ESPN Men's Basketball

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The pressure is all on the Bears to win.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Vanderbilt finally solved its Kentucky problem by winning the SEC tournament on Sunday in New Orleans.

But that did nothing to answer its larger issue: winning in the NCAA tournament.

Double-digit seeds had flummoxed the Commodores in three of the past four NCAA tournaments with losses to Siena, Murray State and Richmond.

Harvard was a sentimental favorite in making its first NCAA tournament since 1946. Oh, and the Crimson were seeded No. 12, making this one of those dreaded 5-12 games.

“It’s well publicized that Vandy’s lost in the first round the last three out of four years,’’ said Harvard senior guard Oliver McNally. “So we knew if we were hanging around, we’d put that thought in their head and see what happened. And I thought we were going to do that.’’

Vandy had an 18-point lead on Harvard on Thursday afternoon at the Pit. And then suddenly it was five.

“Credit to them for coming out really strong after that and being strong with the ball and making free throws,’’ McNally said. “But we made a great run.’’

The Commodores held on to win 79-70 and looked every bit the part of a team that could beat No. 4 Wisconsin on Saturday in a third-round game for the right to possibly take on East top seed Syracuse (if the Orange can knock off Kansas State in Pittsburgh on Saturday).

John Jenkins was sensational with 27 points. The Dores got plenty of pop from Brad Tinsley, Jeffery Taylor and 11 boards from Festus Ezeli. Vanderbilt’s big four came through when it mattered most.

Vandy can exhale -- for now.

“I didn’t want to be in that tight of a situation with the way we had the game going in our favor,’’ said Vandy coach Kevin Stallings. “But since we won, I’m glad it unfolded that way.’’

Stallings knew the toughness question was relevant with this squad during the SEC tournament. The Dores simply didn’t have the track record to back up their belief that they were over their late-game issues.

And comments like Taylor’s that the big lead led to a bit of relaxation and too much standing on offense just contributed to the narrative. But there was something the Dores had that had been missing even in last-second losses in previous NCAAs to Siena and Murray State: composure.

Jenkins used a different word -- poised. “I think leadership is definitely a factor in that guys huddled up and decided we need to lock down and get rebounds down the stretch,” he said. “We did what we had to do. We hit big free throws.’’

The Dores had one possession that took the lead from 11 to 14 with a four-shot sequence that ended up in a traditional 3-point play for Jenkins. That lead ballooned to 18. Harvard made its run, but the hole was too deep.

“I think our maturity showed up a little bit there,’’ Tinsley said. “We were playing not to lose instead of playing to win. You can never do that, especially in the NCAA tournament.’’

Vanderbilt could finally talk about its albatross after the win.

“It really means a lot for the seniors to be our last time in the NCAA tournament,’’ Tinsley said. “We just kind of got that monkey off our back and win a close game in the first round. It just means a lot to us old guys, the coaching staff and the program.’’

Getting into the NCAA tournament did that as well for Harvard. The Crimson didn’t just show up for the first time in 66 years. They got off to a rocky start and scrapped their way back.

Harvard senior Keith Wright said that getting into the NCAA tournament and representing the Ivy League, especially after losing the playoff to Princeton at the buzzer last season, was a celebration of all the hard work put forth.

“It’s just really special and I’m really glad to be a part of it,’’ said McNally. “They sell you on all kinds of dreams but Coach (Tommy) Amaker had a plan and this plan was followed through. Not only were there good players but really good people. We made the tournament. We wanted to advance. That was obviously the ultimate goal.’’

But this meant more to the Ivy League and to Harvard to have its flagship name finally make the dance.

Alumni from the White House to an 86-year-old surviving member of the 1946 team — the Crimson's previous NCAA entry — could all feel good about this run. The latter was Don Swegan, who was at the Pit in his old Harvard sweater. He was in his glory, talking to other alumni. The Friends of Harvard hoops read about Swegan on ESPN.com and wanted to make sure he made it to Albuquerque from near Youngstown, Ohio, so they paid for his expenses. NCAA president Mark Emmert and Harvard alumnus and Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott wanted to have their picture taken with Swegan.

These were good memories for him, the Harvard program and a clear signal that the Crimson aren’t going into NCAA tournament hibernation.

“For us to represent our school and conference for the first time in so many years and to have so many folks come and cheer us on means so much to us,’’ Amaker said. “This has been and is a big deal.’’

NEW ORLEANS -- As little as this game might have mattered to Kentucky, it meant the world to Vanderbilt.

The mighty Wildcats, winners of the SEC regular season by a dominant margin and champions of 27 other SEC tournaments, won't lose any face in light of a 71-64 loss at the hands of an inspired Commodores squad.

It took 19 games, and two prior losses, but someone in the SEC finally cracked the Wildcats.

But while the Cats lick their wounds and prepare for the NCAA tournament (where they'll still be a No. 1 seed), this is a moment Vandy will cherish for quite some time.

"Kentucky, they set the bar. They set the bar nationally this year, they set the bar in our league almost every year," said Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings. "We're proud to have beaten them -- proud to have won a SEC championship."

It's hard to pinpoint just one moment that showcased how badly the Commodores wanted their first championship since 1951. It could have been when Stallings received a technical foul for badgering the refs over a contested call. It may have been the Herculean effort from senior forward Festus Ezeli, who controlled the post for 17 points and six boards against Kentucky's otherworldly frontcourt.

"First off, congrats to Vanderbilt. They got anything they wanted in the post," said Kentucky phenom Anthony Davis, who was frustrated in the paint all afternoon. "They got good position and it was hard for us to fight around it."

The emotion finally spilled over when the final horn sounded, as the Dores mobbed each other at midcourt and TV cameras caught Stallings crying into a towel.

It shined through in the winning locker room, where players blared music and took photos of each other posing with the tournament's hulking pyramid of a trophy.

Asked where the moment registered on a scale of 1-10, Ezeli broke the chart.

"I can't even describe. It might be a 15, I don't know," he said with a grin. "It feels awesome. It feels great."

It might have been even better for John Jenkins, who secured tournament MVP honors with 17 points against the Wildcats. Jenkins, whose grandmother died last week, needed several minutes to collect himself from the court after the score went final.

"It's been really tough for me. So just being out here with my teammates and the coaches has been kind of an outlet for me," he said. "To win the championship after 60-some years is incredible."

Like Kentucky, the Commodores were assured of a ticket to the Big Dance regardless of the outcome of this game. Vandy looks likely to receive a No. 4 or No. 5 seed to next week's NCAA tournament, but Stallings said his senior-heavy squad accomplished so much more Sunday than postseason seeding.

"They have done things today, it's just -- today is just another thing," Stallings said. "They have done things for Vanderbilt basketball that have never been done before. They have raised the awareness of our program. They have raised the status of our program."

To their credit, the Wildcats said nothing to cheapen that accomplishment. It would be easy to shrug off the loss as meaningless. Kentucky had not lost a game since Dec. 10, and the thought has been kicked around the Big Blue Nation that another setback might do their young stars some good before making a national championship run.

To a man, the losing Wildcats insisted that wasn't the case.

"We played hard like it was our last game, every game of this tournament," said sophomore guard Doron Lamb. "The teams we played played us three times, so they knew what we were going to do, and they know everything we've got."

Even senior Darius Miller, who caught fire for 16 points, was unwilling to let the loss go as insignificant.

"We all hate losing. We're pretty competitive people," he said. "The overall vision is, did we win or lose? And we lost tonight."

There will be other games for both teams. When this year's brackets come out in a few short hours, the Final Four will become the focus and the conference tournaments will be nothing but an afterthought.

Just don't tell that to the Commodores.

NEW ORLEANS -- Kentucky coach John Calipari has made no bones about it; he does not like the SEC tournament.

It's an aggravation, and an understandable one at that. The Wildcats have spent the past three months making their case as the nation's best team, they've secured the league's regular-season title and, regardless of what happens in Sunday's championship game against Vanderbilt, they've secured a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.

Calipari's disdain for conference tournaments is well-documented, but that disdain is a luxury he can afford. Dating back to his days at Memphis, he has won six consecutive conference tournaments -- 2006-09 with the Tigers, and two in a row with Kentucky, with designs on a third.

As a program, Kentucky has no overwhelming need for another SEC tournament trophy, either. The Wildcats have claimed to 27 of the 52 SEC tournament championships, including the inaugural event in 1933 and the two most recent tournaments.

That attitude doesn't fly with Vanderbilt, which, after downing Ole Miss 65-53, enter the weekend's final game with hopes of ending the Wildcats' stranglehold on the tournament. In a jubilant post-semifinal locker room, despite the fact that they knew the NCAA tournament awaited in just five days, the Commodores insisted to a man on the importance of a tournament title.

The reason? The last time Vanderbilt was on this stage was 1951, the date of their lone tournament championship -- a full eight years before Calipari was born.

With history like that on the line, Commodores coach Kevin Stallings said it's easy to get motivated.

"You play to win. That's why you play. Our players actually informed me, because I didn't know this, but Jeffery Taylor informed me yesterday that it's the first time since 1951 that Vanderbilt's been in the championship of this conference tournament," Stallings said. "We appreciate that. We're proud of that. We're excited about that."

The excitement for a tangible milestone was evident in the Commodores' locker room. This program has made big advances in recent years, reaching five NCAA tournaments in the past decade with designs on a sixth next week. But Vandy hasn't lifted a championship trophy since it won the SEC regular-season title in 1993, and 1951 remains its lone tournament triumph.

"We know that it's really special to play for a championship. Not a lot of teams get to do that," said Vandy guard Brad Tinsley.

Tinsley, one of four senior starters to help Vanderbilt on its run of two (going on three) consecutive NCAA berths, said the chance to pick up some hardware is one the Commodores take seriously.

"When a lot of teams sit down and make their goals at the start of the season, it's to win a championship -- conference championship, NCAA championship, whatever it is," he said. "We have the opportunity to compete for one, and I think this team really looks forward to this opportunity."

As Stallings pointed out, his players were more aware of what's on the line than he was. Whether it was John Jenkins, who has been the Dores' heartbeat all season, Tinsley, or fellow senior Lance Goulbourne (who posted 10 points and 12 boards against Ole Miss), it seemed Vanderbilt's entire roster was focused on Sunday's possibilities rather than next week's tournament.

"We knew going into the game that Vandy hadn't been to the championship game since 1951, which was the only year they won the tournament," Goulbourne said. "It's pretty cool for us to be the team to break that streak, but it's not over for us yet. We want to win the championship -- just getting to the championship is not enough for us."

To pull that victory off, the Dores are in for 40 minutes of toil against one of the biggest, baddest rosters in the nation. Vanderbilt's date with the Wildcats will also be the both teams' third game in three days -- a careful stat to consider when the pair open their NCAA tournament runs late next week.

Regardless of that fatigue factor, Stallings said the Commodores will throw everything they've got at Calipari's Cats. Regardless of public perception, the chance at a championship isn't something to pass up.

"It's tough in every way when you play Kentucky. But we'll rest for a day or two after that and try to get ready to play on Thursday or Friday or whenever we get to play," Stallings said. "We can't worry about fatigue right now; we'll worry about fatigue when we're done. And hopefully that won't be for awhile."

NEW ORLEANS -- A 22-point win tends to ease a team's missteps.

But for a team that relies as heavily on its shooting as Vanderbilt does, Friday's dismal first-half offense troubled coach Kevin Stallings.

The Commodores averaged 46 percent shooting as a team this season, and they led the SEC in 3-point percentage at 40. But in the first 20 minutes of the eventual 63-41 blowout against Georgia, Vanderbilt looked like it had forgotten what a jump shot looked like.

Those percentages, so vital to Vandy's success, dipped to 34 percent from the field and a troubling 23 percent from beyond the arc.

"In the first half, we were abysmal offensively, and it was really not good offense," Stallings said. "In the second half, we got more movement and [Festus Ezeli] started creating problems inside. We were just a lot more crisp."

It's true that the scoring effort picked up after the break. The shooting percentage jumped all the way up to 51 percent to bump the game average to a more respectable (and familiar) 43.9 percent. Most of that had to do with Ezeli causing problems in the paint, though, and the Commodores also added 14 points off turnovers.

"We did a better job of getting the ball to the basket, and things like that. ... We were getting the ball inside and trying to drive it inside, and not settling for as many jump shots," Stallings said.

A win is a win, especially in the postseason. But the road to that victory was unusual enough that Stallings looked nonplussed by it. The Commodores weren't just shaky, they were plain bad from 3-point range (6-of-25).

"You don't see us with 20-point victories when we go 6-of-25 from 3 and only shoot 11 foul shots," Stallings said. "Generally we're a good 3-point shooting team, and we get to the foul line a lot, and that's why we're a good offensive team. But tonight, obviously, it was much different than that."

Brad Tinsley was the only Vandy shooter who didn't seem to drop off against the Bulldogs. The Dores' usual duo of John Jenkins and Jeffery Taylor, who lead the SEC in scoring, were ... OK. Taylor struggled to 6 points on 2-of-10 shooting. When he made his first and only 3-pointer of the night with 3:56 to play, he pumped his fists and looked toward the ceiling in exasperation, as if he had been worried he had lost his shot for good.

Jenkins' 15 points led the team -- perhaps it goes to show how valuable he is that his night seemed like a bad one. Regarding efforts like Friday's, Jenkins said the Commodores have to hope their defense shines the way it did against the Bulldogs -- who shot 22 percent as a team in the second half.

"We kind of wore them down a little bit with our defense, even though our offense wasn't clicking," he said. "We moved around a lot more and had the energy in the second half to make some shots, but not a lot."

Whatever issues Vandy has with its offense, the Dores don't have long to ponder them. The Georgia game ended a little after 11 p.m. Central time, and Saturday's semifinal against Ole Miss tips off at 2:30 p.m.

That leaves two issues to consider in not a lot of time: The Rebels put on a defensive showing of their own earlier Friday night. They held Tennessee to 28 percent -- a measly 18 field goals -- in an overtime game, no less. Granted, the Commodores bring better weapons to the court than do the Volunteers.

It's an interesting give-and-take. The Rebels looked stout in their win against Tennessee, while Vanderbilt's shooting fell apart against Georgia. Roughly a month ago in Oxford, the Commodores put on a terrifying shooting clinic against Ole Miss. They dropped 12 of 19 3-pointers and racked up 102 points.

So with a berth in the SEC tournament championship game at stake, who shines through?

"We played very well down there; still though, they're a different team now," Tinsley said. "It's the postseason -- a lot of teams are fired up and energized. It's going to be a tough one."

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.)

Nothing like a little Wednesday morning drama to start the day. Vanderbilt’s Kevin Stallings has questioned the SEC’s scheduling practices, which he says appear to favor the Wildcats, according to the Tennessean's Jeff Lockridge.

For the second consecutive season, the Wildcats will not play a Thursday-Saturday slate with one day of rest in between. Stallings’ squad, 3-0 in the SEC, faces Alabama on Thursday and Mississippi State on Saturday.

Stallings wonders why Kentucky has avoided the same two games in three days stretch. Plus, the Wildcats play four Saturday games against opponents competing on one day of rest. Stallings ain't happy about the situation.

Stallings said he is not bothered by his team’s one day of rest between games at Alabama (Thursday, 6 p.m.) and at home against No. 18 Mississippi State (Saturday, 6 p.m.).

But the league’s second-longest tenured coach wants to know why Kentucky will not play a Thursday-Saturday combo for the second consecutive season. And it’s not just that. The Wildcats have Saturday games with four SEC opponents that are coming off Thursday night games -- the most of any team in the league.

“Go figure that one out for me, would you?” Stallings said. “We all agreed to do it, so if you have one, like we have one, I’m not going to complain. To not have any and to be able to play four teams that have to do it to play you … that’s not right.”

Kentucky does have one Thursday game, on March 1 vs. Georgia, but it’s followed by a Sunday game at Florida.

The only other SEC teams not dealing with a quick turnaround this season are Auburn and LSU. Ole Miss was dealt the Thursday-Saturday combo a league-high three times.

It’s a legitimate scheduling concern and not only because the Wildcats are the No. 2 squad in the country.

Kentucky lost to a second-ranked Tennessee team during the 2009-10 season on one day’s rest. So the Wildcats know how tough a quick turnaround can be.

Mark your calendars for Feb. 11, the first matchup between Kentucky and Vanderbilt this season. I’m guessing that Stallings will address this issue again.

1. Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings acknowledges that he may have over scheduled with teams like Cleveland State, Xavier and Indiana State. The Commodores haven’t had an easy game this season. That’s on the Commodores and their inability to finish at home, or on the road (at Louisville). But Stallings is still confident, saying they’ll be there in the end. I don’t doubt that Vandy will be in the NCAA tournament, but the losses will ensure that the Dores won’t be seeded as high as they were projected to be in the preseason.

2. Ohio State's Jared Sullinger felt better Sunday after a bone bruise during Saturday’s win at South Carolina forced him to leave the game in the first half and get an X-ray off site. He’s still listed as day-to-day and his status for Tuesday’s game against Lamar will be based on how he responds to treatment. Meanwhile, Kentucky coach John Calipari said Terrence Jones, who injured a finger on his left hand, had swelling and the finger is black and blue. But Calipari said Jones should be fine. Kentucky plays Samford Tuesday.

3. Darius Johnson-Odom is ready to go for Monday’s game at LSU after he was suspended for Saturday’s game against Northern Colorado. DJO was averaging 18 points before he was suspended for a violation of team rules. In his absence, freshman Todd Mayo scored 22 points against UNC. Associate head coach Tony Benford said that Mayo knows how to score and is very mature for a freshman. Having Mayo play this well in DJO’s absence will only enhance this team’s depth and productivity.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Peyton Siva shook off two defenders on his way to an uncontested layup with 1.4 seconds remaining to lift Louisville to a 62-60 overtime victory over Vanderbilt at the KFC Yum! Center.

The Cardinals trailed 55-50 early in the extra period before two heroic shots by Kyle Kuric help set up Siva's game-winner. The first was a 3-pointer that turned a 57-55 deficit into a 58-57 lead with one minute remaining. Then, with 33 seconds left, Kuric broke a 58-58 tie on a pull-up jumper from 10 feet. Vanderbilt's John Jenkins knotted the score at 60 at the 12-second mark before Siva jogged down the court, blew past his man and scored the deciding basket.

Louisville missed a chance to win it in regulation when freshman Chane Behanan missed a point-blank shot under the basket at the buzzer after using a nice pump fake to get an open look. Then again, Vanderbilt would've had a comfortable lead if not for its performance at the free-throw line, where it missed 11 of its 17 attempts before the extra period. The Commodores led 47-41 before Louisville ended the half on a 9-3 run to force overtime.

Star of the game: Siva and Kuric will receive the most praise, and deservedly so. But Behanan had a huge second half for Louisville. He scored seven of his team's points during a 13-4 run that turned a 43-34 deficit into a 47-47 tie. Backed by a deafening crowd, Louisville maintained the momentum for the rest of the game. Behanan finished the night with a double-double (14 points, 10 rebounds).

What it means: Louisville continues to show toughness and grit despite being grossly undermanned, mainly because of injuries. The Cardinals are underwhelming offensively, but they make up for it by playing a menacing defense that will give Rick Pitino's squad a chance in almost every game it plays. Louisville doesn't look like the sixth-best team in the country, and Vanderbilt was the first marquee opponent the Cardinals have defeated this season. Still, it's hard to not respect this team, which is led by one of the top coaches in America. Pitino is only getting better.

This is the third disappointing setback for a Vanderbilt squad that entered the season ranked No. 7. This one might not sting as much as Cleveland State and Xavier because it was on the road against a top-10 opponent. Still, Kevin Stallings' squad had every chance in the world to win this game, but the Commodores choked it away with poor free-throw shooting, sloppy passing and bad shooting, some of which was because of Louisville.

Up next: Vanderbilt has one more game, at Davidson on Wednesday, before the long-awaited debut of center Festus Ezeli on Dec. 17 against Indiana State. Louisville will have a chance to maintain its unbeaten start against IUPUI (Wednesday) and Fairleigh-Dickinson (Dec. 10) before hosting old rival Memphis on Dec. 17.

1. Steve Lavin sat out Tuesday night’s St. John’s win over St. Francis (N.Y.) as he continues his ongoing recovery from serious, seven-hour prostate surgery. Lavin did coach last week in New York for two games. Lavin said late Tuesday night part of the recovery is to manage his energy and to pick his spots. Lavin recruited Saturday and Sunday and went to practice Monday to continue to build his stamina level. But with such a trusted top assistant in Mike Dunlap, Lavin can be like a general manager at times during his recovery and entrust Dunlap to run some of the day-to-day operation like a game as he recovers.

2. Missouri coach Frank Haith said he was going to play much more up tempo and would look to push the basketball. He certainly has the Tigers on the right track here early. The Tigers crushed Cal in the CBE Classic final Tuesday night by playing quickly. The Tigers are one of the positive early-season surprises. UCLA and Detroit are on the opposite end as major disappointments. The Titans were expected to be the preseason Horizon League favorite, but lost again Tuesday night at Bowling Green. The Titans are off to a 2-3 start with no Division I wins yet, losing at Notre Dame and to George Washington, as well.

3. Nothing like a proud father. New Mexico’s Steve Alford reported Tuesday night that his son, junior Bryce Alford scored 44 points in a win for Albuquerque’s La Cueva High, breaking former La Cueva forward and Arizona forward A.J. Bramlet’s record. Alford won’t have to go far for this recruitment. There are plenty of involved fathers out there, including Vanderbilt’s Kevin Stallings, whose son Jacob is a catcher for the North Carolina baseball team. Stallings loves talking about helping coach and just be around his children.

Louisville and Vanderbilt are both safely ensconced in the warmth of the Associated Press poll's preseason top 25. Both teams have high expectations -- it's fair to say the Final Four is the goal for both -- in 2011-12. And both teams, by varying degrees, will now have to deal with important injuries suffered late last week.

For Louisville, the news was downright devastating: Freshman Wayne Blackshear, a McDonald's All-American ranked No. 27 overall in the class of 2011, suffered a torn labrum in a practice Friday afternoon. The injury will require surgery and at least four months of recovery time, meaning Blackshear will almost certainly miss the entire 2011-12 season. At Big East media day, Louisville coach Rick Pitino described Blackshear's importance as such:

"With him, we are an extremely good team," Pitino said. "Without him, we are very good."

Some good news and some bad news for Louisville fans, then. The good news? Your coach still thinks your team is very good. The bad news? There may have been some shot at excellence there this season. Without Blackshear in the fold, that level may be just out of reach.
Vanderbilt's injury was less drastic, fortunately, but still serious all the same: Forward Festus Ezeli sprained ligaments in his knee in practice this week. (Ezeli was injured Tuesday, but Vanderbilt waited to receive the diagnosis before announcing the injury Friday.) The injury will take six to eight weeks of recovery time. The ironic part, if qualifies as irony, is that Ezeli was already set to miss some of that time -- the Commodores' first six games -- thanks to a suspension for secondary NCAA violations levied earlier this month. The length of Ezeli's injury will keep him out even longer, and the injury presents a new set of challenges, according to coach Kevin Stallings:

“I’m not proud of the fact we’ve had somebody suspended — albeit what he did, I think, was very unknowing and unaware,” Stallings said. “But it was a lot better when he was just suspended than when he’s injured because he was able to practice. There’s a huge difference from that standpoint. Now you have six to eight weeks of losing conditioning and timing and things like that.”

Another problem is timing. With the suspension alone, Ezeli would have returned just in time for Xavier's Nov. 28 visit to Nashville. That's as important a non-conference game as the Commodores have, and Ezeli is now sure to miss it. He's also likely to miss a massive road trip to Louisville on Dec. 2 and a Dec. 9 game at Davidson. Stallings said his already perimeter-oriented team will have to construct odd lineups and unusual rotations to keep up with opponents, and it's difficult to understate how much that transition -- the process of getting Ezeli in tune with his teammates after eight weeks of downtime -- can make a season's developmental curve sag.

At least Ezeli isn't out for the season. Louisville feels that pain. But neither team can be feeling particularly good.

Back on March 17, No. 12-seed Richmond ejected No. 5-seed Vanderbilt from the NCAA tournament's round of 64. Shortly thereafter, ESPN Stats & Information sent along the following tidbit (and yes, this is why it's good to have Gmail, because I had to dig deep in the archive to find it):

With their loss to Richmond today, Vanderbilt becomes the first team to lose as a 5 seed or better in the round of 64 in three consecutive appearances.

That stat more than any other defines Vanderbilt's program today, and for coach Kevin Stallings, that's a little bit unfair. The Commodores have done nothing but improve in the past decade; Stallings has turned a longtime doormat into a team with NBA-level talent and national title aspirations. Whatever qualms you may have about this year's Vanderbilt team -- maybe the No. 7 preseason ranking is just a tad too high for a team that is essentially the same as it was last season -- when viewed with the proper perspective, Vanderbilt under Stallings is purely a story of success.

But there is that stat, and stats like that can be embarrassing. Three consecutive first-round upsets to double-digit seeds? At some point, fans -- even fans at Vanderbilt, a school with very little tradition of basketball success -- are unsettled by the trend. They want more. And Stallings, as he candidly revealed to CBS's Gary Parrish this weekend, feels the accumulation of that pressure:

"The only thing the typical fan base cares about is how you finish, and I share the frustration with the fans," Stallings said. "There's nobody who wants to win or have better finishes than the players and the coaching staff, but [the recent losses are] not going to ruin my life because there are too many good things happening here, too many bright spots, too many success stories, and I believe these guys are having great experiences. But I will say this: It'll be greater if they have success in the NCAA tournament, and for that I feel a responsibility, and I feel a little bit of pressure."

These are the perils of the NCAA tournament. In the past three seasons the Commodores have visited the tourney -- 2008, 2010 and 2011 -- Stallings's teams were 26-8, 24-9 and 23-11, respectively. Those are very good seasons. Comparatively, they're also much better representations of Vanderbilt's success than three tournament losses could ever be. It's simple sample size. Things happen in the NCAA tournament. Sometimes the matchup is brutal -- that very talented Richmond team did go to the Sweet 16, after all. Sometimes the better team loses. There are no seven-game series, no off-nights allowed.

When fans ask questions in chats, they often ask a variation of the following: "Hey, Eamonn, what do you think about Team X this season? Can they make it to the Sweet 16/Elite Eight/Final Four?" And the answer is almost always some variation of "well, maybe." It's like criticizing Alex Rodriguez for a few bad postseason at-bats when he spent the previous five months hitting .314/.422/.645. It feels like the wrong barometer.

Unfortunately for Stallings, this is how things work. A basketball coach is judged by his successes or failures in the NCAA tournament. That's it. But coming to some large negative conclusion about Stallings' program -- or insinuating that there should be some vague "pressure" -- based on three NCAA tournament games, well, that's an awfully narrow way to define a season's success. There are shades of gray there. Why should we ignore them?

Expectations remain high for the Vanderbilt Commodores even after the NCAA suspended the biggest of their three big men -- 6-foot-11 Festus Ezeli -- for the first six regular season games of the season because he accepted a meal and a hotel room from a Vanderbilt alumnus.

The NCAA violation was quite the unexpected body blow, leaving the team's top rebounder apologetic, embarrassed and saying he "should have known better." It was a big enough mistake for the NCAA to take away a big chunk of the center's senior season.

Ezeli could have taken all the free meals and hotel rooms he wanted had he turned to the NBA. Instead he returned to school to get his degree and leave on a better note after the Commodores' first-round exits from the NCAA tournament the past two seasons.

"After the loss in the tournament, I can't leave on that note," Ezeli said in April. "There’s no rush for me to want to leave. I want to play here with these guys, I enjoy playing for Coach [Kevin] Stallings and this staff, and I look forward to earning my degree."

His loss in the beginning part of the season will certainly hurt. Vanderbilt faces an interesting season opener against a rising Pac-12 team in Oregon looking to make an early statement. There's a possible game against Texas that Ezeli would miss, and he wouldn't be able to play until Nov. 28 against Xavier.

John Jenkins and Jeffery Taylor led the team last season in scoring, but it was Ezeli who provided a physical presence averaging 6.3 rebounds and 2.6 blocks while setting a single-season school record for blocks.

The season will start with some disappointment, just as it ended in years past.

Andy Katz sits down with coaches Kevin Stallings (Vanderbilt), John Beilein (Michigan) and Andy Kennedy (Ole Miss) to discuss the payment of college athletes, conference expansion/scheduling and next year's new draft deadline. Watch ESPNU at 5 p.m. ET each day through Friday for a different coaches roundtable.