Three Top 10 NCAA basketball teams suffered big upset losses on Thursday, shifting late-season momentum to the sport’s underdogs ahead of next week’s conference tournaments.
No. 3 Notre Dame fell 86-81 to No. 24 Florida State, marking the Irish’s second straight loss since reaching No. 1 in the AP Poll on February 17th.
“Just really frustrated with our performance defensively tonight,” Notre Dame coach Niele Ivey after last night’s game. “I didn’t think that we were locked in for four quarters.”
No. 7 LSU and No. 8 UNC also saw tough results, with the Tigers falling in a narrow 88-85 overtime battle to No. 20 Alabama while the Tar Heels stumbled 68-53 to in-state rival No. 16 Duke.
Even No. 1 Texas faced some adversity, eking out a 68-64 win after unranked Mississippi State pushed the Longhorns to the brink.
All in all, as the hyper-competitive 2024/25 women’s college basketball season draws to a close, building exhaustion, waning focus, and minutes management are inducing game-changing upsets — putting the country’s top teams firmly on notice.
Conference titles on the line in final NCAA games
While most of Thursday’s upsets affect seedings further…
