Saturday’s college hoops action saw one of the Naismith College Player of the Year favorites sidelined due to an injury, multiple buzzer-beaters and top-10 teams Duke, Tennessee, Virginia, Kansas and Texas Tech win on the road in conference play.

Here are some of our observations and takeaways from the afternoon.

Duke escapes Tallahassee with Zion sidelined after halftime due to injury

Florida State had Duke on the ropes in Tallahassee on Saturday afternoon. The Seminoles led by two with 15 seconds left and lost by two. Duke freshman phenom Zion Williamson was poked in the eye late in the first half and didn’t return to the game, leaving RJ Barrett and Cam Reddish to both have one of their more high-scoring, efficient performances.

Reddish’s wide-open, game-winning three with 0.8 seconds left proved to be the difference and kept the Blue Devils undefeated in ACC play.

Louisville makes history in win at North Carolina

Just three days after losing at Pittsburgh, Louisville went on the road again and won at North Carolina for the first time ever. The Cardinals didn’t just win, they dominated the Tar Heels in their 83-62 win in the worst home loss of Roy Williams’ tenure in Chapel Hill.

After a challenging non-conference schedule, Louisville is building a serious at-large resume thanks to wins over Michigan State and now North Carolina. The future of Louisville basketball is bright thanks to the top-five 2019 recruiting class that coach Chris Mack has assembled.

Virginia clamps down on defense (to the surprise of no one)

The No. 4-ranked Cavaliers extended their undefeated start to 15 games as they beat Clemson 63-43. The Tigers only scored two points in the opening 10:57 thanks to a 1-of-14 start from the field.

Virginia only averaged one point per minute during that stretch, so Clemson was able to claw back to a 27-21 deficit at halftime, and Marcquise Reed’s layup with 17:26 left in the second half cut the Cavaliers’ lead to 29-27. Virginia closed the game on a 34-16 run as it outscored Clemson by 14 after halftime.

While Virginia’s offense is extremely efficient, ranking seventh nationally with an adjusted efficiency of 117.4 points per 100 possessions, the Cavaliers’ 353rd-ranked adjusted tempo is what could potentially allow better teams to fight their way back into games after similar starts to the one Clemson had Saturday.

Ohio State in the midst of three-game slide after the (re)start of conference play

Entering the new year, Ohio State was 12-1 after a winter that included non-conference wins over Cincinnati, Creighton and UCLA, and an undefeated start in Big Ten play. But with the resumption of conference play, the Buckeyes find themselves in a three-game losing streak and tied for ninth place in the Big Ten.

After letting a chance for a win over Michigan State slip through its grasp, Ohio State lost at Rutgers, which is annually one of the most favorable road games in a major conference, then suffered a 72-62 defeat at Iowa on Saturday.

The Buckeyes shot 40 percent from three, made 10 threes, had 12 offensive rebounds and equaled the Hawkeyes in the rebound department, but lost by double digits. That’s because they committed 21 turnovers, including five by leading scorer Kaleb Wesson and shot just 12-of-34 (35.3%) inside the arc.

Ohio State will need to turn things around quickly. It hosts Maryland and Purdue in its next two games and kenpom.com projects Ohio State to win both games, but by just three and two points, respectively. Then the Buckeyes travel to Nebraska and Michigan.

It’s not time to press the panic button in Columbus, but a rough eight-day stretch could potentially turn into a bad month, sinking Ohio State’s hopes of contending for a top spot in the Big Ten in the process.

For the Hawkeyes, the victory allowed them to climb back to .500 in conference play following an 0-3 start due to a challenging opening schedule in the Big Ten. With a 14-3 record and several non-conference wins over top-100 teams, Iowa should contend for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, but a challenging upcoming schedule that has the Hawkeyes projected to lose five of their next six games, according to kenpom.com, could leave their postseason hopes in jeopardy a month from now.

Tennessee handles first road test in SEC play

Tennessee’s third-toughest remaining regular season game lived up to its billing, but it wasn’t too tough for the No. 3-ranked Volunteers. The Vols had a 57 percent chance of victory at Florida, according to kenpom.com, just ahead of trips to Kentucky (54%) and Auburn (52%), but they had to erase a three-point deficit at halftime to win 78-67.

Reigning SEC Player of the Year Grant Williams led all scorers with 20 points, while Jordan Bowden and Lamonte Turner combined for 29 points off the bench.

If Tennessee is going to almost double-up the bottom teams in the SEC at home (Georgia, 96-50), beat them by 20-plus on the road (Missouri, 87-63) and win by double digits on the road against the respectable teams in the conference (Florida), then there may not be any team outside of Auburn that stands in Tennessee’s way of the SEC Championship.