ESPN Men's Basketball

Editor's note: It's the offseason edition of The Watercooler. Eamonn Brennan and Myron Medcalf discuss "The Avengers," UNLV's loaded frontcourt, Larry Brown, Arizona buzz and more.

Eamonn Brennan: Good morning, Myron. Two weeks after our last Watercooler and I'm finding a dearth of topics for us to discuss. Instead, I'm pining for the season, when we had no shortage of fun topics. This offseason is killing me. Thank goodness for the NBA playoffs and "The Avengers," which I found to be almost exactly what I expected when I went and saw it Sunday night. How are you holding up?

Myron Medcalf: I'm surviving, Eamonn. I'm with you. I'm searching for ways to get through it. The NBA playoffs have been interesting, but they're not enough. C'mon, Indiana and Kentucky, stage an offseason exhibition since we'll never see the real thing. Just saw "The Avengers" too. First, it's as good as advertised. "Dark Knight Rises" should watch its back. Great movie. Although that part at the end … I won't spoil it. Since we're talking superhero movies, which players would earn a spot on your "Avengers" squad for the 2012-13 season? I'll go with Nerlens Noel, Cody Zeller, Doug McDermott, Peyton Siva and Trey Burke. You?

EB: It's awfully hard to argue with that list. Fearsome stuff. Here's my pivoting question: Does UNLV have the best frontcourt in the country? Anthony Bennett's commitment over the weekend puts him alongside Mike Moser to start the season, and former Pitt transfer (and 2011 No. 1-ranked center) Khem Birch will be eligible in December.

MM: Yes. Simple answer. That frontcourt had firepower without Bennett. Adding a phenomenal athlete such as the Canadian standout enhances that potency. Moser should be a Wooden Award candidate. Birch and Bennett too. Wow. … Hold on a minute, Eamonn, while I check this report. … Virginia Tech loses another player? Kind of shatters the whole continuity mission, right?

EB: Yeah. With the exception of continued expansion around the smaller leagues, I thought that was the story of last week. The Dorian Finney-Smith transfer was reportedly in the works for months, but the Montrezl Harrell NLI release was bad news too. New coach James Johnson will have eight scholarship players for next season, and you have to wonder whether Tech wouldn't have been better off taking another crack at this thing with Seth Greenberg in charge. It's a bit of a mess.

MM: Hard to feel sorry for Va. Tech. When you fire an established coach, albeit one who couldn't quite crack the success bubble, in late April, you must have a plan. It was just a sloppy process. You get a Greenberg staffer, you keep the recruits and returning players, right? Wrong. Johnson is going into a tough first season. Larry Brown, however, is grabbing transfers like … can't think of a good metaphor, but he's signed Josiah Turner and Crandall Head. Can Brown win at SMU?

EB: I'm assuming SMU is willing to take this coming season with a grain of salt, choosing to wait for the transfers to come online in Year 2 of the Larry Brown project. I think Turner will turn it around there. I'm not sure how good Head is in the first place. I (sort of) wrote this last week: I really don't know how the Brown thing is going to go. How long will he stick around, anyway? If they aren't winning by the end of his second season, is he gone? How much talent can his name brand (plus his good assistant corps) land him in that time? SMU woke up one day and realized it should care about basketball, and this is the result. I have no idea if it works or not.

MM: I agree. He definitely has a talented staff, but it's hard to know how long it will take SMU to make a dent in the Big East. It might never happen. … Arizona has made some offseason moves that will position Sean Miller to win now. Mark Lyons and that top-three recruiting class. Nice. I think Arizona deserves more offseason buzz.

EB: I have my lingering doubts about Lyons as a teammate -- he comes with a lot of baggage from his days under Chris Mack at Xavier. But maybe a fresh start is just what he needs? Arizona's recruiting class has it back on the map, and UCLA has made itself a likely top-five team heading into the season. The rest of the conference might still be stuck in 2011-12 mode, but at least the two dominant Pac-12 programs will be back on the map in 2012-13. I don't recall a head-to-head matchup in the league this good in quite some time. Desperately needed.

MM: You're right about Lyons. Definitely a wait-and-see situation in Tucson. But this is his last shot. Maybe he needs a change of scenery, but his attitude will influence those youngsters. So Miller needs Lyons to get his mind right. Arizona could reach the Final Four or it could implode again if the chemistry is jacked up. I think the Wildcats will find success next season. And yes, the Pac-12 needs UCLA-Arizona. We need it. … My parting shot for this edition of our Watercooler chat is that Kenneth Faried's success at the next level should change the way college coaches view "undersized" forwards.

EB: Energy and effort go a long way. It helps to be freakishly athletic too. He is going to be a solid pro for a lot of years. One example of why staying in college for four years, or even three, can be a massive benefit to certain guys. Faried is one of them.

Anyway, we'll be keeping an eye on the various college hoops stories bound to bubble up these next two weeks. Until the next alternate Monday, Myron?

MM: Yep. Until next time. … On a side note, chances are that "Avengers" references will seep into our future Watercooler posts. Our readers should definitely see the film. Now.

EB: You've been warned, people. No excuses.

1. Louisville coach Rick Pitino said he wants to play Indiana next season. Hoosiers coach Tom Crean confirmed that the two sides are discussing the idea of a home-and-home series. “This is something we have to consider,’’ Crean said. IU is playing Butler in Indianapolis and could play UCLA or Georgetown in the Legends Classic in Brooklyn. IU could also draw North Carolina in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge in the most likely scenario. Louisville is in the Battle 4 Atlantis with a field that has all NCAA projected or bubble teams in Duke, Memphis, Stanford, Missouri, Minnesota, VCU and Northern Iowa. The Cards host Kentucky and will play a road SEC-Big East Challenge game. IU and Kentucky couldn’t agree on a series for next season, leaving the Hoosiers open to another high-profile game. “The polls have us 1 and 2,’’ Pitino said. “It would be good for us to have a game a 1-[hour], 45-[minute] bus ride away. It would be good for college basketball.’’

2. Notre Dame coach Mike Brey said he still hasn’t heard if Scott Martin will get his sixth year of eligibility back next season. Classmate Tim Abromaitis had his sixth year denied by the NCAA. Brey said Abromaitis’ name has now been listed on an addendum that the NBA has sent out indicating that Abromaitis is draft eligible. Abromaitis is in the process of picking an agent now that he has lost his amateur status.

3. Arizona will improve on the court if Mark Lyons plays to his potential. But the experiment of taking Lyons for one season will only work if he comes to Tucson knowing that he is serving a role. Lyons is in an odd situation where he is headed to play for the coach (Sean Miller) who initially recruited him at Xavier after the then-assistant coach (Chris Mack) who became his head coach at Xavier when Miller left, deemed he wasn’t listening well enough to constructive criticism. Xavier isn’t upset with his departure. This is an addition by subtraction. It can work well for Arizona if Lyons keeps quiet and simply just plays.

1. Butler coach Brad Stevens said that the Bulldogs will have to get out of the four years left on its scheduling agreement with Xavier since the two schools will be league members beginning in 2013-14. He also stated that there are no tournament conflicts ahead of the Bulldogs with another A-10 school. Stevens is excited about the move. So are Xavier’s Chris Mack and Dayton’s Archie Miller. Mack said it’s a major coup for the A-10 and moves the conference a bit more West. Miller lauded Butler’s ability to attract major non-conference opponents and how that would take the conference to another level.

2. Old Dominion is still considering a move to Conference USA and according to one school source there is still indecision. The move for the Monarchs for football would make sense if it’s going to upgrade. But for hoops? ODU needs to be with VCU and George Mason. The Monarchs don’t need to move to another one-bid league that is losing its best team in Memphis. If ODU were going to the A-10 then that would be worth endorsing. But a move to CUSA is not.

3. NC State didn’t prohibit Tyler Harris from transferring. The Wolfpack gave him a full release. But shouldn’t Harris have some accountability in this decision? Scholarships are renewable on June 30 each year. Harris made up his mind to transfer on May 2, instead of soon after the Wolfpack season ended in March. NC State took a pass on a junior college transfer and as a result is now caught short handed with nine scholarship players. Coaches and schools have been wrong to block players from transferring but players need to also make decisions in a timely fashion for all parties involved. That’s the right thing to do.

1. The NIT contract with Madison Square Garden is up this year. The NIT Season Tip-Off could live with being in Indianapolis (where the NCAA is headquartered) if it couldn’t be at MSG. But the postseason NIT really should be at the Final Four site if it can’t be in New York. The perfect scenario to save the event, if an MSG deal falls through, would be to play the games at the Final Four in an adjacent college building (next year at Georgia Tech) on the Wednesday and Thursday nights at the Final Four. You can clear out the fans when most arrive by Friday morning.

2. Murray State coach Steve Prohm said he is desperately seeking a tournament for next season and is attempting to get into the Charleston Classic. He said he’s willing to open up against a high-major on the road or in the first week, but needs a home-and-home series with the home game being next year. This is the price a school like Murray pays for having an outstanding season and returning an all-American candidate in Isaiah Canaan.

3. Xavier coach Chris Mack won’t say anything more about Mark Lyons. But the Musketeers did need to move on from this crew. They excelled to get to the Sweet 16 in Atlanta. But the time was now to sever the relationships from last season’s team. Xavier is too proud, too strong a program to be tainted by that one incident; having a fresh start with the main combatants gone allows for a new era.

1. Former Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg was convinced he had a much-improved team next season. Erick Green would likely be an all-ACC guard. Dorian Finney-Smith is a possible star in the league. Last season’s team had only three seniors. That’s why this reeks of a classic athletic-director move of firing a head coach to set up a winning roster so the new coach has success in year one before a rebuild begins. The timing, with two-plus weeks left in the spring signing period, and the spring semester ending soon, might make it harder for anyone to leave.

2. UCLA has a chance for a special season with the top-rated recruiting class led by Shabazz Muhammad, Kyle Anderson, Jordan Adams and now Tony Parker, too. This is a Calipari-Kentucky-like class, oozing with one-and-done NBA potential. But for the Bruins to have a unique season like Kentucky just had, they must get veteran leadership, too. UK always had at least two selfless contributors who were upperclassmen. That puts the burden on Josh Smith, David and Travis Wear, Larry Drew II and Tyler Lamb to show significant improvement in leadership as well as their production.

3. Schools looking at Mark Lyons should pause after reading Xavier coach Chris Mack’s statement. If Lyons was against the constructive criticism about what he needs to improve upon, then why toss a potential disruptive force into a locker room for only one season? Lyons has to share some of the blame for Xavier’s mid-season collapse before the Musketeers rebounded to reach the Sweet 16. But something is clearly wrong if he can’t finish his final year at Xavier.

Update, 4:25 p.m. ET: Xavier has made it official, announcing via a release that Lyons will not be returning to the program for his senior season.

“After our end of the season meeting with Mark it became apparent that a change for both parties was the right thing moving forward,” Mack said in the release. “During our meeting expectations were outlined for his fifth and final season, areas in which I believe needed improvement. Mark did not recognize these expectations as being important and ultimately it was decided that a change of scenery would be in his best interest. I wish Mark well.”

Original post is below.

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Where will Mark Lyons play the final year of his collegiate basketball career? According to Lyons, at least, the answer appears to be fluid.

On Sunday, CBS Sports reported that Lyons wasn't returning to Xavier for his senior season, a decision reportedly reached after Lyons and Xavier coach Chris Mack met late last week and "determined that it would be best for Lyons' career at Xavier to come to a conclusion." This was a rather bold turn, considering Lyons was Xavier's second-leading scorer in 2012, and would be the team's most experienced and most important returning factor in 2012-13.

And apparently Lyons didn't get the memo. On Sunday night, the guard told the Cincinnati Enquirer that he was "surprised by the report." On Monday morning, as speculation that Lyons could continue his career at Arizona reached something of a fever pitch, the mixed signals continued. Lyons told the Arizona Daily Star that he "has not decided whether to leave the Musketeers but 'definitely' has looked into the possibility of transferring to Arizona." From the Daily Star:

“I love Coach [Sean] Miller and the whole coaching staff there, so if I decided to leave, I definitely would look at Arizona,” Lyons told the Star. “I definitely would.”

Which is all well and good, especially if you're an Arizona fan. The connection (former XU coach Sean Miller recruited Lyons to Xavier in the first place) is natural and obvious, and Lyons is clearly hoping to prove himself as a point guard in his senior season. The rigors of his long-shot NBA chances downright demand it.

Except for just one thing: Lyons still hasn't left Xavier. Again from the Daily Star:

“They definitely wanted me back and me and Coach [Chris Mack] had a meeting about it,” Lyons said. “But I’ve gotta think about what‘s best for me and my family so I’m trying to decide." Lyons said he isn’t sure when he will make a decision.

“I still don’t know what I’m going to do yet,” Lyons said. “I’m trying to graduate. I was thinking about it, and the word got out that I was thinking about it, and they ran with it.”

If Lyons decides to stay, he will clearly have much to work out with his current coach, especially if he plans to play point guard for the Musketeers. Lyons has never been a particularly assist-oriented player, and his affinity for bad shots was evident throughout Xavier's struggles this season, at least before the Musketeers made their late-season charge through the A-10 tournament and their unlikely Sweet 16 run. Despite that, Lyons would be a big-time transfer commodity if he does decide to leave, and his skill set and experience would surely be welcomed at a score of programs, perhaps most of all Arizona.

So there you have it: Lyons may stay at Xavier. He may leave for Arizona; he may land somewhere else entirely. Whatever he does, he wants to play point guard. And right now, even he doesn't seem sure of his destination.

In other words: Stay tuned.

GREENSBORO, N.C. – With his team trailing by as many as 10 points in the second half, Xavier guard Tu Holloway had one thought: “If it comes down to one of us winning this game on a shot, I’m going to win this game for us.”

It did.

And he did.

With 21.3 seconds left Friday night, Holloway banked in the go-ahead field goal to beat seventh-seeded Notre Dame 67-63 in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

Xavier, the No. 10 seed in the South, will play No. 15 seed Lehigh at Greensboro Coliseum on Sunday.

“My best game ever? I could say most important game ever,’’ Holloway said.

He played like it.

During a postseason in which his team is still trying to erase the memories of a reputation-shrinking December brawl on its home floor against crosstown rival Cincinnati, the senior seemed determined not to let it end early.

Trailing 48-38 in the second half, Holloway capped a 13-3 Xavier run with a jumper to knot the score at 51-all. Counting that bucket, Holloway scored eight of his team’s next 10 points, taking back the lead 59-58 with 3 minutes, 23 seconds left when he stole the ball and scored at the other end.

The teams traded the lead after that. And even after Holloway’s bank shot, which gave his team a 64-63 lead, Notre Dame had a chance to tie it.

But with 2.8 seconds left, as Irish guard Eric Atkins hit the front end of a one-and-one, teammate Jerian Grant was called for a lane violation when he left his position behind the 3-point arc too early as he ran in for a rebound.

Mike Stuart, a member of the three-man officiating crew that worked the game, said in a prepared statement about the call: “The rule is that anyone outside the 3-point arc is under the same restrictions as the free throw shooter. They cannot penetrate the arc until the ball hits the rim, in which case No. 22 [Grant] was clearly way down in the lane before the ball ever hit. It’s an obvious violation, by the rule.”

The whistle gave the ball back to Xavier, and Dezmine Wells buried two game-sealing free throws after Notre Dame guard Pat Connaughton was whistled for an intentional foul.

Holloway finished with a game-high 25 points on 10-for-15 shooting.

“The moment’s never too big for him,’’ Xavier coach Chris Mack said of Holloway. “… That’s who he is, he’s extremely courageous. He’s never one to let somebody else take over. He doesn’t do it selfishly; he just has a huge belief in himself. And his teammates do, and his coach.”

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Here’s a quick rundown of what to look for in Friday’s evening games in Greensboro.

No. 15 Lehigh (26-7) vs. No. 2 Duke (27-6), 7:15 p.m. ET

If there’s one constant in the NCAA tournament -- other than Duke and North Carolina playing really close to home -- it’s the Blue Devils winning their opening-round games.

Under coach Mike Krzyzewski, the Blue Devils have won 25 of their 27 opening-round games and they’ve taken most of them by lopsided scores. Duke won 14 of the past 15 by an average of 26.9 points, including an 87-45 rout of No. 16 seed Hampton in the 2011 NCAA tournament.

“At Duke, our coaches are great at preparing us for games,” Blue Devils forward Miles Plumlee said. “Regardless of the opponent, we respect each and every one, and we’re just ready to play the game.”

Krzyzewski and his assistant coaches are working a little harder to prepare the Blue Devils for Friday night’s South Region second-round game against No. 15 seed Lehigh at Greensboro Coliseum.

The Blue Devils will probably be without starting forward Ryan Kelly, the team’s third-leading scorer (11.8 points per game) and rebounder (5.4), for the third consecutive game. Kelly, a 6-foot-10 junior from Raleigh, N.C., still hasn’t fully recovered from a sprained right ankle he suffered in practice March 6.

Without Kelly in the ACC tournament, the Blue Devils defeated Virginia Tech 60-56 and lost to Florida State 62-59 in the semifinals at Atlanta’s Georgia Dome.

“He will not be able to play like any type of rotation minutes,” Krzyzewski said. “In other words, you’re not going to see a Plumlee go out and Kelly come in. He might be available for some spot duty and we’ll know more about that [Friday]. Like an end-of-game situation, end of half or some type of specialty thing, but no more than that for this game.”

Kelly has become especially valuable because he’s a big man who shoots 40.8 percent on 3-pointers.

“It’s not a shooter,” Krzyzewski said. “It’s the fact that he’s a big guy who can shoot. We can put another shooter out there, but then we’re real small. So it does have an impact because you might get a few more open looks or a little bit more time to shoot the ball. There’s more space. There are a variety of things that happen as a result of him being out there.”

Kelly’s injury has also left Duke’s bench even thinner. Against the Seminoles, only three Duke reserves combined to play 47 minutes and were outscored 18-9 by their FSU counterparts.

“They would all love Ryan to be able to play,” Krzyzewski said. “But we’re fine. You play with who you got and you play; there’s no excuses for anything. Our guys are ready to go. We love to have Ryan because when he comes into ballgames, he’s different than the other two [big men, brothers Miles and Mason Plumlee]. It makes the other team have to adjust more during the course of a game.”

Who to watch:

Lehigh’s C.J. McCollum: The junior was the country’s sixth-leading scorer with 21.9 points per game. He was named MVP of the Patriot League tournament, scoring 29 points with five assists and three steals in the Mountain Hawks’ 82-77 victory over Bucknell in the championship game.

Duke’s Miles Plumlee: With Kelly sidelined with a sprained ankle, Miles Plumlee -- the oldest of three Plumlee brothers from Warsaw, Ind. -- will have to shoulder an even bigger load. The 6-foot-10 forward scored nine points on 3-for-6 shooting in the FSU loss. He was Duke’s leading rebounder over the past nine games, averaging 10.8 boards.

Duke’s Austin Rivers: Rivers, a freshman from Winter Park, Fla., and son of Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers, was sensational in his first season, leading the Blue Devils with 15.4 points per game. He was named ACC Rookie of the Year and is adept at driving to the basket for points, or kicking the ball back out to his teammates for open shots on the perimeter.

What to watch: Duke’s shooting. The Blue Devils tend to live or die by the perimeter shooting and they struggled in their last three games, making only 16 of 67 3-point attempts (23.8 percent). Rivers made only 3 of 20 3-point attempts in his past four games. Top reserve Andre Dawkins, a career 40.4 percent shooter on 3-pointers, was 1-for-12 in the past five games, after a 6-for-9 performance in a 74-66 victory at FSU on Feb. 23. If the Blue Devils are going to advance beyond this weekend, Rivers, Dawkins and guard Seth Curry are going to have to heat up again.

No. 10 Xavier (21-12) vs. No. 7 Notre Dame (22-11), 9:45 p.m. ET

About the time Xavier was trading punches with Cincinnati in the most frightening moment of the college basketball season, Notre Dame was just beginning to fight through its own troubles.

In mid-January, neither team looked like an NCAA tournament contender. On Friday night, the Fighting Irish and Musketeers will play in a South Region second-round game at Greensboro Coliseum.

“I don’t know if some people seem to have memories of elephants, that they don’t want to ever forget that,” Xavier coach Chris Mack said. “But for our kids it is a chance to go out on the biggest stage of college basketball and advance. And I truly believe that the only games that people remember are the ones you play in March.”

For a while, it seemed like neither the Fighting Irish nor Musketeers would be playing in March.

The Musketeers, who were ranked No. 8 in the country when they routed the Bearcats 76-53 on Dec. 10, lost five of six games after four of their players were suspended for their roles in an ugly brawl in the closing minutes of the Crosstown Shootout. After an 85-72 loss at Temple on Feb. 11, Xavier was 16-9 overall, 7-4 in the A-10.

“If I was being very, very honest, it was extremely difficult,” Mack said. “I don’t think there’s a manual for a coach, for a program, for your players, in how you respond. But the one thing I never questioned about our kids is their desire to compete and want to get better. We stepped in a lot of venues where we heard about the incident, but Xavier basketball is much bigger than 10 bad minutes on a Saturday. This program has done so much good for so many years that we can define ourselves with who we truly are.”

Xavier senior center Kenny Frease, whose face was left bloodied from the fight, said the aftermath of the brawl seemed to bring the Musketeers closer together.

“It was difficult just because of the pressure that was put on us from the outside world,” Frease said. “I think that as a team we always knew that if we were able to come together that we would be where we are today. And in the locker room it really brought us closer together just having gone through that type of adversity. The adversity that you’re going to see in the NCAA tournament, we have been through all that. We have been through a lot more than that. So I think that as a team we’ll be ready for anything we see.”

The Fighting Irish had their share of adversity, too. Notre Dame started 4-2, but then lost senior forward Tim Abromaitis to a season-ending knee injury in practice Nov. 25. Without him, the Irish lost six of their next 13 games and were 11-8 after a 65-58 loss at Rutgers on Jan. 16.

“I feel like it was two different seasons almost before Tim got hurt, and the way we prepared, and the way we game planned and stuff,” Notre Dame guard Scott Martin said. “And then after Tim, we kind of had to figure things out again and regroup and go from there. So I think it was just a lot of hard work and dedication out of us that paid off.”

After the loss at Rutgers, Notre Dame won nine consecutive Big East games (the longest conference winning streak in school history), including a 67-58 upset of then-No. 1 Syracuse on Jan. 21.

“You have to have great, great leadership,” Irish coach Mike Brey said. “I don’t know if I have been more proud of a captain like Scott Martin. Because his partner in leading was supposed to be Tim Abromaitis and he kind of lost him. So for him to lead through a crisis early in the season, I think really helped us. And we had our young guys we committed to them and got them playing time. They needed to play, they needed to get reps. Even if we’re losing games, they needed to get in there and get reps and I think they grew from that.”

Both teams will find out how much they’ve matured Friday night.

Who to watch:

Xavier’s Tu Holloway: Holloway, a senior, led the Musketeers in scoring (17 points per game) and assists (5.1) and was the only Atlantic 10 player in the top five in both scoring and assists. He also leads Xavier in steals (1.5) and foul shooting (86.6 percent). Holloway averaged 19.7 points and 5 rebounds in three Atlantic 10 tournament games.

Notre Dame’s Jack Cooley: Cooley, a bruising 248-pound forward, averaged 12.4 points and 9 rebounds. Cooley, from Glenview, Ill., had a career-high 27 points with 17 rebounds in a 75-69 victory over Providence on March 2, one of his seven double-doubles in the past 10 games.

Xavier’s Mark Lyons: A junior guard from Schenectady, N.Y., Lyons averaged 15.5 points with 2.7 assists. A third-team All-Atlantic-10 selection, Lyons is a potent 3-point shooter, making 39.6 percent of his attempts.

What to watch: Defense. Notre Dame turned its season around with defense, limiting opponents to only 59.2 points per game, which was second-fewest in the Big East. Notre Dame held its opponents to 60 points or fewer in 15 games, including 11 against conference foes. Five opponents were held to fewer than 50 points by the Irish.

Click here to read our afternoon recap. Now back to the lecture at hand, which comes in three parts:

The Rivalry

No. 2 Syracuse 71, Connecticut 69: One of the many things to love about this Syracuse team -- besides its great zone defense and incredible depth and talent and length and pretty much everything besides defensive rebounding -- is how well it handles close games. Since the Jan. 21 loss at Notre Dame, Syracuse has taken respective best shots from Cincinnati, West Virginia, Georgetown, Louisville, South Florida and now at UConn, and each time the Orange have either pulled away late or made the key stop down the stretch to preserve the narrow win. It's a real skill, and it isn't entirely intangible; when you have a defense this good, you tend to get a lot of stops, and there's no reason why that wouldn't be true in the final minutes of any given game, too. But however you quantify it, the Orange win close games. Such traits tend to come in handy in March.

As for Connecticut? While the Huskies didn't get the win, they appear to be rounding into form, or at least starting to figure a few things out. UConn had its fair share of issues with Syracuse's zone, and there were plenty of bad shots to be had, but the Huskies were much more balanced (four players finished in double figures, while Ryan Boatright and Shabazz Napier combined for 13 assists) and competent on both ends of the floor in the second half. Unless it suddenly begins shooting the ball from outside at a much higher clip, this team probably has a ceiling. But there are plenty of realistic improvements to be made. Even better, many of them appear to be in progress. Let's not bury this team just yet.

The Upsets

Purdue 75, No. 13 Michigan 61: When Purdue guard Ryne Smith was asked what he thought about guard Kelsey Barlow's dismissal from the team last week, he was direct, even curt: "Addition by subtraction," Smith said. Apparently he was right. Whatever the reason, Purdue played its best game of the season Saturday at the most important time, containing Michigan's outside shooters and slowly stretching a second-half lead thanks to the heady play of point guard Lewis Jackson, forward Robbie Hummel and, most importantly, guard Terone Johnson, who scored a career-high 22 points and made a handful of key plays down the stretch, including two big and-1 finishes around the rim. Purdue is an unconventional team with no true post presence; the Boilermakers rely on Hummel's outside-in versatility and an extended, guard-oriented style. This makes them a great matchup for Michigan, and, in their own way, a dangerous team.

In any case, Purdue can now feel entirely safe about its at-large NCAA tournament chances. Beating Michigan at home -- the Wolverines' first home loss of the season -- is most definitely a signature victory. And it couldn't have come at a better time.

TCU 83, No. 21 New Mexico 64: Let's hear it for TCU! A round of applause is most definitely in order. At this time in 2011, the Horned Frogs were in the midst of a season-ending 13-game losing streak, en route to an 11-22 finish. This season is an entirely different story: TCU is playing its best basketball down the stretch, having won four of its past five (and eight in a row at home) and toppling ranked UNLV and New Mexico and a good Colorado State squad in the process. The key: great 3-point shooting. The Horned Frogs lead the league in long-range makes in conference play, and they're undefeated at home as a result. What a difference a year makes.

In the meantime ... um, what happened to New Mexico? Last Saturday, we watched in near-awe as the Lobos thoroughly dominated UNLV, which came just a few days after a 10-point win at San Diego State. Steve Alford's team, once a relatively unheralded efficiency darling with few good wins to show for it, looked set to run away with the Mountain West and make a deep run into March. Since then, the Lobos are 0-2 and are now in a three-way tie. A loss at Colorado State makes some sense; we know the Rams are tough, particularly at home. And this is not to take away from TCU, which (as you just read above) is giving everyone more than they bargained for in February, particularly in their own building. But a 19-point blowout loss? Isn't this the team that just rolled UNLV in the Pit and moved to 8-2 in the league? It's kind of weird, right?

Georgia 76, No. 11 Florida 62: This is an upset, of course, but I'm not sure we should be all that surprised. Frankly, I'm not sure if a Florida loss should ever truly catch us off guard. Don't get me wrong: The Gators are good. But they're a specific kind of good. When their steady diet of 3s are falling, they can shoot opponents off the floor before said opponents even have a chance to catch their breath. But if the shots aren't going down, Florida has no Plan B. Patric Young is the only true post presence, and his offensive game is still a work in progress (and he's still underutilized as a scoring threat to boot). The Gators' defense -- which ranks fifth in opponents' points per possession in SEC play, No. 10 in opponents' 3-point field goal percentage and No. 10 in block rate -- still isn't good enough to hold opponents in check when the shots clanging off the iron and the opponents start turning long rebounds into secondary breaks and easy buckets. Florida might yet get there on the defensive end, but it isn't yet. If this UF team has a lower ceiling than it should, well, that's why.

The Bubble Specials

Alabama 67, Mississippi State 50: It was instinctively easy to write off the Crimson Tide when coach Anthony Grant suspended Tony Mitchell and JaMychal Green; it was easy to predict a late collapse, even a fall off the bubble, for a team whose two leading scorers would be missing such important games down the stretch. Instead, the Crimson Tide keep, well, rolling. They've now won three in a row and prevented any hint of a collapse. Mississippi State, on the other hand, appears to be doing exactly that: The Bulldogs are collapsing. This is the Bulldogs' fifth consecutive defeat, a stretch that has included some good basketball (in the near-miss vs. Kentucky this week) but also some baffling losses (the loss at Auburn especially). It's no stretch to say Mississippi State -- which for much of the season looked like a tourney near-lock -- could wind up missing the tournament after all. The Bulldogs are, after all, 6-8 and tied with rival Ole Miss in the SEC standings. Ouch.

Northwestern 67, Penn State 66: Breathe a big ol' sigh of relief, Northwestern fans: In the chase for their first NCAA tournament appearance in school history, the Wildcats remain very much alive. Senior forward John Shurna made the game-winning free throws with just 2.6 seconds remaining, giving Bill Carmody his first win in State College since 2002. Big challenges still lie ahead: Ohio State comes to town on Wednesday, followed by next weekend's season-ender at Iowa, a team that just knocked off Indiana and Wisconsin in Carver-Hawkeye Arena. But for now, some minor rejoicing is in order. Northwestern's tourney hopes are still very real.

Rutgers 77, Seton Hall 72 (OT): Let's not take Seton Hall off the bubble just yet, eh? The Pirates got a great win over Georgetown this week, one that could have firmed up a previously shaky at-large profile. All Seton Hall needed to do the rest of the way was avoid bad losses. Well, losing to a young, 13-16 Rutgers team at home is just that. Next weekend, the Hall travels to DePaul. If the Pirates lose there, all the good vibes from the emphatic Georgetown victory will have almost entirely faded from the picture.

VCU 89, George Mason 77: First things first: Thanks to Drexel's one-point win at Old Dominion on Saturday afternoon, VCU's win over George Mason won't give them a share of the CAA title this season. Bummer, sure, but the Rams would surely settle for a spot in the NCAA tournament, something to which they're at least a little closer after this victory today. As a league, the Colonial's top teams (Drexel, VCU and GMU) didn't get quality nonconference wins (VCU's best came against South Florida, for example), so any at-large consideration will have to come from separation at the top and perhaps a pair of deep runs for both Drexel and VCU in the CAA tournament. A win here was a must, and Shaka Smart's team got it, behind Bradford Burgess' career-high 31 points.

Dayton 76, UMass 43: A home loss to UMass can't be called "bad," but for a team like Dayton -- which is desperately scrapping for a spot in the NCAA tournament -- it could have been disastrous. Instead, the opposite happened: UD won, and won big, looking very much like one of the A-10's best teams and a squad worthy of a tourney bid in the process. We'll see how the Flyers finish up, but if they're one of the last four in, they might just be one of the play-in game candidates, which are held in -- you guessed it -- Dayton!

Saint Joseph's 82, No. 22 Temple 72: Speaking of somewhat fringe Atlantic 10 tournament hopefuls, the A-10 can't offer a bubble team a better shot at a marquee win than Temple on its own floor late in the season, but the Hawks still had to overcome Fran Dunphy's typically peerless bunch, which had won its previous 11 games and 13 in the 15-game stretch beginning with its Jan. 4 victory over Duke. Phil Martelli's team is now 9-6 in the league and 19-11 overall, and it added the one thing it desperately needed to its profile: A legitimate top-25 RPI win. Temple is most definitely that.

Penn 55, Harvard 54: Just when you think it's time to plan a long-awaited Harvard hoops coronation, Penn's Zack Rosen comes along, scores 20 points, makes a huge jumper down the stretch and ices two game-winning free throws in the final 30 seconds. And all of a sudden the Ivy League race is legitimately up for grabs with both of these teams having two losses. (Another one-game playoff for the Crimson? Oh boy.) As an at-large entity, Harvard is still in decent shape, but its profile isn't so strong that it can afford to lose at either Columbia or Cornell in its final two games, lose out on the Ivy auto-bid, and still feel safe about being picked to join the group of 37 at-large teams. Big days ahead for Tommy Amaker's team.

Washington 59, Washington State 55: For the first 10 or so minutes of the first half, it looked like Wazzu was going to hand its in-state opponent the type of loss that would severely damage Washington's at-large chances. But the Huskies fought back and, as the AP report notes, won the game's most important battle -- at the charity stripe: "Ultimately, the game came down to free throws. WSU (14-14, 6-10) went 11 of 12 to keep the game tied at 28-all despite shooting 27 percent in the first half. In the second half, the Cougars shot 6 of 20 from the free throw line, while the Huskies, who only went 2 of 5 in the first half, finished 17 of 24." The win keeps Washington on the right side of the bubble for now, but UW's marginal profile might not be able to survive a loss at either USC or UCLA going away.

Xavier 65, Richmond 57: Kenny Frease's season highs in both points (19) and rebounds (14) helped carry Xavier to an ugly but ultimately victorious Saturday. A loss here would have kicked Xavier off the bubble for good and almost certainly, barring an upset in the A-10 tournament, ended Chris Mack's 100 percent NCAA tournament hit rate in his XU tenure. Instead, the Musketeers live to fight another day.

No. 21 San Diego State 74, Colorado State 66: The Rams pass at least two NCAA tournament bubble tests: The RPI/SOS numbers are great, and they sure do look like a tournament team. But will that be enough? A win in Viejas Arena would have provided a tidy bookend to this week's huge victory over New Mexico, but the loss isn't a huge deal. Colorado State, which is undefeated at home in Mountain West play, hosts UNLV in Fort Collins in just three days' time. Win that one and the Rams are probably set.

Saturday afternoon transitioned into Saturday night as smoothly as Kentucky transitions from an Anthony Davis block to the fast break. In the process, we saw Michigan State defend like crazy at Ohio State, Creighton take a beatdown by Wichita State and the aforementioned Wildcats again assert their dominance, this time at Vanderbilt. That and more in the evening edition of What We Learned.

[Editor's note: For recaps of all the afternoon games, click here.]

No. 12 Michigan State 58, No. 3 Ohio State 48: As far back as August, Tom Izzo -- in typical Izzonian fashion -- proclaimed far and wide how much he loved his team. Not necessarily because he knew the Spartans would be good or because he knew they would keep getting better (although he often seemed to assume as much), but because this Michigan State team, perhaps more than any other in recent years, does the two things Izzo seems to value most: It rebounds. It defends.

The Spartans began Saturday allowing the fourth-fewest points per possession in the country (adjusted, per Ken Pomeroy). They also ranked in the top 10 in both relevant rebounding categories, chasing down 39.9 percent of their misses on offense and yielding second chances on just 26.1 percent of opponents' possessions. Throw in the focused vocal leadership of forward Draymond Green, the back-from-the-dead reclamation of Derrick Nix, one of the toughest point guards in the country in Keith Appling and a batch of dedicated supporting pieces, and, well, no wonder Izzo loves this team. Compared to last season's incoherent, apathetic bunch, he must occasionally feel like he's coaching an entirely different game.

For as consistently as Michigan State has demonstrated those qualities throughout this season, never have they been more clear than Saturday night. Izzo's team held the third-ranked Buckeyes -- in Columbus, mind you -- to a mere .75 points per trip. How? How do you stop a team with so many weapons, with one of the best forwards in the country anchoring it all, in a building where it has won 39 in a row? The Spartans know how: You scrap. You claw. You fight. You make everything difficult for that team's best player. You frustrate him at every turn.

Jared Sullinger was, of course, the focal point of MSU's defensive strategy, and it worked. Sullinger still scored 17 points and grabbed 16 boards, but he needed a 5-of-15 performance to get there, and he committed 10 turnovers in the process. (The 17-16-10 is the first turnover-laden triple-double of the college basketball season, per ESPN Stats & Info. Former Buck Evan Turner had two of them in his final season. The Evan Turner Special lives!) Sullinger was noticeably frustrated throughout the game, arguing for fouls (sometimes rightly, oftentimes wrongly) and forcing shots into the teeth of State's interior defense, anchored brilliantly by forward Adreian Payne (who was also 6-of-6 from the field).

The performance reminded me of Ohio State's loss to Kentucky in last season's Sweet 16, when UK forward Josh Harrellson harassed and harangued Sullinger into a performance far below his usual standards. Harrellson was one of the few players in the country with the size and strength to hold his ground against Sully's girth. Nearly a year later, Payne and Nix demonstrated the same abilities. It's a testament to Sullinger's ability that he still grabbed 16 rebounds, eight of them offensive, but every putback was challenged, every touch contested, every dribble met with reaching slaps.

Sullinger didn't get much help from his teammates. William Buford and Deshaun Thomas combined to shoot 4-of-24 (!!), Aaron Craft was 3-of-7, and all told, the Buckeyes shot 2-of-15 from beyond the arc and 26 percent overall -- its third-worst shooting performance of the past 15 years. Yikes.

The Spartans weren't great on offense (.91 points per trip). Ohio State's defense is its best quality, and the Buckeyes were again good on that end of the floor. But Michigan State didn't have to light it up to get this victory. When you defend this well, when you execute your defensive game plan this perfectly, when you thoroughly dominate one of the nation's elite teams in its own building, you don't have to put up points in bunches to get the job done. No team in the country this season has posted 40 minutes of defense this strong against a team this good.

So, yeah, Tom Izzo loves this team. Can you blame him?

No. 1 Kentucky 69, Vanderbilt 63: You have to hand it to the Commodores: They didn't go away.

That's the biggest positive Kevin Stallings' team can draw from this loss. From the opening tip, UK's brilliant defense was again, well, brilliant. As late as the 4:42 mark in the first half, Vanderbilt had scored just 13 points. The Commodores finished the first half with a whopping 23 as Kentucky led by 13. Terrence Jones was engaged. Anthony Davis was dominant. As it has so often in the past three weeks, John Calipari's team appeared ready to roll to another very impressive SEC victory. Ho and hum.

Then, only a few moments into the second half, things just sort of ... opened up. The Dores not only started finding open shots, they started making them. Brad Tinsley, Jeffery Taylor and John Jenkins came alive on the perimeter, while Festus Ezeli started finishing things down low. Soon -- almost before you knew it -- what "GameDay" host Rece Davis called Kentucky's "aura of invincibility" fell away. By the 8:26 mark in the second half, the Commodores led 55-51, the culmination of a 32-17 run.

They would score just eight more points the rest of the game. No one could have known it at the time, but Tinsley's jumper at the 4:09 mark would be Vanderbilt's last bucket of the day. Just as soon as VU had opened the game with solid man offense, crisp passing and accurate shooting, Kentucky shut it down. Davis recorded four blocks in the final seven minutes of the game; he finished with seven total. One of the major themes of the broadcast was Calipari's stated desire to see his team challenged, to see how it would respond. The Wildcats were. Vanderbilt kept swinging. Kentucky took Vandy's best punch. It absorbed a combo or two. And then, as all great fighters do, it emerged stronger and stronger as the game wore on. If Calipari wanted to see how his team would react to a challenge, he had to be thrilled with the result.

Kentucky played a solid, experienced team. It played said solid, experienced team in said team's unique building, with its weird sight lines and elevated court and baseline benches. It did so in front of a crowd that had spent all day goosed by "GameDay," hyped for the glorious chance at knocking off No. 1, something this school has done six times over the years. It didn't matter. Kentucky went 3-of-14 from 3. And it still emerged unscathed.

If Christian Watford's last-second shot doesn't fall in Assembly Hall on Dec. 10 -- back when Kentucky was still figuring things out -- the Cats are undefeated and we're talking less about this sudden surge of brilliance than whether UK could make it to the NCAA tournament with an unbeaten record. This team is one shot -- one 10-second defensive breakdown -- away from legendary comparisons.

Oh, well. As it is, Calipari's team is rounding into one of the most complete -- if not the most complete -- of his career. Davis is a transcendent force anchoring a team with zero defensive holes. Michael Kidd-Gilchrist is one of the best two-way players in the country. Jones can dominate when he wants. Doron Lamb is a lights-out shooter. Darius Miller is an underrated offensive presence and an all-around glue guy extraordinaire.

There's a reason this team is awash in that so-called aura of invincibility. The Wildcats aren't actually invincible, of course. But right now, they're the closest thing going.

Wichita State 89, No. 15 Creighton 68: When you've got a national player of the year candidate ripping through each and every opposing defense he sees with a rare blend of volume and efficiency, it's easy to disguise your team's warts. After Wichita State's end-to-end dismantling of the Bluejays on Saturday, those warts are now fully exposed.

The score line tells the story here, but it's nothing new: Creighton is, at best, a fairly mediocre defensive team. The Bluejays entered this Valley showdown ranked No. 119 in the country in adjusted defensive efficiency, per Pomeroy. They force turnovers on just 16.3 percent of their defensive possessions, which ranks them No. 336 out of 345 Division I teams. This so-so defense has been hidden well all season because Creighton outscores everybody. Doug McDermott and company have the nation's highest effective field goal percentage and its sixth-most efficient offense overall. But in the past three games -- losses to Northern Iowa, Evansville and now Wichita State -- the Bluejays' offense has suddenly cooled off. Creighton's effective field goal percentage figures in its past three games are 46.5, 44.2 and 44.7 percent.

And therein lies Saturday's problem: Wichita State is not a one-way team. Rather, Gregg Marshall's squad combines excellent defense (KenPom rank: No. 26) with efficient offense (KenPom: No. 11), tops in MVC play in both metrics. Despite their hugely impressive per-possession stats, the Shockers have flown below the radar recently thanks in large part to that triple-overtime loss at Drake in late January. But in basically every other Valley affair, even the 68-61 loss at home to Creighton in this series' first game, the Shockers have been comprehensively good.

Does that mean Wichita is 21 points better than Creighton, home, away or neutral? No. Is its offense as good as the 1.4 points per trip it poured in Saturday night? Probably not. But this lopsided result in front of a huge crowd in Omaha does reveal some notable truths about both teams. For Creighton, it laid bare just how important the Jays' offense is to their chances of making a run in the NCAA tournament; it's no coincidence this three-game losing streak came in three mediocre shooting performances. Greg McDermott's team can't afford to miss shots, because it can't get the stops it needs to keep things close.

For Wichita State, well, if you didn't know, now you know: The Shockers are good. Not "dangerous." Not "plucky." Just flat-out good.

Temple 85, Xavier 72: If you're still waiting for a team to round into its full form on Feb. 11, there's a good chance you'll still be waiting on March 11. That appears to be the case with Xavier. The Musketeers haven't been bad in Atlantic 10 play -- they ranked fourth in A-10 efficiency margin as of this week -- but they haven't been particularly good, let alone their usual brand of good, the one that led them to a 15-1 league record last season. Instead, these Musketeers are just sort of, well, mediocre.

Which is to take nothing away from Temple, which blitzed Chris Mack's team early and never looked back. Guard Ramone Moore went off, scoring 30 points on 9-of-16 from the field, while Khalif Wyatt put up 18 points, four assists and three steals, and Micheal Eric contributed 11 points and 16 rebounds. The Owls' backcourt is the undisputed strength of the team, and Fran Dunphy's squad continues to look more and more like the A-10's clear favorite each time that backcourt makes life so difficult for opponents on both ends of the floor. Temple is alone atop the league at 8-2.

The contrast between these two teams is glaring. One is whole, complete, playing its best basketball at the right time. The other is scattershot, struggling, not bad but far worse than it has any right to be, given its talent. The temptation to connect X's continued struggles to the Dec. 10 brawl is worth resisting here. Does it play a part? Maybe. Has guard Mark Lyons (who didn't start) been unpredictable and frustrating since? Oh yeah. But at this point, it's also possible Xavier just wasn't all that good in the first place. Whatever the reasons, the Musketeers -- perennial NCAA tournament fixtures -- are running out of time to figure it out.

A few more observations from the night of hoops:

• Harvard's preordained run to its first NCAA tournament in decades -- the Crimson are clearly the best team in the Ivy League and were the heaviest of favorites to win it outright -- got just a little shakier Saturday night. Tommy Amaker's team fell to the old-world perennial Ivy favorite, Princeton, 70-62. It's a sign of Harvard's changed status that Princeton students -- who are fans of a program that is the historical Ivy elite, and which just beat one of the league's longtime losers -- rushed the court after their team's 23rd consecutive home victory over the Crimson. Despite the loss, Harvard's chances of winning the league are still very good. Its schedule -- which features Yale, Princeton and Penn at home before a season-ending two-game road swing at Columbia and Cornell -- is a major advantage. Plus, the No. 21 Crimson still own a one-game lead in the standings. But they will be eager to avoid any further slip-ups. If they end up in another one-game tiebreak (the Ivy League awards its NCAA tournament bid to the regular-season winner), anything can happen. Amaker's bunch, which lost its trip to the tourney to Princeton on a tiebreak buzzer-beater last season, knows all too well what can happen when you leave the preordained to chance.
• We let this one slip by in the afternoon frenzy, but Mississippi State's loss to Georgia probably deserves a mention. The Bulldogs were undone by freshman Kentavious Caldwell-Pope's big-time step-back 3 in overtime (not to mention his other 17 points and eight rebounds), and hey, yeah, sometimes you take a tough OT loss. But Mississippi State's inconsistency is a bad sign for a team with major tournament aspirations. Not a good performance at all.
• Southern Miss held on for a 78-74 home victory over UCF, yet another gritty, close win in a Golden Eagles season full of them. Don't look now, but Southern Miss is 21-4 on the season with a top-15 RPI. Wednesday night's loss at UAB is certainly a black mark -- especially considering the Blazers lost by 34 to Memphis on Saturday night -- but other than that, this team has a shockingly strong at-large case. Larry Eustachy is reborn!
• Phil Martelli's team picked up another A-10 home win, as Saint Joseph's took down upstart UMass 73-62 and damaged the Minutemen's outside chances of an at-large bid. Massachusetts could have gone to 8-3 with a win. Instead, it moves backward, into the thick of the league's muddled middle, alongside the Hawks and many others.
• If there is any justice in the world, tiny Wabash College will find its way to the "SportsCenter" top plays in the coming days. Why? Because of Aaron Zinnerman's shot, one of the more insane and unlikely you'll ever see. The YouTube clip is here. Enjoy. (Important correction! This post incorrectly cited Wabash as the alma mater of Butler coach Brad Stevens. Rather, as numerous alums have informed me, Stevens actually went to rival DePauw. I always mistake the two, but nonetheless regret the error. My bad, everyone.)

CINCINNATI -- Rick Majerus didn’t make much out of his team’s 73-68 win over Xavier, passing if off as nothing more than a good night in a very long season.

The truth is, the Billikens’ win is nothing less than the latest tectonic shift in an Atlantic 10 that is undergoing serious seismic shakes.

In the A-10, there were always a few guarantees: Fran Dunphy’s mustache, Xavier winning at home and X marking the spot at the top of the conference.

The first disappeared in October, the result of a lost bet between the Temple coach and Dionte Christmas.

Saint Louis erased the second on Wednesday night, ending Xavier’s six-year home win streak against Atlantic 10 opponents, a run that extended across 43 games.

Could the third be far away?

That’s the question that most everyone is asking these days in one way or another: what’s wrong with Xavier? Can the Musketeers, a team that has won or shared five consecutive league titles, regroup?

The answer is once again TBD, now that a team that looked like it had righted itself just a week ago has lost back-to-back games.

Asked if he knew what was ailing his team, Tu Holloway shook his head.

“Not really,’’ he said. “I really can’t say. We’re all looking for answers.’’

So is Chris Mack.

The coach looks like he’s trying to plug 57 holes in the dam, fixing one only to find another one blow open.

He benched starters Kenny Frease and Mark Lyons to start the game. Mack thought his team lacked toughness in a loss at rival Dayton on Saturday and so decided instead to reward players who ‘go at it’ in practice.

It worked to a point. The Musketeers didn’t get outmuscled against the Billinkens. In fact they showed some serious resolve, clawing back into a game they looked completely out of for 20 minutes.

Only problem, with the toughness riddle solved, Mack was handed a new one: an inattention to detail, evidenced by 17 turnovers.

“We have to become a better basketball team,’’ Mack said. “No one is going to feel sorry for us. Just the opposite. There’s not going to be a lot of nice things said about us and that’s OK, as long as we stay together and we are.’’

The catch is, it’s not as easy to fix an ailing team in the A-10 as it used to be. The middle and the bottom are gaining ground this season and a five-minute brain cramp against anyone can easily turn into a loss.

Certainly, at least part of what was ailing Xavier on this night was Saint Louis. Since Majerus was hired five years ago, folks have been waiting for the Billikens to make some noise. Last season looked like the arrival date, but the year spiraled out of control under the weight of off-court suspensions.

Now it looks like Saint Louis is arriving, just a little later than expected. Theirs has not been a smooth ride. The Billikens jumped out to a hot nonconference start, beating Washington, Villanova and Oklahoma, but have struggled since the A-10 season started. Saint Louis exchanged losses and wins in the first four games.

Now on a three-game ride, the Billikens stand tied atop the murky conference standings with Dayton, UMass, LaSalle and St. Bonaventure (whoever had those teams on the leader board for late January ought to head to Vegas immediately).

This is your typical Majerus team, about as much fun to play against as a double root canal. Saint Louis does not make mistakes, plays incredibly hard defense and can beat you in all sorts of ways thanks to a wily coach who has an answer for every riddle.

Against Xavier, the Billikens started out by winning behind the arc, sinking 7 of 14 3-pointers in the first half to roll to a 41-29 lead. When Xavier adjusted, as Majerus knew it would, they pounded the ball inside to Brian Conklin. After X tied the game at 50, Conklin either scored or was fouled on five of Saint Louis’ next seven possessions.

“He’s pretty good in the low post,’’ Majerus said. “He’s been playing better and he’s a confident scorer. We had been shooting the three-ball early but when they took that away, we were able to spread them out and went to Conklin.’’

Conklin delivered to the tune of 19 points, enough to help the Billikens’ hold off a late push by the Musketeers and end a run of dominance that Majerus said he didn’t know about but his players surely did.

“It’s just a jumping board for us,’’ Conklin said. “It feels great. That 43-game streak, with me being a senior, my last year, we’ve been so close so many years and not been able to get it done, so to come in here and hit free throws, it’s great. We’re first in the conference right now. It’s ours to win or ours to lose. We definitely want it to be ours to win.’’

It certainly could be the case.

Disorder is the new order of the day in the Atlantic 10.

Down is up, X is down and Fran Dunphy is clean shaven.

This Saturday promised one of the best wall-to-wall slates of college hoops fixtures thus far this season, and the afternoon action didn't disappoint. In fact, it just about blew my mind. Let's take a comprehensive look at what we learned from said afternoon action, shall we? (Check back late tonight for a recap of the evening action.)

Florida State 76, No. 4 Duke 73
What we learned: How cool is Leonard Hamilton? Bad charge call? He just smiles. Another bad, potentially crucial, game-deciding charge call? A smile and a wink. A buzzer-beating 3 to upset No. 4 Duke in Cameron Indoor Stadium -- the same 3 that sent FSU's bench into a joyous on-court scrum? A quick nod. A walk to midcourt. A handshake. No big deal, right?

Hamilton isn't the celebratory type; he's as steady a presence as there is in college hoops. But what his team did Saturday -- just a week after it blew the doors off against North Carolina at home -- was worth much more than the cucumber-cool reaction Hamilton offered. This was a massive, season-changing win for the Florida State Seminoles.

There were plenty of opportunities to fade away. Midway through the second half, Ryan Kelly hit two 3s and a fast-break dunk to extend Duke's lead to 58-50, its widest margin of the afternoon. The crowd was rocking. FSU's shots weren't falling. It appeared Duke would do what Duke does: Gather itself, extend a lead, and ride out another ho-hum ACC home victory. Instead, the Seminoles kept battling. Within a minute, they had closed the eight-point lead to just five, and by the time the game reached its crucial moments -- the final minute -- FSU pulled just ahead at 71-70.

Things stayed tight all the way through. Kelly received the benefit of the doubt on a pretty clear charge with 20 seconds left and Duke guard Austin Rivers made a great move to the rim to tie the game at 73 with just 6 seconds remaining. But FSU guard Luke Loucks, calm as his head coach, advanced the ball to guard Michael Snaer in time for Snaer's buzzer-beating, game-winning 3 just a few feet in front of the visitors bench. That's when the ecstasy, apparently shared by all but Hamilton, commenced.

So what did we learn? We learned that the Noles are indeed very real. Are they as good as their 33-point blowout over UNC? Of course not. But they're good enough -- strong enough, defensive enough, big enough, tough enough -- to present matchup problems for some of the best teams in the country, even on those teams' home floors. Before the season, we thought Florida State was the third-best team in the ACC. After losses to Harvard and Princeton and a wipeout at Clemson, that projection looked wildly optimistic. Now, it almost feels cautious. If the Seminoles play like this the rest of the way, they're definitely better than that.

No. 5 Missouri 89, No. 3 Baylor 88
What we learned: This one-point deficit was reached thanks to a meaningless last-second 3 from Baylor's Brady Heslip, and so the score line belies the real takeaway from this Tigers road win: Missouri is no illusion. No. This team is just flat good.

Can any other conclusion be reached? Consider the accomplishment here: The Tigers went on the road against the No. 3 team in the country, one with as much size and athletic interior talent as any of the nation's contenders -- a quality supposedly anathema to Mizzou's very essence -- and scored 1.24 points per possession in a win that required a first-half battle, a second-half push and a late survival of an inevitable Baylor run. The Tigers are simply relentless on the offensive end, attacking the tiniest of defensive gaps with more speed than any other backcourt in the country.

If you were wondering why Missouri forward Ricardo Ratliffe is so handily dominating competition this season -- leading the nation in field goal percentage and effective field goal percentage by a huge margin to date -- you received your answer today. Ratliffe cuts and spaces in the middle of the paint as well as any forward in the country. He's a tireless, opportunistic offensive rebounder with great hands and lightning-quick feet. And more often than not, Missouri's guards -- particularly Phil Pressey, who was brilliant in Waco -- break down the defense, ruin its rotation and find Ratliffe for easy finishes around the rim. His line Saturday, against all that long, NBA-worthy Baylor talent: 27 points on 11-of-14 from the field (see?), 8 rebounds (6 offensive) and 2 blocks. He was, per the usual, brilliant. Meanwhile, Pressey finished with 18 points and 7 assists, 6 steals and 5 rebounds. Can't understate his total impact on the game.

There are concerns for Baylor going forward. Perry Jones III continues to live up to the occasionally unfair "soft" label; when you're a 6-foot-11 lottery pick, and the opposing team had only two contributors bigger than 6-6, 8 points and 4 rebounds just doesn't cut it. The Bears, despite their clear size advantage, allowed the Tigers to rebound 48.3 percent of their misses on the offensive end; per Ken Pomeroy's rankings, Baylor is the 220th-best team in the nation on its defensive glass. When you can run a front line of Jones, Quincy Acy and Quincy Miller (who turned in a stellar scoring performance today, it should be noted), why are you getting so consistently and comprehensively outworked on the boards?

Still, let's give the Tigers a huge amount of credit. When Missouri were blown out at Kansas State, the concerns about this team's size were seemingly validated. Sure, Mizzou played well in the nonconference. Sure, the shots were falling. Sure, Ratliffe was on a tear. But could Frank Haith's team really keep it up in conference play? Weren't the Tigers, among any team with an undefeated nonconference record, the most likely to fade into Big 12 mediocrity? The answer, as we now know, is a resounding no. Small? Sure. Guard-oriented? You bet. This team is what it is. What you see is what you get. And what you get is one of the best offensive -- check, that, one of the best, period -- teams in the nation, bar none. Great win.

West Virginia 77, Cincinnati 74 (OT)
What we learned: If you haven't seen Kevin Jones play lately, you're missing the Big East Player of the Year to date -- and a legitimate national POY contender, too. Frankly, you might not recognize him. Jones, who struggled to adapt to a star role last season, has emerged as all that and more in 2011-12. This form was again on display today, especially late in regulation, when Jones hit a massive go-ahead 3 to help WVU push Cincinnati to overtime, where the Mountaineers outlasted the Bearcats for a massive home win. Jones finished with 26 points on 11-of-15 from the field, hitting both of his 3-point attempts and grabbing 13 rebounds in the process. Like I said: If that's not the Big East Player of the Year thus far, I don't know who is.

In the meantime, despite the loss -- and a truly questionable layup attempt by Dion Dixon, when the Bearcats needed a 3 to tie -- Cincinnati can come away from this game looking pretty good. Just a few days after beating UConn on the road, it faced down a star-led squad on its brutal home court and very nearly, but for a few late errors and big plays by West Virginia, came away with a win. If you thought Cincinnati was the second-best team in the league after the win over the Huskies, you might still feel that way now.

Tennessee 60, No. 11 Connecticut 57
What we learned: The Huskies can't stop the slide. Saturday's loss at Tennessee marks UConn's fourth loss in its past six games, and was again emblematic of the woes facing this team: disjointed offense, a willingness to take bad shots, lack of leadership in tough situations, interior play far below the sum of its insanely talented parts. We knew Cuonzo Martin's Tennessee squad would come out and play hard in Knoxville. Even when the Volunteers have been bad this season (which has been often: This win moves them to a mere 9-10 overall), they've played with a blue-collar, let's-work-hard spirit preached constantly by their first-year head coach. Today it paid off.

But Connecticut deserves much of the blame here, too. Andre Drummond and Alex Oriakhi should be dominating undermanned frontcourts like UT's. Instead, they combined for 11 points and were obviously outplayed by freshman Jarnell Stokes, who posted a double-double in his third career game. The same Stokes who was a 17-year-old kid in high school last month. Great win for the Vols, of course, but the postgame questions will be all about UConn. As of Jan. 21, this team -- so talented, so promising, so mystifyingly mediocre -- still has miles to go before it can be considered a Big East contender, let alone one with national title aspirations.

No. 2 Kentucky 77, Alabama 71
What we learned: There are no moral victories in college hoops. Alabama coach Anthony Grant will be eager to share that rather cliché bit of information with his team following Saturday's loss at Kentucky. And it's true -- a win is a win, a loss is a loss, and minimal nuance is allowed to color those stark W's and L's at the end of the season. Still, in the final moments of Bama's impressive Saturday road stand, against the No. 2 team in the country and a program that has won its past 47 road games, the longest active streak in Division I, the only thought that occurred to this viewer was: "Well, no matter whether they win or lose, this was a great game for Alabama."

It was. The Crimson Tide are in the midst of a three-games-in-eight-days scheduling bump, one that put them on the road at Mississippi State (loss), at home against Vanderbilt (loss, and an ugly one at that) and then, mercilessly, on the road at Kentucky. Yet Alabama never quit coming at the typically impressive Wildcats. Even when struggling forward Tony Mitchell fouled out with five minutes remaining, the Tide kept getting scores and free throws and good looks, pushing the game and preventing UK from ever finishing in comfort.

In the end, Anthony Davis' freakish interior defense saved Kentucky's day; the last of his four blocks came with 7 seconds left to preserve a four-point lead, and thus the expected result was achieved. But give Alabama credit: That was a gutsy, tough road performance. This team seemed easy to write off over much of the past two months, but if Saturday's performance was any indication, it will be a worthy competitor in the coming SEC stretch run.

Dayton 87, Xavier 72
What we learned: The Flyers have come a long way since Nov. 30. That's when this team lost 84-55 to Buffalo at home, three days after winning the Old Spice Classic title game over Minnesota. Four days later, Dayton was blown out at Murray State. At that point, first-year coach Archie Miller appeared to have a sincere rebuilding project on his hands. Nearly two months later, the Flyers are, well, flying. This 15-point home win over putative Atlantic 10 favorite Xavier puts them at 4-1 in A-10 play, another excellent addition to a résumé that includes victories over Alabama, Saint Louis and, most recently, a strong 10-point win at Temple. By now, Dayton isn't a rebuild. It isn't a neat little story. It's a legitimate A-10 contender with an easy case to make for an at-large spot in the NCAA tournament. Who saw that one coming?

In the meantime, Xavier's off-and-on struggles -- which appeared to abate with a four-game winning streak in A-10 play -- reared their ugly head again. The Musketeers were mediocre on offense and downright bad on defense, allowing 87 points in 65 possessions, or 1.33 points per trip. Sometimes it's ugly offense, sometimes it's lenient defense, but in either case, it's clear Chris Mack's team hasn't put its midseason slide entirely in the rearview.

Some other observations from Saturday afternoon's selections:

• I didn't get to see all of Kansas' tough 69-66 road win at Texas, but the portions I did see lent some solid eyeball observations to my current theory on Texas: The Longhorns have plenty of holes, particularly in their frontcourt, but they're much better than most people seem to think. To wit, the Longhorns entered Saturday ranked No. 24 in Ken Pomeroy's adjusted efficiency rankings. They're solid on the offensive glass, good at getting to the free throw line, and while they don't play vintage Rick Barnes defense, they keep games close enough to give lights-out scorer J'Covan Brown chances to go win the game late. He had one such chance Saturday, and it missed, but the lesson was well-taken: Texas will give superior teams fits from here on out. Don't say you weren't warned. (And how 'bout Tyshawn Taylor's continued torrid pace with 22 points and ZERO turnovers? What a three-game stretch.)
• Playing Kentucky's brutal Davis-led defense must have a way of making other defenses feel wide open. That appeared to be the case in Fayetteville today, where the Arkansas Razorbacks -- fresh off a loss to the Wildcats this week -- made their first 11 shots and went 80 percent from the field in the first half against Michigan. Early in the second half, the score was 49-33 Arkansas, and a blowout appeared to be in the works. But the shooting slowed down, Michigan made its comeback, and the Razorbacks narrowly avoided a late loss when Wolverines guard Trey Burke's last-second 3 missed. Bad second half, but a nonetheless solid win for freshman B.J. Young and the rest of Mike Anderson's young team. And what a day for the SEC, eh?
• Purdue had the toughest task of any team in the country Saturday afternoon: The Boilermakers had to fight a Midwestern snowstorm that trapped them on their airport tarmac and prevented them from getting more than a few hours of sleep before the 12 p.m. ET tip. Predictably, Michigan State rolled. Purdue has serious issues on both ends of the floor, particularly with an offense that offers little but a barrage of outside shots. But it's hard to blame the Boilermakers too much for the lopsided 83-58 result.
• Yes, it's hard to win on the road. Yes, it's hard to win on the road in the Big East with a team comprised almost entirely of freshmen. But it's even harder to lose when your opponent shoots 3-of-24 in the first half, 12-of-41 for the game -- which ties Harvard for the season record for fewest field goals in a win -- and makes just three of its 14 3-point field goal attempts on the afternoon. And yet, that's exactly what Rutgers did Saturday, as Georgetown overcame a legendarily poor shooting performance (effective field goal percentage: 33.8) to rally for a late win. Hoyas freshman Otto Porter continued his stellar freshman campaign, scoring Georgetown's final six points and nailing the winning free throws with just 8 seconds remaining. Georgetown fans won't necessarily be pleased with this one, but when you shoot this poorly and still get a win, and thanks to a steady freshman to boot, there's encouraging stuff in there somewhere.
• Maryland will eagerly await to hear the status of freshman center Alex Len, who left the Terps' 73-60 loss to Temple at the Palestra with an ankle injury. Len has helped lead a quiet stretch of solid play from the Terps. With him, this team can compete in the ACC. Without him, well, it's not looking good.
• Poor Boston College. The Eagles showed signs of improvement in two early ACC wins over Clemson and Virginia Tech, but Steve Donahue's team returned to early-season form Saturday, which is a way of saying it got beat soundly at home by another very marginal team -- in this case, a 71-56 home loss to Wake Forest. Yeesh.
• What happened to Belmont? Everyone's favorite mid-major darling -- which returned the lion's share of personnel from last season's 30-5 campaign -- fell 79-78 at USC Upstate on Saturday, dropping to 13-7 overall and 6-2 in the Atlantic Sun to date. The other loss came at home to Lipscomb earlier this month, and all of a sudden the Bruins' expected A-Sun dominance looks entirely vulnerable. Strange times in the Volunteer State.

Xavier center Kenny Frease's listed height is 7-feet. He weighs 270 pounds. His physical presence was imposing before he acquired the shiner on his right eye, the lingering effects from the infamous right-hand blast he received from Cincinnati forward Yancy Gates in the crosstown rivals' ugly Dec. 10 brawl. With the shiner, Frease looks like a UFC heavyweight. If you gave him an earpiece and a black t-shirt, he could be the most intimidating bouncer in the greater Cincinnati area.

But Saturday night, as Frease hunched toward his news conference microphone in the Cintas Center media room, I couldn't help but think the big man looked like he needed a hug.

Frankly, he sounded like it, too.

"I guess they just wanted it more than us, " Frease said, sighing and searching for answers just minutes after his team's 72-65 loss to Gonzaga, in which the Musketeers had been pounded on the offensive glass to the tune of the Bulldogs' 38.9 percent offensive rebounding rate. "I don't know. I really don't know any other explanation. It's not like they were bigger and stronger than us. We just weren't blocking them out."

When a reporter asked the necessary follow-up -- "How could they want it more than you?" -- Frease dug even deeper.

"I really don't know," he said. "Myself included. We all made mistakes tonight. We've got to figure out whatever it was we had before all this stuff went down. Whatever we lost, we've got to figure it out. We've got to get it back."

Frease did most of the talking for himself and teammate Tu Holloway on Saturday night, who stared distantly at a flatscreen TV tuned to Washington's late-night Pac-12 matchup with Oregon. Holloway was in no mood to discuss his team's struggles. He and Frease almost looked shellshocked.

Neither had seemed to notice one rather salient fact about Xavier's loss: The Musketeers shot 3-18 from beyond the arc. Forget rebounding. Forget desire. When you shoot the ball like that, well, it's almost impossible to win. Considering Xavier never went away Saturday, and had a chance to draw close throughout the second half -- in which the Zags made big shot after big shot, many with the shot clock nearly expired -- maybe the outlook needn't be entirely negative. Maybe it was just one of those nights.

Of course, Frease didn't want to hear it.

"There's no comfort in losing," Frease said. "I don't know. There's nothing good that comes from a loss, in my opinion. We have to figure it out. We've got to be ready. We've got conference season coming up. We've got to figure it out."

Frease's analysis is the obvious, easy one. It's tempting to look at Xavier's play in the past three weeks and see the much-ballyhooed (and rightfully so) Cincinnati brawl as an invisible line of demarcation. Before the brawl, Xavier was 8-0 and ranked No. 8 in the country. Since the brawl, the Muskeeters are 1-4. It doesn't take a crack hoops analyst to examine the differences before and after Dec. 10 and concur with Frease's analysis -- to believe this Xavier team is shaken, that it is feeling some form of what David Foster Wallace once called "the constant gnawing sense of having had, and lost, some infinite thing." Toughness. Resolve. Confidence. Whatever that infinite, intangible quality was, the Musketeers could be certainly be accused of having lost it.

That line of analysis is enticing in its simplicity. It's also -- at least partially -- wrong.

Indeed, Xavier has looked out of sorts since the Dec. 10 brawl, but it has had reason to. Its first four games after the brawl included a trip to Hawaii for the Diamond Head Classic, which Xavier opened against a very good mid-major team in Long Beach State. It's possible the 49ers would have won that game against a full-strength Musketeers squad, much less one without shooting guard Mark Lyons and freshman swingman Dez Wells, both of whom were still serving their post-brawl suspensions.

Why? Because the undefeated Musketeers have never been quite as good as advertised this season. The flaws have been obvious, particularly on offense. Xavier barely managed a point per possession in its 66-60 win against Miami (Ohio) on Nov. 18. It needed late comebacks and last-minute heroics from Holloway to steal an otherwise-ugly overtime win at Vanderbilt, and turn around what appeared for 30 minutes to be a blowout home loss to Purdue.

Without those 10 or 15 minutes of inspired, come-from-behind play, the Musketeers lose two early nonconference games, and the distinction between the pre- and post-brawl Musketeers squads becomes far more difficult to draw.

"Everybody that follows our program knows that we weren't perfect at 8-0," Xavier coach Chris Mack said. "But we took our foot off the gas pedal on the defensive end, for whatever reason -- self-inflicted problems, whatever."

If Frease's Saturday proclamations were dire, his coach's were cool-headed and rational. To him, the difference was simple: His team hasn't played the same style of defense as in its first eight games. Why? The brawl-borne distractions and resulting suspensions certainly didn't help, of course, but the defensive downturn isn't wholly attributable to some intangible loss resulting from the overwhelmingly critical response to Xavier's crosstown fisticuffs.

"I told my guys over the time we spent in Hawaii, we lost some things defensively," Mack said. "We went from being a team that was really hard to score against to a team that didn't have it on the defensive end -- for a variety of reasons. [...] When you let habits slip, for a week or two weeks, you're trying to get things back that aren't consistently in place that need to be."

Of course, Mack is hardly thrilled with the slippage. He was also less than pleased with Xavier's offensive intelligence Saturday night, something it struggled with in Hawaii as well. Mack chided unnamed players for trying to "summer league their way" through offensive possessions, resulting in incoherent possessions and unexpected shots. He also took solace in the fact that Xavier, for all of its struggles Saturday night, had merely lost to a good, ranked Gonzaga team. Gonzaga had to make those big shots, after all.

In other words, there are shades of gray here. Has Xavier struggled after the brawl? Absolutely. Were they as good as advertised before Dec. 10? No. Many of the problems Xavier faced Saturday night, or even in those disappointing losses in the Diamond Head (most notably to a bad Hawaii team), were evident long before Gates cracked Frease in the eye, before Lyons and Holloway gave their unrepentant postgame quotes, before Holloway earned (arguably misplaced) scorn for using phrases like "gangsters," "thugs" and the t-shirt-worthy "zip 'em up."

And the season, as Mack said Saturday night, is "a lifetime." Xavier is still the clear favorite to win the Atlantic 10 this season, and as the Musketeers open league play against a conference with few obvious challengers -- Saint Louis being the most notable to date -- it's not hard to envision this team rattling off a few early wins and leaving all this nebulous "What happened to Xavier?" talk in the rearview mirror.

In fact, Xavier did as much in 2010-11, when it started the season 8-5 in nonconference with losses to Old Dominion, Miami (Ohio), Gonzaga, Florida and Cincinnati before rattling off seven straight wins en route to an A-10 title and 15-1 regular season record.

Sure, the comparative post- and pre-brawl records don't look good. But there's much more there -- early struggles in wins, suspensions and distractions, and a plain old ugly shooting night in their fourth loss in give games -- than immediately meets the eye.

"I told the kids in the locker room, the stuff that doesn't kill you only makes you stronger," Mack said. "The only people that I have to worry about my kids believing in is me and vice versa. I have a belief in every single one of my players on both ends of the floor.

"I've got a lot of faith in this program," Mack said. "I don't care who doesn't have faith in this program. I know my kids have it in the locker room, and we'll be fine. [People] were saying the same thing a year ago, if you can remember that. Because I can. I can remember that."

On Saturday, after one of the most graphic and brutal brawls in the history of college basketball, Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin took his seat at the postgame podium. He talked about the game for a few minutes, but by this point no one cared about the game. The brawl was the only thing worth asking about.

After directing some anger at officials, who failed to heed Cronin's warnings about Xavier's players talking to the Cincinnati bench throughout the second half, the coach delivered an impassioned and impressive diatribe on behalf of the game of basketball and his players' place in it.

Among his concerns, Cronin said he hoped he wouldn't be asked to resign. He didn't yet know who among his players would still be able to call himself a Cincinnati Bearcat by Monday morning. He seemed genuinely hurt by what he had just seen, and he appeared to take it as seriously -- if not more so -- than anyone else.

Among Cronin's strongest words were the following:

[+] Enlarge
AP Photo/Al BehrmanTu Holloway was suspended for one game for his role in the fight.

"If my players don’t act the right way they will never play another game at Cincinnati. Right now, I just told my guys, I will meet with my AD and my president and I’m going to decide who is on the team going forward. That is what the University of Cincinnati is about. Period.

"I’ve never been this embarrassed. I’m hoping President Williams doesn’t ask me to resign after that. We represent an institution of higher learning, it’s way more important than basketball games. Whoever puts that jersey back on -- I made everybody take their jersey off and they will not put it on again until they have a full understanding of where they go to school and what the university stands for and how lucky they are to even be there, let alone have a scholarship, because there’s a whole lot of kids that can’t pay for college. And don’t get to go to school. My mom didn’t get to go to UC, she grew up on campus. They couldn’t afford it."

When a reporter asked Cronin if his players were still sitting in the locker room without uniforms, he continued:

"Absolutely, they are all sitting in there with no jersey on. Some of them I physically took them off."

"More important than basketball games." It's a key phrase, and one of many that seemed to indicate Cronin understood just how serious this was.

But tough talk only goes so far. A day later, Cronin and the Bearcats -- alongside their counterparts in crime, coach Chris Mack and the Musketeers -- have proven that at the end of the day few things are more important than basketball games. Especially when conference play is involved.

That's the only conclusion one can draw from the punishments handed out by the two schools, which pale in comparison to what any sane observer would have expected given the ugly nonsense both teams displayed. You've no doubt read Andy Katz's latest report on the ordeal by now, but for the record, the suspensions are as follows: For Cincinnati, Yancy Gates, Cheikh Mbodj and Octavius Ellis are suspended for six games each, while Ge'Lawn Guyn is suspended for one game. For Xavier, Dezmine Wells and walk-on Landen Amos are suspended for four games. Mark Lyons is suspended for two and Tu Holloway for one.

It's remarkable, really. Does a single punishment in that list match what we saw on the floor? Should Gates -- who arguably did more than any collegiate athlete since LeGarrette Blount to deserve a season-long suspension or dismissal from his team -- miss only one Big East game this season? Should Mbodj, who tried to kick Kenny Frease in the head as Frease recovered from Gates' right-hand howitzer, be allowed anywhere near a basketball court in the near future, let alone in time for UC's second conference game on Jan. 4?

And what of Xavier? Forget for a moment Holloway's choice of words in his postgame news conference. (The use of the word "gangster" is easily misinterpreted, and Holloway should never have said it, but anyone with a passing familiarity with the way young people talk could see Holloway was using the word colloquially. He didn't mean "actual gang members who will violently hurt you if you violate our interests." He meant "tough guys.")

That's forgivable. What isn't forgivable are Holloway's and Lyons' actions before and during the fight, when they reveled in a blowout victory by constantly talking to, and instigating dust-ups with, Cincinnati players both on the floor and off. Also unforgivable is the attitude both displayed in the postgame presser, when they essentially chalked it up to "hey, this is our rivalry, you're gonna see stuff like that" and "where we're from, we're not going to let people take shots at us, we're hard core." Cool, guys. You're so hard core.

Holloway even had the gall to recount what one Cincinnati player said about him in a pregame radio interview -- basically, that Holloway wouldn't start for Cincy. What a terrible affront! If that's not the most innocuous piece of trash talk to ever end in a bench-clearing brawl, I don't know what is.

Given the moment, the whole thing was incredibly misguided. And both players -- who just so happen to be Xavier's best -- will not play together for just two games?

The punishments on both sides are toothless, but Cincinnati's decisions are especially surprising. It was not so long ago that Bearcats basketball had the reputation -- well-earned in many ways -- of being a stopover haven for academically apathetic future NBA talents.

The word unfortunately, and frequently, used to describe the low-graduation-rate Bob Huggins-era Bearcats was "thugs." Forget the racial overtones associated with that word. Vaguely racist or not, appropriate or not, it was there -- and Cronin has spent much of his tenure working to make sure UC's basketball team doesn't resemble the ugly overtones of the past. This fight sets that effort back by years.

So perhaps no punishment would fully repair the damage the fight caused. But six games? Six games? It doesn't get anywhere close.

In the wake of Sunday's announcement, Cronin was again talking tough, with admirable overtones of personal responsibility and perspective:

"Before any of them put a uniform back on they will apologize and that's just the first step before putting the uniform back on," Cronin told ESPN.com on Sunday. "Just because the press release says what it says that doesn't mean they're all back. They're going to sit in front of a camera and say how sorry they are and how grateful they are for getting a second chance.

"If I don't believe it then they won't be on the team -- and if they don't demonstrate that they won't ever put on a jersey again -- period," Cronin said. "They're going to sit in front of a camera and say it. I can tell the difference as to how genuine they are. The university issued the suspensions and I supported it. But for me it's different. I have the autonomy to not let anybody back on the team."

But as we saw this weekend, talk is one thing. Actions are another. Cronin can deliver one profound soliloquy after another. They won't change the fact that his -- and the Musketeers' -- punishments don't fit what we saw Saturday.

You can say there are things more important than basketball. But the Bearcats and Musketeers had a chance to deliver the real message with their punishments on Sunday. In the end, that message came through loud and clear: Fighting is bad. Don't fight, guys. We don't like fighting. But -- sshh -- we like losing even less.

If there's another way to interpret the fallout from one of the uglier brawls we've ever seen in college hoops, I'm not sure I can find it.

Can you?

Editor's Note: To read Katz's most up-to-date news story on the Cincinnati-Xavier brawl and its potential consequences, click here.

On Saturday night, Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin decompressed for a few hours with his 5-year-old daughter to get away from the stress of the day -- an ugly day that few in the Queen City will ever forget as UC and Xavier took part in one of the nastiest bench-clearing brawls the sport has ever seen.

“My raw reaction [after watching the video] was embarrassing and sad,’’ Cronin told ESPN.com late Saturday night. “It makes kids look bad. Less than a month ago, Yancy Gates was visiting kids with cancer in the hospital but now look at his image. Everyone has to have consequences, but we’ll see what it’s going to be.’’

Cronin suspended Gates for one game last season, against Pitt on Feb. 5, for a violation of team rules.

“I’ve had no issues with him at all,’’ Cronin said of Gates’ behavior this season. “I don’t know what happened between him and [Xavier center Kenny] Frease in that game. But there was something two years ago when Frease head-butted him. It was a bad scene [this year]. The whole thing is a bad scene."

Cronin said he talked to his team all week about not retaliating to any instigation.

“In my program, we’re going to respect the scholarship and the university,’’ Cronin said. “You’re fortunate to be on scholarship. I’m not naïve. Kids are going to make mistakes. But we’re about to learn that there are consequences for those mistakes. At our school, no matter if they are taunting you the whole game, we’re going to be above that and not react to that. We’re not going to lose our composure and not throw punches at anybody.’’

He said the squawking that was going on from both sides has been brewing for the past three years in the rivalry. Cronin was also upset that the officials working the game didn’t stop the trash-talking. He said implored the officials to do something. He made a point of saying that the only technical given was to Xavier coach Chris Mack. The crew working the game was not a collection of household names in college basketball officiating.

“If guys run their mouth, there should be technicals,’’ Cronin said. “I was begging guys to call Ts. They never did. That was a problem.’’

The first half ended with Xavier’s Mark Lyons jawing with Cincinnati’s bench as players exited toward the other end.

“This has been a two-to-three-year happening,’’ Cronin said. “My message to [the Bearcats] was that these kids have to realize it’s a privilege to be on scholarship.’’

The Bearcats visit Wright State on Wednesday (ESPN2, 7 ET) and Cronin has no idea who will be allowed to play in that game.

The loss to the Musketeers was the third of the season for the Bearcats. Cincinnati, which had already lost at home to Presbyterian and Marshall, was projected as a Big East contender and ranked No. 22 in the preseason.

“From a basketball standpoint, once we find out what is going on with the suspensions then we’ll have to get a couple of practices in and figure out how to win Wednesday, and when we get certain guys back, we’ll have to stay together and weather the storm,’’ Cronin said. “How it all works out, I don’t know.’’

It took a while, but Cronin resurrected the program last season and picked up an NCAA tournament victory over Missouri before receiving a three-year contract extension in April. But this has been unquestionably a dark start to the 2011-12 season.

“This is no fun,’’ Cronin said of this latest challenge. “Anybody can steer a ship through calm waters. We’ll have to find a way to deal with adversity. Whether it takes a week or a season, we’ll come out better for it at the end of the day.’’