Within one hour Wednesday night, the third-, fourth- and fifth-ranked men’s basketball teams in the country were upset.
At least, that’s the word we’re supposed to use.
Third-ranked Oklahoma fell at unranked Texas Tech; No. 4 Iowa lost to a Penn State team that entered the game with a sub-.500 record; and No. 5 North Carolina lost on its home floor to bitter rival Duke, which was ranked 20th in the country after falling out of The Associated Press top-25 poll.
Just for good measure, No. 6 Maryland lost Thursday to Minnesota, a team that entered the game 0-13 in Big Ten play.
You wanted to be stunned by all this, perplexed by the sheer volume of so-called elite teams that could drop games on the same night.
But the reality is the term “upset” has lost almost all credibility this season.
Six teams have been ranked No. 1 by The Associated Press this season. That’s one shy of the NCAA record of seven, which occurred in the 1982-83 season.
The six teams that have been ranked No. 1 had already lost a combined 28 games entering Saturday’s action.
Consider that last season, the top four seeds entered the NCAA Tournament with a combined nine losses. This season, it’s unlikely there will be a combination of any two top seeds with that few combined losses.
In other words, good luck filling out the bracket for your NCAA Tournament office pool next month.
We are living in a world, after all, where Texas Tech has toppled three ranked teams in as many games. Before they began that confounding run, the Red Raiders were just 3-7 in the Big 12.
Almost every college basketball season begins with a flurry of so-called upsets, when teams that probably should have been ranked higher heading into a season take down squads that were probably overrated to begin with. It’s a feeling-out stage, but calm typically falls on top of the chaos, and by February some sense of order usually has been established.
But, as yet another wild Wednesday demonstrated, order in the 2015-16 men’s college basketball season is nowhere to be found.
Stephan making mark. Few young basketball players grow up with lists of goals above their beds that include “get a Division II scholarship,” but perhaps they should.
Those ranks the past few years have provided a great stage for prep players in this state to advance their careers.
Derrick White, a lightly recruited player out of Legend High School who took off at the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs, parlayed his success into an opportunity to transfer to Colorado, where he is expected to be a key piece for the Buffaloes next season. He is a late bloomer who eventually will play the sport professionally.
The latest player thriving on the Division II stage is Ryan Stephan, a 6-foot-10 senior at Colorado Mesa by way of Green Mountain High School in Lakewood.
Stephan entered the weekend averaging 25.5 points and 11.4 rebounds per game, third-best in D-II in each category.
Next up for the versatile big man likely will be a professional career overseas.
He has already spent an offseason playing in an Australian league, and he continues to elevate his chances of making a living playing the game he loves.
Now that sounds more like something that would be on that list of goals.
Nick Kosmider: 303-954-1516, nkosmider @denverpost.com or @nickkosmider
Updated Feb. 21, 2016 at 9:59 a.m.The following corrected information has been added to this article: Because of an error by a reporter, Ryan Stephan’s high school was misreported. Stephan attended Green Mountain High School.
