ESPN Men's Basketball

1. The National Association of Basketball Coaches' board of directors is meeting in Indianapolis on Thursday, with the issue of transfers and how to handle the requests as a primary agenda item. The board has some notable names, including Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan, who was involved in a high-profile case in which the player was initially restricted from transferring to a number of schools; Michigan State’s Tom Izzo; Pitt’s Jamie Dixon; Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim; Notre Dame’s Mike Brey; and NC State’s Mark Gottfried, among others. The NABC doesn’t have legislative power but does serve as a lobbying group to the membership -- and can also influence other coaches on how to handle a transfer situation.

2. The men's NCAA tournament basketball selection committee will also meet Thursday in Indianapolis. The primary agenda item, according to incoming chair Mike Bobinski of Xavier, is to determine the 2013 East Regional site. The finalists are expected to be Syracuse and Brooklyn (Newark, N.J., is still technically in, but it would be a surprise since the regional was there in 2011). Bobinski said it is unusual for the site still to be unknown less than a year before the event. The dismissal of former NCAA vice president Greg Shaheen apparently contributed to the site selection delay; Shaheen’s replacement, Mark Lewis, will be at the meeting. The original plan was for the tourney’s 75th anniversary to have a presence at Madison Square Garden. But the NCAA couldn’t make a commitment before the Garden had to turn in its Knicks and Rangers schedules to the NBA and NHL, respectively. The 2013 Final Four is in Atlanta. The other regional sites are set in Los Angeles (Staples Center), Dallas-Fort Worth (Cowboys Stadium) and Indianapolis (Lucas Oil Stadium)

3. New Illinois coach John Groce has added two transfers in Rayvonte Rice from Drake and Sam McLaurin from Coastal Carolina. The Illini are also busy finalizing their last major non-conference game. Illinois will play Auburn on Dec. 29 at the United Center in Chicago to fill the final significant game on the schedule.

Boy, that escalated quickly. I mean, that really got out of hand fast.

This morning, I thought we were done with the Bo Ryan-Jarrod Uthoff transfer saga. Uthoff’s long-lost appeal papers had been found in Wisconsin assistant athletic director Justin Doherty’s mailbox, the he-said-he-said appeal question was answered, Uthoff’s transfer process could begin in earnest, and the rest of us could all move on to other things.

Not so much.

On Thursday morning, Ryan appeared on “Mike and Mike in the Morning,” where he found himself in a heated, and not particularly flattering, debate about transfer restrictions and Ryan’s apparently draconian usage thereof. The backlash began in earnest. The backlash to the backlash -- in which at least one college hoops columnist derided the media for “villainizing” Ryan -- soon followed. In the immortal words of Champ Kind: It jumped up a notch.

And so the final news update came this afternoon. From ESPN.com news services:

Wisconsin athletic officials, after meeting Thursday with basketball player Jarrod Uthoff, have agreed to lift all transfer restrictions except for Big Ten schools for the redshirt freshman.

The university said in a statement that Uthoff met Thursday with associate athletic director Justin Doherty and athletic director Barry Alvarez, as part of the appeal process.

Doherty, Alvarez and basketball coach Bo Ryan then met and decided to lift “permission to contact” restrictions on any school outside of the Big Ten Conference, the school said. Ryan supported lifting the restrictions outside of the Big Ten, according to the university.

In short, Ryan and the school have decided to let Uthoff transfer anywhere he wants, provided that school is not in the Big Ten.

Why the sudden reversal? Wisconsin would no doubt argue that this was the process all along, the give and take between schools and players on restrictions, appeals, permissions and so on. This is how it goes. This is how it can be resolved. Nothing to see here.

The more obvious and more likely explanation is that the “media won.” Those aren’t my words, mind you. They’re the words of various folks on Twitter, many of whom crowed at Ryan’s acquiescence following what is now the third day of nearly relentless negative press.

That’s one theory, and it’s probably pretty close to the truth. When your otherwise sterling reputation is being tarnished over something that (to any outsider, at least) appears rather petty and small, it’s best to just let it go and move on. Wisconsin did here, the firestorm loses oxygen, and we all find another argument to entertain us. After all, there’s always someone, somewhere, who’s wrong on the Internet.

But before you go back to getting mad at people for spoiling “Game of Thrones” with book references, let’s circle back on a few final things about the great Wisconsin transfer adventure of April 2012:

1. No one should think Bo Ryan is a bad dude. If that’s your takeaway from all this, you’re missing the point. Ryan is a great coach and one who genuinely does things the right way, and his reasoning for this isn’t as simple as “Oh, he’s just being vindictive.” That may be the case. It also may not. Either way, it’s beside the point.
2. The geographic circumstances of the transfer are beside the point, too. Uthoff said he wanted to transfer while Ryan was away with his wife. This has been cited as a reason why Ryan would feel antipathy toward his player, as an example of Uthoff’s supposed shadiness in dealing with his move. Would it have been better to handle face to face? Probably. Should it really matter all that much? No.
3. There are instances in which a coach could reasonably decide to keep a player from transferring to a certain school. One example is transfers between conference opponents. The other is if a coach knows a school was tampering with his player -- nudging him toward a transfer before permission-to-contact is granted -- and he wants to close ranks, to make sure the rest of the nation’s coaches know that kind of behavior will only ensure the player doesn’t transfer to your school. That seems less than ideal on all fronts, but at least it makes some sense. Like Nos. 1 and 2 above, though, this is beside the point.
4. Here’s the point: This is a bad rule that allows coaches to do things they shouldn’t be able to do when their players decide to transfer, one that speaks to the deep imbalance of personal efficacy in collegiate athletics. That’s what this is about.

Transfers must already sit out a year before they can play at another school. They sign one-year scholarships renewable by the school alone. They play for tuition and room and board, but nothing near the seven-figure sums their coaches make. And those coaches, practically speaking -- despite what Ryan has attempted to argue about buyouts -- can leave for new jobs almost whenever they want. (When’s the last time a coach wanted to leave a school but wasn’t allowed? Can you even remember?)

All of those factors contribute to this imbalance. That’s the problem -- it’s the rule.

Ryan didn’t have to exploit this rule so dramatically. The rule allows him to do so, but it doesn't require him to. Crucial distinction. In many cases, coaches place few restrictions on players who decide to transfer. But just as often, they do set these restrictions.

For example, while we were all arguing about Jarrod Uthoff, Tulsa all-conference guard Jordan Clarkson has had his approved transfer choices narrowed to just three schools out of the eight he requested by Golden Hurricane brass. This is not a new, or particularly rare, occurrence. It’s happening elsewhere even as we speak.

Ryan handled this situation poorly, from his ballooning restricted list to the “I didn’t make the rule” copout to the unfortunate Mike & Mike call-in Thursday morning. But he’s relented now. The drama is over. What remains is this rule -- and how coaches and athletic directors use it to exert a level of control over players that players themselves don’t even have. A coach shouldn’t, and many don’t. But some do. The root problem is that they can.

No one is demonizing Ryan. Or at least they shouldn’t be. The rule -- and what it does to make college basketball a system in which players are commodities to be controlled -- that’s the bad guy here. Let’s not forget it.

The Big Ten altered its transfer rule within the conference for the 2011-12 season and beyond -- and long before this week's Bo Ryan-Jarrod Uthoff controversy.

The league is allowing players to receive grant-in-aid, but it is also putting a harsher eligibility penalty in place that takes away a year of play from the transfer.

Chad Hawley, the Big Ten’s associate commissioner of compliance, said Thursday that the rule change was created to prevent penalizing players from receiving scholarship money. But the conference wanted to add a penalty if the player transferred within the conference.

The old rule stated that once a player signed a grant-in-aid agreement at one Big Ten school, he could transfer to a second Big Ten school but would not be allowed to receive any financial aid.

The new rule, adopted for this current academic year, allows a player to receive the aid, but he would have to sit out the NCAA-required one-year in residence and lose a season of eligibility.

So in the case of Wisconsin’s Jarrod Uthoff, he would be allowed under Big Ten rules -- if Wisconsin didn’t block him -- to transfer to the University of Iowa (his home state school). However, he’d have only three seasons of eligibility left, not four. And Uthoff would have to sit again after redshirting this past season. Uthoff hasn’t publicly expressed an interest of going to Iowa or another Big Ten school.

The Big Ten does allow for an exception if there is a complete release by the original institution that signed the player.

Hawley said the Big Ten has had only one in-conference request this past year, and it was for the sport of wrestling.

Michigan coach John Beilein has a long-standing policy in which he doesn’t allow transfers to go to a conference-member school or to a school that’s on the team’s schedule over a two-year period. Evan Smotrycz transferred to Maryland, an ACC member, without any issues since the Terps were where he wanted to go and wasn’t on Beilein’s banned list, according to a school spokesperson.

Ohio State only blocked sophomores J.D. Weatherspoon and Jordan Sibert from transferring within the Big Ten, according to a school spokesperson.

Uthoff’s case drew national attention because Badgers coach Bo Ryan’s banned list included the ACC (due to the ACC-Big Ten Challenge), Iowa State, Florida and Marquette, the latter two because both schools are on Wisconsin’s schedule.

“It’s fairly common practice to have conference to conference transfer policies,’’ Hawley said. “We wanted to get away from the financial aid penalty but keep something in place, and this is the model we settled on.

“In a sport like basketball, you have to sit a year and what our rule does is charge a season of competition, too,’’ Hawley said.

Here is the specific Big Ten intraconference transfer rules from the conference:

Intraconference Transfer Rules.

1. Pre-Matriculation. A prospective student-athlete who has signed a tender from a Conference institution and has not yet triggered transfer status per NCAA Bylaw 14.5.2 (conditions affecting transfer status), is subject to the following intraconference transfer requirements:

a. Signed National Letter of Intent. A prospective student-athlete who signs a valid National Letter of Intent (NLI) with a Conference institution but subsequently enrolls at an alternate Big Ten institution shall be required to complete one (1) full year of residence at the alternate (i.e., certifying) Big Ten institution and shall be charged with the loss of one (1) season of eligibility in all sports. These penalties shall be applied regardless of any decision made by the NLI Steering Committee on behalf of the prospective student-athlete.

1. Exception - Complete Release by Signing Institution. If the Big Ten institution at which the prospective student-athlete originally signed the NLI grants a "Complete Release" from the NLI, the prospect shall be permitted to enroll at any other Conference institution without penalty.

2. Exception - NLI Declared Null and Void. Should the NLI become null and void prior to the prospective student-athlete's matriculation, the prospective student-athlete shall be free to enroll at any other Conference institution without penalty.

b. Signed Tender without National Letter of Intent. A prospective student-athlete that signs a valid tender with a Conference institution but subsequently enrolls at an alternate Big Ten institution shall be required to complete one (1) full academic year of residence at the alternate (i.e.,
certifying) Big Ten institution and shall be charged with the loss of one
(1) season of eligibility in all sports. Upon mutual agreement of the two involved Conference institutions, this penalty shall be waived by the Chair of the Academics and Eligibility Subcommittee.
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2. Post Matriculation. A student-athlete that has signed a tender from a Conference institution and has triggered transfer status per NCAA Bylaw 14.5.2 (conditions affecting transfer status), may not represent an alternate Big Ten institution in intercollegiate athletics competition until the individual has completed one (1) full academic year of residence at the alternate (i.e.,
certifying) Big Ten institution and shall be charged with the loss of one (1) season of eligibility in all sports.

3. Pre- and Post-Matriculation Exceptions

a. Cancellation of Tender Due to Inadmissibility. When a prospective student-athlete is inadmissible to the institution for which a tender has been accepted, the tender shall be considered null and void and the intraconference transfer penalty does not apply.

b. Dropped Sport. When a Conference institution drops the student-athlete's sport in which the student-athlete has participated, the intraconference penalty does not apply.

Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan joined Mike & Mike to discuss restricting the transfer options for freshman forward Jarrod Uthoff.

Editor's Note: In a heated exchange on Mike & Mike Thursday morning, Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan weighed in on Jarrod Uthoff's appeal to transfer, why he is barring Uthoff from moving to certain schools and more. Ryan says his actions are within the rules and common in college basketball. Listen to the full interview here.

One last post about the Jarrod Uthoff transfer saga, and that’s it. No more. Never again. I promise. Probably, anyway.

But come on: I couldn’t not blog about this. From ESPN’s Andy Katz and the Associated Press in this ESPN.com news report:

Ryan said he was told that Uthoff didn’t hand in his appeal. He later learned that the appeal was put in assistant athletic director Justin Doherty’s mailbox in an envelope without a stamp. Ryan disputed a report that Uthoff dropped off the appeal and said a woman did in his place.

Uthoff told the AP that he had a friend deliver the letter to the office of Doherty before the deadline and a secretary put it in his mailbox.

“Apparently, he didn’t check his mailbox,” Uthoff said.

After three days of confusion and recrimination and diatribes from all sides -- from Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan disallowing every ACC school, Marquette and Iowa State (in addition to the Big Ten, which is common practice) to Uthoff saying he would appeal with the school, to a source telling me no appeal was received as of Tuesday night -- there’s your answer for why this transfer situation has become so MUBAR’d (messed up beyond all recognition; it’s my family-friendly variation): Because the mail got mixed up.

Seriously. A stampless letter that went unnoticed. That’s all it was. That’s kind of amazing, right?

Now that the letter has been recovered and everybody is on the same page -- or at least aware of the same page, in said aforementioned envelope -- Wisconsin and Uthoff can leave the logistical messiness behind and get down to the real, live transfer and appeal process. Per the report linked above, “Jarrod is going to be afforded the normal, NCAA-described appeal process,” Doherty said.

That’s good news. But it doesn’t get to the heart of the situation, which is summed up rather nicely by these two points from Ryan:

“There are rules of a scholarship,” Ryan said. “I didn’t make them up. […] Coaches told me they can appeal and win but there is a process. I haven’t lied. I’m on the [coaches] board and have taken stands on unpopular things. But this is something that all coaches do. I didn’t make the rules. I’m just following them."

That is, I’m sorry to say, a copout.

There is a crucial distinction between what the rules allow Ryan to do and what they require him to do. The rules allow him to place schools on a banned list. They don’t require him to carve out entire swaths of the college hoops map -- the Atlantic Coast Conference, to be exact -- because of the slight chance that the school Uthoff transfers to will play Wisconsin in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge one day. Ryan could have left every school in the country (save the Big Ten) on Uthoff’s potential permission-to-contact list and still have been following the rules. He isn’t merely following the rules -- he’s proactively working within them. There’s a difference.

Because the rules allow this, coaches are safely ensconced behind the “I didn’t make the rules!” gambit your least favorite teacher so frequently called up. But that doesn’t mean they should. They shouldn’t. Far as I can tell, few disagree.

In the end, it’s not like this is the crime of the century. Uthoff still has quality possibilities out there, including a possible move to Creighton. But every offseason, we have at least one of these kinds of scenarios -- wherein a player is restricted from transferring to a school he wants to attend because a coach has disallowed him from doing so. Railing against this gets tiring! I’m not having fun! Are you? But here we are, every offseason, because the rule needs to change.

College basketball players already have to burn a year on the bench if they want to change schools. We’re still waiting on mass adoption of four-year scholarship agreements, to say nothing of a cost-of-attendance stipend. There’s so much about the NCAA’s amateur model that is outdated, wrongheaded or just plain wrong.

We can argue about many of those things. But the ability of a coach to control his transferring player’s career in such authoritarian fashion -- it seems like a small thing, compared to the capital-Q amateurism Questions, but it’s little things like this that slowly and subtly grate at the public perception of the NCAA’s legitimately virtuous core mission. This is one we can all agree on.

Coaches: Let players go. Just … let them go.

NCAA committees: Change these rules.

Mr. Uthoff: Make sure your crucial, life-saving paperwork gets where it needs to be. Hire a bicycle messenger, if necessary. Those guys are good.

Wisconsin brass: Check your mail!

With our powers combined, we can avoid these kinds of exasperating, confusing, grating transfer debates in the future. Do we have a deal?

On Tuesday, Wisconsin redshirt freshman Jordan Uthoff's story -- in which Uthoff told coach Bo Ryan he wanted to transfer and watched as Ryan subsequently added 25 schools (all of the Big Ten and ACC, plus Iowa State and Marquette) to Uthoff's banned list -- became just the latest example of the drastic lack of equality between college basketball coaches and their amateur players.

It is also, apparently, an example of mutually shared confusion.

On Monday, Uthoff told the Metro Sports Report in its original story that he was appealing the banned list to Wisconsin's athletics compliance department:

Uthoff has appealed the restrictions to the University of Wisconsin's compliance office, which is the office that informed him of the bans in the first place.

"I have not heard back from them," he said. "The next step would be the NCAA."

On Tuesday night, a source close to the Wisconsin program told ESPN.com that wasn't the case.

"We have not received any appeals," the source said.

When Division I men's basketball players wish to transfer, they follow a typical process. First, they speak to their coach. Then, they formally submit a transfer request, which includes permission-to-contact letters for schools players wish to speak with about a possible move. The school can approve or deny permission to any of these schools.

Depending on the results, players have up two business days to submit a written appeal of the school's/coach's banned list.

According to the above source, Uthoff did not appeal any of the schools that were originally banned by Ryan. According to Uthoff, he did.

Ryan declined to comment when reached for comment by ESPN.com's Andy Katz Tuesday night.

Uthoff's situation is not the only transfer matter up for scrutiny in recent days. At Tulsa, according to the Tulsa World, all-conference sophomore Jordan Clarkson requested permission to contact eight other schools in his transfer matter. He was released to talk to three, according to the World, potentially because of allegations of premature contact with other schools during the season. Clarkson's father adamantly denied these claims.

Both Uthoff and Clarkson's transfer sagas are emblematic of outsized coaching power, true, but they are also, as some have argued, emblematic of the behind-the-scenes confusion that makes it difficult to understand transfer situations in the first place, particularly for outsiders. Thanks to privacy laws and intentional obfuscation, schools typically don't release their reasons for restricting players' transfer options. Saint Joe's coach Phil Martelli was hammered relentlessly for refusing to release Todd O'Brien to play for UAB this season. As O'Brien languished on the bench at UAB, and the media murmured "there's got to be more to this story," Martelli constantly refused comment. As such, O'Brien's account reigned, and Martelli's once-sterling reputation was at least somewhat tainted.

Without some process of disclosure, the reasons coaches have for not allowing a player to transfer to a different school -- beyond the obvious competitive aspects -- rarely, if ever, see the light of day. And so confusion reigns.

Of course, that assumes there are valid reasons to block a player from transferring to a different school in the first place. I would argue there is never a particularly good reason, but even allowing shades of gray -- same-conference transfer bans seem at least somewhat understandable, as is the desire to prevent tampering -- the power coaches can wield over where their player finishes his or her career seems as unnecessarily outsized as the process is cumbersome.

The lesson, as always: Nine times out of 10, just let the kid transfer. The bad press isn't worth it. Neither is the headache.

Getting to Madison is easy. It's the leaving that's hard.

It sounds like a cheesy slasher-flick movie poster, or some lame facsimile thereof. But it's become true for Wisconsin forward Jarrod Uthoff, a redshirt freshman who last week told Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan he wanted to leave the program to find a better offensive fit. Ryan, as per NCAA rules, outlined a list of schools to which Uthoff would not be allowed to decamp. Ryan put the entire Big Ten, Iowa State (Uthoff is an Iowa native), Marquette -- and, now, according to the Metro Sports Report -- the entire Atlantic Coast Conference on Uthoff's apparently-still-growing list of banned schools:

"I just got an email about it today from Wisconsin's compliance office," Uthoff told the Metro Sports Report Monday night. "I didn't see it coming." Uthoff said the University of Virginia (an ACC school coached by former Wisconsin assistant Tony Bennett) sought permission from Wisconsin to contact him. As a result, Ryan added Virginia and all the other ACC schools to the no-contact list. Uthoff said he doesn't know why Ryan has placed so many schools on the restricted list. "You have a better guess than I do," he said. "I'm not really sure."

It's a valid question. If I had to take a guess, I'd wager Ryan really doesn't want Uthoff's departure to come back and hurt him somewhere down the line. He doesn't want to play him at a Big Ten school, or at Marquette, or even in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, apparently. (And the Iowa State thing? I'm wagering Ryan is no fan of the budding transfer landing zone under Fred Hoiberg. But again, that's just a guess.)

But whatever answers you want to come up with, they don't really matter. Know why? Because if Ryan wanted to leave Wisconsin to take a job in the ACC, he could. If he wanted to take a job at Iowa State or Marquette or in the Big Ten, he could. There are no restrictions on where and when he can coach, provided he and a school reach an agreement on a contract. But for players, a coach merely needs to add 30 or so schools to a ban list, and that's that.

Just let the kid go, coaches. Maybe he'll come back to haunt you somewhere down the line. Maybe there are personnel issues the public doesn't know about. Honestly, none of that stuff really matters. All that matters is how bad this looks, how petty it feels, how silly the rule and any coach who chooses to take advantage of it really is.

It's far worse than Uthoff hitting a jumper for Virginia in two years, that's for sure.

BOSTON – The T-shirts were only gifts from Nike, concocted by some faceless marketing whiz, not crafted by clever seniors looking to send a message.

Still, if Syracuse players got together to try to formulate a motto for their team and for their season, they couldn’t have come up with better than the three words emblazoning their Ts:

By Any Means.

Syracuse has won 34 games this year, nail-biters and blowouts, won with defense and won with offense, with their starting center and without him.

The Orange just win, amazing even their seen-it-all coach with their pluck and knack for pulling victory from the jaws of defeat.

“If I wasn’t the coach, I’d be sitting there thinking, how are they going to win that game? They can’t win that one,’’ Jim Boeheim said last week. “And then they do.’’

And really that’s all that matters at this time of year. From October until February, a team has to justify its worth, prove it deserves a bid, prove it merits a high seed.

Now, though, the means needn’t justify the end. Pretty or ugly, easy or hard, it makes no never mind.

Syracuse opted for a plateful of the last Thursday night, surviving a Wisconsin shooting clinic that was equal parts awe-inspiring, amazing or terrifying, depending on your team color choice, to advance to the Elite Eight for the first time since its national title run in 2003, 64-63.

“Yeah, by any means, that’s perfect for us, that’s how we played today, how we’ve played all season,’’ sophomore guard Dion Waiters said. “By any means. It fits.’’

The means in this matchup came in the form of Fair and prayer. That would be C.J. Fair, who was so ineffective in Pittsburgh that reporters were probing for health issues or injury to explain his 1-of-10 shooting in the first two rounds of the tournament, and who out of nowhere shot 7 of 9 to finish with 15 points and seven rebounds on Thursday.

As for the prayer, that came from Waiters, who looked for a little divine intervention as Wisconsin, which shot a blistering 14 of 27 from the arc, had the ball, 15 seconds and a chance to win the game.

“I just kept saying, ‘Please don’t make it, please don’t make it, please God, let him miss,’’ Waiters said.

Whether it was a prayer or simply good defense, Waiters' request was heeded, with Jordan Taylor’s long-distance 3 falling short and Josh Gasser’s desperation heave missing on the buzzer.

“That clock just had to end,’’ Orange junior Brandon Triche said.

When it did, Taylor and his Wisconsin teammates lay prone on the floor. There is one way to beat a zone and UW executed it to near perfection, at one point draining six 3s in succession to go from down seven points to up by three.

But when the Badgers needed those shots, they couldn’t come up with them, missing their final five, including Taylor’s heave.

The loss once more denies Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan a chance to get out of the regional semifinal. The man who racked up Division III titles like a tie collection is now 1-4 in the Sweet 16.

“It was on the line, and I felt like I got my legs into it,’’ said Taylor, who finished with 17 points. “I knew it was a deep 3 but it felt good and then to see it kind of come up short was kind of heartbreaking.’’

One team’s heartache …

“This is one of the best games I’ve been involved in in a long time,’’ Boeheim said. “I think the best game anyone played against us and didn’t beat us.’’

Truth be told, this game was a microcosm of that entire season -- an unexpected star, timely defense and an answered prayer has been both the Orange’s means and recipe all year.

Blessed with a roster deep enough to field a second team, Boeheim has the luxury of finding the hot hand and then feeding it well. In three NCAA tournament games, three different players have led the Orange in scoring.

Fair hadn’t been the guy in a while, though. He’s been on this side of terrible since the postseason began, 2-of-17 from the beginning of the Big East tournament through the third-round victory over Kansas State. He swears he never lost confidence because Boeheim never gave up on him -- Fair retained his starting position and kept playing minutes.

On Tuesday, he said he had a feeling -- not quite a premonition -- that he would play well against the Badgers. And then he promptly turned the ball over on his first touch and missed two free throws a few minutes later.

“I was like, ‘Oh man, this cannot happen,’ ’’ Fair said.

But with five minutes left until the halftime break, Waiters found Fair in transition and the sophomore slammed home the dunk, igniting the partisan Syracuse crowd and his own offensive game.

He’d tack on four more points in quick succession before intermission and keep rolling in the second.

“These were the same shots I was taking last week,’’ he said. “This time they were just going in.’’

Of course, it seemed like most everything was going in during this game. It was a mathematical misnomer, with Wisconsin shooting better from outside the arc than inside of it and Syracuse hitting nine fewer 3s.

And winning.

Which is why it makes only perfect sense that defense sealed the victory.

After watching the Badgers hedge toward Loyola Marymount’s seemingly untouchable record of 21 made 3s in 1990, Syracuse extended its zone a good two steps beyond the line.

Those extra inches made all the difference, pushing Taylor just enough out of his comfort zone to make that last shot difficult, it not downright impossible.

“We wanted to get a stop,’’ said Scoop Jardine, who with Waiters crowded Taylor on his final shot. “We knew it was going to be something with Jordan trying to penetrate or kick out to one of his shooters. We’ve been in that situation before throughout the year. … We believed in our defense. We didn’t panic, we stayed with them and we believed in it and got the stop to win the game.’’

By any means.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Forget the No. 4 seed. Toss out the top-20 preseason ranking.

Wisconsin again reaching the Sweet 16, after what the Badgers lost off last season’s Sweet 16 edition and certainly following an unprecedented three home losses at the Kohl Center, is a surprise.

Don’t let anyone say anything otherwise. You may have picked the Badgers in your bracket to reach the Sweet 16. I did not. President Barack Obama did and countless others did as well.

But step back and digest how far this team has come this season and you’ll realize that the Badgers have fooled the field yet again.

“This team has done some things that if you’re a real basketball person, you’ve got to go, wow,’’ said Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan after the Badgers knocked off No. 5 Vanderbilt 60-57 Saturday afternoon at The Pit. “Everybody knows we have weaknesses. Jordan Taylor. Without Jordan Taylor, it’s not the same.

“I’d like to say it’s coaching but nobody would believe that,’’ Ryan said. “It’s guys working hard.’’

The Badgers lost Jon Leuer and Keaton Nankevil off last season's team.

“We have three starters that played reserve minutes [on last season's team],’’ Ryan said. “Some programs do that and put in McDonald’s All-Americans. That didn’t happen here.’’

The Badgers were dreadful in a home loss to Iowa at the beginning of the Big Ten season. That led to a 1-3 conference start. Taylor was in a shooting slump and the Badgers looked like they were going to be an afterthought in the Big Ten behind upstart Indiana and Michigan and well behind Ohio State and Michigan State.

“I had to go to practice and be up,’’ Ryan said. “It wasn’t about a lack of trying. You can’t yell at people for not making baskets.’’

But then the Badgers won at Purdue and stunned Ohio State with a win in Columbus. Taylor shook his slump. Ryan Evans became the unsung player on this team and the contributions from Mike Bruesewitz, Jared Berggren, Josh Gasser, Ben Brust and even Rob Wilson became better with each game.

When asked if this team had improved more than any other he has coached at Wisconsin, Ryan’s quick response was: “No question.’’

Saturday’s win over Vanderbilt was another example of how much.

The Badgers blitzed the Commodores with a 10-2 start as Evans made shots in and out of the lane. Vandy was in step with Wisconsin, though, and took a lead to start the second half. But just when it appeared safe for the Commodores, the Badgers, especially Taylor, would hit buckets late in the shot clock.

“Coach kept telling me in the huddle that I had to step up as a senior and take the shot,’’ Taylor said.

Gasser said, “If we get the ball to him late in the shot clock, he will make sure to always do good things. He’s been doing it all year and all of last year. He is the leader of this team and we want the ball in his hands at the end of the game. He usually makes it happen. He didn’t want this to be his last game and he definitely showed it.’’

Taylor buried a 3-pointer with the shot clock winding down to one second to give the Badgers a 59-57 lead. The Badgers defended Vandy well on the next few possessions and Taylor had a shot to deliver the dagger to the Dores with 19 seconds left.

But he missed. And that’s when Gasser hustled to get the loose ball rebound. Vandy’s Festus Ezeli, who was benched for the first three-plus minutes of the game in a coach’s decision, said it was a case of a long rebound that his team simply didn’t run down in time.

Taylor said Gasser was up until 3 a.m. sick. “I can’t say enough about him,’’ Taylor said. “He did a great job just coming in. He dogged Jenkins as much as he could. That’s why we’re able to have success because we have teammates like Josh.’’

Vandy had one more chance because Gasser missed a free throw. John Jenkins had a clean look at a 3-pointer to possibly win the game with four seconds left.

“It was a pretty good look,’’ Jenkins said. “I felt like I got a good chance of having it going in, just like a lot of looks I had. It just didn’t drop for me.’’

“He was wide open,’’ Vandy coach Kevin Stallings said. “He’s a great shooter, period. He’s really a great shooter going left and he was going left and he was wide open. We ran the play, ran it to perfection and got it right where we wanted him. He’s made so many that have caused us to win games, and unfortunately that one didn’t go in.’’

Those close to the Badgers are in awe of their Sweet 16 appearance and that they have won 26 games, picked up a number of wins by shooting close to 40 percent and survived shooting slumps by Taylor and Bruesewitz this season.

The Badgers will play East Region top seed Syracuse on Thursday with a chance at an Elite Eight berth.

“They’re long and we’ll have to get inside-outside stuff going,’’ Ryan said. “Hey, how close is Boston to Syracuse? Pretty close, isn’t it?’’

It is much closer than Madison. But distance and fan support shouldn’t matter. The Badgers won’t be picked to beat Syracuse. But doubting this particular Ryan edition has already proved to be foolish.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – A quick look at fourth-seeded Wisconsin's 60-57 victory Saturday over No. 5 Vanderbilt:

Overview: The Badgers might have been a top-15 team and a high pick in the Big Ten. But if you saw this team early in the season against Marquette, then losing to Iowa in the Big Ten, there is no way you would think Wisconsin could be a Sweet 16 team. But Wisconsin muzzled Vandy early, made key 3s, and got crucial rebounds to limit Vandy to one shot to prevail in a highly entertaining second half. Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan knew this wasn’t his most talented team, but it may have been his most improved. Vandy’s senior class, which had accomplished so much, couldn’t close out against a Wisconsin squad that simply made the late-game plays. This was as impressive a victory as you’ll see in the weekend by a team that followed its own script perfectly.

Turning point: Jordan Taylor was getting defended quite well. The shot clock was winding down. With a second left he launched a 3-pointer from the top of the key and buried it for a 59-57 lead with 1:34 remaining. Vandy had just gotten a huge Festus Ezeli block and a scoring move inside to take a 1-point lead. Taylor’s shot was a big swing.

Key player: It’s a tough call between Jordan Taylor and Ryan Evans. Evans was hot early. But Taylor once again showed that he makes plays when the shot clock is winding down. Taylor finished with 14 points, but his three 3s were all daggers and he ran a steady game for the Badgers.

Key stat: The Badgers have to make 3s to win. They made 10. They also took 33. But that’s OK. They have to do that to pull off a win like this over Vandy.

Miscellaneous: Vandy coach Kevin Stallings benched Ezeli to start the game, opting to start Steve Tchiengang. The Commodores got down 10-2 to start the game. Hard to say if that had a direct effect. ... Old school here at the Pit as the wave made a cameo in the second half. ... Wisconsin’s Jordan Taylor is deceptively quick. He broke down Vandy on multiple occasions with his fleet first step. He found openings to the hole when he needed them. Meanwhile, Jeffery Taylor might have had the broken-ankle move when he got Rob Wilson on the court with a crossover move. Taylor then buried the 3-pointer. ... More old-school stuff here in the Land of Enchantment as a beach ball made its way around the arena until a security guard popped it, much to the dismay of the fans.

What’s next: Wisconsin will take on Syracuse in Boston on Thursday. And to take this team lightly would be a major mistake. Wisconsin finds a way. Always does.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- A look at Saturday’s Round of 32 doubleheader at The Pit:

No. 5 seed Vanderbilt (25-10) vs. No. 4 Wisconsin (25-9), 6:10 p.m. ET

Vanderbilt can see itself in Wisconsin. The Badgers see the Commodores as a mirror image as well.

These are two programs that have been consistently good under Kevin Stallings and Bo Ryan, yet constantly undervalued in their respective conferences.

They are never the first pick to win the league title. They don’t get the top choice in recruits. Yet they remain in the mix near the top of their conferences, usually have upperclassmen contributing at a high level and have had their share of NBA talent.

Wisconsin has won Big Ten titles. Vanderbilt finally won an SEC one, at least in the tournament. It still counts.

And now they will meet in a 4 vs. 5 East Region game Saturday afternoon with the chance to possibly take on top-seeded Syracuse in Boston next Thursday if the Orange can get past Kansas State -- no easy feat -- Saturday in Pittsburgh.

“I would say there is a lot of truth in all those things, but they’ve probably done it at a better level than we have,’’ Stallings said Friday. “We’ve tried to be a consistent program. And for the most part we’ve been able to accomplish that. They’re usually picked to finish lower in the Big Ten and they end up in the top two or three. They’ve done a great job there.’’

Vandy hasn’t been to the Sweet 16 since 2007. Wisconsin went last year.

“For us the consistency is all about Coach Ryan,’’ said Wisconsin guard Jordan Taylor. “Everyone buys into what they’re trying to teach. Everyone loves to say that we’re not athletic or not as athletic as other people. They say the same thing about Vanderbilt in comparison to Kentucky. But guys buy into what is being taught, they want to win and be successful.’’

Taylor will make money somewhere playing ball. Vandy has three players that will be in the NBA in John Jenkins, Jeffery Taylor and Festus Ezeli.

“Both programs consistently win a lot of games, but we’ve struggled to get over the hump,’’ Jeffery Taylor said. “It should be really fun [Saturday] since the team that wins has a chance to make a run."

Vandy should win this game. The Commodores, as Ryan noted, have senior starters that dominate the minutes. And the Badgers have overachieved the past month after struggling early in the season and losing a blasphemous three home games. But wins at Ohio State and over Indiana in the Big Ten tournament, coupled with a convincing hammering of Montana in the NCAAs, have the Badgers believing in a Sweet 16 berth.

“I’m so happy with this team, especially what we did in Columbus,’’ Ryan said. “We came together.’’

The Badgers will have to make 3s to advance. But neither team will or should be tight. Vandy simply had to get that first win after losing in the first round three of the past four years.

Taylor said it was nice to sit around Friday and watch other teams in the tournament and know the Commodores were still alive.

“It was so nice to get that first game because it can ruin your season,’’ said Stallings. “You work so hard to get to a point where you’ve accomplished enough to be a 5-seed and get rewarded for it and then it can all go in the trash can if you don’t win the first game.

“There was a lot of pressure and high tension intensity,’’ Stallings said of the Harvard game. “Now we can relax and go play and let it hang out. Now we got past it and we can relax and hopefully just do our best.’’

No. 11 Colorado (24-11) vs. No. 3 Baylor (28-7), 8:40 p.m. ET

The Bears should be Kentucky’s most formidable opponent in the South bracket. Baylor has the length, the athleticism and the overall productivity at every position to match the Wildcats. But that matchup wouldn’t happen until the Elite Eight in Atlanta next Sunday.

But the Bears are playing a team in Colorado that may be as loose as any in the tournament. The Buffs weren’t supposed to be here. No, not just in the third round. They weren’t supposed to be in the NCAAs. But they won the Pac-12 tournament with four wins in four days. And then took down No. 6 seed UNLV on Thursday.

“They will be the most talented team we will have faced,’’ said Colorado coach Tad Boyle. “We’ve got to limit them to one shot. We can’t let them have second or third opportunities. We have to be physical against them. We’ve played against a team like them, but not as long or athletic.’’

But CU hasn’t faced a team as talented as Baylor during this five-game run.

The pressure is all on the Bears to win.

“We’re loose,’’ Boyle said. “We’re confident and have nothing to lose.’’

So much is made of the Bears’ ability to dominate the backboards with Perry Jones III, Quincy Acy, Deuce Miller and the sturdy yet disruptive play of point guard Pierre Jackson.

But the Bears may have an option that can really squash the Buffs’ ability to play catchup. If guard Brady Heslip is hot from the perimeter and makes 3s in bunches, then the Buffs may not have a chance.

“He makes the floor get spaced and you have to know where he is at all times,’’ Baylor coach Scott Drew said.

Heslip’s appearance as a key member of this team makes it even harder to fathom that Boston College passed on his services. Heslip was recruited by Pat Duquette and played on semester for Al Skinner before he was forced out at BC. New coach Steve Donahue didn’t think Heslip fit into the Eagles' plans, even though he’d be perfect for the Cornell-style offense.

“I didn’t take it personal but that’s how they viewed it and after meeting it made sense to move on,’’ Heslip said.

Heslip said it means the world to him to be in the NCAA tournament for the first time and now with a chance to be on a team that can advance deep.

Drew said Heslip deserves all the credit for losing 24 pounds and toning his body. He has made himself into a player.

And as a result, he can provide the necessary dagger for the Bears in a tight game or when a lead needs to be stretched.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Reaction from No. 4-seeded Wisconsin's 73-49 win over No. 13 Montana.

Overview: The last time the Badgers played at The Pit, in 2000, they went to the Final Four.

But that was a regional final.

This is just a second- and third-round event. But the Badgers had the look of an efficient team that will be a tough out going forward. Wisconsin made 3s, forced Montana into taking bad shots and ran its offense to perfection with limited unforced turnovers.

The Grizzlies had their March moment by winning the Big Sky tournament in Missoula. It was a program-changing event for head coach Wayne Tinkle. The Grizzlies had been an elite Big Sky team but hadn’t won the event on their home court since the '90s.

Still, they ran into a Wisconsin team that is ascending in March, not descending. Regardless of who the Badgers play next, the nets at The Pit were friendly.

Turning point: Wisconsin’s Mike Bruesewitz buried a 3-pointer that stretched the Badgers' lead to 53-38. Montana had mounted a mini-comeback and appeared to be on the verge of getting The Pit crowd into the game. But Bruesewitz helped snuff out the Grizzlies.

Key player: Wisconsin’s Jordan Taylor ran a steady game for the Badgers. He scored when he needed to give the Badgers a run. He was efficient in dishing out assists and didn’t turn the ball over. The Badgers were run like a machine that knew what it wanted to do on every possession.

Key stat: The Badgers don’t have the low-post presence that previous Wisconsin teams have had under Bo Ryan. So for Wisconsin to advance in this tournament, they have to make 3s. Well, the Badgers did so in waves, making nine 3s in the second half that pushed the Badgers to a 16-point lead at one point. The lead eventually grew to 20.

Miscellaneous: Montana had to get off to a good start to have a chance. But the Grizzlies’ defense couldn’t hold the Badgers. Wisconsin scored 39 points in the first half. ... I have to admit, few people could pull off a deep maroon sport coat like Tinkle. ... The Grizzlies had to have a good shooting game from Will Cherry. They didn’t get one. ... Tinkle needs to get a look at some higher-level jobs. He’s that good. ... I’m not sure Bo Ryan would say this is his best team at all. But it’s one of his most improved from midseason to now.

What’s next: Wisconsin will take on the winner of No. 5 Vanderbilt-No. 12 Harvard. The winner of that game will certainly be given a legitimate shot of winning the Sweet 16 game and advancing to the Elite Eight, assuming it’s Wisconsin or Vandy.

MINNEAPOLIS -- All evening, Jordan Taylor just smirked.

When his four first-half 3s found the net. As an awkward reverse layup in the second half did more damage to the hometown team he rejected after high school. When his teammates swarmed him following the No. 22 Badgers' 68-61 overtime victory against the Gophers on Thursday night.

On the postgame podium. Outside the visitors locker room. The grin never left the Minnesota native’s face.

He’d waited four years to smile here.

“I love playing. I’ve struggled a little bit from the field this year so to have the ball go through like that was definitely fun, especially at home,” Taylor said after he’d recorded 27 points (including 5-for-9 from beyond the arc) and three steals in the victory.

Taylor, a former Minnesota prep star, had never defeated the Gophers at Williams Arena.

Thursday night was his last opportunity to secure a victory over his hometown-turned-rival school.

He initially downplayed the stakes.

And then, he talked about the family members who’d come from Cleveland to watch him play. And the 16 tickets he’d personally distributed. And the 50-plus family members and friends who’d found their own.

“It means something to me. It definitely does, coming back,” he said. “I’ve got a ton of family here, a ton of friends. To be able to win at the Barn, it’s special to me.”

Taylor didn’t disappoint his fans.

He scored 14 points in the first half after going 4-for-4 from beyond the 3-point line. He hit a crucial 3-pointer with a little more than 17 minutes to play that gave the Badgers a 37-26 lead.

The Badgers, fueled by Taylor’s strong start, maintained a double-digit lead for the bulk of the second half.

And then, the Gophers clamped down defensively and the Badgers failed to score for the last eight minutes of the second half (the Badgers made seven of 11 3-pointers in the first half but just two of 12 in the second).

Minnesota ended regulation with a 10-0 run that sent the game into overtime.

Taylor’s teammates, however, came to Minneapolis bent on helping their senior star get his first victory at the Barn. They knew this was his last chance.

“We wanted to get him a win here. I was hitting the glass hard, and he was making shots himself. That was a big factor,” said Ryan Evans, who scored 17 points. “It’s not anything we talked about, but we kind of all knew and understood what it meant for him.”

The Badgers, who also start Minnesotans Mike Bruesewitz and Jared Berggren, scored the first six points in the extra period and made 15 of 17 shots from the charity stripe.

The Gophers looked tired. Digging out of the hole Taylor put them in drained the young team.

If only he’d stayed home.

But before Tubby Smith arrived prior to the start of the 2007-08 season, Taylor chose Bo Ryan.

His stellar high school career at nearby Benilde-St. Margaret’s concluded in 2008 with a 3A state championship. Ryan, however, had latched onto Taylor long before his prep pinnacle.

The Gophers never had a chance or they just didn’t push hard enough, depending on whose version of Taylor’s recruitment you believe.

His success, however, still fuels the what-if tweets and message-board posts from Gophers fans who dreamed of a program that featured the state’s best preps.

But in their eyes, Taylor and the team’s other Minnesotans have joined the enemy.

“It’s different. Air smells a little bit better here when you walk off the plane. Then you get in here, it’s crazy,” Bruesewitz said about facing the hostile crowd at the Barn. “I don’t mind it. When they were making their run with about a minute and a half left, they were really getting after it, the Barn was loud. ... You can’t do anything but smile.”

It took Taylor four years to feel that way.

Here are a few things we learned from the biggest games Saturday afternoon. Check back later for analysis of tonight's games.

No. 3 Ohio State 58, No. 20 Wisconsin 52: Ohio State is hardly a breakneck team, but its adjusted tempo this season is 68.9 possessions per 40 minutes, far above those of many of its Big Ten brethren. The Buckeyes like to get out on the break a little. Thad Matta has a ton of talent, shooting, athleticism, scoring, you name it, and the Bucks aren't shy about letting it shine in the open floor.

In other words, this is exactly how Wisconsin wanted this game to go. It wanted it to be slow -- as slow as possible, in fact -- and it was. These two teams traded 57 possessions Saturday afternoon. If you had told Bo Ryan this game would be this slow, he'd have given his team an excellent chance of knocking off what might just be the best team in the nation. This is the luxury of having Jordan Taylor commanding your team: If you want the game to be deathly slow, with supreme economy of movement and as few possessions as possible, you can't do better than the Badgers' point guard.

The only problem? Ohio State has Jared Sullinger. Wisconsin does not. "The Artist Currently Known As Sully" just so happens to be very comfortable playing half-court offense, and as good as UW was on defense -- as much as it shaded and doubled and harried and harassed -- Sullinger was simply too much. He played all 40 minutes Saturday. He scored 16 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field in the first half alone. He finished with 24 points, 10 rebounds (5 offensive), 3 steals, just 1 turnover and an 8-of-10 shooting mark at the charity stripe. He was too much. Jared Berggren did his best, and the Badgers kept their shape well defensively -- there's a reason OSU scored just 1.02 points per trip -- but they never found an answer for the big man on the block.

They also learned the lesson anyone who has played this Ohio State team (or last season's version, for that matter) already knows: The Buckeyes defend, too. Per Ken Pomeroy's metrics, the Bucks are the stingiest per-possession defense in the country. The second stingiest? Wisconsin. But while the Badgers allow .81 points per trip, OSU allows an absurd .77, the rare team that forces turnovers but doesn't give away fouls and one that also cleans up the defensive glass. UW has had its troubles scoring from time to time this season, but the Buckeyes are a whole 'nother animal.

Play fast, play slow, play at your court, play in Columbus. Play however you like. If you don't have someone who can guard Jared Sullinger -- never mind a group of players to check the insanely talented group around him -- and/or an offense that can find a way to score against this kind of defense, it doesn't really matter. Ohio State is going to beat you.

Wyoming 68, No. 13 UNLV 66: For much of the season, during a remarkably quick turnaround, San Diego State coach Steve Fisher has been the consensus favorite for national coach of the year. Deservedly so. But any mention of the words "coach of the year" should also, after today, be followed closely by the words "Larry Shyatt."

Shyatt's story is remarkable. Wyoming gave him his first head-coaching gig in 1997, but after a successful season, he left to take over at Clemson, where he stayed until 2003. Shyatt spent the past several years on Florida coach Billy Donovan's bench, until this offseason, when he returned to Laramie to start over and repay a debt he felt he owed for his quick departure 15 years ago.

And what a return it has been. In 2010-11, the Cowboys finished 10-21 overall and ranked No. 215 in Pomeroy's adjusted efficiency rankings. After a two-point stunner over UNLV -- during which they led for nearly all 40 minutes and turned it over just eight times -- the Cowboys now are 18-5 and ranked among Pomeroy's top 60 teams in the country. This is primarily thanks to their defense, which Shyatt has transformed entirely. Last season, the Cowboys were hands down the worst defensive team in the Mountain West. This season, the defense is among the MWC's best, and on Saturday, it held UNLV to 3-of-14 shooting from beyond the arc.

The question now -- after the school's first victory over a ranked team in 12 years -- is whether Shyatt's miracle story can end with an NCAA tournament berth. The jury is still very much out, and Wyoming probably will have to grab another big win or two to be bubble-relevant going forward. But NCAA tournament or no, this team has made a drastic year-over-year turnaround. It has gone from a no-name afterthought to a program on the rise. And Shyatt's prodigal return is the reason.

Notre Dame 76, No. 15 Marquette 59: It's not fair to say the Fighting Irish looked totally irredeemable in their 8-5 nonconference start, but they certainly didn't look good. Notre Dame was dominated by Missouri, handled by Georgia, no match for Gonzaga, beaten by Maryland and overwhelmed by Indiana. Any time the Fighting Irish played a good (even decent) team, they looked exactly like what all thought they were: rebuilding, in transition, mediocre, meh.

Now? After Saturday's strong home win, which was keyed by a massive second-half run, it's impossible to discount the Irish. The Syracuse upset of two Saturdays ago was more than a random upset or a product of ND's mystically inexplicable propensity to upset elite teams in South Bend. No, Mike Brey's team is much more than that. Guard Eric Atkins is among the nation's most improved players, but he might be eclipsed in that category by forward Jack "Don't Call Me Mini-Harangody" Cooley, who, after years of geeks like me writing, "Hey, that guy looks exactly like Luke Harangody," is rapidly making his own name. (And Patrick Connaughton, whose Irish-name swagger deserves serious respect, was tremendous, too: 23 points, 11 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 big blocks on huge defensive stops. Dude can play.)

Most impressive in this game was Notre Dame's late push, even if "push" feels like an understatement. With eight minutes remaining in the second half, the Irish led 54-48. The final score speaks for itself. Marquette is a good team, and the Irish simply ran away. The only conclusion: Notre Dame is pretty darn good, too.

No. 11 Florida 73, Vanderbilt 65: It was the opinion of this writer that Florida and Vanderbilt felt like identical SEC twins: guard-oriented perimeter offenses led by sharpshooters (Vandy's John Jenkins, Florida's Kenny Boynton), versatile play from outside-in small forwards (Vandy's Jeffery Taylor, Florida's Bradley Beal) and one true post presence apiece (Vandy's Festus Ezeli, Florida's Patric Young). So it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that this game's box score featured such near-identical numbers for both teams. Each team recorded 12 assists; each team snagged nine steals. Both teams turned the ball over at about the same rate. The teams' effective field goal percentages were similar. Vanderbilt shot 18 free throws. Florida shot 17.

You get the idea. So what was the difference? Simply put, 3-point shooting. The Gators made 11 of 24 shots from beyond the arc. VU shot just 8-of-25 from long range. There were other differences, too: Florida outrebounded Vandy on the offensive glass, grabbing 36.8 percent of its available misses to just 28.6 percent for the Commodores. But the real difference was shooting. Florida made three more of its 3s, and it shot 16-of-17 from the charity stripe.

All told, it wasn't Vanderbilt's best offensive day, but there are promising signs. For one, it didn't score the ball particularly well and still hung with a good team on the road. For another, there are signs Vandy's defense, which has played so well (surprisingly so) in the SEC campaign, is for real. It held the nation's best offense to 1.09 points per trip at home; compared to UF's usual output, that's not too shabby.

In the end, this is just what Florida does. It makes shots. It made a few more of them in this one. Not a bunch more. Just a few. But in a game this close, with such a doppelganger of an opponent, a few extra makes were all the Gators needed.

No. 24 Florida State 58, No. 18 Virginia 55: The scoreline says it all. If you don't like slow, plodding, offensively challenged basketball, this was not the ACC matchup for you. But it also was the rare game in which both teams can come away feeling pretty good. Virginia's task in Tallahassee was to take on one of the nation's best defenses and hottest teams, one that recently had found a scorching offense to go along with its typically staunch defense.

Florida State no doubt hoped to keep the good offensive vibes rolling, but more important in the end was holding serve on its home floor. After an incredible streak that included a 33-point win over UNC and a win at Duke, the last thing the Seminoles needed was a lackluster home loss to pull their record (and, maybe, their spirits) back to earth.

FSU didn't keep the offense rolling. Virginia's defense was nearly up to the task. The Cavaliers forced Leonard Hamilton's team into a turnover on 31 percent of its possessions. Unfortunately, UVa coughed it up even more frequently than did FSU. That's the thing about this Florida State team, which is now 7-1 in ACC play: When the Noles are shooting the ball well and scoring it with ease, they're just about unstoppable. But even when they're not, that defense will always be there, providing a baseline when the going gets tough. That has to be comforting, doesn't it?

No. 6 North Carolina 83, Maryland 74: How good are the Tar Heels? Sometimes it's hard to tell. They often look dominant, every bit the national title contender we assume they'll be in March. Just as often, though, they struggle, particularly on the road and frequently against teams they should rather easily handle. Maryland is one such team.

On Saturday, facing the Terrapins in front of a rowdy crowd, the Tar Heels struggled. There's no other way to put it. Maryland brought it, sure, but UNC often seemed to be on its heels, no pun intended. UM center Alex Len was excellent, and Terrell Stoglin showed why he probably should be an all-ACC inclusion by the end of the season. By the 17-minute mark in the second half, Maryland had opened a nine-point lead. Suddenly, as analyst Len Elmore said, the Heels found themselves in a dogfight.

Here's another reason Carolina is so often so hard to appraise: This team seems to have the fabled ability to "hit the switch," i.e., to suddenly focus its efforts, let talent take over and go win the game even when not playing well. And that's what happened Saturday. UNC seemingly flipped its switch, started locking down on defense, started getting easy buckets on offense, started making 3s -- you know, basically, all the things this team should do -- outscoring Maryland 46-34 in the second half en route to a victory. It wasn't pretty, and we often tend to expect more from purportedly great teams, but it's impossible to dismiss this team's talent and its ability to transform that talent at a moment's notice.

No. 2 Syracuse 95, St. John's 70: And so all was well in the land of the Orange. When sophomore center Fab Melo was lost to a lingering first-semester academic issue, Syracuse lost its first game of the season without him, and even in the two wins that followed -- at Cincinnati and in questionable fashion over West Virginia -- the Orange didn't look anything like their typically dominant selves. With so much depth and talent, it was hard to pin all this on Melo's absence ... but it was hard to compare Syracuse's offensive output with and without Melo (not to mention its block percentages, where Melo really excels) and not think the newly trim and focused big man didn't have a much bigger effect on this team's 20-0 start than many originally thought.

And then you watch Saturday's game, Melo's first since his return. You see the big man score a career-high 14 points on a tidy 5-of-6 from the field. You see the Orange roll St. John's to the tune of 1.34 points per possession on a day when they didn't shoot the 3 particularly well (just often). You see them tie a season high with 24 second-chance points and 52 in the paint.

Given all that, you can't help but think Melo is absolutely crucial to this team's national title chances. And then our fine friends at ESPN Stats & Information send along the following statistics, and you see the facts in all their glory: With Melo, Cuse is 21-0, and averages 38.9 points per game in the paint (28.7 without him), 14 second-chance points per game (6.3 without) and 1.18 points per possession (1.00 without), and has an offensive rebound percentage of 39.5 (25.5 without).

So, yeah, I suppose you could say he's pretty important. Impressive performance for Melo, impressive win for Syracuse.

Memphis 72, Xavier 68: "That Used To Be Us." It's the title of Thomas Friedman's questionably considered new book. It also feels appropriately descriptive of the Xavier Musketeers, who spent the first two months of the season earning difficult wins thanks to late rallies but were the victims of such a rally Saturday afternoon at the FedExForum.

Xavier opened a 10-point lead in the second half, but Memphis fought back. The Musketeers opened another one with seven minutes remaining, finding themselves up double digits (62-51) as the Tigers' ugly offense appeared headed toward a losing effort. And then something funky happened. Memphis used a 12-1 run to rally all the way back and tie the game at 63-all with 2:12 remaining. And then something even funkier happened. Memphis closed out the game with a score of made free throws. The Tigers shot 24-of-28 from the line, including 9-of-11 in the final two minutes. Joe Jackson alone was 12-of-12. All told, Memphis went on a 17-1 tear, and the game went from 62-51 to 68-63 before the Tigers closed it out.

It was a nice -- and much-needed -- win for Memphis, sure, but more than anything, it spoke to the seemingly downward trajectory of the Musketeers. This team hasn't been the same since the Dec. 10 brawl, of course, but at this point, the cause-and-effect is beginning to look tenuous. Now more than ever, it looks like X really wasn't all that good in the first place. Losing on the road is hardly a crime. Losing like this? It's something closer.

Some more observations from this afternoon's games:

• Is Arizona on the rise? It's hard to ignore the three-day stretch the Wildcats had, getting not one but two wins on their Bay Area road trip. First, the Wildcats held on for a win over apparent league favorite Cal on Thursday, and then they looked even more impressive in their 56-43 victory at Stanford on Saturday afternoon, holding the Cardinal to just 16-of-63 (!) from the field and 3-of-12 from 3 in their own building. Zona might or might not get on the bubble by the end of the season, but these sort of performances might just carry the Cats to the top of the league's standings before all is said and done. At the very least, Sean Miller's team is worth keeping an eye on.
• Butler's offense is not worth keeping an eye on -- and it continues to cost the Bulldogs games. It's been the case all season, really, and it was the case again today. The Dogs lost to a team that made just two of its 10 3-point field goal attempts and shot just 20-of-47, because Butler's offense was even worse: 18-of-51 from the field, 4-of-19 from 3, just one made field goal from any bench player, a tough 0-of-7 night from Ronald Nored. The Bulldogs can't score. Nothing new here. But give some measure of credit to Detroit for a tough win on the road. Hinkle Fieldhouse was sold out, and the Titans got the job done in Indy for the first time since 1999.
• Baylor loves to play close games. It's either that or the Bears can't help themselves. Whatever the reason, the good news is Baylor seems more capable than most of winning those close games, particularly on the road. It did so twice this week. The first came in a three-point win at Texas A&M on Wednesday. The second came Saturday afternoon, when Oklahoma State rallied from a nine-point deficit to take a 57-56 lead on Keiton Page's 3 with 1:42 remaining. Baylor ended up finishing the game in the final moments, which is nothing new. The Bears have played eight games decided by five points or fewer this season. With the exception of the 89-88 loss to Missouri, they've won every single one. That might not be by design, and it probably doesn't help Bears fans' blood pressure levels, but it's the kind of trait that might come in handy in March.
• Seton Hall is officially off the wagon. A loss at UConn is understandable, even forgivable, but the Pirates were absolutely smacked, 69-46, by a team that had lost six of its previous eight games, to say nothing of Jim Calhoun's sudden and indefinite medical absence. That's Seton Hall's sixth consecutive loss. Unfortunately, the Pirates' happy redemption story is rapidly shrinking under the rigors of Big East play. Shame.
• Before Saturday, South Florida's Big East record was 6-3. Considering the Bulls entered conference play with a 7-6 record and their best conference win was at Villanova, it was fair to say that surprising league start had more to do with South Florida's schedule than its skill. After today's blowout loss at Georgetown -- USF's worst conference loss since joining the Big East and its worst loss period since 2004 -- I think we can officially cement that perception.

Bo Ryan never promised Jared Berggren anything. Not playing time. Not a particular role. Nothing.

And that’s what the Minnesota native appreciated about Ryan’s approach in recruiting. The honesty.

But he didn’t always enjoy sitting on the sideline as he redshirted his freshman year in 2008-09. And sometimes it was tough to play limited minutes behind Jon Leuer and Keaton Nankivil throughout the previous two seasons.

The experience, however, has taught Wisconsin’s junior center to value his time on the floor.

“I definitely waited my time to get significant minutes,” he told ESPN.com. “I think every year I made improvement in every area of my game. I had plenty of time to watch and learn from other guys.”

Berggren (10.5 ppg, 5.1 rpg, 1.6 bpg, 1.1 spg) is the leading shot blocker in the Big Ten, a key piece for a Badgers squad ranked second in Ken Pomeroy’s adjusted defensive efficiency ratings.

The Badgers will need the best Berggren when Ohio State comes to Madison for a Saturday matchup between the Big Ten’s top two teams. Berggren will certainly get some help against Jared Sullinger, but his defensive effort alone could sway the outcome.

“He’s a great player, so we’re going to have our hands full,” Berggren said. “He’s probably better than anyone we’ll face all year. We’ve got to work to limit his touches. Try to keep the ball out of his hands as much as possible. If he does get the ball, try to play solid defense on him, force him into a tough shot. And just play solid team defense. You can’t always play him one-on-one.”

Ryan snatched Berggren -- one of three key Minnesotans on Wisconsin’s roster -- from the Gopher State. He was a Mr. Basketball finalist during his senior season at Princeton High School in Princeton, Minn., who received a scholarship offer to play for the Gophers.

But like other Minnesota prep standouts before and after him, the 6-foot-10 Berggren chose instead to play for the Gophers’ rivals. He said he picked Wisconsin over Minnesota and other Division I programs because he believed he would thrive in Ryan’s system.

“I liked everything about the program. I felt like it was just the best fit for me academically and athletically,” he said. “The system that they play in, I could really see myself fitting into. I definitely was happy with my decision from Day 1.”

Berggren hasn’t been as effective in conference play on the offensive end as he was during the nonconference season. But he’s made up for those challenges with his defense.

During his squad’s six-game winning streak -- which followed a three-game losing skid -- he’s recorded 11 blocks. Berggren said he worked on his footwork and physique in the offseason to prep for the uptick in minutes and defensive demands.

Leuer and Nankivil were known for their offensive versatility. They could post up or pop out to the arc and knock down 3s.

But Berggren is more of a true post. He can hit 3s (27 this season), but he tends to play closer to the bucket than his predecessors in part because this year’s Badgers rely so heavily on their guard play.

Berggren, however, never worries about his role. He’s just happy to provide meaningful minutes, an opportunity that demanded three years of patience.

“It was definitely frustrating,” he said. “After redshirting, I kind of expected to get a little bit more time. Sometimes the minutes would come but not as much as I wanted. … I tried to just stay positive, keep working hard. Tried to stay confident and know that my time would come, eventually.”