ESPN Men's Basketball

It's the day after the draft. For me, that means sitting at my desk, staring at my computer screen, and wondering if what I saw last night unfold last night is really how things went down. In other words, I'm still processing all this.

You know what else the Draft Day Plus 1 means? Listicles. Lots and lots of listicles.

You know what I always say: If you can't beat them -- if you can't think of a similarly efficient content delivery format that doesn't rely so heavily on lists, basically -- join them. Without further ado, here's one of a few college hoops-inclined looks at last night's action. Last but not least: The biggest feel-good picks of the 2011 NBA Draft.

1. Jimmy Butler comes full circle: By now, you've almost certainly heard the story of Jimmy Butler. Still, no matter how many times you read Chad Ford's excellent profile of the newest Chicago Bull -- it's like "The Blind Side" of basketball -- the story doesn't get any less affecting. Still, even before anyone knew his backstory, most college hoops fans respected Butler as an unselfish, versatile worker, a guy who agreed to sublimate his own scoring talent and play out of position in order to help his team win. If you felt some strange twinge of second-hand pride at seeing Butler land a guaranteed contract, well, you weren't the only one.

2. Kenneth Faried's contagious spirit: Watch five minutes of Kenneth Faried playing basketball, and you'll immediately develop an appreciation; Faried competes with the kind of drive few players ever possess, let alone harness. When our own Dana O'Neil spent time with Faried and his family in February, she learned the source of that drive. Faried had a challenging upbringing in rundown Newark and Jersey City. His mother, Waudda, fights an off-and-on battle with lupus that has hospitalized her for months at a time. His transition to college was marked by his effect on others, including a professor who cried when O'Neil asked her about Faried, and who easily recalled an essay he wrote as a freshman on his dream of playing in the NBA. On Thursday night, Faried achieved that dream, doing so in his hometown, surrounded by his family, with his young daughter in his arms. It doesn't get much better than that.

3. Isaiah Thomas proves there's no such thing as Mr. Irrelevant: Year after year, the brash, undersized Washington point guard has listened to people tell him why he wouldn't succeed. Year after year, he's only proved them wrong. Chalk Thursday night up as another chapter in Thomas's saga: Derided by many as too small for the NBA, and criticized by some for leaving school after his junior year, Thomas was indeed drafted anyway. The twist? He had to sweat it out, waiting all the way until the very last pick of the draft to hear his name called. Thomas's next step? Proving he belongs. Would you bet against him?

4. The Morris family's big, bittersweet night: The Morii haven't always been the most sympathetic characters in college hoops, and they certainly weren't shy about their confidence in the weeks before Thursday night's draft. But perhaps only the staunchest Missouri fans could have viewed the twins' back-to-back selections with an acid eye. Surprisingly, Markieff Morris was the first of the two to be selected at No. 13 by the Phoenix Suns. Markieff and his brother hugged, did their patented handshake, and just as Markieff took the stage to shake hands with NBA commissioner David Stern, the camera panned to Marcus, sitting in his chair, crying his eyes out. It was a bittersweet moment. For the first time, the twins -- who have always played, lived, and gotten tattoos together -- will separate. As happy as he must have been, Marcus, who was public in his discomfort with the separation, seemed to be processing that fact for the first time.

Then, with the very next pick, the Houston Rockets selected the other Morris. In that way, the NBA draft was just like the rest of the Morii's lives: They did it together.

5. The Purdue duo reunites: Both Purdue players in the draft, E'Twaun Moore and JaJuan Johnson, were selected by the Boston Celtics Thursday night. Why is this so cool? It's not just because the two close friends get to keep being teammates. It's also because now, Moore and Johnson -- both of whom are high-character, mild-mannered workers -- will have the chance to chase a title together in the NBA, something Robbie Hummel's cruel ACL tears robbed them of in two straight collegiate seasons at Purdue. Thus far, the Celtics seem intent on keeping both players around, at least for the immediate future. If so, the two could be key role players in Boston's last-ditch attempt at an NBA title run in 2012. How cool is that?

Rapper Wiz Khalifa performed at Purdue in a concert that doubled as a farewell to departing star seniors E'Twaun Moore and JaJuan Johnson on Thursday.

According to the Purdue Exponent, the players helped make the concert attended by about 3,000 students happen by working their connections.

Khalifa, who met Johnson and Moore three years ago at Indiana University's Little 500 race, watched them during the NCAA tournament.

"He definitely knows who they are," said DaJaun Watkins, concert manager. "He was rooting for the guys all the way."

Johnson told Watkins that after four years of hard work, he and Moore wanted to have fun but still be connected to Purdue after graduation.

"They wanted to go out senior year with a bang, so Wiz it was," Watkins said.

Khalifa, known for his ubiquitous hit "Black and Yellow," also apparently inspired Moore and Johnson this season. According to The Exponent, their motto has been "Boiler Gang Over Everythang," a nod to Khalifa's Taylor Gang fan club.

Senior basketball forward Robbie Hummel knew about senior forward/center JaJuan Johnson and senior guard E'Twaun Moore's motto, "Boiler Gang Over Everythang," long before it became the show's official slogan.

"They always wrote (the slogan) in the locker room before games and stuff," Hummel said. "I was like, 'I don't know who that is.'"

Seeing the slogan they coined plastered on concert T-shirts and tickets left Moore and Johnson in all smiles.

The only problem with all this? Khalifa also inspired a theme song remix for VCU, the team with similar colors that ended the careers of those Purdue seniors in the NCAA tournament.

Remember back in October, when North Carolina's Harrison Barnes became the first freshman to be selected as a preseason first-team AP All-American? Many thought Barnes was merely overhyped. That was probably true (though Barnes did live up to his advance billing before long).

But hype was only part of the AP's hive-minded reasoning. Just as important was the desire to accurately predict the postseason list, which had in many ways become dominated by the top recruits in each year's class. John Wall, Demarcus Cousins, Derrick Rose, Kevin Durant: There was bound to be a freshman on the list by the end of the season, so why not put one on in the preseason?

The idea wasn't wrong. The player was. In the end, Ohio State's Jared Sullinger became this year's lone freshman to grace the AP All-American first team, a deserving honor after a dominant season for the nation's best regular-season team.

In the end, though, this year's All-Americans were not defined by youth. Instead, this list is defined by its seniority.

Three of the AP's first-team -- BYU guard Jimmer Fredette, Duke guard Nolan Smith, and Purdue forward JaJuan Johnson -- were seniors in 2010-11. UConn's Kemba Walker was a junior. The three seniors are the most since the 2006 team, which had four.

What about the player of the year awards? The first, the USBWA's Oscar Robertson Trophy, went to a senior, too. That senior was no surprise: It's Jimmer Fredette.

Expect to hear plenty of arguments on Fredette's worthiness in the coming week. After all, the nation's other main candidate for the award -- Walker -- has played his best hoops in March and guided his team to the Final Four, while Fredette fell in the Elite Eight to Florida. But the end-of-season awards don't factor in postseason performance; much of the voting is complete before the NCAA tournament even begins.

Whether that's the best way to do it or not is up for debate. I tend to think it is, if only because voters can be irrationally swayed by tournament results, and college hoops has already marginalized its regular season. Either way, though, it's hard to argue that Fredette wasn't the best, most consistent and most entertaining player in the college game this season. Title run or not, we'll always remember him as such. And he'll have the hardware to prove it.

No. 11 seed VCU (25-11) vs. No. 3 seed Purdue (26-7) 7:10 p.m. ET (TBS)

How they got here: Purdue blew out No. 14 seed St. Peter's. Virginia Commonwealth, after disposing of USC in Dayton, blew out No. 6 seed Georgetown. One of those results was a major surprise. It wasn’t shocking to see the Rams beat Georgetown -- that seemed like a plausible result, given the Hoyas’ late-season struggles -- but it was a shock to see VCU so thoroughly handle their battle-tested Big East foes. Coupled with VCU’s win against the Trojans and its deep run in the CAA tournament in early March, it’s safe to call the Rams one of the nation’s hottest, most confident teams.

Storyline: VCU coach Shaka Smart hasn’t shied away from that age-old classic coaching chestnut: “No one believed in us.” Smart has boosted his athletic Rams into the round of 32 by capitalizing on that discontent; he even showed his players a video of ESPN’s Joe Lunardi saying the Rams “couldn’t defend me” in advance of Friday night’s game. But after the dominating win over the Hoyas, can the Rams really say no one believes in them? Or will they find -- or create -- more disrespect to fuel their fire?

Players to watch: Purdue forward JaJuan Johnson and Purdue guard E'Twaun Moore are always players to watch. The Boilers are built around their two stars, and the explanation for their consistent excellence in 2010 and 2011 starts with both. But Purdue can’t rely only on their stars. They’ll also need big games from Ryne Smith and Lewis Jackson. Jackson will be crucial. VCU’s pressing defense put Georgetown in uncomfortable situations from the opening tip Friday night. The lightning-quick Jackson will have to handle that pressure competently.

Meanwhile, the Rams’ pressure will be a major focus of their attack, and to turn that up-tempo play into points, they’ll need to get another big game from point guard Joey Rodriguez and another hot shooting night from guard Brandon Rozzell.

What to look for: A battle of styles. It’s no secret Purdue comes from the slow-down, grind-it-out Big Ten, and the Boilermakers’ success has always come in the half court. Purdue’s offense is classic patient motion. Its defense is designed around checking opponents with aggressive half court man-to-man. VCU, on the other hand, likes to force an up-tempo style; the Rams like to press, force turnovers, run at the rim and make the game as skittish and unpredictable as possible. The first few minutes will be key. Purdue has to assert itself much more soundly than Georgetown did if Matt Painter’s team want to keep the Rams from controlling the game’s trajectory.

Quoteable: “Any time somebody presses you, you've got to be able to attack when it's there and be under control and take good shots. When it's not there, be able to run half-court offense. But that is the theme of a pressing team. They're trying to get you to get at a speed you're not used to. You've got to play fast but under control.” -- Purdue coach Matt Painter

No. 10 seed Florida State (22-10) vs. No. 2 seed Notre Dame (27-6) 9:40 p.m. ET (TBS)

How they got here: Notre Dame got a bit of a test from pesky 15-seed Akron on Friday, but the Fighting Irish eventually put the Zips away in the second half. Florida State, on the other hand, had a much tougher path. The Seminoles relied on their trademark defense to stall No. 7-seed Texas A&M 57-50. It was one of the tournament’s ugliest games, but it was plenty pretty to the Noles.

Storyline: It sounds weird, but in some ways, the Irish are still fighting for respect. Many -- including President Barack Obama -- believe Purdue is the team to beat in the bottom half of the Southwest region despite the Irish’s stellar offense and 14-4 finish in the rough-and-tumble Big East. This veteran team has its sights set on the highest of postseason goals. But first they have to find a way to score against Florida State.

Players to watch: Ben Hansbrough is the Big East player of the year. The reasons for that honor -- Hansbrough manages to be both an efficient scorer and a fantastic distributor, not to mention this team’s de facto leader -- are not mysterious. Hansbrough didn’t play well against Akron, but he didn’t really need to. Facing one of the nation’s top defenses, he will have to be comprehensively good on Friday. Also keep an eye on ND forward Scott Martin, who adds a crucial mid-range scoring option to a stacked group of perimeter shooters.

On Friday, Florida State forward Chris Singleton played his first game since a Feb. 19 foot injury. While he wasn’t at full strength, he did contribute a key 3-pointer to help FSU fend off a second-half A&M run. Singleton is likely to get more time Sunday, and his unique mix of hyper-athletic defense and creative offense could be the difference for the Seminoles.

What to look for: Perhaps the best offense-versus-defense matchup of the entire tournament. Per Ken Pomeroy’s adjusted efficiency metric, Notre Dame’s offense is the third-best unit in the entire country. By the same standard, Florida State’s defense is the single stingiest in the nation. It’s strength versus strength, and whoever can execute at the opposite end -- can Florida State’s ugly offense get buckets against ND’s so-so defense? -- will be the winner.

Quotable: "I don't know about it. I was very young then and wasn't really paying attention to stuff like that.” -- Florida State guard Derwin Kitchen on whether he was familiar with the classic 1993 Notre Dame-Florida State football game.

CHICAGO -- A look at the night games being held here at the United Center:

No. 14 seed St. Peter's (20-13) vs. No. 3 seed Purdue (25-7), 7:20 p.m. ET (TNT)

How they got here: Few teams have succeeded despite adversity quite as well as the 2011 Boilermakers. In October, Purdue lost star senior Robbie Hummel to his second torn ACL in eight months. Purdue coach Matt Painter was forced to recalibrate a team that had suddenly gone from a top-five national title contender to a team with two stars -- E'Twaun Moore and JaJuan Johnson -- and a lot of unheralded complementary pieces. Painter has succeeded in spades, and though Purdue fans may always wonder what could have been, it’s remarkable that this team still has a legitimate chance to reach the Final Four all the same. They’ll begin that quest against St. Peter’s, who finished fourth in the MAAC but toppled Loyola-Maryland, Fairfield and Iona on the way to a conference tournament title and an automatic NCAA berth.

Players to watch: Johnson and Moore are well-known to any casual college hoops fan, and it’s no secret Purdue’s stars have to excel on both ends of the floor for Purdue to succeed. But the Boilermakers also built success on the backs of role players this season. Lewis Jackson runs the show at the point, Ryne Smith -- who suffered a mild concussion this week but will play Friday -- is a deadly long-range shooter, and D.J. Byrd and Terone Johnson provide versatility and defense at the forward and guard spots.

One player missing from that list? Guard Kelsey Barlow, whom Painter suspended this week for disciplinary reasons. (Smith’s concussion and Barlow’s dismissal were not connected, as some speculated; on Thursday Painter confirmed Smith caught an inadvertent elbow from Moore in practice.) Whatever the reason for Barlow’s absence, the Boilermakers will have to spread their minutes and make up for Barlow’s unique ability to guard a variety of positions in Purdue’s pressing man-to-man.

What to look for: Can Purdue right the ship? The Boilermakers ended an otherwise peerless Big Ten season with back-to-back losses (at Iowa, to Michigan State in the Big Ten tournament). Will Purdue’s shots start falling again? How will Barlow’s absence affect Purdue’s defense, if at all? The first question could yield legitimate answers; surprisingly enough St. Peter’s boasts a top 20 defense per adjusted efficiency. The second question may be more difficult to gauge, as the Peacocks are among the nation’s worst offensive teams. But the shorthanded Boilermakers could go a long way toward proving itself to suddenly skeptical fans by handling a sneaky-tough No. 14 seed Friday.

Quotable: “It's kind of cool, I guess, in a way, that the President picks us to go to Elite Eight. But it's the reason that you play the games. I guess those people that they have us beating, I know they're not probably too happy about that.” -- Purdue forward Johnson on President Barack Obama’s prediction that Purdue will advance to the Elite Eight.

No. 11 seed VCU (24-11) vs. No. 6 seed Georgetown (21-10), 9:50 p.m. ET (TNT)

How they got here: Georgetown’s path to the tournament was never in doubt. But thanks to an untimely injury to starting point guard Chris Wright, the Hoyas lost their last four games down the stretch and, averaged 51.5 points per game in that span. Wright’s injury derailed a major mid-season surge; after starting 1-4 in Big East play, Georgetown won eight straight Big East games from Jan. 15 to Feb. 13, including a reputation-making win at Syracuse on Feb. 9. VCU, on the other hand, took the long road to the tournament. The Rams were one of the last four at-large teams included in this year’s field -- much to the chagrin of those who believed Colorado and Virginia Tech were more deserving -- but Shaka Smart’s team made the most of the opportunity with its win over USC in Dayton Wednesday night.

Players to watch: “Key player” is too understated a term for Wright. “Lifeblood” is more accurate. Wright isn’t Georgetown’s best or most efficient player; that honor goes to preseason Big East player of the year Austin Freeman. But the past three weeks have offered a clear picture of how Wright’s absence affects the Hoyas, and the picture isn’t pretty. The Georgetown guard responded well to four straight days of full practice this week, and the Hoyas will be glad to have him on the court. Defensively, Georgetown will be keen to stop VCU’s Jamie Skeen, a former Wake Forest transfer who has the size, athleticism and skill to play in the post or stretch defenses with the perimeter shot.

What to look for: It’s never a surprise when a team that loses its point guard struggles to maintain its prior level of play, but it is rare to see a team fall off so far without one player. But it’s really rather simple. With Wright, the Hoyas were one of the Big East’s best teams. Without him, they were barely mediocre. Wright’s presence could be the difference between an early exit and a deep tourney run, but is he really at full strength? And if not, can the Hoyas hold off a hot VCU team that rolled to the CAA tournament final and manhandled an athletic USC team?

Quotable: “Stairmaster. I think I was on a stairmaster, which is probably harder than anything I’ve ever had to do. That's very hard. I don't want to do it anymore.” -- Georgetown guard Chris Wright, on what he did to stay in shape during rehab.

Yes, the 2011 John R. Wooden Award finalists are here. The award is organized by the Los Angeles Athletic Club and voted on by "nearly 1,000 members of the media that cover college basketball," and if you're surprised at the idea that there are 1,000 college hoops writers in the world, well, you're not the only one. (Lots of those ballots go to columnists and generalists who don't specifically cover the sport year-round ... but that's a topic for another blog post on another day.)

Who made the cut? The list is below, and it includes pretty much everyone you'd expect from a list of college hoops' best and brighest individual stars. The rundown:

• Marshon Brooks, guard, Providence
• Alec Burks, guard, Colorado
• Norris Cole, guard, Cleveland State
• Kenneth Faried, forward, Morehead State
• Jimmer Fredette* guard, Brigham Young
• Jordan Hamilton, forward, Texas
• Ben Hansbrough, guard, Notre Dame
• Dwight Hardy, guard, St. John’s
• JaJuan Johnson, guard Purdue Big Ten
• Kawhi Leonard, forward, San Diego State
• Jon Leuer, forward, Wisconsin
• E’Twaun Moore, guard, Purdue
• Marcus Morris, forward, Kansas
• Jacob Pullen, guard, Kansas State
• Kyle Singler, forward, Duke
• Nolan Smith, guard, Duke
• Jared Sullinger, forward, Ohio State
• Jordan Taylor, guard, Wisconsin
• Kemba Walker, guard, Connecticut
• Derrick Williams, forward, Arizona

Well, done, Los Angeles Athletic Club. That is a borderline peerless list.

But it isn't perfect. The most notable omission (perhaps the only notable omission) is Kentucky forward Terrence Jones, who has been one of the best players in the country throughout the season. Ken Pomeroy's latest player of the year award list ranks Jones as the eighth-most productive player in the country this season, and while Pomeroy's POY metric doesn't account entirely for the defensive side of the ball, player of the year awards are never all that concerned with the defensive end -- Brooks and Burks probably wouldn't be on the list above if they were -- so Pomeroy's list is as good a statistical look as we have. And, well, yeah: Jones should be among the Wooden candidates. There's really no getting around it.

That said, his omission isn't criminal. Jones deserves some POY consideration, but let's be real: He's not winning the award. Nor are 19 of the players listed above. Unless something radical changes, Fredette is going to win the Wooden and Naismith player of the year awards. If the voting does change anytime soon, the award is likely to go to Walker, Smith, or Sullinger.

In other words, this list has all the usual suspects. We'll see if any of the candidates has time to unseat the Jimmer in the weeks to come. It's unlikely ... but, hey, you never know.

Quick hitters on the bracket:

• The First Four will be a good watch. Well, at least the two games involving bubble teams. USC has proved it can beat just about anyone in the field. The matchup against VCU will be one of the better early-round games. Clemson is one of the toughest defensive teams in the field and UAB is one of the more controversial picks. Oh, and Kevin O'Neill has been reinstated to coach the Trojans, meaning there are plenty of storylines in Dayton on Tuesday and Wednesday.

• I liked Oakland as a possible Sweet 16 team when I watched the Golden Grizzlies early in the season, but once again it's all about matchups. I don't like Oakland beating Texas because of the Longhorns' ability to defend on the perimeter.

• Wisconsin couldn't have drawn a worse matchup than sneaky-good Belmont. The Bruins can win a first-round game. The Badgers struggled against Wofford and Cornell last season and now Mike Bruesewitz is hurt. This isn't a positive draw for Wisconsin.

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Don McPeak/US PRESSWIREIan Clark and No. 13-seeded Belmont could be a tough out for Wisconsin.
• The committee doesn't play the matchup game. But geez, how odd is it that Memphis coach Josh Pastner, who played and coached at Arizona, has his first game as a head coach in the NCAA tournament against Arizona? UCLA and Ben Howland against Michigan State and Tom Izzo on the first day? Wow. It would have been hard to predict that in the preseason.

• There will be blood during the Butler-Old Dominion 8-9 game in D.C. This is going to be a battle with two teams that like to grind defensively.

• Florida State's Chris Singleton told me after the loss to Virginia Tech that he could have played in the ACC tournament but it was coach Leonard Hamilton's decision. He said he is going to play in the NCAA tourney. If he does, the Seminoles should beat Texas A&M.

• Georgetown's Chris Wright said he's playing in the NCAAs. But the Hoyas didn't get an easy draw. The Hoyas have to prep for two different styles in USC and Virginia Commonwealth. The better matchup for Georgetown would be VCU. USC has the bigs in Nikola Vucevic and Alex Stepheson that could cause problems for the Hoyas in the second round.

• The two toughest teams to predict in the Southwest Regional are playing in the 8-9 game. UNLV and Illinois have shown flashes of playing at a high level or looking very pedestrian. Neither team can beat Kansas.

• Vanderbilt can't catch a break. The Commodores drew hot mid-majors Siena and Murray State in recent tournaments and lost to both in the first round. Richmond is on a roll right now with the A-10 title win. The Spiders will be a trendy 12-5 upset pick.

• A Purdue-Notre Dame Sweet 16 game in San Antonio would be an intense affair. JaJuan Johnson and Ben Hansbrough have the ability to put up monster numbers. But whoever wins that game will probably fall to Kansas. That's my pick.

• Utah State finally may win a first-round game. The Aggies have been playing do-or-die type affairs for weeks with little margin for error. Kansas State was a bad stock to buy since the Wildcats have been all over the map. The Aggies have the personnel to get to the Sweet 16 and if Belmont were to upset Wisconsin, or even if it didn't, a win over K-State could pave the way for Utah State to get to New Orleans.

• Pitt should breeze to the Elite Eight. I'll be surprised if it doesn't get to its first Final Four since 1941.

• Gonzaga got an 11-seed, but got St. John's sans D.J. Kennedy. The Red Storm started the season losing to a WCC team at Saint Mary's and I think they'll end it losing to a WCC team in the Zags.

• Jimmer Fredette could pull a Stephen Curry and lead BYU to the Elite Eight. The reason? The bracket is winnable for the Cougars. UCLA and Michigan State aren't getting out of the first weekend and Florida is beatable.

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Ethan Miller/Getty ImagesBYU's Jimmer Fredette is the kind of player who can carry a team on a deep tournament run.
• For much of the last two months, George Mason was a popular pick to go far in the NCAA tournament. But the matchups aren't favorable after Villanova. Ohio State has too much balance and strength inside for the Patriots.

• Princeton can cause Kentucky's younger players problems, but the Wildcats have figured out how to play together more consistently. A Kentucky-Ohio State Sweet 16 game in Newark would be a tough ticket.

• Marquette isn't playing well enough for me to buy into the Golden Eagles, but Tu Holloway can lead Xavier for a few rounds.

• If Syracuse plays up to its potential, this bracket could open up for the Orange to at least get to the Sweet 16.

• Isaiah Thomas proved he can be like Kemba Walker and Fredette, and make game-winning shots. Who takes that shot for Georgia?

• North Carolina didn't defend well against Duke on Sunday in the ACC tournament but the Tar Heels will not lose in Charlotte. No way. The Tar Heels will be playing at home for two games. Book them to Newark.

• If the Elite Eight game is Ohio State against North Carolina, the NBA scouts will drool with Jared Sullinger against the bigs of Tyler Zeller and John Henson in addition to Harrison Barnes going against the host of wings of OSU.

• I thought UNC could get to Houston, but I don't like the Tar Heels getting past the Buckeyes. It's all about matchups.

• Paging Tennessee? Part of me is convinced the Vols are in position to be the most dangerous No. 9 seed. If the Vols play up to their potential, they could beat Michigan and Duke to get to the Sweet 16. But Tennessee could also lose badly to Michigan and the Wolverines' 1-3-1 defense.

• Texas is a No. 4 after projecting as a No. 1 a few weeks ago. Which Texas team will show? If it's the one that is sharing the ball, defending and has Jordan Hamilton taking quality shots, then the Longhorns can knock off Duke and be on the doorstep of playing as host in Houston.

• The bottom part of the West bracket will be about Kemba Walker. The UConn star led the Huskies to an incredible five-game run in the Big East tournament. Can he do it again in the NCAA tournament? Playing either Cincinnati or Missouri, assuming the Huskies beat Bucknell, is a good draw.

• How about Temple playing Penn State, two schools from Pennsylvania playing in Tucson, and Louisville and Morehead State, two schools from the state of Kentucky, playing in Denver?

• I'm done doubting Louisville's Rick Pitino. This Cardinals team has shot down every question and continues to win. The Cards could be playing Kansas in the Sweet 16 in San Antonio. Talk about a fun game.

• San Diego State was treated well by the NCAA tournament committee. The Aztecs earned a No. 2 seed by losing to only one team -- even though it was twice -- in BYU. The Aztecs will play in Tucson and then possibly Anaheim. I like their experience, defense, fast tempo and half-court game. If D.J. Gay is on, especially defensively against elite guards in this bracket, then the Aztecs can advance. They're the one team not on the No. 1 line that I have getting to Houston.

• This bracket will be dominated by star players having headline games, just like we saw during Championship Week.

• We should see plenty of upsets, but when the Final Four is upon us in a few weeks, I don't see Ohio State or Kansas losing. I'm less confident in Pitt, but the Panthers have a favorable bracket. I'm going with OSU, KU, Pitt and SDSU.

JaJuan Johnson scored 20, lifting the Boilermakers to an easy road victory.

JaJuan Johnson and No. 12 Purdue knock off Illinois on the road.

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The intent was to pose the question delicately, to gently ask Aaron Craft whether or not he wondered if people thought Ohio State assumed the No. 1 ranking rather than ascended to it.

Instead, Craft cut away the pretense and the politeness. “Yeah, like we’re there by default,’’ he said.

Well yeah, like that.

“There are always going to be people who doubts whoever is at the top,’’ the OSU freshman said. “We don’t really worry about that. We can’t change what people think.’’

Actually, maybe Ohio State can.

And did.

The Buckeyes’ 87-64 thumping/throttling/thrashing -- pick your painful verb of choice -- of Purdue should at least cause the critics to pause. This was a demolition derby destruction of what many people considered the second-best team in the Big Ten, a team that came to Columbus with just one conference loss and a No. 12 ranking.

And the Bucks treated the Boilermakers like an exhibition game opponent.

While the rest of the country sputtered and spurted its way through the past few days -- down goes Kansas, Syracuse swoons to its third loss in a row, Pitt loses at home -- Ohio State counter-punched with its best effort of the season.

Maybe its best game in years.

After feasting on the weaker half of the Big Ten, the Buckeyes now are starting to chomp away at the upper echelon and the wins have become more, not less, impressive. The comeback against Illinois on the road showed this team’s tenacity and the overpowering win here showed its might.

And whether they were trying to send a message or not, consecutive win No. 21 was a resounding statement to the critics who didn’t believe the Buckeyes really had the stuff of a No. 1.

“We gave a loaded answer to those questions,’’ said OSU freshman Jared Sullinger, who had 17 points and seven rebounds in 27 minutes.

The players and Thad Matta waxed eloquent about the double effort the Buckeyes gave, a smothering effort on the defensive end and an equally overwhelming job on the offensive side.

No question, they were right.

The Boilermakers looked almost tentative in the face of Ohio State’s swarm, wheezing themselves into a 22-9 hole early. The Bucks all but conceded that JaJuan Johnson and E'Twaun Moore would get theirs -- and they did, Johnson with 22 and Moore with 16 -- but after that?

Nothing.

The rest of the Boilers shot 11-of-33.

And using that defense to spur the offense, the Buckeyes blistered a Purdue team that routinely hangs its hat on defense.

The Boilermakers came in ranked 12th in the nation in scoring defense, allowing only 59.4 points a game. Ohio State hung 87 on them, the most points a Purdue team has given up in nearly two years, dating back to an 87-78 loss to Michigan on Feb. 26, 2009.

“We were all about defense in this game,’’ Sullinger said. “As long as we defend, we can be a very special team.’’

But perhaps the most telling number was this one: six. That’s how many Ohio State players finished in double-figures. Fairly or unfairly, these Buckeyes have been regarded as Jared Sullinger and his Backup Singers. The fabulous freshman has earned every bit of the attention he’s been granted, but the big boy’s big numbers have cast a shadow over his teammates.

In theory, you stop Sullinger and you can stop the Buckeyes.

And you can now put that theory right next to that flat Earth notion.

To start the game, Purdue doubled Sullinger every time he touched the ball, with Travis Carroll taking Sullinger on in the post and Johnson sliding down to help.

Except along with being a load under the basket, Sullinger is also a deft passer -- “He’s wise behind his years the way he can pass,’’ David Lighty said -- and he’s perfectly content to be unselfish.

So every time, Sullinger merely kicked the ball out and almost every time, his wide-open shooters sunk their wide-open 3-point shots. Ohio State hit 5 of 6 from behind the arc out of the gate and finished 11-of-19 for the game. (It got so silly that even Sullinger got in the action. He hit a trey himself.)

“There’s no absolute on how to defend him,’’ Purdue coach Matt Painter said of Sullinger. “If you’re able to get into him and pressure him, you might be able to disrupt him. But if you don’t, that’s how they start picking you apart and they get into that flow.’’

William Buford was the recipient of much of Sullinger’s benevolence. The junior finished with a team-high 19 points, draining 5 of 6 from 3, as well as a lesson on the use of the ellipses from his coach.

Buford twisted his ankle in the Buckeyes’ win at Illinois on Saturday. X-rays revealed no problems and Matta dismissed it as ‘nothing major’ on the Big Ten conference call on Monday. Still, the coach wanted to make sure Buford was all right before the team’s shootaround on Tuesday.

“I sent him a text and asked how he was feeling,’’ Matta said. “And he wrote back, ‘A little sore, dot, dot dot.’’ I said, ‘You don’t dot dot dot me. So we had a long conversation about what dot dot dot means.’’

A delighted Matta admitted he’d never seen quite a box score like the one laid before him after the game -- “It’s rare because I’ve never seen 21-0 before,’’ he said -- and was quick to caution people to not judge Purdue on this loss.

He was, however, less eager to put this win into context for Ohio State.

But Matta is no dummy. He knows he has something special here.

This is a team that is supposed to be wilting under the pressure of a No. 1 ranking and an undefeated record and instead in the postgame, the Buckeyes were promising (threatening?) that more scoreboard music videos were coming.

They are either blissfully ignorant of what they are doing or completely unaffected.

“I think where they have us right now, we are being judged,’’ Matta said.

True, but perhaps a little less harshly now.

ESPN.com's Andy Katz talks with Purdue's JaJuan Johnson prior to the Ohio State-Purdue game in Columbus on Tuesday.

The pregame billing will, understandably, tab the Ohio State-Purdue game as A Battle of The Game’s Best Big Men (insert thunder clapping and really cool announcer voice here).

Jared Sullinger and JaJuan Johnson are arguably the two most productive big men in the country and they are the main reasons the Buckeyes and Boilermakers have enjoyed the success they’ve had this season.

But this isn’t exactly Russell versus Chamberlain.

It’s not even Oden versus Hibbert.

Sullinger and Johnson may occupy the same place on the court, but that is about where the similarities between the two begin and end.

“From a standpoint that you’ve got two great players going against each other in a game like this, it’s great for our league,’’ Ohio State coach Thad Matta said. “I understand why people talk about it like they do, but there are a lot of differences between these two. It should be interesting as it unfolds.’’

Sullinger is a prodigy, a man-child who looks and plays an awful lot older than 18.

Kyrie Irving and Harrison Barnes may have stolen the preseason hype machine, but it was Sullinger who was named Naismith player of the year in high school. The fact that he’s averaging 17.9 points and 10 boards isn’t so much a surprise as it is just a matter of fulfilling expectations.

“His body and his mind were ahead,’’ Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan said of Sullinger. “You could tell that in high school. You knew he was definitely ready to play at this level.’’

Johnson, meantime, was a top-50 player out of high school who arrived on the Purdue campus minus the bells and whistles that accompany top-five players.

A solid and reliable scorer through his junior year, Johnson was in fact named a preseason All-American, but very few saw this -- 20.5 points per game, 7.9 rebounds -- coming for his senior season. But it couldn’t have come at a better time after teammate Robbie Hummel re-injured his knee and was lost for the season on the first full day of practice in October.

“He’s not a guy who has been a leading scorer in the past, so he doesn’t have the experience of success when the ball is going through him,’’ Purdue coach Matt Painter said. “He could always score, but he wasn’t getting the consistent touches that we make sure we get him. It’s that confidence that has been the last piece for him. He believes he can be productive every night.’’

It is how Johnson is productive, though, that really separates him from Sullinger.

Sullinger is, and I mean this in the most flattering sense, a load. He may have the lowest center of gravity this side of Earth’s core. If he can’t get around you, he can and will barrel through you, a power player in the true sense of the word.

Johnson is more finesse, more apt to turn away from the basket and sink a jump shot than deliver a body blow underneath. He’s also much more of a threat away from the basket and even on the perimeter -- he’s hit seven 3-pointers to one for Sullinger.

“He can trail in transition, catch and shoot a 17- or 18-foot jump shot,’’ said Penn State coach Ed DeChellis, who watched Johnson burn the Nittany Lions for 25 points, including the game-winner with three seconds to play last week. “Sometimes he can be even harder to guard because he’s such a long guy.’’

So the question is: In the Battle of the Best Big Men in the Country, whose style wins out?

No one on the Big Ten coaches teleconference on Monday morning was terribly interested in predictions, but most everyone agrees that The Battle of the Best Big Men in the Country, while something of a misnomer, will still be awfully fun to watch.

“It’s going to be a great game,’’ Ryan said. “Ohio State with Sullinger and Purdue without Johnson? It’s not even close.’’

Saddle Up is our semi-daily preview of the night's best basketball action. It thinks you should check out Quickish, because Quickish is pretty great.

No. 8 Purdue at No. 25 Minnesota, 7 p.m. EST, ESPN: Minnesota forward Trevor Mbakwe spent time in jail this week. For a while there, it appeared Mbakwe -- who missed all of last season while facing felony battery charges stemming from a incident during his time at Miami-Dade Community College -- was not only jeopardizing Minnesota's once-promising season with yet another legal foul-up, but nearing the brink of personal and professional destruction. And all because of Facebook.

A few days later, and Minnesota's season outlook doesn't look nearly as bleak. As it turns out, Mbakwe's message to his ex-girlfriend was inadvisable and nothing more. No, Mbakwe shouldn't have attempted to contact someone who went to very obvious legal means to prevent such contact. But the message in question -- an apology, followed by some boilerplate "hope you're doing OK, everything's good here" ex-boyfriend-style stuff -- was hardly the worst thing in the world.

In the end, Mbakwe -- Minnesota's best player -- won't miss any games. He's been relegated to the bench for tonight's home game against Purdue, but will suffer little else in the way of discipline. That's good news for him, and good news for the Gophers. Why? Tubby Smith's team has officially reached "go-time."

The Gophers haven't begun the Big Ten season well, but that's arguably more a product of a front-loaded schedule than any indictment of the team's performance to date. Minnesota has played at Wisconsin, at Michigan State, and at Ohio State, with only a brief home respite vs. Indiana sandwiched in between. That's probably the toughest four-game slate of Minnesota's schedule, and its record has suffered accordingly. But it's not time to panic yet.

Nor will it be time to panic if Minnesota loses tonight's home game with Purdue. While Smith's team has been struggling, Purdue has been playing some of the best major-conference basketball in the country. The Boilermakers have added a third scorer -- standstill sharpshooter Ryne Smith -- to the potent inside-out attack of dueling Big Ten player of the year candidates E'Twaun Moore and JaJuan Johnson, and that combination has been lethal so far. Home or not, this is a tough draw for Minnesota, a team that hasn't performed nearly as well as Purdue on a per-possession basis inside its league or out.

In other words, this isn't a must-win. Minnesota has plenty of easier opponents left. But it feels like an important game for these Gophers, not only because of Mbakwe's legal scare this week. A win against Purdue would boost Minnesota's reputation in ways we haven't seen since the team's strong run through the Puerto Rico Invitational in November. It would announce the Gophers yet again as a team to be reckoned with in the Big Ten, as a vastly improved bunch capable of hanging with the Big Ten's elite. And, perhaps most importantly, it would be a nice springboard for the rest of January, when Minnesota will play vs. Iowa, at Michigan, and vs. Northwestern in its next three games.

Everyone's been getting in on the conference road-loss game. This week has seen a multitude of top teams lose to strong opponents on the road. The same thing can happen tonight, and even if the Gophers still have plenty of time to sort through this jumbled mess of a season, well, what better time to start than now?

Everywhere else: Quality ACC game alert (I feel the need to write "alert," because it doesn't happen often this season): Virginia Tech and North Carolina will duel over second-tier league supremacy in Chapel Hill on Thursday night. ... No. 18 Washington continues its impressive run through the Pac-10 thus far with a game at 9-5 Stanford tonight. ... Providence travels to West Virginia for a nationally televised (ESPN2) Big East contest. ... Kevin Anderson and company will look to stay perfect in the A-10 when Rhode Island visits Richmond. ... Old Dominion and Drexel square off in the best mid-major game of the night, and one that could eventually decide the Colonial's regular-season title. ... UCLA will try to avoid the problems that befall other teams against Oregon State when the Bruins travel to Corvallis, Ore. ... USC will hope it enters the Matthew Knight Arena history books as the first team to beat the Ducks in their shiny new arena. ... Washington State is one of the few non-Washington teams in the title chase; the Cougars play at Cal. ... And if you thought Mississippi State, and not Mississippi, would be the team with a better record by the time these two met, you weren't the only one. Instead, thanks in large part to the messy Renardo Sidney situation, the Bulldogs are the unlikely underdogs.

Afternoon Links are exactly what they say they are. Send in your links and tips here. You can also e-mail me and hit me up on Twitter.

• Purdue seniors E'Twaun Moore and JaJuan Johnson have been great all year. That's no secret. Also no secret is that Purdue's offense has stalled in games when only Moore and Johnson were able to produce. Without Robbie Hummel, the Boilermakers have to get consistent scoring elsewhere, whether as a group effort or from a designated third option. They may just have found it in guard Ryne Smith. So sayeth the Big Ten Geeks, who broke down Purdue's convincing win at Penn State Wednesday and Smith's contributions therein today: "Penn State's 2-3 zone was fairly effective for stretches, especially in the first half when JaJuan Johnson got only two shot attempts that weren't following an offensive rebound--and one of those shots was a three. It looked like a good defensive strategy at times, but Purdue has a zone-buster that is absolutely unconscious right now in Ryne Smith. The junior guard played his role--knocking down standstill threes--to the tune of 20 points on just 5 shots. Smith is now 12 for 18 from three (67 percent) in Big Ten play. That won't continue, but it's clear that Smith's former accuracy issues (29.6 percent coming into the season) are now behind him."
• Basketball Prospectus's Kevin Pelton writes that Washington should be able to replace the injured Abdul Gaddy's productivity by moving Isaiah Thomas to the point and filling in scoring needs with a variety of bench contributors: "While Gaddy starts, he’s part of a relatively even timeshare with Venoy Overton, who played the stretch run during last week’s overtime win at USC. Lorenzo Romar may want to keep Overton in a reserve role, where his energy can change games, but the senior is capable of ramping up his playing time to help cover the loss of Gaddy. The bigger change for the Huskies will be Isaiah Thomas playing regular minutes at point guard. Though Thomas is a candidate for the Cousy Award, he has almost exclusively played the two. But Thomas has improved his playmaking this season–his assist rate has improved from 19.5 to 23.3, not far behind Gaddy (24.8) and Overton (25.1)–and Washington is often more difficult to guard with Thomas at the point because that means putting another shooter on the floor. In Scott Suggs, Terrence Ross and C.J. Wilcox, the Huskies have three reserve wings worthy of being part of the rotation. Suggs and Wilcox boast True Shooting Percentages above 60 percent, while Ross has been prolific at average efficiency."
• Luke Winn profiles Ohio State's offense, which is freaky good because OSU does something most teams can't. They simultaneously force turnovers (typically the provenance of aggressive, foul-prone teams) but commit fouls at the lowest rate in the nation.
• Believe it or not, Karen Cunagin Sypher simply refuses -- literally and figuratively -- to go away.
• Gary Parrish thinks Tennessee is one of those teams that plays up, and down, to its competition. Maybe so, but the Vols have plenty of underlying problems -- poor shooting, for one -- that have hurt them in games against good and bad teams alike.
• Rob Dauster pokes a bevy of holes in Rick Stansbury's lame, excuse-filled news conference yesterday.
• Bylaw Blogger John Infante discusses soul-crushing compliance days, the NCAA's general regulation strategy, and why reform calls for immediate, not delayed, action: "It’s that developing a whole new strategy is going to take time, and time is not on the NCAA’s side. Every year that passes without a consistent direction in men’s basketball recruiting reform is a year that the NCAA loses ground to the people they are combating. As the NCAA reviews the landscape, nefarious third-parties think up new ways to control the college decisions of prospects and profit from that control. Without spending enough time, perhaps years getting the membership on board, the legislation that comes out of this review as early as next August will suffer the same fate as the legislation proposed by the Board of Directors last year. A cohesive plan is picked apart by the membership who adopts the proposals it likes and discards the rest."
• You may have missed this in the midst of the Jimmer festivities last night, but Kyle Singler became college basketball's latest 2,000-point career scorer in Duke's easy win over UAB Wednesday night.
• Ken Pomeroy updates his kPOY list. Jared Sullinger is still tops, but as Pomeroy writes: "Let’s own up to it -- this year’s player of the year race is still open to be claimed and to me, that feels somewhat unusual for January. Most of the players in the chase for the inaugural kPOY had rather sluggish efforts coming out of the holiday break. This opened the door for something like E’Twaun Moore’s 31-point effort against Northwestern, which vaulted him from obscurity to a legitimate kPOY candidate. However, based on what we saw against Iowa last night, I’d still be shocked if Jared Sullinger doesn’t stay at the top of the list from here on out."
• And, of course, some ESPN stuff: Here's my Big 12 Primer just in time for the start of conference opens play this week, as well as Diamond on the Mountain West, Andy on Conference USA, and Dana on the Atlantic-10; Be sure to check out Dana's fantastic profile of UAB guard Aaron Johnson, who currently leads the nation in assists; and here's Fran Fraschilla's interesting breakdown of the Big East.

It's not quite on par with "Robbie Hummel is out for the season," but Purdue's latest injury news isn't exactly thrilling, either.

Guard John Hart, who had emerged as the Boilermakers' leading scorer among players not named E'Twaun Moore and JaJuan Johnson, will miss at least a month with a stress fracture in his right foot, according to the AP. Hart will have surgery this week and attempt to get healthy in time to return for the spring semester and the Big Ten season and tournament pushes that come along with it.

Is this injury a big deal? Not compared to Hummel's, of course. But for the time being, it is wholly discouraging. Purdue has struggled any time it's played against a remotely capable defense, and those offensive issues are not likely to be resolved with an emerging third scorer losing a month with a stress fracture. Toss in guard D.J. Byrd's shoulder injury, which limited him to two minutes in Purdue's win against Alabama on Saturday, and you've got a recipe for more stagnant play.

Looking at the schedule, though, it's not hard to see why Hart and his school chose to operate now. The Boilermakers' last four nonconference games in December are at Valparaiso, vs. North Florida, vs. Indiana State, and vs. IPFW. Purdue's first Big Ten game comes Dec. 28 at Michigan. That's not the most daunting stretch of all-time, and you'd imagine these Boilermakers handling it just fine with or without Hart in the lineup.

When he returns? Then we'll see. In the meantime, Purdue is going to have to find some supplementary offense somewhere. Hart's injury is undoubtedly a setback, even if it's a well-timed one.