While most college students spent winter break relaxing, some of their peers were hard at work on the basketball court, often breaking less than a week for the holidays.
Well, maybe not all college basketball teams were hard at work, as evidenced by the recent string of upsets of top-10 teams.
The upset bug first displayed its presence on Dec. 18 in Cincinnati as Xavier eked out a narrow victory over the cross-town rival Bearcats, who were previously undefeated and ranked number one in the country.
Three days later, two more top-10 teams fell at the hands of seemingly lesser opponents. First, North Carolina was topped by Indiana, which 10 days earlier had lost to Indiana State for the first time in 75 years. Later that evening, New Mexico knocked off Arizona, which had won 37 straight home games.
On Dec. 23, two more games ended with a highly ranked team falling to an unranked opponent. North Carolina fell victim to the upset bug once again as it was blown out by Louisville 97-80. Michigan State then joined the act by falling to Kentucky.
One week later, in an apparent attempt to outdo itself, Michigan State was again upset, this time by lowly Wright State -- a team that hasn't had a winning record in three seasons. The Spartans were plagued by poor shooting and the continued absence of point guard Mateen Cleaves, who was sidelined due to injury.
The coming of the New Year ushered in another string of upsets as three more top-10 teams were on the losing end of games with conference foes.
On Jan. 5, Notre Dame snapped number two Connecticut's 10-game winning streak behind a strong performance from sophomore standout Troy Murphy, who had 33 points and 16 rebounds. That same night, number six Florida fell convincingly to Vanderbilt in its second loss of the season.
Arizona was able to pull off an upset of its own on Saturday night as it squeaked by number one and undefeated Stanford. Despite poor performances from leading scorer Casey Jacobsen and player of the year candidate Mark Madsen, the Cardinal were able to control the first half. The Wildcats opened the second half with an 18-4 run led by freshman point guard Jason Gardner and were able to hold on for a three point victory on Stanford's home court.
The only top-five team that has been able to avoid the recent flurry of upsets is Auburn, whose sole loss came to Stanford early in the season. This, however, is more of a testament to their weak schedule -- which includes such pushovers as Stony Brook and Arkansas-Pine Bluff -- than to their ability.
What is the cause of all these upsets? It can't be that Wright St. and Xavier actually are better basketball teams than Michigan St. and Cincinnati. In my opinion, there are three different factors that played at least some role in these upsets.
First, many top teams are depending more and more on freshmen players. For the most part, these elite frosh are every bit as talented as most juniors and seniors. However, the difficult task of balancing a 30-game schedule with a full college course-load must be taxing on any first year player's mind and body, leading to inconsistent performances.
Another important factor has been injuries to a number of key players. Michigan State has found it difficult to control tight games without senior point guard Cleaves in the lineup. Stanford and Arizona have also had to deal with injuries to key players.
The third and, I believe, most important factor leading to these upsets is the demanding schedules that, unlike Auburn, most top teams play. A team like Arizona may have trouble concentrating on lesser opponents when it also has to play Michigan State, Connecticut, UCLA (twice), and Stanford (also twice). It may just be physically impossible to exert the energy needed to win every night.
Whether these upsets will continue or not remains to be seen. Any unlucky team can become the victim of debilitating injuries or have a flat-out bad game. As the season wears on and freshmen become more comfortable with the demands of the college game and as teams move into their conference schedules there will be fewer upsets of such great magnitude.
