ESPN Men's Basketball

Inside the numbers behind Tuesday's top performances:

1. Harrison Barnes is starting to look like the player that everyone thought he would be. The freshman scored a career-high 26 points on 9-for-15 shooting in North Carolina’s 32-point win over Boston College. It’s the second straight career-high performance for Barnes, who scored 25 against NC State on Saturday. He entered this two-game stretch averaging just 11.8 ppg, but it’s his shooting percentage that’s really taken off. After entering the weekend shooting 37.3 percent from the field, Barnes has hit 19 of 32 shots (61.5 percent). Tuesday’s performance also came on the road, where Barnes had previously been dreadful. In his first five road games, he had a 30.2 field goal percentage and was just 3-of-17 from 3-point range.

2. Wisconsin topped Purdue 66-59 with Jon Leuer’s 24 points and 13 rebounds leading the way. He’s now scored in double figures in 28 straight games dating back to last season. Leuer did have a season-high four turnovers, but the rest of the Badgers combined for only three. Wisconsin is averaging only 7.8 turnovers per game. That’s easily the fewest in the nation, with Northern Iowa next at 10.1. The last team to average fewer turnovers in a season was Temple in 2006 (7.7). It’s truly a team effort. Think of it his way: While Leuer’s 1.6 turnovers per game are the most on the team, he's tied for 1,145th-most in the nation.

Fewest Turnovers Per Game
7.8 -- Wisconsin
10.1 -- Northern Iowa
10.3 -- South Dakota State
10.4 -- Missouri State
10.5 -- Northwestern

3. Outside observers of the Mid-American Conference probably hear the names Xavier Silas and D.J. Cooper, who are second in the nation in points and assists, respectively. But since conference play started, no one in the MAC can rival the overall numbers of Julian Mavunga. The junior had a career-high 27 points to go with 11 rebounds and seven assists in Miami’s 89-75 win over Ball State. In league games, Mavunga is averaging 18.1 ppg, 7.6 rpg and 4.3 apg, all ranking in the top five in the conference. On Tuesday, he also knocked down five 3-pointers, as the RedHawks hit a school-record 16 in the game.

4. Boston University’s John Holland had 24 points and 12 rebounds in an 88-78 win over America East-leading Maine. More significantly, the senior eclipsed 2,000 points for his career. He joins Tunji Awojobi as the only players in school history to reach that milestone. Holland also became the school’s all-time leader in minutes played on Tuesday. However, he only connected on 7-for-18 from the field, as his poor shooting season continues. In the past four games, he’s averaging 15.5 ppg, but is shooting just 28.8 percent from the field. On the season, he’s shooting 36.6 percent, down from 45.9 last year.

5. On Tuesday, NJIT’s Sean McCarthy had nine blocks without scoring a point. It’s the most blocks in a game without scoring a point since Auburn’s Kyle Davis also had nine against Louisiana Tech in 2001. What makes this even more amazing? McCarthy had only played 47 minutes and registered three blocks coming into this game. By the way, NJIT picked up its first overtime win since joining the D-I ranks, beating Fairleigh Dickinson 64-62 in overtime. Just three years removed from their 0-29 seasons, the Highlanders are 8-12.

An inside look at the numbers behind Sunday's top performances:

1. Niagara’s Anthony Nelson was everywhere in the Purple Eagles’ 69-55 win against Siena. In addition to scoring 30 points, one shy of his career-high, the 6-1 guard hauled in 10 rebounds. But Nelson's career-high eight steals made this night particularly significant. Prior to Sunday, the most steals in a 30-point, 10-rebound game this season was just four. In fact, you have to go all the way back to Tennessee-Martin’s Lester Hudson in 2009 to find the last time a player had eight steals in a 30-10 game. In addition, Niagara won for just the second time in 13 games, as Siena fell to 2-6 on the road.

2. Bradley overcame a 23-point halftime deficit to trail by only two in the final 90 seconds, but it wasn’t quite enough as Northern Iowa won 83-77. This one was full of fun numbers, including a combined 45 of 50 free throws made. Northern Iowa got a career-high 34 points from Jake Koch, who was coming off a game against Indiana State in which he scored 3 points on 0-for-5 shooting. Meanwhile, Bradley’s Andrew Warren had an even more improbable career-high game, at least if you watched the first half. Warren went into halftime without a field goal and only two points. He then exploded for 28 of his 30 points in the second half.

3. On Sunday, no team connected on fewer field goals than Massachusetts’ 12. Yet, UMass still beat Dayton 55-50. The Minutemen finished 12-for-44 (27.3 percent) from the field, but won thanks to a 29-for-36 (80.6 percent) performance at the line. For one stretch, UMass went 13 minutes without a field goal. It’s the fewest field goals in a win this season, and fewest since William & Mary also won with 12 last season against Drexel. The Minutemen’s 27.3 field goal percentage was their fifth-lowest over the past 15 seasons, and their lowest in a win against that span. The last Atlantic 10 team to win while shooting worse was Temple, which beat Indiana in 2004 despite a 26.8 percentage.

4. Miami (Ohio) and Ohio faced each other for the 187th time on Sunday, but after three overtimes this one stands out from the rest. Miami won 92-88 despite making only four field goals and shooting 28.6 percent across the three overtimes. The Redhawks won courtesy of a 17-for-20 performance from the line during the extra frames. This one was of course filled with unique stat lines. Of the 130 shots taken during the game, only two were blocked. Julian Mavunga and Antonio Ballard both played the full 55 minutes, with Ballard putting up a career-high 26 points. Ohio’s Tommy Freeman came off the bench to play 46 minutes, the most by a D-I reserve this season. D.J. Cooper, the nation’s third-leading assist man, went off for 27 points and 11 assists.

5. Ohio State’s Jared Sullinger gets the headlines given that he leads all freshmen in scoring (17.9 ppg) and ranks second in rebounding (10.3 rpg). But how about his freshman teammate, Aaron Craft? His 5.1 apg ranks second among freshmen behind Dayton’s Juwan Staten. Yet, Craft has done this while coming off the bench in all but one game. Sunday was no exception, as Craft had 11 points and seven assists off the bench in the Buckeyes’ 67-64 win against Minnesota. In fact, Craft is the nation’s top assist man off the bench (among those with one start or fewer). Over the last 15 seasons, no one in Division I basketball has averaged more than five assists while starting no more than once.

In preseason college basketball tournaments -- heck, in tournaments of any kind -- there's an implicit agreement that the teams that win move on. That's just, like, how tournaments work, man.

Not the CBE Classic. It feels like a preseason tournament. It looks like a preseason tournament. But in the CBE Classic, something entirely different occurs: Host teams move on no matter what. Funky, right?

That structure is clearly a business decision, one evinced by the disparate quality and popularity between the hosts and the hostees. The 2010 CBE Classic field was announced last night. The hosts are Duke, Kansas State, Gonzaga, and Marquette. Duke will host Princeton and Miami of Ohio; Kansas State will host James Madison and Presbyterian; Marquette will host Bucknell and Wisconsin-Green Bay; and Gonzaga will host IUPUI and San Diego State. Each regional consists of those three teams.

But here's why the setup is funky: If, Princteon beats Miami of Ohio in the first "round," they'll "advance" to take on Duke. And even if Princeton upsets the Dukies at their own party, it doesn't matter: The Tigers go home, and the Dukies move on to play in the semifinals of the event Nov. 22-23 in Kansas City.

It's a bummer for the little guys. If you're Princeton, and you just beat Duke, don't you want the thrill of taking your suddenly explosive upset potential to Kansas City, where you can test your mettle against other top teams? Of course you do. It's just a preseason tournament competition, but still, the games count. That's a great opportunity.

Still, the tournament competition is a business, and business dictates that Kansas State, Duke, Gonzaga and Marquette advance and play each other in Kansas City, regional results be damned. The big schools get to be big schools. The little schools know the score before they sign on. It'd be nice if it actually mattered what happened in the regionals. But I suppose that's what the postseason tournament -- no strikethrough needed -- is for.