most impressive resume in the conference during the first two games. Despite falling to Kentucky in Rupp Arena, the Gators put up 100 on the Wildcats and turned around immediately and beat down the top-ranked Tennessee Volunteers by 30 points.
The Gators have an interesting road test at Arkansas coming up on Saturday. With the SEC’s depth, you can’t count the Razorbacks out but momentum is sure to be on Florida’s side as travel to Fayetteville this weekend.
Alabama is 4-1 against ranked opponents this season and has won its last six games dating back to the Thanksgiving Day loss to Houston. The Crimson Tide had a quiet December after beating North Carolina in Chapel Hill, but tipped off SEC play with a bang against Oklahoma last weekend.
Defeating the previously undefeated Sooners 107-79, six players scored in double figures as Mark Sears led the way with 22 points and 10 assists. Impressively, the Crimson Tide out-rebounded OU 51-26 during the contest.
Shaka Smart has his Golden Eagles atop the Big East standings and 10-0 at home. At 14-2, their two losses have come during true road games that include an 81-70 loss to Iowa State and an eight-point loss to Dayton.
Marquette has a favorable schedule throughout the rest of the month, which sets up a Feb. 1 showdown against two-time defending national champions, the UConn Huskies.
Tennessee’s 30-point loss to Florida on Tuesday is not indicative of the success Rick Barnes’ squad has enjoyed over the first two months of the regular season. They defeated John Calipari’s Arkansas Razorbacks by 24 points in their previous outing, and have dominant against most of their opposition this year.
Luckily for the Vols, they have an oppportunity to piece together an impressive January with potential wins over Mississippi State, Auburn and Kentucky who are all on their schedule consecutively to end the month. They can also earn their win back on Feb. 1 when they host the Gators in Knoxville.
Mississippi State hasn’t lost since Nov. 29 and has defeated its first two SEC opponents by 35 points and 12, respectively. They have an opportunity to upset Kentucky this weekend coming off a double-digit loss to Georgia — a matchup which ESPN predicts the Bulldogs of having a 63.2% chance to win.
Star guard Josh Hubbard hasn’t skipped a beat since averaging 17.1 points per game as a true freshman. He’s Missippippi State’s leading scorer again, having scored 20 or more points in six their games this season.
Michigan State’s success this season has come as a surprise compared to some of the teams on this list. They began the season unranked and even suffered two tough losses before December. Tom Izzo’s squad has since won its last seven games and have been climbing the rankings since joining the AP Top 25 in mid-December.
They won’t face another ranked team until Jan. 19 when they host No. 13 Illinois, but have a tough slate coming up in February against UCLA, Oregon, Purdue, Michigan and a rematch against the Illini.
Kentucky dropped to 0-2 in true road games under first-year head coach Mark Pope following its 82-69 loss to unranked Georgia on Tuesday. They previously lost to Clemson inside Littlejohn Coliseum in December.
The two performances couldn’t have been different coming off the 106-100 win over Florida on Saturday. Kentucky has a chance to stop the road loss narrative before it begins with a tough matchup against a white-hot Mississippi State team in Starkville this weekend.
11. Illinois Fighting Illini
12. Texas A&M Aggies
13. Kansas Jayhawks
14. Oregon Ducks (+1)
15. Purdue Boilermakers (+1)
16. Memphis Tigers (+1)
17. UConn Huskies (+1)
18. Ole Miss Rebels (+1)
19. Michigan Wolverines (+6)
20. UCLA Bruins (-6)
21. Gonzaga Bulldogs (-1)
22. Houston Cougars (-1)
23. Utah State Aggies
24. Oklahoma Sooners
25. Georgia Bulldogs (NR)
26. Wisconsin Badgers
Tennessee
Trump pardons former Tennessee House speaker and his aide, who were convicted on federal corruption charges
President Donald Trump pardoned former Tennessee House Speaker Glen Casada and his former chief of staff, Cade Cothren, who were convicted on federal corruption charges.
Casada, a Republican, was sentenced in September to 36 months in prison after being convicted on 17 charges, including wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Cothren, the aide, received a shorter sentence.
Casada confirmed the pardon on Thursday in a statement to NBC affiliate WSMV in Nashville, saying: “Yes the president called me today and granted me a full pardon. I am grateful of his trust and his full confidence in my innocence through this whole ordeal.”
In a statement, a White House official confirmed Trump’s decision to pardon Casada and Cothren and blamed the Biden administration for over-prosecuting the two men.
“The Biden Department of Justice significantly over-prosecuted these individuals for a minor issue involving constituent mailers — which were billed at competitive prices, never received a complaint from legislators, and resulted in a net profit loss of less than $5,000. The Biden DOJ responded with an armed raid, perp walk, and suggested sentences exceeding 10 years — penalties normally reserved for multimillion-dollar fraudsters,” the official told NBC News.
The investigation of both men began during Trump’s first term — and the raids of their homes — were conducted in January 2021, while Trump was still in office. The judge who oversaw the case and handed down Casada and Cothren’s sentences was appointed by Trump in his first term.
The charges against Casada and Cothren centered on a consulting firm they founded with another lawmaker, called Phoenix Solutions. Prosecutors alleged that the former House speaker and his aide used the company to illegally funnel money to themselves for campaign and taxpayer-funded work, including by organizing a $52,000 mailer program for Tennessee lawmakers.
Prosecutors said they used a false name — Matthew Phoenix — to run the company.
Several years before Casada was charged, he served as House speaker in Tennessee, but resigned in 2019 after a no-confidence vote by his fellow lawmakers. The vote came in the wake of another scandal involving Casada and Cothren, where the two were accused of exchanging sexually explicit text messages about women. Casada apologized for the texts and said that they were “not the person I am.”
The president this term has also pardoned several other former politicians, including former Democratic Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, former Tennessee GOP state Sen. Brian Kelsey and former GOP Las Vegas City Councilmember Michele Fiore. He also commuted former GOP Rep. George Santos’ prison sentence.
The Tennessee Volunteers are in the middle of a bye-week, after last weekend’s loss to Oklahoma.
The playoffs are out of the picture, but there is still plenty of work left to do. The Vols will use this week to work on getting some guys healthy as they prepare for New Mexico State on November 15.
It will be interesting to see if there are any changes for the New Mexico State in terms of players. Will the Vols decide to go a bit younger and work in some younger guys as a way to jumpstart some guys who may battle for playing time and/or a starting position next season.
Josh Heupel met with reporters earlier today to discuss a few things as the team prepares to move forward.
Josh Heupel’s Opening Statement
“How’s everybody doing? Uh, good work today. Um, got another day tomorrow and then some of the coaches will hit the ground recruiting this week. Big focuses again on us during the bye and how we get better. So, open it up,” Heupel said.
Balancing Act
“Yeah, I think wherever your feet are and what’s important at that moment is what you got to be doing. So, uh the development of our current players, our preparation of the opponent that we’re playing, you know, for me, at times the projection of the following year in all departments you’re looking at. So, it’s a combination of all those things. December has changed a little bit on the calendar as well. That gives you a little bit more time potentially in December as well,” Heupel said.
Rotating Young Guys
“Guys that prove that they’re ready to play and play at a really high level, championship level. They earn the right to play and compete and that’s ongoing throughout the course of this season. These guys have worked really hard, disappointed in the results Saturday and a couple other during the course of the year, for sure. But man, it’s constant and consistent growth from everybody,” Heupel explained.
Click HERE to watch and listen to everything Tennessee Football head coach Josh Heupel said during his Wednesday media availability during the bye-week.
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