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College basketball is always one of the most chaotic sports around and this season has been no different. If anything, the beginning of the 2024-25 campaign has been even more unpredictable than usual. There's no greater evidence of that than UConn, the two-time defending national champions, losing its first two games at the Maui Invitational.
The chaos continued on Wednesday when No. 3 Gonzaga dropped its quarterfinal game at the Battle 4 Atlantis against unranked West Virginia. Gonzaga's loss was the sixth of this college basketball season by an AP-top 5 team this season, making this a historical season in terms of upsets according to ESPN's Jeff Borzello.
“Gonzaga’s loss today was the sixth by an AP-top 5 team this season, the third-most in a season before the month of December since the AP Poll began in 1948-49,” Borzello posted on X, formerly Twitter.
On top of UConn's two losses and the Gonzaga upset on Wednesday, Auburn has knocked off then-No. 4 Houston and current No. 5 Iowa State. Then-No. 2 Alabama also lost a road game against Purdue.
There is still plenty of time for more upsets in college basketball as a very competitive week of non-conference tournaments will rage on through the weekend. As a result, that record for top five losses very well could fall before the end of the month.
Why are so many top 5 teams losing in college basketball?
There seems to be an upset epidemic in college basketball so far this season, with top-ranked teams losing all over the country.
This season seems to have an abnormal amount of marquee matchups, both in games that have just been scheduled and due to stacked tournament fields during Feast Week. That has pitted a ton of top teams against each other, such as the top five matchups between Auburn and Iowa State on Monday at the Maui Invitational.
However, the depth of college basketball has really shown over the start of this season due to the transfer portal, which is something we have also seen with increased parity in college football.
A team like West Virginia has added star guard Tucker DeVries to its roster and was able to topple Gonzaga on Wednesday. Memphis guard Tyrese Hunter has been one of the stars of the Maui Invitational in his first season with Penny Hardaway and the Tigers after spending time at Iowa State and Texas. Colorado rebuilt its entire roster after losing its top six players from last season.
The NCAA Tournament selection committee has also rewarded difficult non-conference schedules in recent years, which gives teams an extra incentive to play in some of these tournaments and schedule some of these difficult games outside of league play. Auburn and Alabama have been two of the primary teams that have consistently done that, and it has paid off for them so far this season. As long as these trends continue, we will continue to see upset-filled seasons like this one going forward in college basketball.
