ESPN Men's Basketball

Remember earlier this season, when it looked as though the ACC might not get more than three NCAA tournament bids? As many as six are making cases now. My attempt at this week’s power rankings:

1. Duke: The Blue Devils beat Maryland over the weekend, but it will be their come-from-behind victory at UNC on Wednesday -- rallying from 10 points down in the final 2:38 -- that will linger in the annals of the rivalry. Freshman Austin Rivers, who scored 29 points (including the winning 3-pointer) in the victory, averaged 20 points, three rebounds and three assists for the week -- and shot his team back to the top of these ratings.

2. North Carolina: The Tar Heels -- led by forward Tyler Zeller -- bounced back from the Duke loss with a double-digit win over Virginia. But they’ve hit only 2 of their past 16 3-pointers and will be thin on the bench until freshman P.J. Hairston (who missed Saturday’s win with a sore foot) returns.

3. Florida State: Forward Bernard James scored 15 of his 18 points in the second half to help beat Miami, but the loss at Boston College has to burn. Guard Michael Snaer, who had been shooting better than 57 percent from 3-point range during his team’s seven-game winning streak, managed only one 3 against the Eagles, proving again how key he is to this team’s success.

4. Virginia: Coach Tony Bennett was able to rest star forward Mike Scott for a long second-half stretch in a blowout victory versus Wake Forest. But Bennett would have liked to have used him more at UNC, where the senior was in foul trouble early and his team lost by double figures. The Cavs have lost two of their past three games, both to Top 25 foes.

5. NC State: Junior Scott Wood finally missed a free throw, ending his ACC-record streak at 66. But the Wolfpack won their only game last week, at Georgia Tech, avenging their loss to the Yellow Jackets last month. They have won three in a row.

6. Miami: Reggie Johnson was held to four points as FSU halted the Hurricanes’ winning streak at five. Next up: a home rematch with UNC.

7. Maryland: With players moving in and out of the lineup early on, first-year coach Mark Turgeon said it felt as though he had coached several different seasons in one. Add another. Starting point guard Pe’Shon Howard, who missed the first nine games with a stress fracture in his foot, is out for the rest of the season with a torn ACL in his knee. The Terps lost their first game without him (again), at Duke.

8. Clemson: After losing three straight games by four points or fewer, the Tigers got a 20-point blowout win at Wake Forest. Forward Milton Jennings, back from his second suspension of the season, scored 15 points.

9. Virginia Tech: The Hokies followed a sloppy 16-point loss at Miami with a one-point win over Boston College on Sunday when Dorian Finney-Smith hit a tip-in with 1.8 seconds left.

10. Boston College: Eagles coach Steve Donahue said he doesn’t put great emphasis on wins and losses, considering the youth of his team. But he had to be thrilled with the Eagles’ upset win over Florida State, its third ACC victory of the season. They followed that with a one-point loss to Virginia Tech.

11. Georgia Tech: Tech made only 1 of 17 3-point attempts against NC State and has lost seven of its past eight games.

12. Wake Forest: The Deacons’ 20-point loss to Clemson marked their sixth straight defeat. "Obviously we are embarrassed," coach Jeff Bzdelik said, according to the Winston-Salem Journal. "Obviously we have some limitations on this team. ... What we have to do is be stronger and tougher to stay the course with great energy in those areas we can control -- like defending and rebounding and running the court."

Follow Robbi Pickeral on Twitter at @bylinerp.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Some other observations from Saturday afternoon's selections:

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

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. --With about 9 minutes left at the Smith Center on Saturday afternoon, Boston College’s Patrick Heckmann buried a 3-pointer to cut North Carolina’s once-21-point-lead to 9.

You never got the feeling the outcome of the eventual 83-60 victory was in doubt. Not with Tar Heels wing Harrison Barnes (25 points) hitting shots from all over the floor; forwards Tyler Zeller (20 points) and John Henson (14) shooting better than 50 percent; and point guard Kendall Marshall once again dishing out double-digits assists (11).

All against a rebuilding Eagles team that starts five freshmen.

But it’s another reminder that fourth-ranked UNC (14-2) has to continue to work on something less tangible than free throws or rebounding or steals. It has figure out how to create, and maintain, intensity. Especially in an ACC where every team, better or bad, wants to push the Tar Heels from atop the standings.

“In league play, you’ve got to be able to play the whole total game,’’ North Carolina coach Roy Williams said. “And you’ve got to be able to do it for 40 minutes.”

Williams agreed the his team, which outrebounded the Eagles by 11 and helped force 20 turnovers, lost concentration after opening the second half with a 10-2 run that gave it a 50-29 lead.

UNC started missing shots while BC started connecting, but it was more than that. The Tar Heels – who haven’t played a truly competitive game since early January, winning their previous five outings by an average of 31.8 points – started juggling its focus.

“I really got ticked off there for a couple minutes when it got down to 9 or 10,’’ Williams said. “It wasn’t because it got down to 9 or 10, it was because we decided not to help down in the post, and Kendall goes and helps down in the post, and the [BC] guy makes a 3.

“We say ‘go over the screen’ and Harrison went below the screen, and the guy makes the 3. Next time, he goes below the screen, Z [Zeller] steps out and helps him, and [BC] throws it to Z’s man for a layup. You can’t make those kinds of mistakes. … So I told them it was very reasonable that I was upset.”

Barnes eventually stopped the Eagles run with a bucket. And BC, led by Matt Humphrey’s 14 points, managed only four field goals in the final 9 minutes.

But its comeback gave the young Eagles (5-10) something to build on: "When it looked like Carolina was going to shove us out the door, I thought these guys showed a lot of character and toughness," BC coach Steve Donahue said.

Before, he added, his Eagles let their guard down, too – something that can probably be expected from a team featuring nine freshmen.

But not something UNC can afford.

“I think that sometimes when we get a big lead, we let up defensively and just want to run out and score,” Henson said. “I think we just need to play ‘D’ a little harder, and especially when we’re up by a lot, push it a little harder.”

Or risk having a more seasoned team than Boston College whittle leads to less than 9 points.

BRIEFLY: Freshman James Michael McAdoo, doubtful to play because of a sprained left ankle, finished with 3 points and 7 rebounds in 11 minutes. ... Barnes has scored 20 or more points in three of his past four games, and is averaging 22.2 points during that stretch. ... This marked Marshall's seventh double-figure assist game this season. He now has 13 for his career, tying Kenny Smith for fourth-most 10-plus assist games in Tar Heels history.

Follow Robbi Pickeral on Twitter at @bylinerp.

For my predictions and analysis of the six Big Ten/ACC games on Tuesday, click here. Let's preview Day 2 of the Challenge:

Indiana at North Carolina State, 7:15 p.m. ET, ESPN2
Prediction: Indiana wins, 82-80
Why: It would appear, based solely on statistical output through six games, that Indiana is easily better than NC State. Sure, Indiana has dominated a slate of cupcake opponents, with its only notable win coming over what appears to be a thoroughly mediocre Butler team Sunday, but they've looked good doing it. The Hoosiers are ranked No. 20 in adjusted efficiency after their first six games. The addition of touted freshman center Cody Zeller has made this team more balanced, more likely to retrieve its own misses and less susceptible to constant (dumb) fouls. The emergence of guards Victor Oladipo and Will Sheehey has given the Hoosiers viable slashing and perimeter scoring options. And yet, doubt remains. Before a win at Evansville this season, Indiana had yet to win a true road game in the Tom Crean era. And NC State is not Evansville. Sure, this team is improved. But is it improved enough to beat a (finally) well-coached and talented NC State team? The Wolfpack hung with Vanderbilt for 40 minutes and rallied in the final minutes to beat Texas 77-74 at the Legends Classic. Can they do it on the road? I'll guess yes, but I have no clue. The jury is still out.

Penn State at Boston College, 7:15 p.m. ET, ESPNU
Prediction: Boston College wins, 62-59
Why: How bad are Steve Donahue's Eagles right now? The losses -- to Holy Cross, UMass, St. Louis and New Mexico -- are one thing. The margins -- 86-64, 82-46, 62-51, 75-57 -- are another. (Strangely enough, the only respectable margin of defeat came against St. Louis, the only top 25 team on the docket. Weird.) The Eagles appear to have joined Wake Forest and the usual batch of candidates in the "worst power-six team in the country" race. Penn State, for its part, is in a similar rebuilding phase, but at least the Nittany Lions have a go-to player (Tim Frazier, averaging 19.1 points, 6.0 rebounds, 7.1 assists and 2.4 steals per game) and have shown the ability to hang with teams of the caliber of, say, Holy Cross. Then again, Penn State did look thoroughly ugly in a 65-47 loss at Saint Joseph's Saturday, so who knows? One thing's for sure: This is the worst matchup of the Challenge. I hate to pile on, but yeah. It's bad.

Florida State at Michigan State, 7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN
Prediction: Michigan State wins, 59-55
Why: This one is all about capital-D Defense. Florida State is probably the nation's best defensive team and they have been for the past two seasons. They're off to a rousing start on that end of the floor in 2011-12. Michigan State, meanwhile, didn't flash much offensive touch in its season-opening losses to Duke and North Carolina, but the Spartans did show an ability to get stops on a per-possession basis. They're ranked No. 6 in defensive efficiency thus far while Florida State is ranked No. 4. Thus, predicting a low-scoring affair is not exactly rocket science. Frankly, it's tough to find the difference here. Perhaps home court can provide it. Perhaps having the best player on the floor, as Michigan State does in forward Draymond Green, can help, too. Green's versatility and ability to handle the ball in spots outside the paint could give the Spartans a little more room to work their offense. But with big FSU forward Bernard James patrolling the paint, that room is always going to be minimal. In any case, it won't be pretty. But it should be fun.

Virginia Tech at Minnesota, 9:15 p.m. ET, ESPN2
Prediction: Virginia Tech wins, 73-60
Why: That seems like a large margin of victory for a team like Virginia Tech to maintain over a team like Minnesota. The Hokies aren't that good, are they? Well, probably not. But they have been more impressive than expected early in the year, giving Syracuse a serious run in the first half of their 69-58 loss in the NIT Season Tip-Off last week before bouncing back to drop Oklahoma State 59-57 a night later. Even so, this expectation is more about Minnesota. On Sunday night, in an 86-70 loss to Dayton in the Old Spice Classic, Gophers forward Trevor Mbakwe tore his ACL. He will be out for the year. It's hard to describe how devastating this injury is. It's devastating to Mbakwe -- it is likely to end his collegiate career -- but it's devastating to Minnesota, too, as Mbakwe was the bruising, dominating centerpiece of a team that after two straight seasons of personnel defections and untimely injuries had almost no margin for error or loss. It's going to be difficult to move on without Mbakwe. Expecting the Gophers to do so by Wednesday seems borderline unfair.

Wake Forest at Nebraska, 9:15 p.m. ET, ESPNU
Prediction: Nebraska wins, 75-65
Why: After one of the worst years in program history, Wake Forest remains a work in progress. An 84-56 loss to Arizona State -- a 2-4 team that itself has lost to Pepperdine, New Mexico, Fairfield and DePaul -- is evidence enough. In another year, even a bad Wake team might stand a decent chance at Nebraska, but it would appear the Cornhuskers are a little bit more game this season. Nebraska got a pretty impressive little win at USC (in double-overtime, no less) on Nov. 14, and their only negative result thus far is a reasonable home loss to Oregon. Do guard Bo Spencer (16.0 points, 4.4 rebounds, 4.2 assists per game) and company have enough to get to the NCAA tournament this season? I'm not sure. Do they have enough to handle Wake at home? It would seem so.

Wisconsin at North Carolina, 9:30 p.m. ET, ESPN
Prediction: North Carolina wins, 68-65
Why: Tough break for Wisconsin. After all, if you're going to play North Carolina in Chapel Hill, it might as well be when the Tar Heels are ranked No. 1 overall. As it is, the Tar Heels lost to UNLV Saturday night, losing their No. 1 ranking in the process. What's worse, any hope the Badgers had of catching UNC on one of those less-engaged, let's-just-coast kind of nights -- which is rare in the first place -- is essentially zero now. Chances are, this is North Carolina's win. The Tar Heels have more talented at nearly every position and they’re taller and faster and more athletic. Wisconsin is many things, but athletic and fast are not included.

What the Badgers are -- and why this game may be a bit closer than most expect -- is everything a Wisconsin team should be. The Badgers are deliberate (another word for “slow”), which is deserved when you average the fewest number of possessions per game in the country. They are excellent defensively, ranked No. 1 in opponents’ effective field goal percentage and No. 1 in opponents’ offensive rebounding percentage and, as you might assume, No. 1 in overall defensive efficiency. They are excellent offensively, ranked No. 4 in effective field goal percentage and No. 2 in 3-point field goal percentage. Led by Jordan Taylor and complemented by a batch of just-right shooters and role-player types, the Badgers do almost everything well.

Of course, it's still early, and Wisconsin has yet to try to contain a team with North Carolina's explosive fast-break offense. The Badgers may have some issue keeping the Tar Heels in check. They will have to make shots and prevent long rebounds. They will have to control the pace of the game by running down the shot clock to its final seconds. But these are all things the Badgers do already. If North Carolina's athleticism forces the Badgers into bad shots, they'll have no chance. But if the game is in the 60s in both pace and points, Wisconsin can keep it close.

Boston College coach Steve Donahue last month put out the message on his Twitter page about wanting to meet with the fledgling student group named in his honor -- "Donahue's Disciples."

Fittingly, 12 of the Disciples recently spoke with Donahue and the coaching staff after hearing of his tweet, and they discussed ways to rally the students and draw them closer to the Eagles program, according to The Heights.

The idea for the group started last season when BC hosted UNC, and Ryan Dunn and a few of his friends dressed up as Donahue's Disciples at the game. After the season ended, Dunn and his friends met with head coach Steve Donahue and his staff to discuss the barren student section at most home games throughout the year. The coaches loved the idea of the student group, but not much else stuck from the meeting.

...

Monday's meeting was much more productive than the one at the end of last year's, and Donahue's Disciples left with a boatload of new ideas for the season, now 38 days away from opening night at Conte Forum.

The central idea behind the group is to reignite a sense of excitement, tradition, and creativity back into Conte Forum.

Donahue embracing the student support comes at a good time. After a 21-win season in his first year with the Eagles, Donahue's team will be very young and will feature many new faces that the students need to connect with.

Is Donahue the program's savior? We'll see. Are Donahue's Disciples the Cameron Crazies? No, but a grassroots passion for college basketball is starting to form, and that's a good thing to see for a program that needs to be energized.

Donahue's Disciples have since created a Twitter account of their own and declared, "The Disciples have arrived everyone. This is a grassroots revolution aimed at creating one of the best fan bases in the country."

The name of the Twitter account? BookofDonahue.

Ah, the unofficial visit. You remember those. You happen to be in town or near a college campus and walk around to check it out, maybe buy a T-shirt, and get a sense for what it's like to go to school there. Maybe you end up going there. Maybe you don't. But that feeling of being there sticks with you.

For big-time basketball recruits, the unofficial visit can generate that same make-or-break feelings toward a school and a program. But how exactly are they getting there to the campus given that colleges can't pay for costs and transportation for official visits until recruits become high school seniors?

The New York Times explored the issue in wake of former Tennessee assistant football coach Willie Mack Garza being accused in a Yahoo! Sports report of reimbursing costs of a recruit's unofficial visit. The paper found that the NCAA and many in college basketball are concerned that rules might be broken.

Steve Donahue, the Boston College men’s basketball coach, said: "I think it's very prevalent. It's curious to me how all this gets done in such a speedy fashion if you're going to abide by the rules."

Donahue is one of many coaches who favor an N.C.A.A. rule change that will be discussed this month by N.C.A.A. leadership that would allow universities to fly juniors to campus the spring before their senior year.

"Kids are making choices so quickly of who they can visit, they make the decision before you can even have a shot," Donahue said.

Interestingly enough, such a rule change would effectively remove some of the potential violations going on now involving third parties that help recruits get to campus. The change would be an acknowledgment that the recruiting game begins early, with many top prospects no longer waiting until their senior seasons to make their college choices.

Until then, there are questions about whether or not some unofficial visits are going by the book, especially when blue-chip players are now taking them across the country at a time when transportation costs are high.

Are there worse kinds of NCAA violations to be committed? Yes, but it's just another thing the NCAA has to concern itself with enforcing.

A quick look at the player and coach of the year races in the ACC:

Player of the Year

Thanks to the ascendancy of North Carolina and an injury to Kyrie Irving, Duke hasn’t quite dominated this conference in the singular style we all expected in the preseason. But the race for conference player of the year has been all Duke. More specifically, it’s been all Nolan Smith.

The numbers are as impressive as they come: Smith leads the ACC in points per game (21.3) and trails Kendall Marshall by a tenth of a point (5.3 to 5.2) for the league lead in assists. If Smith can eclipse Marshall by the end of this season, he’ll become the first player in the history -- yes, the history -- of the ACC to lead the league in both categories. Smith has dominated the ball, but he’s been ruthlessly efficient, too. His offensive rating of 117.4 leads the ACC among players who use more than 28 percent of their team’s possessions (Smith uses 30.7). He’s been the near-perfect player for his team this season, and in the wake of a somewhat disappointing senior season from teammate Kyle Singler (the consensus ACC and national player of the year pick in the preseason) and a freak injury to Irving, Smith’s contributions have been all the more crucial.

Of course, Smith isn’t the only good player in his conference. Guard Reggie Jackson has been an underrated offensive force for a surprising Boston College team, and Maryland sophomore Jordan Williams is the best big man in the conference. But there will be zero debate when it comes time to cast and collect the votes for ACC Player of the Year. Frankly, it’s Smith in a blowout.

Coach of the Year

No one coach has a Nolan Smith-esque chokehold on his league’s top individual honors this season, but at the end of the day, Mike Krzyzewski is probably the pick here.

There are a few contenders. One is Steve Donahue, who took over a Boston College team that finished 15-16 overall last season with essentially the same personnel as he has this season. But contrary to expectations, BC isn’t a .500 team this season. This season, Donahue has turned BC’s so-so offense into Cornell on steroids, and the Eagles have turned into a possible NCAA tournament team, albeit one very much on the bubble.

Like Donahue, Clemson coach Brad Brownell has also exceeded some very low preseason expectations, and like Donahue, Brownell has turned a talent-bereft Tigers team into one with a shot to make the NCAA tournament. And by the way, UNC’s Roy Williams deserves some love here, too, if only for turning a marginal, frustrating young team into one with a legitimate chance to make the Final Four. The guy hasn’t forgotten how to coach.

But Coach K stands above all. Krzyzewski has coached two teams this season: one with Irving in the lineup and one without him. The adjustments Krzyzewski made after losing a potential No. 1 overall pick in this summer’s NBA draft -- moving Smith onto the ball, using Andre Dawkins and Seth Curry as standstill shooters and adding Tyler Thornton to the rotation to take pressure off Smith at the point -- did as much to boost Duke’s ACC title chances as Smith himself. Krzyzewski went from winning the national title to a USA Basketball gold medal in the matter of months, and his performance this season has been just as good.

Click here to find out who our panel of 15 experts picked in each of the nation's 10 best conferences.

There are a lot of weird tempo-free things happening in college hoops this season. Pittsburgh, a team traditionally known for its defense and rebounding, has the most high-flying offense in the country. Maryland, an underrated team that won with offense in 2010, is, go figure, an underrated team team winning with defense in 2011. North Carolina pushes the pace more than any major-conference team, but its real strength is defense. That's one of the great things about advanced stats and college basketball in general. The more you look for these sorts of quirks, the more you'll eventually find.

Still, even if you dig deep into every team in the nation, I'm not sure you'll find a statistical entity stranger than Boston College. Led by star guard Reggie Jackson, the Eagles are one of the best offenses in the nation according to Pomeroy. They also boast one of its worst defenses. This is something the Eagles have been doing all season long under new coach Steve Donahue, but only today did one of the big brains at Harvard Sports Analysis, John Ezekowitz, decide to see where the Eagles' crazy one-sidedness ranks all-time. John's finding:

Of the teams with the most efficient college basketball offenses of the tempo-free era, Boston College has the least efficient defense, and it is not even close. In fact, the only team within shouting distance is the memorable 2006 Gonzaga Bulldogs, led by Player of the Year candidate Adam Morrison. This is the Gonzaga team whose style of play Pomeroy has (famously?) said “broke my rankings.”

If you like your basketball with efficient scoring from both teams, be sure to catch a Boston College game at some point in the next two months. We may never see a confluence of such efficient offense and terrible defense on one team again.

Yes, the Eagles will always be worth a watch. You could also argue they'll be one of the toughest teams to predict for throughout the rest of the season. Because of that huge statistical disparity, all it takes is a surprisingly good defensive night -- or a surprisingly bad offensive one -- to carry the Eagles to upset wins or doom them to disappointing losses. In one game, anything can happen. And when your baseline performance on both ends of the floor varies so widely, you're bound to make some noise.

So, yes, if you like efficient offense, check out the Eagles. Check out their opponents. And brace yourself for all contingencies. It should be an interesting few months.

Boston College hadn't held a Midnight Madness for such a long time that with the Steve Donahue era set to start, the student newspaper early last month ran an editorial asking that the new coach help "reinstitute it or some similar event."

What athletic department and student officials proceeded to announce the following week was an event called "Ice Jam" that involves half of Conte Forum as a basketball court and the other half with the ice exposed in celebration of both the school's hoops and hockey teams.

Bob Costas will serve as a celebrity emcee for this unique hockey-included event that won't be held until Oct. 26 and gets going early at 8 p.m., but the students do get their chance to rally like the cool kids across the country do.

The BC-style Midnight Madness is quirky for sure.

But more importantly, Donahue was supportive of it. The Heights, the student newspaper, confirmed as much last week when it quoted a student government official as saying it was Donahue and his staff that gave the students permission to put on the event.

Capitalizing on an early opportunity to please the fans with a somewhat simple goodwill gesture?

Smooth move by Donahue.

And hey, why should they? It was one of the most successful seasons in Ivy League history, let alone Cornell basketball history. That's the sort of season you want to remember in handy video montage format, which is exactly what the Cornell fans at The Cornell Basketball Blog have done.

Notable cameos -- besides Ryan Wittman, Jeff Foote, and the rest of the team, obviously -- include ESPN personalities like Jay Bilas and Dick Vitale. Naturally, there's also a little clip of Barack Obama giving the Big Red the presidential seal of approval in picking No. 12-seeded Cornell over No. 5 Temple, an upset that just about everyone except yours truly picked. Still a little sore about that.

In any case, if you hopped on the Cornell bandwagon a little late and wanted to see some of the team's early season highlights, this montage is for you. It's probably best to enjoy now, because repeating this season will be a tall task in 2010-11. Last year's was a senior-laden team -- Wittman, Foote, and guard Louis Dale are all graduating this spring, along with six other members of the team -- and with coach Steve Donahue leaving the school to take on a rebuilding project at Boston College in the wake of Al Skinner's departure, Cornell basketball might soon fade into its own transitional period. Remember 2010 well, Cornell fans. It was an awfully good one, and it might be a while before it happens again.

Coaching carousel chatter for a Saturday, culled from a variety of sources close to all the situations:

• Texas A&M coach Mark Turgeon was approached by Oregon but has decided to stay at Texas A&M after the Aggies were able to work out some compensation issues. Turgeon was once an assistant at Oregon under Jerry Green. Turgeon ultimately wanted to stay at Texas A&M. Oregon has approached Minnesota’s Tubby Smith, but the Gophers expect Smith to stay with them. A source with direct knowledge of the situation said Smith is beloved at the school, and while they have heard for three years that Smith would leave, they are confident he will stay with them.

• Once Oregon is done with Smith (after not getting Turgeon), Gonzaga's Mark Few, Florida's Billy Donovan and Pitt's Jamie Dixon, the Ducks will have to refocus the search.

• St. John’s interviewed Boston College’s Al Skinner on Friday and met with Siena’s Fran McCaffery on Saturday. The Red Storm is also expected to seek out Temple’s Fran Dunphy and Rhode Island’s Jim Baron for possible interviews over the next two days. On Monday, there is a chance St. John’s will reach out to ESPN analyst and former UCLA coach Steve Lavin.

• McCaffery remains one of the two finalists at Seton Hall. The other one is still in question with a number of candidates like Mike Rice of Robert Morris and Kevin Willard of Iona in play. Richmond’s Chris Mooney had one conversation with the Pirates and is expected to get a new deal with the Spiders.

• Iowa doesn't t want to wait for Dayton’s Brian Gregory to finish the NIT, and Gregory won't talk to the Hawkeyes until his season is over. Iowa was extremely interested in Gregory, so this move is odd for them if he’s truly the top choice. Iowa has talked to McCaffery and he remains a finalist with the Hawkeyes. Tulsa’s Doug Wojcik talked to Iowa and could be one of the other finalists. Wichita State’s Gregg Marshall turned down an interview request. Murray State’s Billy Kennedy talked to Iowa as well.

• DePaul wanted Tony Barbee of UTEP. He went to Auburn. The Blue Demons have tried to generate interest from Dixon and UCLA’s Ben Howland. They could be starting over.

• UTEP is serious about Tim Floyd. The Miners can get over the USC issues as the school and Floyd wait for the committee on infractions to issue penalties. Houston is close to getting Billy Gillispie, the former Kentucky, Texas A&M and UTEP coach. But both of these C-USA jobs could still hit a snag due to the nature of both candidates.

• Central Florida is said to be high on Marshall’s Donnie Jones and Kennedy. But UCF is far from having a deal with either.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -– Watching John Wall get out on the break can be intoxicating.

Seeing DeMarcus Cousins control the paint at times can be intimidating.

When Kentucky has Eric Bledsoe finishing with a thunderous dunk or Patrick Patterson scoring inside or out, the Kentucky offense can be a machine.

What has been somewhat lost is just how dismantling the Wildcats’ defense has become this season.

But during a 62-45 win against Cornell on Thursday night at the Carrier Dome, you couldn’t help but be romanced by UK’s defense for a 15-minute stretch that was as stifling as any team has put on another at this level.

“They saw blood,’’ Cornell coach Steve Donahue said. “Give them credit. We lost our poise and we lost the game.’’

Cornell was doing everything it wanted for the first five minutes of the East Regional semifinal game. The Big Red had the crowd, a 10-2 lead and a national audience thinking the unthinkable.

And then something snapped.

It was as if a magician had just gone poof with some smoke and suddenly Cornell’s confidence, offensive execution and ability to win the game were gone in a flash.

Kentucky outscored Cornell 30-6 the rest of the half. The Wildcats would be up 38-30 with just over eight minutes left in the game before the offense finally unleashed for what was a never-very-easy win and a date with 2-seed West Virginia in Saturday’s Elite Eight.

“It was the best defense we’ve played all year,’’ said Patterson. “It was a total team effort. Coach Cal told us to shut down the 3-pointer shooters and make them take tough twos. We had to get our hands up every time they shot the ball.’’

Man, it was something to behold.

At the beginning of the season, Kentucky was a bit of a sieve on 3-point defense as teams like Sam Houston State and Miami (Ohio) had their way with 3s.

“We were awful,’’ Kentucky coach John Calipari said. “When you play prevent defense, you lose, it prevents you from winning. If you blitz, you win.’’

Donahue was pleased with how easily the Big Red were able to execute their offense in wins over Temple and Wisconsin in the first two rounds of this tournament. Against the Cats, Cornell couldn’t do much for that 15-minute stretch that signified the end of the game, even if the Big Red did cut the lead to six at one point late. The message was clear for that stretch that Kentucky could change the outcome by tightening its defense.

The difference for Donahue was seeing Cousins live.

Throughout the season, Cornell’s 7-foot center Jeff Foote could get the ball in the post and then see if he could score. Thursday that didn’t happen after the first few possessions.

“(Cousins) doesn’t look like he’s that flexible but he is,’’ Donahue said. “He’s way more impressive in person as an athlete. He doesn’t look like he can move quick but he can. He’s got good hands and a sense on how to play. He could probably play harder for longer. But he does everything else. He’s incredible.’’

Foote finished going just 3-of-8 for eight points and two turnovers. Cousins made 7 of 8 shots and did have four turnovers, but he also forced four with four steals.

“It was team defense,’’ Calipari said. “Our five-man helped. Our four-man helped. We made them take tough shots. It takes discipline and early our young guys didn’t have that. We’re 37 games in now.’’

Darius Miller said Kentucky hadn’t figured out how to defend early in the season. Teams were knocking down 3s and “breaking records on us. We’ve come a long way.’’

Calipari doesn’t get the credit of being a defensive-minded coach. But he has made the Wildcats defend. Why do you think Kentucky looks so fantastic on the break? It’s because the Wildcats are forcing turnovers.

“At the beginning of the season, none of us knew how to guard screens and guard the 3,’’ Wall said. “You can’t stop. You have to keep chasing and not let them get an open look.’’

Kentucky had a few lapses again later in the second half, but the Big Red’s 5-of-21 shooting on 3s was no fluke. Sure, Donahue said the Big Red did get some good looks that didn’t go down but they were mostly contested.

“They took the challenge of seeing how we executed last week and took us out of our stuff,’’ Donahue said. “I was disappointed in our guys that we didn’t give it another 10 seconds (during the possessions). We lost our poise and that hasn't happened for a long, long time.’’

Kentucky has been perceived at times as having plenty of flash and not enough substance. That’s simply wrong. The Wildcats defend as well as any team in the country when they apply themselves. Teams like Butler get credit for the low field-goal percentages and scores. But UK needs to get credit for how tough it defends. Cornell couldn’t figure it out.

And if Kentucky is locked in defensively for three more games, no one else will be able to either.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- As he headed back to his jubilant locker room, Cornell point guard Louis Dale stopped to sign a hat from a fan. It was a University of Alabama cap, sure, but at least it had the right red-and-white colors, and Alabama is Dale's home state.

Then another fan dropped a hat for Dale to sign. This one was blue.

"A Kentucky hat?" Dale said, incredulously eyeing the UK logo before throwing the hat back into the stands. "You've got to be kidding me. Get that out of here."

We are not kidding about this: Kentucky had better watch out for Cornell in the Sweet 16 on Thursday. After the way the 12th-seeded Big Red played this weekend in Jacksonville -- especially in Sunday's 87-69 dismantling of Wisconsin -- they must be considered as much of a threat as anyone left in the NCAA Tournament.

Temple and Wisconsin owned two of the best defenses in the country this season, according to the stats. Yet here is what Cornell did to those defenses: shot a combined 58.8 percent from the floor and 44.7 percent on three-pointers while averaging 82.5 points.

Wisconsin had allowed 70 points only three times all year, two of those coming in overtime games. Yet Bo Ryan's defense got sliced like a machete through warm gouda. Cornell shot 61.1 percent, the highest percentage by any team against the Badgers in the Ryan era.

"In our half-court defense, we thought we did some pretty good things," Ryan said. "But that's how good they are. ... I'm not sure if three or four days' [preparation] would have stopped what they do, because they just do it well."

When you think of Ivy League teams, you probably envision those old Princeton teams that worked the ball around, running backdoor screen after backdoor screen. But Cornell is far more diverse than that.

Yes, it can make a back cut with the best of them. But against Wisconsin, the Big Red scored on give-and-gos, alley oops, tear-drop floaters and in transition. Ryan Wittman (24 points) can create his own shot at 6-foot-7, and Dale (26 points) can get in the lane against anybody, as he proved repeatedly against the Badgers' all-Big Ten defensive team performer Trevon Hughes. Then there's seven-footer Jeff Foote, who eats up space on screens and is a deft passer.

"We have a lot of players who can score in a variety of ways," Foote said. "Ryan and Louis did their thing today, and when they do that, we're tough to stop."

Foote predicted at the start of the season that his team would make the Sweet 16, and Cornell became the first Ivy League school since Penn made the Final Four in 1979 to advance to the second weekend. No one on the team seems all that surprised by the development.

"It really doesn't matter who we're playing," forward Jon Jacques said. "We're confident in ourselves. Our confidence is definitely growing each game."

So is their goofiness. The players have been joking around all weekend, displaying the comfort of a group making its third straight trip to March Madness. The team watched "Friday Night Lights" on Saturday night and told Dale he had to work a quote from the movie into his postgame press conference. Dale pulled it off, while his teammates erupted with laughter while watching him on a TV in the locker room.

Does that kind of stuff happen a lot?

"Well, we don't usually have many press conferences," Dale said.

Coach Steve Donahue said his team likes to have fun but knows when to get serious. It showed in their preparations this weekend, as they got off to strong starts in both games and trailed for a total of 2:43, all at the beginning in the Temple game. Donahue called Cornell's offensive execution against Wisconsin the best he'd ever seen as a coach.

Next comes perhaps the biggest David vs. Goliath matchup in the history of the Sweet 16: Cornell against top-seeded Kentucky. A program whose first two NCAA Tournament wins came this weekend vs. one with seven NCAA titles. A school that doesn't give athletic scholarships vs. one that has four likely lottery picks. Unrecruited seniors vs. blue-chip freshmen. Big Red vs. Big Blue.

And it will take place in Syracuse, N.Y., about 55 miles from Cornell's campus.

"It's an amazing story, " said Mark Coury, who started 29 games at Kentucky before transferring to Cornell, where he comes off the bench. "We won our last two games by a lot of points, but obviously Kentucky is a whole different level. But if we run our offense efficiently and play good defense, I think we'll have a chance."

Kentucky had better be prepared. Or else the Wildcats will become the latest team to have their hats handed to them by Cornell.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Some big men arrived pre-packaged. They dominated high school competition, made a pit stop in college and then headed off to the pros.

You won't find that with Wisconsin and Cornell on Sunday. Each features a late-blooming big guy whose performances likely will decide which team advances to the Sweet 16.

Cornell's Jeff Foote is the rarest of occurrences. He's a legitimate 7-foot, 265-pound banger in the Ivy League, though he took a roundabout way to get there.

Foote -- who grew up about 30 minutes south of Cornell's campus -- shot up from 6-foot-4 to 6-9 in the summer between his sophomore and junior year of high school, then sprouted another two inches before his senior year. Trouble was, he didn't know how to use his newfound height.

"I was very uncoordinated," he said. "Lanky. Awkward. I didn't have a lot of basketball skills."

A guy that tall has to be awfully ungainly to not attract any college interest. Foote was. Cornell coach Steve Donahue scouted Foote during his senior year and took a pass.

"I was sitting with a couple of Division III guys, and he was probably 170 [pounds]," Donahue said. "It was hard to imagine him being a college basketball player at any level."

Foote went to St. Bonaventure on an academic scholarship and walked on to the team, where teammates bullied him in practice. He realized then that he needed to get much stronger to have any future in the game.

While he focused on strength, his mother, Wanda, hatched a plan to get him somewhere better than St. Bonaventure, which is still recovering from the academic scandal that decimated the program earlier this decade. Wanda worked as a nurse at the hospital where injured Cornell player Khaliq Gant was recuperating from two dislocated vertebrae in his neck. She loved how the Big Red players and coaches constantly visited Gant. She wanted her son at a place that cared about each other that much.

Big Red guard Ryan Wittman remembers seeing Foote when he toured the school as a potential transfer. Foote, he said, wore a baggy T-shirt and might have been 205 pounds soaking wet. Point guard Louis Dale didn't think much of Foote after his first practice with the team.

"He couldn't dunk that well," Dale said. "I was like, 'He's seven feet tall and I can't even throw him an alley-oop.'"

But Foote kept developing his game and more importantly, hitting the weight room hard. By last summer, he had bulked up to 265 pounds.

"We'd play pickup games, and all our big guys were complaining about how much stronger he was," Wittman said. "Nobody could guard him, nobody could stop him."

That was the case all year in the Ivy League and even against top competition, as Foote more than held his own against Kansas center Cole Aldrich in January. He had 16 points, seven rebounds and two blocks in a first-round win over Temple.

His challenge will increase Sunday against Wisconsin's own nontraditional big man, Jon Leuer.

Like Foote, the Orono, Minn., native went through his own rapid vertical surge. Leuer was a 6-foot guard as a high school freshman. By his senior year, he stood 6-10. He handled the change a little more easily than Foote, though.

"I guess I lost some mobility, but at the same time I didn't have growing pains and stuff like that," Leuer said. "It was definitely a transition from being able to play on perimeter to being able to play in the post."

Donahue remembers trying to recruit Leuer to Cornell as a junior in high school, but Leuer became a coveted prospect the next year because of his enhanced height. Still, Leuer came to Wisconsin as a 200-pound string bean and spent much of his first two years hanging out on the wings. He's put on 30 pounds since then and now can play inside as well as out.

That makes him one of the more versatile frontcourt players in the Big Ten, as Leuer maintained his guard skills while gaining a center's body. He showed that in Friday's win over Wofford, knocking down the go-ahead 17-foot jumper with 17 seconds left, then helping poke the ball away from Terriers guard Cameron Rundles on the other end to preserve the victory.

"He's got a unique, diverse skill set," Badgers forward Keaton Nankivil said. "Now it's to the point where he's kind of a terror matchup for anybody he goes against, just because he can do so many different things. He has all the tools to really attack anybody."

Foote says Leuer is "like an Ivy League player, but more skilled." Leuer says he'll need to keep Foote from getting good position down low and using his bulk for easy baskets. Leuer would like to pull Foote outside on defense, but Donahue say Foote is athletic enough to guard the perimeter.

They may be late bloomers, but prospects for both are now booming.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Cornell guard Ryan Wittman started to spout the old one-game-at-a-time cliché when asked about his team's NCAA tournament future Thursday afternoon. Then he started chuckling.

The oddness of the answer must have struck him. When was the last time an Ivy League school had to guard against looking ahead in March?

We may need to rethink a lot of preconceived conceptions if the Big Red are going to play like they did in a thoroughly impressive 78-65 undressing of No. 5 seed Temple on Thursday.

"To the rest of the world, this might have been an upset," center Jeff Foote said. "But not to us."

You paid attention to Cornell this year when it cracked the Top 25 and when it battled Kansas to the wire in Lawrence in January. But did you know it was actually this good?

Temple is no slouch. The Owls went 29-5, won the Atlantic 10 regular season and conference titles and beat Villanova this season. Many people thought they deserved better than a No. 5 seed.

Yet Cornell controlled the game from the opening tip, first by pounding the ball in to the 7-foot Foote and driving to the basket as Temple concentrated on stopping the 3-point shot. That's why the Big Red shot a sizzling 68.4 percent in the first half en route to taking a 37-29 lead into intermission.

When Temple tried to adjust in the second half, Cornell banged home seven 3-pointers, including three in a row in one crucial early stretch. Cornell ran the dribble handoff to perfection with Foote most of the game. When the Owls stretched out their defense, Foote found cutters for layups. When they stayed underneath Foote, Louis Dale (21 points) and Wittman (20) drilled 3s.

"They looked great out there running their offense," Temple coach Fran Dunphy said in admiration.

Cornell led by as many as 19 points in the second half, and even Wittman admitted that margin surprised him. The result, however, was not unexpected for a team playing in the NCAA tournament for the third straight time.

"That's the difference between the last few years and this year," said Dale, whose team lost to Stanford by 24 points in 2008 and by 19 to Missouri last March. "We came into this game confident, and we expected to win."

Not just confident, but loose. Players joked around during Thursday's media session, not at all in awe of the environment. When they hit the court early for warm-ups Friday and were told by NCAA officials that they couldn't touch the basketballs yet, they teasingly went through some phantom layup drills.

This group is extremely comfortable around one another. Most were barely recruited -- Foote began his career as a walk-on at St. Bonaventure, and Dale personally delivered his highlight tape to coach Steve Donahue after no one else showed interest. Thirteen players -- including all the seniors -- and a team manager share a 14-bedroom house just off campus.

"I may never coach a group this special again," Donahue said. "And one that can compete on the national stage."

Still, the Ivy League is supposed to dominate debate contests, presidential races and job searches, not NCAA tournament games. The Ancient Eight's last March Madness moment in the sun was Princeton's upset of UCLA in 1996 on the most famous backdoor pass ever delivered. Since then, the Ivy had lost in the first round 11 straight years, the longest active losing streak by any conference coming into Friday.

Cornell needed no Princeton-style late heroics. In the locker room after the game, Donahue told the players they should be excited about the moment, but that it's not over yet.

"He wants more," Wittman said.

More than one win from an Ivy League team? It's time to consider that as a real possibility.