Matt Norlander (6:27)
It all lands on this humongous day for college basketball. That's the other thing. And you know, you're, I'm in Utah, you're in Spokane, we're in remote locales here. And, and would just as fate would have it, as coincidence would have it, we have had a genuinely historical day in college basketball. So yeah, I'll, I'll take the wheel, so to speak, and guide us through here. Our lead block, without question without debate isn't a single game. It is a group of performances because we had history. On Saturday I saw our buddy Jeff Borzello sent out the note through ESPN. On the research side on CBS, we had also researched and gone back, you know, 30 plus years. But ESPN's research today was the first day ever, ever that three freshmen scored 40 plus points on the same day. They came in a variety of different ways and even beyond that, by the way, we had seven total go for 30 plus. That hasn't happened since the 2002, 2003 season. The five biggest performances, they're in the YouTube thumbnail and if you are listening instead of watching, well, we're gonna lay all them out right now. Keaton Wagler had 46 on the road against top five Purdue to get the Illini a win there. We're going to dive into that where I was here in Provo thinking it was going to be A. And I'm here obviously for the big game on Monday. Arizona coming to town undefeated. We'll get to the Wildcats before we get out of the show. I thought I was going to come into a situation where holy war. Maybe you talk and keep it close, but it's probably an 18 to 20 point Utah win. Maybe I, you know, maybe I get a, a 20, 22, 25 point game out of Debons. Who knows? No dude drops 43. First time I've ever been in the Marriott Center. Extremely impressive. And before those two happened, it was down in Lubbock. It was the Kingston Fleming show looking like it was going to be a Houston road win. He gets 42 and at that point of the day it's like this is one of the best freshman performances we've ever seen. I sent out that this is one of the best performances in a losing effort that I could remember in a long time. Maybe since Buddy Heald went for 46 and Triple OT at the fog a decade ago. So those are the three big ones. Oh, by the way though, Cameron Boozer just casually again, just dominant at home against weight goes for 32. And another beastly stat line is Darius Acuff Jr. In a closer than desired home game against LSU for Arkansas. He goes for 30 plus in that one as well. Mighty, mighty impressive. Let's take them game by game here. Let me just guide you through the Illinois Purdue one because that's the biggest one. It's Purdue losing at home. If you would have told me before the season over under 0.5 home losses for Purdue, I would have taken the under they now have two Iowa State first. Illinois here 88, 82. A really, really good game. At one point after Wagler had been just going off, Illinois hit four three pointers in a row and Wagler didn't hit any of them. Tom of usage hit a three. Jake Davis hit a triple. David Merkavich, another freshman, hit a three and then Tom of East to chain another one. Illinois tied a school record with 18 triples in this game. GP shout out to Jared Burson. It's been a minute since he got a shout on the show. He said that Waglers 46 at top five Purdue are the most by any player on the road against a top five opponent in the history of college basketball. That's what we're talking about. I have even more notes here. This is an all time, all time performance. I think this is an all time day. When we did our year in review back in December, I was like GP, you remember February 1st? No, Norlander, what the hell are you talking about? Well, we had those. All these insane results and here's what happened. I think today is going to age similarly because of the outstanding, ridiculous, absurd talent that this freshman class has. We have so many more great days to come in this season. The fact that we got this on January 24th with two plus months remaining was just incredible. So Wagler, according to Illinois most points scored in a road win over a top 10 opponent in AP history set the school record for most threes in a game he had. He had nine. His 46 period were the most by any player regardless of regardless of class against the top five team since Buddy Hill had 46 that game I mentioned to you he set the Mackie all time scoring record for a visiting player, period. He is tied for the second most points by an aligney player in the 121 year history of the program. How you like this one? GP shouts to Dave Downey. Dave Downey, February 16, 1963. A cool 53 points on the road at Indiana. That's the all time record. Wagler tied Andy Kaufman. Not that one. Double OT against Wisconsin. Milwaukee back in 90. There's even more here. He's the first Illinois player to score 40 plus against the top five opponents since Brandon Paul did it in 2012. Illinois, I mentioned that school tying 18 threes. They have made at least 10 threes in six straight games. Oh, by the way, Illinois has six wins away from home in road environments this season. It has won nine in a row. That's the longest Illinois has ever won, longest winning streak since Brad Underwood got there. Let me just finish it up and then I'll take it back to you. Purdue loses a second straight game the weird thing about Purdue and losing this game, it had three turnovers on its home floor and lost the game. It lost when it shot better than 50% from the field in this game. That's only the sixth time that's ever happened under Matt Painter. And in the last 10 years Purdue is 137 and seven when it gets to at least 80. It lost to this game. Weirdly enough, they got this is per Purdue Sports Information. Purdue became the first team in the Stat Head database of the past 20 years to shoot over 56% from the field, score 80 points or more, have three or four three or fewer turnovers and lose. Period. They had a lead late. Braden Smith at one point in this game twisted his ankle and when they went to break, you thought is Braden Smith about to miss the next six weeks of the season? He was back on the floor after that. But for a quick minute we really thought and I know you know that because Wally Serbiak texted us about it and I said that it was that it was all on him. So that's the first game. I give it back to you. I know you weren't able to see a lot of it, but what Wagler did here is so mightily impressive. He definitively put himself in the top 10 status for a draft pick and now people are starting to wonder like will he be top five? The freshman class is so loaded. This is going to be an ongoing conversation but thoughts reaction on on really just an incredible all time performance that went down in West Lafayette.