ESPN Men's Basketball

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Morning After is our semi-daily recap of the night's best action. Try not to make it awkward.

No. 7 Ohio State 73, Illinois 57: There were zero upsets to speak of last night, and Illinois' bid for a tournament-securing win at Ohio State was no different. Instead, the night was a feel-good Buckeye festival. Thad Matta's team secured a share of the Big Ten title. Evan Turner got a national spotlight, not that he needed it (more on this below). And Mark Titus, the by-now-famous purveyor of Club Trillion, made the most of his senior night, notching one final trillion in front of hundreds of Club Trillion t-shirt-clad OSU fans -- not to mention raising a whole bunch of cash for sick children. Really, things couldn't have gone much better.

The most notable performance of the night -- other than Titus', obviously -- probably came from Ohio State sharpshooter Jon Diebler, whose seven 3-pointers for 21 points (this scoreline math is refreshingly simple) helped bury the Illini in the second half. After the game, though, the only national topic was Turner. More specifically, the topic was "Is Evan Turner the player of the year?" Every analyst ESPN had to offer on Sportscenter proclaimed it to be true. The only dissenters? America. In a SportsNation poll, 37 percent of the country voted for John Wall as the player of the year; Turner notched 33 percent of the vote. Which means one thing, America: You're on notice. I know Wall might be the most familiar name, but it's March now. There's no excuse for this. Inform thyself. Wall is a great player, but Turner has had a better season, and he deserves the award. I thought we Turner advocates had settled this issue already -- seriously, you have no idea how good it felt to see the unanimous pundit praise for Turner Tuesday night -- but apparently not. We have more work to do. Turner bandwagon team ... assemble!

No. 19 Vanderbilt 64, Florida 60: Again, no upsets here: Florida, like Illinois, could have sealed an at-large NCAA tournament spot with a win over the sturdy Commodores on Tuesday night. It didn't happen. Still, the Gators acquitted themselves nicely in the loss; Florida held a typically efficient Vanderbilt offense to a mere 64 points on 60 possessions. Billy Donovan's team was undone by its poor shooting, though, hitting 21-of-50 2-point shots and just 2-of-13 from 3 for a paltry 31.8 effective field goal percentage. Even in a solid defensive effort, that's not going to get the job done.

The Associated Press wrap of the game seems to think that Florida significantly hurt its tournament chances with the loss, but that seems slightly overstated. Sure, Florida didn't help itself, but losing by four to Vanderbilt at home isn't the worst result in the world, is it? Florida might have more work to do -- but no more work than before Tuesday, right?

Everywhere else: Cincinnati likewise needed a big win to keep itself in the at-large conversation. They almost got it, but insert the old koan about horseshoes and hand grenades here ... UTEP clinched the outright Conference USA title with a hard-fought win at Marshall ... Missouri's Zaire Taylor almost perfectly recreated Tyus Edney's famous game-winner in a thrilling overtime win at Iowa State ... North Carolina became the second team in the history of college basketball to get to 2,000 wins; one wonders if the current players felt strange holding that 2,000-win plaque, given this season's ugliness ... Syracuse had no problems with St. John's on senior night ... Baylor won at Texas Tech, handing Pat Knight's team its sixth straight loss ... Minnesota suffered a major letdown at Michigan, one which officially puts the final nail in the the already almost-entirely-assembled Gophers' coffin ... Trevor Booker did manly things in Clemson's win over Georgia Tech ... and Marquette shredded Louisville's zone in a 21-point win in Milwaukee.

Saddle Up is our daily preview of the hoops your TV wants you to watch. Here's Tuesday night's rundown.

Illinois at No. 7 Ohio State, 9 p.m. ET, ESPN: Of any team facing bubble implications to play tonight, Illinois' situation is perhaps the most fluid. A win at Ohio State puts the Illini in the absolutely-in pile; a loss leaves them right about where they are now, if not worse off. Losing would make the Illini would 18-12 overall, the sort of record the committee will not be perfectly thrilled with, and Illinois would still have to fend off loss No. 13 when Wisconsin comes to Champaign, Ill. on Sunday.

The good news is Illinois has proven capable of beating top Big Ten teams on the road before. The bad news is that Illinois' style plays right into the Buckeyes' hands: Few teams prevent free throws quite like the Buckeyes, and few teams refuse to pocket their jump shots and attack the rim quite like the Illini. If Illinois can reverse this trend for a night -- if they can get Demetri McCamey to attack the basket and get forwards Mike Tisdale and Mike Davis some good looks against Ohio State's somewhat undersized, shallow front line -- Bruce Weber's charges have a chance. If not, well, Ohio State is better and more efficient than Illinois in just about every aspect of the game. Things don't bode well.

No. 19 Vanderbilt at Florida, 7 p.m. ET, ESPN: Speaking of bubble teams in need of help ... Florida, come on down. Joe Lunardi has Florida as a No. 10 seed in the tournament right now, but thanks to a close loss at Georgia (which is actually not that horrible loss, given how well Georgia has played at home this season), Florida could use a big win tonight before a daunting trip to Rupp Arena on Sunday.

Make no mistake: That's what a win over Vanderbilt would be. Big. The Commodores have been a steady force in the SEC all season. Their only league losses have been to Kentucky and a blowout at Georgia -- there's that pesky Georgia team again -- and while not a great defensive team, Kevin Stallings' bunch is very difficult to stop on the offensive end. Vanderbilt's attack is nicely balanced between forwards A.J. Ogilvy and Jeffrey Taylor, and guard Jermaine Beal, all who shoot a plus-50 effective field goal percentage. Florida's lack of a true post presence could hurt them against the 6-foot-11 Ogilvy. Then again, Florida's strength isn't its size; it's speed. Make Ogilvy work away from the hoop on defense -- the sudden offensive brilliance of forward Chandler Parsons applies here -- and the Gators can make Vanderbilt exceedingly uncomfortable. And then we can stop talking about the Florida's bubble issues forever. I'm cool with that.

Everywhere else: Cincinnati doesn't share Illinois' and Florida's bubble anxiety -- it's entirely out of the picture, now -- but a win over Villanova couldn't hurt matters, I guess ... Gonzaga would put the cap on another WCC title season by topping Cal-State Bakersfield tonight ... With a win at Marshall, UTEP would seal the outright Conference-USA crown ... Baylor will put its third-place standing in the Big 12 on the line at Texas Tech ... Likewise for Missouri at Iowa State ... Minnesota plays at Michigan in yet another battle of the upper midwest's most disappointing teams ... and deadlocked Big East teams Louisville and Marquette will play a game both teams want, but don't necessarily need, in regards to NCAA tournament hopes. Marquette is involved, so it's a safe bet the game will come down to the wire. That should be fun.

UAB skipper Mike Davis has had big coaching weeks before -- a certain NCAA tournament run in 2002 comes to mind -- but the next few days are as important as any he's seen in a long time.

Why? The NCAA tournament, silly: Davis' UAB team streaked to an 18-2 record to begin the season, looking to all the world like the C-USA team most ready to supplant Memphis' dominance in the post-Calipari era. Then a few losses in league play -- to UTEP (in overtime), at Memphis, and to Marshall -- put Davis' team squarely on the bubble, where they've stayed since. In his latest Bracketology, Joe Lunardi has UAB as a No. 11 seed, right on the fringe of demotion into the dreaded "first four out" field.

That could change this week. UAB plays Memphis at home Wednesday night, a game that could effectively swap the teams in the bubble conversation. (For what it's worth, Memphis isn't in Lunardi's bracket, but they are listed among his next four out, which is as good a summation of the bubble as you'll find anywhere.) UAB will then go to No. 21-ranked UTEP Saturday for a game that could decide UAB's season. A win would prove that Davis' team is good enough to beat surefire NCAA teams at their own arena (not to mention provide an outside shot at a share of the conference title, provided UTEP loses at Marshall Wednesday). A loss would keep the Blazers' tournament chances pretty much where they are right now, or worse.

Can UAB do it? Sure. UTEP is undoubtedly a more efficient team than the Blazers, but the Miners aren't particularly good at keeping opponents off the free throw line, which just so happens to be one of the Blazers' strengths. Both teams play solid defense; a close game would seem to favor the team most able to get to the line consistently. This is doable.

Of course, a win at UTEP is no guarantee of a tournament spot; UAB's nonconference record includes losses to Virginia and Kent State and only one quality win, which came over Butler. UAB will be a bubble team no matter what they do this week, but what side of the bubble they find themselves on will have a lot to do with their last two games. More than most, UAB controls its own destiny. Davis would surely prefer his team didn't have so much work to do -- but there are, as they say, worse fates.

It might not be A.J. Moye blocking Carlos Boozer in the Sweet 16, but yeah: This is a big week for Mike Davis.

Saddle Up is our daily preview of the hoops your TV wants you to watch. Here's Wednesday night's rundown.

Don't let anyone tell you the college basketball regular season doesn't matter. It does. Wednesday night doesn't boast a single match up between top 25 teams, but it does have at least four games featuring bubble (or barely bubble) teams with a chance to immediately boost their at-large chances. A quick gander:

No. 3 Purdue at Minnesota, 7:30 p.m. ET, Big Ten Network: Don't look now, but Minnesota has a chance to make the NCAA tournament. I know, I know -- it's a distant chance. But it's a chance. After a 16-point win over Wisconsin on Feb. 18 and a subsequent blowout at Indiana, Tubby Smith's team is at 16-10 and 7-7 in the Big Ten with four games to play. A win tonight would be the Gophers' third in a row, and would give them a much-needed quality win for the résumé. Then, with a win over the No. 3 team in the country in their pocket, the Gophers would have three winnable games -- at Illinois, at Michigan, and at Iowa -- to play. Win out, and that gets Minnesota to 20 wins, an 11-7 conference mark, and serious at-large consideration. Easy, right?

OK, not so much: Purdue is playing its best basketball of the season right now, and the Boilermakers are in the thick of a Big Ten title race with Ohio State and Michigan State. There will be no letdowns. If Minnesota wants to sneak into the tournament, it will be earned.

South Florida at Villanova, 9 p.m. ET, ESPN360: South Florida, much like Minnesota, is nowhere to be found in Joe Lunardi's latest bracket. At 16-10, the Bulls share much the same burden as the Gophers, which is not how the animal kingdom works at all, but that's OK, because we're actually talking about college basketball. Anyway, stay focused: South Florida very much needs a win at Villanova -- not an impossible feat, given Nova's prodigious fouling habit and overall defensive vulnerability -- to stay in the bubble picture. At the very least, fire up your laptop to watch Dominique Jones take on the porous Wildcats. Bubble talk or no, that ought to be a treat.

San Diego State at BYU, 9 p.m. ET, CBS College Sports: San Diego State has had two prior chances to prove itself worthy of an at-large bid. The first was Jan. 23's 71-69 loss to BYU at home. The second was an 88-86 loss at New Mexico. Swap either one of those incredibly close and no doubt disappointing results, and SDSU isn't sitting there wallowing among the first four out. So here you go, Aztecs. Last chance. You get BYU and Jimmer Fredette in Provo with a tournament at-large on the line. You've proven you can play with the best teams in your league. Now you must, thanks to the selection committee's totally unfair and not cool at all focus on "wins," win.

No. 21 Pittsburgh at Notre Dame, 7 p.m. ET, ESPN2: You already know the story here: Right now, Notre Dame shares two things with the aforementioned South Florida Bulls: a 6-8 Big East record and a fringe chance of making the NCAA tournament. How to remedy that? The Bulls have the better of the opportunities tonight, but Notre Dame has the more winnable. The only problem? Luke Harangody is expected to sit out again for the Irish, a knee injury that's come at the worst possible time for the perennially bubble-bound team.

Everywhere else: Both of these teams are already in the tournament, so they get shoved all the way down here to the flotsam, but tonight's best game is no doubt Oklahoma State at Texas, where Texas will experience life without Dogus Balbay for the first time ... There's also Texas A&M at Baylor, a match up of two very capable and tourney-ready Big 12 teams ... Dayton didn't fit up top, but it too needs a bubble win over Temple to make a late case for tournament inclusion ... UTEP will try to continue its conference dominance at Southern Miss ... Virginia Tech can't afford to lose to Boston College ... Florida State at North Carolina will be on your television whether you like it or not ... Xavier will go to St. Louis in tonight's other big A-10 match up ... And Clemson will play at Maryland as the Terps try to keep edging toward that elusive bracketology respect.

• ESPN's college hoops Rumor Central has been following Xavier Henry closely for the last few weeks, and today RC is asking whether Henry is still a one-and-done (Insider). Henry started hot for the Jayhawks but has cooled off in conference play as Sherron Collins has taken on more and more of the scoring load. For what it's worth, Henry is looking like a fringe lottery pick right now -- he's No. 17 in Chad Ford's mock draft (Insider), No. 14 at Draft Express, and No. 15 at NBADraft.net. Henry is super-talented, but maybe he's better off returning to Kansas for a year, running the show, and improving his draft stock, rather than jumping in to an uncertain situation right away. (By the way, that sound you hear is Kansas fans hyperventilating with joy.)
• Speaking of mock drafts, Seth Davis breaks down the mock bracket we media folks drafted last week in Indianapolis. (My recaps on the two day process are here and here.) He has a few qualms, but ultimately, I think Davis lends a seal of approval.
• John Gasaway does his weekly checkup on your favorite conference's tempo-free statistics, only to find the Big East mired in a top-heavy morass of talented-but-imperfect teams. (Look out for Marquette. Seriously, look out.) Meanwhile, the SEC is loaded in the middle, and UTEP is looking dominant in the C-USA. (Oh, and John's guest-hosting for Kyle Whelliston at The Mid-Majority this week; be sure to stop by.)
• The Salt Lake Tribune checks in on BYU's tournament chances, seeing the Cougars as a lock to make the NCAA tournament and pining in advance for a No. 3 seed once they get there. A No. 3 seed would be high for BYU if the season ended today, but if Jimmer Fredette and company keep rolling, it's not impossible.
• Dan Hanner is back with another edition of The Pulse. Always a fun read.
• In the hopes of righting his team's ugly play, Tom Crean is overdosing on caffeine. College basketball coaches: they're just like us!
• Another week, another Gary Parrish Poll Attacks.
• The Louisville Courier-Journal's Rick Bozich hints that Evan Turner is beginning to overtake John Wall in the running for player of the year. This is the just thing; Wall has been great, but he has slowed down in the past month while the Villian has been the country's best player every time he's stepped on the floor. Also, there's no such thing as the "Evan Turner Dance," which can only be considered a good thing. The new POY poll will be released tomorrow; let's see what happens.
• Adam Zagoria checks in on Rutgers rookie Dane Miller, whose coach says he should be the Big East's rookie of the year.
• Ballin Is A Habit writes an ode to the power of Kemba Walker. After last night's performance, such odes are no doubt deserved.

As always, send me your links and tips by following me on Twitter.

By now, everyone knows Derrick Caracter's story. He's the insanely talented big man (he was the No. 1 prospect at the start of his high school career), the guy who toppled Greg Oden at ABCD camp in 2006, the monster set to star at Louisville, the one who, after so many half-hearted tries, couldn't keep his weight under control and couldn't get motivated. After several second chances, Caracter left Louisville for good.

The big man ended up not playing big minutes for a loaded Louisville team (imagine a motivated Caracter on last year's No. 1 seed Cardinals) but rather seeking redemption at UTEP, where he's nominally managed to get his act together. It's a shame Caracter's Louisville career ended the way it did, but it's fun to see him figuring things out in El Paso. Who doesn't like a good redemption story?

Caracter seems to have more perspective now. The El Paso Times' Bill Knight talked to him about his time at Louisville and his time at UTEP, and Caracter seemed to boil it down to one disastrous habit: Chinese food.

"I had problems with the coach at the prep school and I didn't play that much and when I got to Louisville, I weighed 320-pounds," he said, shaking his head. "I was just eating Chinese food and doing unnecessary stuff. My first year at Louisville was cool. I felt some of the assistants were harder on me than the other guys, but that just made me better.

"It seemed like I had a certain leadership on the team," he said. "A lot of guys would follow me, do what I did, even dress like me. In some ways that hurt us and in some ways that was a good thing. But if I felt like I was better than David Padgett and I was not playing, I would be negative. Coach (Rick) Pitino felt it was like a cancer, that it would spread."

OK, so obviously Caracter isn't just blaming Chinese food. In fact, "Chinese food" and "unnecessary stuff" are really just code words for "horrific diet" and "penchant for bad lifestyle decisions," neither of which needs to be explained in detail. Which is good, because I love Chinese food. If Chinese food was really so responsible for costing Caracter his first shot at basketball stardom, could I still devour it with such gusto? Doubtful. I don't want to give up Chinese food. This is a huge relief.

In the meantime, Caracter is averaging 14 points and almost nine rebounds per game for a 16-5 UTEP team. The Miners are hot, too -- they've won their last five, including a huge overtime win at UAB on Jan. 30. It's far from the bright lights and top seeds of the Big East, but Caracter is finally making an impact. It's a shame it took this long for him to pinpoint the (deliciously fried) problem.

(Hat tip to Flubby for the link.)

Polls are a snapshot of a team over the course of a week, a quick glimpse of who is playing well from Monday to Sunday.

Kansas deserves to be No. 1. The Jayhawks won at Kansas State in overtime in a place where Texas could not. The win will be enough to propel the Jayhawks to No. 1 in the country when the polls are announced on Monday.

But who is No. 2?

That’s where the debate gets interesting between late Saturday and Monday morning.

I would lean toward Syracuse. The Orange had quite a week. Remember, this is about what you have done during the week. It's not necessarily about a team's entire body of work.

Syracuse had one of the more impressive wins earlier in the week when the Orange steamrolled Georgetown in the final 30 minutes at home last Monday. That's the same Georgetown team that took out Duke in convincing fashion Saturday.

Villanova has quite an argument as well with a home win over Notre Dame for its only game of the week. But Syracuse has played a tougher slate than Villanova. Overall, if you compare their sole losses, then losing to Pitt, even at home, may be a tad better than losing at Temple. This argument has holes on both sides so deciding who is most worthy of the No. 2 spot right now might come down to how you feel about the pair. And right now, after Syracuse found a way to win at DePaul when it didn’t play well, the edge could go to the Orange.

Of course, the Kentucky nation would have an issue with the Wildcats not being No. 2 after dismantling one of the hottest teams in the country in Vanderbilt. The Wildcats looked quite special in running away from the Commodores. The question is does Kentucky get knocked down this week because it lost a game, even though it was on the road at South Carolina? The answer for now is yes. Remember the poll isn’t about where teams will finish in March but how they’re playing over the course of a week.

• One thing is certain: Texas is dropping lower than No. 6 and Michigan State will at least stay put at No. 5 after a week in which the Longhorns fell to Baylor and Michigan State beat Northwestern.

• Maybe I shouldn’t have dumped off my original sleeper team so early. UTEP beat UAB in double overtime in Birmingham to draw into a first-place tie with the Blazers in Conference USA. I still think UAB is the only team in the league that can get in as an at-large unless Tulsa wins at Duke.

• Here’s what’s great about the Ivy League. You go, you dress and maybe you can get into the game. Cornell played 18 players in the first strike against Harvard in the Ivy League chase.

• San Francisco will not have another crowd like the one it had to beat Gonzaga late Saturday night. But credit the Dons, they did what Santa Clara and others in the league could not -- hold on to beat the mighty Zags. Other WCC teams tend to freeze when they have a chance to shut down the Zags.

• The Big East will investigate how the officials handled the West Virginia-Louisville game, especially in going to the monitor to (ahem) look at the shot clock when they may have actually been looking at who should have possession on an out-of-bounds play. Official Mike Kitts didn’t make a call and when no call is made on the floor, the possession goes to the team with the alternating possession arrow, which was Louisville. The ball actually did go off Louisville and West Virginia got the ball. So while the call was right it was not handled correctly. Louisville coach Rick Pitino criticized the officials by saying he was “tired of the officiating.” The Big East says it will investigate.

• Marquette’s Jimmy Butler told me Saturday he was speechless after making the game-winning shot to beat Connecticut. The Golden Eagles had been 1-7 in games decided in the final five minutes this season.

• Notre Dame’s loss at Rutgers is the kind of defeat that can send a team to the NIT.

• Siena’s win over Marist should clinch the Saints’ BracketBuster date at Butler. Announcements are due Monday.

• Maybe the most bizarre event of Saturday occurred in the USC-Oregon game. USC manager Stan Holt got a technical foul after saying something to official Bobby McRoy, which led to the game becoming tied at 47-47 with 4:35 left. Holt left the bench and the Ducks went on a 10-0 run to essentially win the game 67-57. USC coach Kevin O’Neill was quoted in the Oregonian late Saturday night saying, “That’s on me and that will be rectified -- it already has been -- he’s gone. That’s incomprehensible to me, in a two-point game, that our manager would get a technical foul. It’s unforgivable, it’s unprofessional. I apologized to our team for it, also." Holt was a three-year graduate manager. The only remaining question was how he did he get home from Eugene after O’Neill clearly tossed him off the roster?

The Morning after is our semi-daily recap post. Try not to make it awkward.

All together now (all together now!): That was one wild Wednesday night. For the short version of last night's unlikely events, check Brett's late-night roundup. For the long, rambling, wordy version, simply keep reading.

UTEP 72, Memphis 67: Well, I guess a share of the all-time conference wins record will have to do. Yes, after much sturm und drang leading up to Wednesday night's match up with the Miners, Memphis fell flat, dropping a game to a good-but-not-great UTEP squad in Memphis. This is no doubt disappointing; Memphis players and coach Josh Pastner couldn't stop talking about owning that all-time, 65-game streak. As a Tigers fan, you have two choices: You can lament the loss and tie it into John Calipari's untimely departure this offseason, and you can worry for the program's future under a younger, less experienced coach. Or you can take a minute, collect yourself, and realize that there are seniors on this current Memphis team that just lost their first conference game ever. Vacated wins or not, that is remarkable.

No. 3 Kansas 81, Baylor 75: I'll keep this one brief, since it was the one game that actually made sense last night, but it almost wasn't. Despite a raucous crowd fired up from Baylor's decision to leave the court during Kansas' pregame video session and Sherron Collins' intent from the tip-off to get his teammates as many open dunks as possible, Baylor hung around all game and made a late comeback to tie Kansas at 65 with 3:34 left in the second half. LaceDarius Dunn turned in a monster performance on the road: 27 points, nine rebounds, and four steals, while Collins led the way for the Jayhawks with 28 points and Xavier Henry came up with seven steals of his own. And late in the second half, Kansas escaped with the win, providing some small measure of sanity in an otherwise insane college basketball world.

NC State 88, No. 6 Duke 74: You've already read that this was the first time Duke and UNC have lost on the same night in seven years. That's a pretty incredible stat. But I'd wager it's less incredible than Duke losing to a hapless North Carolina State team, and less incredible than that Duke team surrendering 88 points on 70 possessions (or 1.25 points per possession) to an NC State team averaging just over a point per trip. What happened to Duke's defense? Last year the Blue Devils were quietly one of the best defensive teams in the country, and they carried that pattern through to the beginning of the 2009-10 season. But after last night's matador act (and to be fair, the Wolfpack shot an insane percentage) the Blue Devils have fallen all the way to No. 18 in the country in defensive efficiency. Oh, and more importantly, Duke has yet to win a true road game; last night's loss dropped them to 0-3 in that department. I'm guessing this is something Coach K will want to spend some time on.

No. 14 Georgetown 74, No. 11 Pittsburgh 66: Pitt is an awfully good team, but a Big East-leading one? Questionable. So after a 5-0 league start, the Panthers were probably due for some sort of natural, universal correction, some force bringing them back down to Earth, lest they go all Icarus on us and burn up Jamie Dixon's well-tailored suits. That force's name: Georgetown. The Hoyas waltzed into what the AP described as a home-court where students were "stomping their floor-level seats so passionately it caused the grandstands to ripple like a wave." If that's true, Pitt should probably get that fixed. But you get the idea. Georgetown didn't seem to mind: Chris Wright scored 27 points as Georgetown turned in a solid all-around performance. The Hoyas went to the line on 37 percent of their possessions; they rebounded 31.2 percent of their misses; they rarely committed turnovers; and they posted a 52.7 effective field goal percentage in a slow, 63-possession game. That is the statistical profile of a winner, folks, and no number of rippling bleachers and pounded seats could deny it.

Oh, and to continue with the streak-busting theme, this was Pitt's first home loss in two years. Seriously, weird stuff happened last night.

Wake Forest 82, No. 23* North Carolina 69: Speaking of weird, is it weirder that Roy Williams just lost his third game in a row ... or that Roy Williams has never lost three games in a row at North Carolina before? That, like Memphis' streak, is pretty remarkable, a sign of just how much Roy and the Tar Heels have dominated since his arrival from Kansas in 2003. But they are not dominating in 2009-10, and rather than getting better with experience the Heels, if anything, seem to be regressing. Anyway, this week will test the durability of the media's love for UNC; if they're still in the AP poll on Monday, I will drink an entire jug of milk on video and post that video on this blog. I'm not even kidding. It will almost be like a protest. A delicious, milky protest.

Everywhere else: So much to get to. DePaul busted its own ignominious streak Wednesday night, topping Marquette by one at the Allstate Arena and winning its first Big East game in 24 tries, a streak that spanned almost two years ... Iowa deserves credit for playing Michigan State tough in East Lansing, but the Hawks eventually ceded to a far superior Spartans team ... Villanova had no problems with Rutgers in New Jersey, which, man, poor Rutgers fans. That thing is bad ... West Virginia didn't get an easy one at its rare January nonconference date with Marshall, either, needing free throws to build a late margin against the Thundering Herd ... Temple edged Xavier in Philly; read Dana's recap from the scene last night ... and UConn found a forgiving home date with St. John's was just the thing to snap a three-game losing streak (and get a win without head coach Jim Calhoun on the bench).

It was supposed to be a down year for Memphis basketball, and in some ways it is. But one part of the John Calipari glory days remains: Memphis' Conference USA win streak, which, if the Tigers top a tough UTEP team at the FedEx Forum Wednesday night, will eclipse Kentucky's mark as the longest conference winning streak of all-time at 65 games.

It's miraculous, when you really think about it. Sixty-five games. College basketball isn't supposed to be that cut and dry. That's why we love it, right? Because any team can win any game, whether in November or March, and superior talent is only a levee against the impending flood of statistical probability. In other words, eventually you lose. Upsets happen. Always. To everybody.

But not to the Memphis Tigers; at least not in conference play.

It's an historic streak almost 60 years in the making. Adolph Rupp's Kentucky teams reigned over the SEC for the coach's entire career, but never more so than from 1945 to 1950, when Rupp and the Cats won 64 SEC games in a row. (Perhaps it's ironic that Memphis' streak was largely helmed by Kentucky's newest savior, John Calipari. Is that ironic? I don't even know what irony is anymore. I blame Alanis Morissette.) With Calipari recruiting the nation's best talent year in and year out, Memphis has lorded over C-USA -- which has never produced a worthy challenger to Memphis' throne -- with similar dominance. That dominance could reach its high-water mark tonight.

Of course, there is the actual matter of winning the game. UTEP is no pushover; at 11-5, the Miners have beaten Oklahoma and pushed Ole Miss to overtime in Oxford. And Memphis is not the Memphis of Calipari's reign. Too much talent left alongside its former coach, and Josh Pastner has occasionally struggled to make do with what remains. But the Tigers have held on to their precious streak. Tonight, they have the opportunity to extend it, to make it more than an anomaly or a threat to Kentucky's old-school brilliance. Tonight, Memphis has a shot at history. Don't think they don't know it.