ESPN Men's Basketball

Patrick Chambers signed a contract extension on May 5 that was supposed to take him through the next five seasons at Boston University.

A little over three weeks later he was the head coach at Penn State.

And the timing couldn't have worked out any better for Boston College associate head coach Joe Jones.

The best job in the America East was open.

Boston University may face plenty of apathy in a pro sports-dominated city, and it lacks a rousing atmosphere for anything save an America East tournament title game. And yes, the Terriers did lose the league's top player, John Holland. But the rest of the roster is intact to make BU (along with Stony Brook) the favorite to represent the America East again in the NCAA tournament next March.

"I spent five years as an assistant there,'' said New Hampshire coach Bill Herrion. "It was before they dropped football, before the Agganis Center was built, but I know that it is a very, very good job and has been for a long time. From Rick Pitino to Mike Jarvis to Dennis Wolff to Pat Chambers, year in and year out it's a job that should compete for the title."

Jones was about to fall into one of the more fortunate situations in college basketball. Few coaches -- if any -- have ever been able to land a job at a new school without having to move. Mike Montgomery did it when he was the head coach of the Golden State Warriors; after two years, he got the Cal job. Montgomery was already in the Bay Area at Stanford before his Warriors gig. And while he did get closer to his new job, he didn't have to do anything substantial, save change traffic patterns.

"I could not have imagined that this would happen,'' said Jones. "You really have to count your blessings and be fortunate. My first thought was my family. I wasn't going to put them through this again and move my [two] kids and my wife in a year. It was an unbelievable opportunity to stay in the same household and not disrupt my family.''

The Terriers didn't want to mess with a crazed head-coaching search that would stretch too far into June.

Boston University athletic director Mike Lynch was deciding between Butler associate head coach Matthew Graves and Jones. Graves had never been to Boston, but he had coached in consecutive national title games. Jones knew the area and had experience as a head coach.

He got the nod on June 23 and now has the most desirable job in the league -- and a second chance at success as a head coach.

"People don't think about your family, but to get a job and not have to move your family …'' said Joe's brother James Jones, the head coach at Yale. "He didn't anticipate this job opening. But it was the perfect storm for him. He did a tremendous job at Columbia but everyone wants to win a championship, and he's in a situation where he's got the best job in that league.''

Chambers' Terriers team had one senior last March but still won the league. And the Terriers gave Kansas fits in the first half of the NCAA tournament as a 16-seed; they were down only four at the half before losing by 19 to the top-seeded Jayhawks in the second round of the Southwest Region in Tulsa.

Now the pressure is on Jones to continue the upward climb. Sure, this is BU. The only pressure is self-imposed. But it exists, even if there isn't anyone flocking to picket the school if the Terriers don't win the America East, where BU's home attendance averaged 979 in 14 games last season.

"I think it can happen, but it's not an easy thing to win 20 games back-to-back. And with everybody back except one guy from the championship game, hopefully we'll have the same success and build on what Pat did in the past,'' said Jones.

There is a familiarity with Chambers, who was a Villanova assistant. So, too, was Jones. So the transition shouldn't be too difficult to navigate.

"It's good to have that expectation,'' Jones said. "I think they have an idea of what they want to be here. They have shown the commitment to be successful, and I love that. I've enjoyed getting to know everyone here. They know the budget and the travel, and that we need the money to go where we need to go to be successful. Now it's up to me and my staff to perform.''

Jones never finished above fourth in his seven seasons at Columbia. But that was Columbia, in a conference where Penn and Princeton dominated for so long -- and then toward the end of Jones' tenure, Cornell made a nice three-year run. Now it's Harvard's turn at the top of the Ivy League. Columbia hasn't made its mark in quite some time.

At one point, Boston University had visions of being in the Atlantic 10. Maybe it still does, and with the changing landscape in college sports there is no way to discern what direction any of these schools -- even those at this level that don't play football -- will land within 10 years. But the Terriers have plenty going for them, with strong finances, a tremendous city to attract recruits, and a destination that would be appealing to a potential conference looking to expand. Still, BU has to maintain competitive excellence to even be palatable, and that's where Jones has to take advantage of the roster.

He lost senior Jake O'Brien for this season with a broken foot. O'Brien had surgery on the foot again after he first injured it against UMass on Dec. 31, 2010. But Jones said he wasn't sure when he took job if O'Brien would have been available anyway this season. O'Brien was the team's top rebounder and third-leading scorer when he went down. But the Terriers still won the league behind Holland's 19.2 points a game. The Terriers have five seniors and will lean heavily on returnees Darryl Partin, Matt Griffin, Patrick Hazel and Jeff Pelage; all played double-figure minutes last season, with Partin the only double-figure scorer in the bunch.

"We've had three workouts so far, and this group really enjoys itself,'' Jones said. "They understand the level of intensity needed to be successful. Coach Wolff and Chambers set the tone on how it needs to be done here.''

It's all set up for Jones: the roster, the league, the city, the support. Now he just has to win -- even in Year 1, when the team is set for an America East championship run.

Georgetown expects to challenge for the Big East title.

And it's obvious with the turnover of rosters that Louisville and Pitt should drop out of the top two slots from last season to make room for a contender that finished in the bottom six.

Connecticut, which was tied with Pitt, a game behind Louisville, will slide down a peg, too, albeit maybe just out of the title chase.

Upstart teams like Cincinnati, Seton Hall and St. John's all say they're going to make runs at NCAA berths. If that's the case, a team from the top eight of the Big East has to drop to the bottom seven, right?

Picking Providence to drop makes sense because it lost five key players off last season's team. The Friars didn't make the NCAA tournament but did win 10 league games. Second-year coach Keno Davis has to put his own imprint on the roster this season.

But that's still not enough if those other teams are going to climb higher in the Big East. Another team has to drop.

The consensus among the rest of the league is that team probably will be Marquette, which lost a trio of guards (Jerel McNeal, Wesley Matthews and Dominic James), the driving force in Tom Crean's and Buzz Williams' success on the court the past three seasons.

"Everyone is making that push, and in order for someone to go up, someone else has to go down,'' second-year Golden Eagles coach Williams said late Wednesday as he finished an exhausting day that started with a 5 a.m. boot camp wakeup call with his team. Marquette is preparing for Friday's first official day of practice. "If Providence and Marquette are those teams, then maybe that's what it will be.''

With Cincinnati's addition of highly touted talent Lance Stephenson, the healthy return of Anthony Mason Jr. for a veteran St. John's team, and the impact of transfers Herb Pope and Keon Lawrence for surging Seton Hall, Williams isn't dismissing the expected turnarounds.

He's not going to argue any of those points.

But it would be hard to push the Marquette staff into thinking it isn't finishing somewhere in the top eight with the current roster, despite a turbulent offseason.

Marquette's staff exhibits pride, albeit somewhat privately, and its members believe there's no reason the Golden Eagles should be seen as any less deserving of consideration among possible postseason teams than Pitt, which lost four of five starters and two key players for this season (Jermaine Dixon and Gilbert Brown, who currently are shelved with a broken foot and a fall academic suspension, respectively).

The Pitt comeback is hard to debate, considering the Panthers do have an immense talent in 6-foot-9, 235-pound big man Dante Taylor to replace DeJuan Blair, a gold-medal-winning (Under-19 U.S. team) point guard in Ashton Gibbs and a coach in Jamie Dixon who has a stellar 163-45 record in his first six seasons as a head coach. With Dixon's track record, the expectation is he won't slide out of a top-eight finish.

The Golden Eagles' case would be stronger had freshman point Junior Cadougan not ruptured his right Achilles tendon, which will keep him sidelined for the season. Their case to stay relevant this season would have been nearly impossible had senior guard Maurice Acker not flip-flopped and returned to the team after deciding earlier in the summer to focus on his academics. Acker's minutes jumped from three a game to more than 27 after Dominic James went out with a foot injury in the final six games of the 2008-09 regular season.

Williams said it was déjà vu that Acker was in the same position from last winter to now, standing idle until an injury opened up an opportunity for him.

The other point Marquette was counting on was sophomore Darius Johnson-Odom, who injured his left foot in a workout last month. The hope is Johnson-Odom can come back next week.

The off-court news got worse last month when 2010-11 committed recruit Monterale Clark was arrested and charged in an alleged sexual assault at Hill College in Hillsboro, Texas. The 6-foot-10 Clark was a highly touted junior college player who was being heavily pursued by schools in the Big 12 and SEC. Clark hadn't signed a national letter of intent yet (until the November signing period), so the Golden Eagles can't comment on him. However, privately they say that regardless of what happens with the case, Clark will never play for them.

The eligibility of Youssoupha Mbao, a 7-foot-2 freshman expected to contribute, is not settled, and junior forward Joe Fulce is still recovering from surgery on his right knee.

Despite all the body blows that seem to be coming, the Golden Eagles don't seem to be wilting. There are high expectations for senior Lazar Hayward, who averaged 16.3 points and 8.6 rebounds a game last season, and won a bronze medal for the U.S. at the World University Games. And the returns of Acker and sixth man Jimmy Butler, who averaged 5.6 points and 3.9 rebounds last season on the wing, certainly help.

"Lazar will be one of the better players in the league,'' Marquette assistant coach Tony Benford said. "Acker, Hayward and Butler all averaged 25 minutes or more toward the end of last season when James went down, and we have experience at the right spots -- point guard and the 4 man. Everybody is going to pick us [as the team that drops]. We'll see.''

While Johnson-Odom is expected back, not having Cadougan is a blow. The expectation that senior point David Cubillan will cushion some of it means the Golden Eagles will have two seniors sharing the point, even though neither was projected to be the main distributor at the end of last season.

If junior college stud Dwight Buycks can make an impact on the perimeter, freshman wing Jeronne Maymon can produce, and there is helpful depth behind Hayward with Fulce, sophomore center Chris Otule, freshman Erik Williams and Mbao (assuming his eligibility is resolved and he doesn't miss games), there will be quality depth, as Benford professes.

Benford isn't shying away from the Golden Eagles' needing Otule to score on the block, Maymon to be the strong power body inside or Mbao to be the skilled big man who can run the floor and defend. "Everybody thinks it's going to be us, the team that slides,'' Benford said. "But we'll defend. And you know a Buzz team is going to play hard.''

Getting an early read on this squad could come in late November at the Old Spice Classic in Orlando, Fla. Marquette opens with Xavier and then plays either Creighton or Michigan on Thanksgiving weekend.

Playing rebuilding NC State and at Wisconsin in December also will tell a tale about where this team is headed before it opens the Big East with easily the hardest first four games of any team in the league. Marquette faces three favorites who might win the league: at West Virginia, Villanova, Georgetown and at Villanova. That slate alone could push Marquette to the cellar. Whether it stays there will be determined by how much the newcomers have matured by January.

Williams was facing a daunting task of filling the roster with high-profile recruits after the expected departures of Jerel McNeal, Wesley Matthews and James.

He did that.

He couldn't control the injury to Cadougan, and the 2010 recruiting took a major hit with the Clark situation. Getting Jamail Jones (the No. 13 small forward in the ESPNU Top 100) out of Montverde Academy in Decatur, Ga., helps.

But the long-term success of this program might be determined by how Williams handles this season now that Cadougan is gone and the focus will be on whether or not the Golden Eagles fall in the league.

Since the expectation is that they will drop, finishing in the top 10 in the Big East will be seen as a major accomplishment that proves the Golden Eagles have sustaining power even in a transition year.

• Equal time for the rest of the America East is due after all the negative words focused on Binghamton's issues. Albany returns two all-conference players, Tim Ambrose (14.3 ppg) and Virginia transfer Will Harris (12.9 ppg), to a team that was fourth nationally in rebound margin. Boston University first-year coach Pat Chambers is loaded with 91.5 percent of the scoring back from last season, including John Holland (18.1), Corey Lowe (17.2) and league rookie of the year Jake O'Brien (12.5). New Hampshire coach Bill Herrion made the America East semifinals last season for the second time since 1995, and Alvin Abreu (12.8 ppg), Tyrone Conley (8.9 ppg) will ease replacing two-time all-conference player Tyrece Gibbs. With 16 wins last season, Stony Brook's total was its most in Division I, and it should be a factor again with Muhammad El-Amin (15.7 ppg) and all-rookie players Tommy Brenton (6.7 ppg, 8.9 rpg) and Bryan Dougher (11.2 ppg). SBU held teams to only 60.9 points a game last season. Vermont returns the America East player and defensive player of the year, Marqus Blakely (16.1 ppg, 9 rebounds per game and 2.7 blocks per game), and Michigan State transfer Maurice Joseph (8.1). The Catamounts averaged a league-best 76.1 points a game. Hartford's Dan Leibovitz is hopeful he'll have an injury-free team this season. Leibovitz got his team motivated by proving he can stay in shape, too. He ran and finished the Hartford Marathon on Saturday -- his first.

DETROIT -- Quick hitters from Day 1 in the Motor City on issues outside the Final Four:

• Arizona's interest in hiring Tim Floyd to replace Russ Pennell/Lute Olson isn't strange on the surface. Floyd has proved to be an excellent game coach over the years and knows athletic director Jim Livengood from decades ago when Floyd was at Idaho and Livengood was next door at Washington State. But there are a few interesting aspects to this:

Does Livengood have information on the ongoing NCAA investigation into USC that centers around former Trojan O.J. Mayo? The investigation isn't closed, as the enforcement staff continues to attempt to interview Mayo. According to multiple sources, Livengood wouldn't be privy to information on this case since it doesn't involve him.

So how concerned is Livengood with hiring a coach whose current program is under investigation while Arizona has a letter of inquiry dealing with a potential rules violation in connection to an on-campus high school hoop event in the spring?

Indiana got burned when it hired Kelvin Sampson from Oklahoma despite an NCAA investigation into the Sooners. Would the same thing happen to Arizona?

On Floyd's side, if there is more money at Arizona -- and because Arizona is more of a basketball school than USC -- the move might make sense. But Arizona is expected to be gutted and face an Indiana-like rebuilding situation. USC, even if DeMar DeRozan and/or Taj Gibson were to declare for the NBA draft, has more talent and continues to win at a high level.

So if you're Floyd, why go and start over?

Going to a rival school within the conference isn't against any rules, but how often does that happen? Mike Montgomery went from Stanford to Cal but had a stint in the NBA in between the two schools. A move like this might not go over well in the Pac-10.

• If Floyd does go to Arizona, it could cause dominoes to fall across the country. The one job that might pique Jamie Dixon's interest in moving west is USC, even if it means going against good friend Ben Howland of UCLA. Dixon is very comfortable at Pitt, has a more passionate fan base and loves his athletic director and president, and his family enjoys the city. But USC would put him in the L.A. area near his parents and sister, and his wife would be going back to her alma mater. The money would have to be a major upgrade for him to move, but an offer at least would make him pause. I'm not sure he would do it, since he's in quite a groove at Pitt. He's comfortable on the East Coast, and as he said, he "summered" in the Bronx with his grandparents. But if he did make a move like this, Xavier's Sean Miller (a Pitt alum) would be the logical choice if the Panthers went outside the current staff.

• The Boston Globe reported that Tony Jones, Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl's assistant, is going to be the next coach at Boston University. Jones is an energetic coach and hard worker, but the question is: Can he work in the Northeast in a lower-profile conference? The America East is a bus league and much more sedate than the SEC.

• Tony Bennett said Wednesday that he was taken aback by how aggressively Virginia went after him. The Cavs contacted him, and within a day, a plane was in Pullman to pick him up and take him to Charlottesville. Bennett said he was wowed by the Virginia campus, the academic integrity of the program and the opportunity to make a go of it in the ACC. Bennett also said he didn't say much about the Virginia situation to anyone over the weekend. His father, Dick, was aware he had gone to Virginia, but he didn't tell his dad he had accepted the job. His father found out by watching the ESPN crawl Monday afternoon.

Bennett said he will adjust his style (to some degree) to the personnel at Virginia, and so far, he thinks everyone on the team is on board, including ACC rookie of the year Sylven Landesberg. Bennett feels good about how he's leaving the Washington State program, notably with stud freshman Klay Thompson expected to return. Bennett has hired Liberty coach Ritchie McKay (a good friend from their playing days in New Zealand) to be his top assistant. Ron Sanchez, who was an assistant at WSU, will come with him as well. But Ben Johnson, his top assistant in Pullman, is expected to go coach in Australia, Bennett said.

• The favorite to replace Bennett is likely Portland State's Ken Bone, who has taken the Vikings to two straight NCAA tournaments. Washington State athletic director Jim Sterk always has been a fan of Bone. He was a secondary choice at Oregon State before the Beavers hired Craig Robinson a year ago.

• The College Basketball Invitational is turning out to be quite a hit at home games. Oregon State had a packed house at Gill Coliseum for Game 1 on Monday. UTEP then had a sellout of 12,000 Wednesday night, the first sellout in El Paso since 2006. As soon as the Miners beat the Beavers to force Game 3 on Friday, 6,600 tickets were sold. Through two games, the CBI championship series already has outdrawn the three-game inaugural series last year between Bradley and Tulsa (26,629 fans in two games compared to 24,806 over three games).

STORRS, Conn. -- A second has been made on Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun's unofficial motion to tab Hasheem Thabeet as the Big East player of the year.

Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim is on board with the decision. He is endorsing Thabeet's candidacy.

"He changes the game," Boeheim said after Thabeet had 16 boards, seven blocks and eight points in the 63-49 win over the Orange on Wednesday.

"You can't go near the basket," Boeheim said. "He scores enough and he rebounds. He dominates and he blocks shots. He blocked 14 points -- all layups. He scared us in at least seven more shots. That's 28 points. How valuable do you have to be? Some guy will score 26 points, is that guy more valuable than a guy who scares you away from 28 points? And he gets 16 rebounds as well as score a little. He's by far the most dominant player in our league."

Syracuse lead guard Jonny Flynn said the Huskies are a "totally different team" with Thabeet on the court. He said the shots are altered by having to shoot it a few inches higher. He said Thabeet isn't going for ball fakes, either.

Thabeet is getting more rugged, too. He clobbered Kristof Ongenaet a few times. Ongenaet had the ball blocked off his face. He was hanging onto Thabeet at one point on the court, with Thabeet almost tossing him aside like a dummy.

"People get caught up in stats, but I think Jimmy and I would both say the same thing about Hasheem," Calhoun said. "If [Notre Dame] was winning and Luke Harangody [last season's Big East MVP] was scoring all those points, then you would say Notre Dame was winning with offense. We're winning with defense, and he's the focal point. They just scored 49 points. They average 80 [now 78.7]."

Calhoun said he doesn't know who is having a bigger impact on the game than Thabeet. Calhoun even tossed around comparisons to Georgetown's Patrick Ewing and Dikembe Mutombo, saying he's not sure there has been a player who has affected the game defensively as much as Thabeet is doing now in his three-plus decades of coaching.

The one thing Calhoun said Thabeet has to watch is throwing down "smaller guys." He said officials will call that on him, and they did against Michigan. But as soon as he tells Thabeet, he said, Thabeet listens and responds appropriately.

• Syracuse should be fine -- for the NCAAs. The Orange, now at 18-7 overall and 6-6 in the Big East, have lost six of the last eight games, but Boeheim isn't fretting. He said that if the Orange take care of their home games -- four of the next six -- then they should be fine. He said he impressed that on them in the postgame locker room. Flynn echoed those thoughts by saying they are realizing their situation. Having bankable wins over Memphis, Florida and Kansas puts the Orange at ease. A year ago, they didn't have anything to lean on from the nonconference schedule.

"A year ago we had to do everything in the Big East," Flynn said of the Orange's inability to get a bid.

"We have to beat the teams we're supposed to beat," Flynn said. "That's what got Georgetown and Notre Dame in trouble. They lost to teams like Cincinnati, Seton Hall and St. John's." (Georgetown lost to the first two, Notre Dame to the third.)

Defensively, the Orange were a different team against UConn than they were against Villanova. They held the Huskies to only 63 points after having given up 102 and 100 in losses to Villanova and Providence, respectively.

"We went out there and fought hard," Syracuse's Eric Devendorf said. "We were digging in, hustling and going after loose balls."

It wasn't enough to beat the Huskies, but if the Orange can mimic the effort, they should be able to beat Georgetown -- maybe. Boeheim said the reason he's not sweating was what he saw in the win over West Virginia after the loss at Providence. He doesn't anticipate another drop at home with Georgetown and Villanova coming to the Carrier Dome for the next two games. Still, those won't be a walk. If the Orange win, they won't have to worry even a bit.

• Connecticut's Jerome Dyson knocked knees and was expected to be in a pool for rehab late Wednesday night, an MRI on Thursday and then a diagnosis. Calhoun said he is hoping for just a bad bruise. But if Dyson has nothing more than a bruise, it will be interesting to see how Calhoun decides to use him, if at all, against Seton Hall on Saturday with Pitt looming Monday in Hartford.

• It's hard to figure how some programming decisions are made in particular conferences. LSU at Mississippi State on Wednesday, which was a first-place showdown in the SEC West, wasn't televised. LSU won 97-94 in double overtime. Tasmin Mitchell went for 41 points, 11 rebounds, five assists and zero turnovers in 49 minutes. There were 57 fouls and 91 free throws, seven players fouled out, Mississippi State coach Rick Stansbury got a technical after the buzzer sounded in regulation (so overtime started with free throws), and LSU's Bo Spencer sprained his ankle with his status unknown. LSU is now 20-4 overall and 8-1 in the SEC West. LSU's InsideRPI rank is No. 46. So that raises the question: If the Tigers get a bid (and they likely will, as a convincing SEC West champ), how much will their seed be affected? LSU got blown out by 30 at Utah and didn't beat Texas A&M in its two main nonconference games before the SEC schedule. LSU then lost to Xavier by 10 at home. LSU's nonconference strength of schedule is ranked 244th. I wouldn't be shocked if LSU ended up wearing road jerseys in the first round.

• Keep an eye on Drexel as a possible spoiler in conference tournament play. The Dragons won by four at Northeastern on Wednesday and moved to 9-5 in the CAA. Drexel is more than capable of winning the conference tournament. Northeastern fell into a first-place tie with VCU at 11-3. (NU did beat VCU for the tiebreaker, though.) The CAA will get one bid this March.

• Vermont crushed Boston University 75-47 to assume control of the America East.

• Iowa State held Colorado to nine first-half points Wednesday. Not much more to add.

• Dayton beat Xavier to improve its NCAA resume (adding to a bankable Marquette win) but lost key guard Rob Lowery to a knee injury in the game.

• Purdue won its first game since Robbie Hummel was diagnosed with a stress fracture in his back -- the Boilermakers broke away from Penn State by 14. Hummel hasn't played since a win over Michigan on Jan. 31. After that, Purdue lost at Ohio State and Illinois. Penn State hung around in the NCAA discussion after the Michigan State win, but the Nittany Lions have lost three straight to drop to 6-6, 17-8 overall.

• Wake Forest's seed continues to take a hit with each loss to a bottom team in the ACC. The loss to NC State, in addition to the one at Georgia Tech, means the Demon Deacons could be giving up Greensboro to Duke (and, obviously, North Carolina) in the first round, unless the Demon Deacons can sweep the Blue Devils.

• Utah assumed control, for a day, of the Mountain West with a solid 12-point win over San Diego State to move to 17-7, 8-2 in the league. I'm not sure whether this is a lock, but I feel strongly that Utah will be in the NCAAs regardless of who wins the MWC tournament.

• File away the name Jermaine Taylor of Central Florida. He will likely be a first-round draft pick. He scored 38 points in the Golden Knights' loss to UTEP on Wednesday.

• Frank Martin deserves plenty of praise for putting Kansas State in position to get an NCAA berth after losing Michael Beasley and Bill Walker. The Wildcats beat Texas Tech to move to 6-4 in the Big 12 and 17-7 overall.

• Good nuggets from one of the most aggressive information men in the Pac-10, ASU's Doug Tammaro. UCLA, which plays at Arizona State on Thursday and at Arizona on Saturday, has won 32 straight at the front end of such conference sets. In addition, the Bruins haven't been swept in the Pac-10 since Washington did it in 2005-06. (Ben Howland arrived at UCLA in 2003.) Here are the last Pac-10 sweeps of the Bruins: Washington (2005-06), Arizona (2004-05), Stanford (2004-05), USC (2003-04), Oregon (2002-03), ASU (2002-03, and a chance to do it again Thursday), Cal (1993-94) and Oregon State (1987-88). Washington State? Umm, never.

• Miami's Jack McClinton has been making a strong case for All-America status. McClinton is averaging 28.5 points (4.8 3s a game), four rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.5 steals (52.5 percent from the field, 55.9 on 3s) in the four games the Hurricanes have played against current or former No. 1 teams this season.

Terrence Williams doesn't have the exact answer as to why Louisville couldn't start the season the way it should have, the way it wanted or the way it was projected.

But he has an idea.

Selfishness to some degree was involved.

"It's not an excuse, but everybody was coming off a summer of their own agenda,'' said the Louisville senior forward. "Everybody was about shooting too much, including myself, instead of buying into what the coach was saying. After a while, we got embarrassed.''

Louisville didn't embarrass itself. The losses to Western Kentucky in Nashville, to Minnesota in Glendale, Ariz., and top UNLV at home were hardly to teams that scrape the bottom of the RPI. All three of these teams could be in the NCAA tournament. Instead, what the losses did was create a perception that Louisville wasn't a Final Four-caliber team and couldn't compete with Pitt and Connecticut for the Big East title.

Clearly, that was wrong. Louisville has won seven in a row, is one of two undefeated teams in the Big East at 6-0 (the other is Marquette) and is coming off an impressive Sunday win at Syracuse, just eight days after beating then-No. 1 and undefeated Pitt at home.

"What we did is listen to our Hall of Fame coach instead of our own agendas,'' Williams said by phone late Sunday after the Cardinals returned from Syracuse. "We're thinking of we now, not our own agendas.''

But it's not like the seven wins were without a few hiccups. Louisville needed a game-winning 3-pointer by Edgar Sosa to beat Kentucky, and if Villanova had converted a layup, the Cards would have lost to those Wildcats, too.

"I'm not going to lie, we were lucky in those games,'' Williams said. "But you need luck to win the Big East championship.''

But there's more statistical data that backs up Louisville's run than just luck.

Louisville has won four of six Big East games on the road so far. The Cardinals have held 11 opponents to below 40 percent from the field, including five of the last six. If you're looking at just Big East stats, the Cardinals are tops in scoring defense (61.5 ppg), field-goal percentage defense (.379), blocked shots (6.8) and steals (9.0), according to Louisville.

This is also the first time the Cardinals have started conference play with a 6-0 record since 2004, when they were in Conference USA.

One of the main reasons for the hot start is Williams. In his last four games, he is shooting 55 percent (33-of-60) and 44.4 percent on 3s (8-of-18) and is averaging 20.5 points, 10.8 rebounds, four assists and three steals.

"I'm being more assertive offensively,'' Williams said. "It's not that I'm looking for my shot more; I'm not forcing my shot. I don't go and try to score 20 points.''

Williams attributes the defensive change to a number of things, including listening to Rick Pitino's demands, the sheer length and athleticism of himself, Earl Clark and Samardo Samuels, and a desire to actually play defense.

"Defense is fun for this team,'' said Williams.

And losing to Western Kentucky, and perhaps to UNLV at home, has made the Cards much more appreciative of the opponent. "We can't have a letdown, we can't be an upset,'' Williams said. "A prime example is Georgetown losing to Seton Hall.''

The schedule is favorable for the Cards, with five of the next seven at home, including a showdown with Connecticut on Feb. 2. The two road games are at St. John's and at Notre Dame.

• It's still hard to figure out if Florida is really good or if the SEC is just average. Regardless, the Gators had an impressive win over Vanderbilt in Nashville on Sunday afternoon. Florida is going to win a lot of games if Chandler Parsons played like he did against the Commodores. He scored 27 points, including seven of Florida's 15 3s. If they do that, the Gators will be hard to beat in the SEC.

• Seton Hall's win over Georgetown and St. John's win over Notre Dame aren't going to keep the losers out of the NCAA tournament. But it does create a bit more separation among the elite and the middle ground in the Big East. We'll see if any of the true elite teams in the Big East lose to the bottom dwellers this season. Hard to believe that Georgetown started out the Big East with a road win at Connecticut and is now 3-4 in the league.

• Give Tom Crean credit for Indiana's work ethic. The Hoosiers don't quit. Indiana was right there throughout Sunday's game, losing by four to Minnesota.

• Virginia Tech is a great example of why it is a long season, and why making snap decisions on whether a team is tourney-worthy can be done way too early. The Hokies are off to a 4-1 ACC start with wins at Wake Forest, at Miami and over Boston College. Malcolm Delaney poured in 29 in the road win at Miami on Sunday night.

• John Holland continues to be durable for Boston University. Holland played 39 minutes for the Terriers in the Sunday win at Maine, scoring 23 points. Holland played 60 minutes in a quadruple overtime win over Stony Brook and 44 minutes in a double-overtime win over UMBC.

• I never would have guessed that Georgia Tech would be 0-6 in the ACC at this point.

• Northern Iowa continues to rule the Missouri Valley. A 78-69 win at Missouri State moved the Panthers to 8-1 in conference play. Adam Koch had the game of the day on Sunday with 30 points, including making 18 of 20 free throws.

Craig Robinson and his wife, Kelly, stayed in the Lincoln bedroom Tuesday night at the White House, getting a chance to admire the original Gettysburg Address encased in glass.

For Robinson, it was hard not to get emotional or at least be in awe of his surroundings.

But he had no idea what was about to occur Thursday night in Berkeley, Calif.

When Robinson walked out onto the Haas Pavilion court for warm-ups, the Cal student section started clapping, standing and giving him a rousing ovation. The ovation spread to the rest of the fans.

"It was the most moving thing I've seen, other than Tuesday," Robinson said Friday morning, comparing the ovation to the emotion he felt watching his brother-in-law, Barack Obama, become the 44th president of the United States and his sister, Michelle, the first lady.

"It was the classiest thing I've ever seen," Robinson said. "It's by far the most emotional thing that has happened to me since Tuesday."

Robinson said he hadn't been introduced yet. He had just come out for warm-ups when the ovation started. He said Cal coach Mike Montgomery hadn't even come out from his team's locker room.

Oh, by the way, Oregon State beat Cal, 69-65, coming back from 11 points down. It was by far the best game Roeland Schaftenaar played for Robinson. Schaftenaar, a big man who can step out and shoot 3-pointers, scored 22 points going 4-of-4 from beyond the arc. "He was aggressive," Robinson said of Schaftenaar. Robinson said the Beavers' 1-3-1 zone started to frustrate the Bears in the second half. Cal still made 11 3-pointers but didn't make them at the right time.

Oregon State outscored Cal 33-22 in the second half after trailing by seven at halftime.

"We never stopped playing," Robinson said.

It's hard to underscore how surprising it is that Oregon State has two Pac-10 wins, against USC at home and at Cal no less. Oregon State didn't win a game last season in the Pac-10 under former coach Jay John, now a Cal assistant, and Kevin Mouton, who replaced John once he was fired.

Oregon State was predicted to finish last in the Pac-10 this season. Yet the Beavers are tied with Arizona at 2-5 in the league. Rival Oregon, which plays at Oregon State on Jan. 31, is winless in the first seven games.

"USC was the most surprising of the wins since I didn't think it would come so soon in the Pac-10 season and it was right after UCLA," Robinson said of the 23-point loss to the Bruins. "But to get this one was a surprise too. We were coming off our worst game against Washington [85-59 loss] and then had all these distractions. This team easily could have not played well."

Robinson coached practice Sunday, gave the team off Monday, and then the assistants ran practice Tuesday. Robinson met the team Wednesday in Berkeley for an 8-10:30 p.m. practice. So clearly, the Beavers had plenty of reasons to fail against a Cal team that's in position to challenge for the Pac-10 title.

"I'm so proud of these guys," Robinson said.

• Washington continues to look like a legitimate challenger to the Pac-10 title. The Huskies held off USC late Thursday night and this time got more scoring pop from guard Justin Dentmon. He got to the line 11 times, made all of them, then finished with 22 points. The Huskies (14-4, 5-1) host UCLA on Saturday in Seattle and have a chance to be alone in first place in the Pac-10 with a win.

• Utah State moved to 18-1 with a four-point win over San Jose State. There's no question the Aggies are the quietest 18-1 team in recent memory.

• Gonzaga and Saint Mary's are the only two ranked teams in the same conference, not from a BCS conference. That's great for the WCC, but the bottom of the league needs to catch up sooner than later so there isn't so much of a disparity.

• Boston University beat UMBC 80-77 in double overtime Thursday. John Holland scored 18 points and played 44 out of a possible 50 minutes. He played all 60 minutes, scored 29 points, in a quadruple overtime win over Stony Brook three days earlier.

• LSU coach Trent Johnson wouldn't say Saturday's game against Xavier is a must-win since the Tigers didn't win nonconference games at Utah or against Texas A&M in Houston. But he does recognize that Xavier is one of the best teams in the country and will certainly be a great win for the Tigers. LSU is on a roll offensively since scoring 59 points in an SEC-opening loss at Alabama. The Tigers have since scored 85, 83 and 81 in consecutive wins over South Carolina, at Ole Miss and Mississippi State. The big reason for the change is taking care of the ball, shot selection and overall offensive execution, especially in the first half, Johnson said.

• Alabama coach Mark Gottfried said the Tide has adjusted to life without point guard Ronald Steele, who has stopped playing basketball after suffering another injury (this time plantar fasciitis after knee injuries last season). Mikhail Torrance scored 24 in Steele's absence in a win over Ole Miss. The first two games without Steele were losses at Mississippi State and Auburn.

• Memphis coach John Calipari said he's glad he has two more nonconference games left on the schedule, beginning Saturday at Tennessee (the other is at Gonzaga Feb. 7). He said he wants to see Tyreke Evans at the point against competition outside of Conference USA after making the move last month. Calipari is fairly confident that the Tigers will get a high seed with their strength of schedule increasing with these two nonconference games.

• Was at Vermont's win over Hartford on Thursday and two things jumped out to me: one was that former Michigan State guard Maurice Joseph comes off the bench for the Catamounts and the other was how much Vermont coach Mike Lonergan discussed the NIT. Joseph is averaging 8.9 points and can be a scoring pop off the bench. But defensively he needs to tighten up to be a starter. Meanwhile, Lonergan said another huge incentive for the Catamounts to win the America East regular-season title is to get the NIT bid that goes to the regular-season champ if it doesn't win the conference tournament. He wants this team in the postseason in some form. He said the NIT rule of awarding the regular-season champs from every conference that doesn't get an NCAA bid was one of the best rules put in by the postseason event.

Quick hitters for Wednesday:

• The Big East is on quite a roll this week.

Connecticut was dominant in dispatching Miami and Wisconsin to win the Paradise Jam in Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas.

Tuesday, Notre Dame outlasted Texas, 81-80, in the best game to date in this young season behind a monster performance by Luke Harangody (29 points, 13 rebounds) in the semifinals of the Maui Invitational.

Late Tuesday night, Syracuse came back from 13 down to beat Kansas in overtime, 89-81 to win the CBE Classic in Kansas City. Syracuse point guard Jonny Flynn was sensational in leading the Orange, scoring 25 points, including a game-tying 3-pointer on Syracuse's last possession in regulation.

Andy Rautins (three 3s) made key buckets, Paul Harris was a defensive stopper (two blocks and 14 boards), and the Orange got solid inside play from Arinze Onuaku (19 points, 12 rebounds). The Orange switched to man-to-man coverage, which was a brilliant move to get out of the Orange's ineffective zone.

Syracuse certainly looked like a top-five Big East team.

The Big East season is looking like it will be an epic battle from teams 1-11.

• The Atlantic 10 made a few bold moves with its conference tournament, beginning in 2010.

But one of them could prove to be a gamble.

The A-10 will go to a different format for the tournament, with opening-round games on Tuesday, March 9, 2010, at campus sites. The quarterfinals will begin on Friday, March 12 and then semifinals on Saturday, March 13 and the final on Sunday, March 14 at a site to be determined.

It's the Sunday finish that's the issue. The selection committee can't make a conference finish its tournament on Saturday. But the committee has made it clear that it is easier for them to fully evaluate the conference, as one member told me again Tuesday, when the conference tournament concludes on Saturday.

It's obvious that the A-10 went to this format and date change to get the game televised on CBS. That is a coup for the conference since it will be featured heading into the "Selection Sunday" show. But there is a chance it could cause trouble for the conference. Let's say Xavier was playing Temple in the final and Temple was the possible at-large team and Xavier had won the regular-season title. If Temple were to win, then Xavier's and Temple's seeding could be affected as the committee hurriedly tries to finish the bracket in the afternoon. They may have to pre-slot the winner and loser.

The committee has had to deal with this issue with the Big 12 recently. The Big 12 didn't want to deal with the Sunday finish and moved its conference title game to Saturday night in 2009. Playing a Sunday final also can mean a quick turnaround if a team has a Thursday first round, having to leave on Tuesday. A team playing in a Sunday final may not get home until late Sunday night or Monday morning.

• Creighton coach Dana Altman should just stay away from Arkansas. He took the Razorbacks job and then withdrew to remain at Creighton in the spring of 2007. Altman took the Bluejays back to the state Tuesday to face Arkansas-Little Rock. Mike Smith's tip-in with 7.1 seconds left gave the Trojans a 71-69 victory.

• Liberty head coach Ritchie McKay picked up his best win to date with the Flames. Liberty won at Virginia on Tuesday night, beating the Cavs behind Seth Curry and Kyle Ohman each scoring 26 points.

• Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt did the inevitable Tuesday by putting in highly anticipated freshman guard Iman Shumpert into the starting lineup at the point. Shumpert scored 12 points, grabbed five boards and dished out eight assists in 28 minutes in a win over Arkansas-Pine Bluff.

• Mississippi State's Jarvis Varnado just floods the stat sheet every time he plays. He had 19 points, 12 boards and six blocks in the Bulldogs solid road win at St. Bonaventure on Tuesday. Varnado will have to be in any conversation for SEC player of the year if this keeps up post-Jan. 1.

• Boston University's only loss so far was in overtime to George Washington. The Terriers picked up a huge rivalry win over CAA-favorite Northeastern, 83-75, behind Corey Lowe's 27.

• Arizona beat Santa Clara, 69-66, in the NIT consolation -- in Athens, Ga. Count Santa Clara coach Kerry Keating among those not amused by the format. Keating said he doesn't understand why there wasn't a West Coast NIT consolation site. Having Arizona and Santa Clara shipped to Athens made no sense to him. He said once Arizona couldn't host the event because of a women's game then the NIT should have turned to the Broncos. He said Santa Clara had kept Toso Pavilion open for the dates.

Meanwhile, travel was a bit odd for this event. Santa Clara was originally given the option of flying to Charlotte and then busing to Athens. But Keating contacted Arizona interim coach Russ Pennell and figured out that they could charter from Phoenix together. So Santa Clara flew commercial from San Jose to Phoenix and then met up with Arizona and the two teams chartered together to Georgia. Santa Clara was scheduled to fly home commercially on its own Wednesday.