ESPN Men's Basketball

A scan of the college basketball box scores each night guarantees all kinds of statistical oddities and standout performances. Here are some we found from Wednesday.

Sam Houston State 50, Northwestern State 37
In what might have been the worst offensive game of the season:

• Northwestern State set an NCAA record for most 3-point attempts without a make by missing all 26 of its 3-point attempts.
• The teams combined to shoot 27-for-64 (42.2 percent) from the free throw line. The 37 combined misses are four more than in any other game this season.
• The two teams combined for seven assists, the second-lowest total of the year.
• Thanks to all the misses, the Bearkats’ Antuan Bootle had 20 rebounds off the bench, only the second player this season with that many rebounds as a non-starter.
• Ten players scored for Northwestern State despite the fact that the Demons scored only 37 points.

High Point 98, Campbell 60
High Point’s Nick Barbour scored 44 points in 32 minutes, tied for the third-highest scoring output this season. No player had scored that many points in 32 minutes or fewer against a Division I opponent since Feb. 13, 2010, when UTEP’s Randy Culpepper scored 45 in 32 minutes against East Carolina.

Northeastern 85, George Mason 82 (OT)
Northeastern’s Jonathan Lee scored 27 points on four field goals (one 3) and 18 free throws. He’s the first player to score that many points on four or fewer made baskets since Evansville’s Colt Ryan scored 28 points on four field goals and 19 free throws on Dec. 23, 2010.

Marshall 66, Houston 58
The Thundering Herd made just 4 of 18 free throws (22.2 percent), the lowest free throw percentage in more than three years for a team with more than 10 attempts. Incidentally, Marshall shot 4-for-18 on 3-pointers as well.

Lafayette 84, Colgate 67
The Leopards made 18 3s in the win, tied for the third-most made 3s by a team this season. They made only 10 2s, becoming the seventh team this year to make at least eight more 3-pointers than 2-pointers.

Sorry, Arizona State. Our bad, Seton Hall. Maybe you can catch a break, Rhode Island. Say bye-bye, Dayton.

Those are the potential consequences of what Houston, a 19-15 regular season team with a losing record in Conference USA, just did to dominant conference champ UTEP. Needing a conference tournament title to steal the C-USA's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, the No. 7-seeded Cougars topped the Miners 81-73 in Tulsa in what is thus far the country's least likely conference tournament winner. March Madness? Houston's got your March Madness right here.

The way Houston won was just as unlikely as the result. The Cougars have the country's leading scorer on their roster -- guard Aubrey Coleman, who averages 26 points per game. But Coleman didn't carry the Cougars against UTEP. Rather, it was fellow guard Kelvin Lewis, who played 39 minutes, scored 28 points, and hit six of his 10 three point attempts in the win. (Coleman added 13 points of his own, but shot a putrid 4-of-20 from the field.)

UTEP acquitted itself well enough in the loss. Forward Derrick Caracter scored 18 points and grabbed nine rebounds, and guard Randy Culpepper scored 20 and added six rebounds. The Miners are a balanced, talented team -- it's not every year a talent like Caracter falls into your lap -- and should still be feared in the tournament.

The real story here, though, is how Houston's unlikely run will affect the handful of bubble teams desperately hoping for as many available at-large bids as possible. One of those bids just went bye-bye; UTEP should not be excluded from the tournament. (To be clear: UTEP belongs in the tournament, and the committee should recognize as much. If they don't, it will be a shame. That's a good team.) So who loses out?

One aside: Does Houston's win improve Memphis' chances? The Cougars beat Josh Pastner's bubble-fied Tigers team on a last-second Coleman shot Thursday. Does Houston's impressive run through the tournament give the Tigers a little more credibility? And is it enough to get them out of the dreaded "first four out" category where they currently reside?

All of that will play out in the next, oh, 24 hours. There are plenty of hoops left. In the meantime, Houston can enjoy the celebration that comes from that most unique of college basketball traditions: the automatic qualifier. Who cares about the regular season, right? It's tournament time, and the just-barely-.500 Cougars will be joining us. What's cooler than that?