ESPN Men's Basketball

Andrew Steele ran into Festus Ezeli's chest while trying to get around a screen. The blow caught him off guard. It wasn't directly to the head, but it stunned him. "I was scared, and it dazed me for a while,'' said Steele, a 6-foot-4 junior. "And I thought, am I going through this all over again?''

Steele played only three minutes against Vanderbilt on Jan. 19.

It was only his fifth game back for Alabama. Hiis career was pronounced over last June due to concussion symptoms. But through further examinations and testing and an increase in Vitamin D supplements, he was cleared to give up his role as manager/scout team assistant and contribute to the Tide's hopes of making the NCAA tournament for the first time under coach Anthony Grant.

"It scared all of us,'' Grant said of Steele running into Ezeli, which caused him to sit for the rest of the game. "One of my coaches saw him running into Ezeli. With the history he has, it shook him up a bit and it concerned us. We were grateful that it wasn't another concussion. But we were nervous.''

Steele said he hadn't been eating well that week and was sick. He said he was dehydrated, and that contributed to his unstable feeling.

In the five games since, Steele has played at least 25 minutes in each contest. He continues to be a key reason the Tide have a chance to make the NCAA tournament -- especially in light of the recent suspension of Tony Mitchell.

Steele played his most important game for the Tide against Ole Miss last week. He picked up a loose ball, buried a jumper and then made 1 of 2 free throws in the final 31 seconds to beat the rival Rebels. "That speaks to everything,'' Grant said. "The defense was collapsing, and he had the presence of mind in the heat of the moment to get a shot off. That's a veteran move. A young guy may have rushed it. He recognized what he had to do.''

It would have been a disastrous defeat for Alabama as it attempts to improve its tourney résumé. Bama (16-7, 5-4 SEC) then won handily at Auburn on Tuesday.

Steele's numbers aren't going to get him on an All-America list (5.8 ppg, 3.1 rpg, 2.4 apg). This isn't about stats. This is about his importance to the team and his timely play.

And the fact that he's even on the floor at all.

"He's been great for us,'' Grant said. "You don't necessarily see it in the numbers. But watch us play and see his leadership qualities on the court. He's got an extremely high basketball IQ. He plays with great poise and great confidence. He communicates with everyone on the floor and does whatever the team needs.''

Steele has suffered four concussions in his career. He said the worst came during his freshman season against Texas A&M, forcing him to miss a week.

The last one -- against Kentucky in the SEC tournament on March 12, 2011 -- forced him to temporarily retire from the game.

Steele had had other health issues, including dealing with a sickle cell trait, a stress fracture and soreness in his knees. He played in only six games in 2009-10, and missed 13 in 2010-11. He's played in a total of 54 games in three seasons (2008-11).

"I thought I would just get into coaching,'' Steele said. "I was physically active and I was practicing with the scout team and every once in a while I would jump in and help them out.''

Steele said he listened to the medical staff advice to avoid contact. "As much as I wanted to play, it wouldn't be smart for my long-term health at the time so we made the right decision,'' Steele said.

Steele said the medical staff continued to evaluate him and realized that his Vitamin D count was low. He continued to get tested. Steele said the memory tests were a way to calculate his brain functions.

"They would list a series of numbers and tell me to recite them back in that order,'' Steele said. "Then I would do them backward and put them in numerical order. I had a list of words, and an hour later had to remember those words. We would do shapes and see how well I could function with those. It was painstaking, but I understood the importance.''

Grant said the medical staff cleared him for his return.

"The results came down and the decision with Andrew and his family was to play,'' Grant said. "He wanted to rejoin the team. We were told there was no health risk. Andrew has shown no signs of being hesitant or leery.''

Steele said he's hoping he can bring more awareness to athletes who suffer concussions. Concussion symptoms are a hot topic in sports like football and hockey, but it should also be taken as seriously in basketball or any other sport.

"It's dangerous, and you have to make a good decision,'' Steele said. "The biggest thing is the headaches. You have to be honest. It's not like you broke a bone or something. You have to be honest with your symptoms. The long-term effects aren't worth the risks.''

Steele said he had headaches, was sensitive to bright light and "really loud noises."

"You can tell that your body isn't normal,'' Steele said. "Sometimes I couldn't sleep well.''

But Steele said since he's been cleared, and of course following the Vandy game last month, he has had no concerns.

Now the focus is on getting to the NCAA tournament.

"I wasn't able to be a part of the NIT run last year,'' Steele said. "It could be a whole new experience to get in the tournament. We can't look too far ahead.''

Connecticut is putting on the full-court press to join the ACC in case the league decides to expand again. And Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski and North Carolina coach Roy Williams both told ESPN.com they would like to see the league eventually go to 16 teams, with two eight-team divisions.

But there is no sense of urgency in the ACC, especially since the Big East for the moment is making Pitt and Syracuse stay for 27 months per the league's bylaws. The conference has plenty of time to figure out how to schedule its 14-team league.

So the attention now returns to the SEC with Monday's official announcement that Texas A&M will join the conference for the 2012-13 season. That gives the league 13 teams.

Should there be more?

Like Krzyzewski and Williams, Kentucky coach John Calipari would eventually like to see his conference get to 16.

"I don't think this stuff is done yet," Calipari said. "I've said for months that there may be four conferences with 16 or 18 teams each. But I can tell you that the SEC at 13, 14 or 16 is going to be stable. We're fine. If they're going to add, I'd like us to go and get Virginia Tech, Maryland and Missouri to go along with Texas A&M. We're not going to do anything at the expense of academics. You're also going to see basketball step up in the next five years in the SEC."

Calipari tweeted Monday that he thought the move to add the Aggies was tremendous for the league and new coach Billy Kennedy, a native of SEC country (Louisiana).

"Texas A&M is a great school academically, has a well-run athletic department and will fit well," Calipari said. "Their fan base is ridiculous, just like all of us. The SEC is different. The SEC is about schools with strong fan bases and geography. We want the markets. There is no buyout in the SEC because no one wants to leave."

Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings said he would have been fine with the SEC staying put at 12 teams, but he's not against the expansion.

"I like the simplicity of an even number and I'm not sure it was completely necessary," Stallings said. "I don't think we're finished seeing movement and if so, if we end up at 14 or 16, if that's what the commissioner's office said we need, then I'm fine with it. Our league isn't going anywhere. We're as stable as any league in college athletics and we have visionaries who run our league. If they think we're better suited to be at 14 or 16, then I'm OK with that."

The SEC will run into issues on further expansion since it would be hard to take a team from a state where there is already a conference member. The new ACC buyout of up to $20 million poses a problem, too. But the new markets in new states is what Calipari was talking about when he rattled off Missouri, Maryland and Virginia Tech. Still, it would be extremely difficult to pry the Terrapins away from playing Duke and North Carolina every year or the Hokies from rival Virginia after Tech expended a lot of political capital with the Cavaliers to not block the school's move from the Big East to the ACC eight years ago.

The SEC's current number of 13 will be a scheduling issue for football and basketball. Football still has divisions, which is a matter unto itself as the league decides what to do with the Aggies and how to handle an unbalanced schedule.

The SEC got rid of divisions for men's basketball for this season, but the scheduling format still mirrors the football East-West split with each team playing its old side twice and the other once for the 2011-12 season.

Stallings was on an SEC committee to determine a 12-team, no-division schedule for 2012-13. The consensus was to have everyone play each other once (11 games), with seven more games coming from doubling up against league opponents to get to 18 league games. The SEC currently plays 16. The same formula is expected to be applied to a 13-team, no-division SEC next season. The Atlantic 10, which has 14 teams, has a format of playing only 16 league games with every team playing each other at least once, three teams twice.

The question for the SEC will be which rivalries are protected in a doubling-up scenario. There are a few natural ones to protect like Alabama-Auburn, Ole Miss-Mississippi State and Vanderbilt-Tennessee with newer ones like Kentucky-Florida and maybe more traditional ones like Tennessee-Kentucky or Florida-Georgia kept, as well. There could be a need to ensure Texas A&M plays LSU twice as well, or perhaps twice with Arkansas, a former rival from the Southwest Conference.

Whatever the case, Stallings doesn't seem all that worried.

"I think we just have to have an open mind going forward," he said. "We'll come to the best concept relative to 13."

Anthony Grant and Tony Barbee have figured out how to hunker down this time of year.

Alabama and Auburn are obsessed with football all 12 months of the year, but especially now as fall practice begins and the anticipation grows to a fever pitch for a new season to begin.

In other words, this is exactly the time when basketball at "football schools" like Bama and Auburn can go into lockdown mode in preparation for what should be critical seasons for both programs.

"This is the mecca of college football with what Coach [Nick] Saban has done here and the history of Alabama football,'' said Grant, who is entering his third season in Tuscaloosa. "But this is the time of year for our guys to get into shape, to get through preseason conditioning. To get our focus down. I know this is not our time. But what you do now can help structure your season.''

The Crimson Tide won 25 games last season but fell short of making the NCAA tournament. Ultimately, Alabama reached the NIT final, losing to Wichita State. But going 0-for-3 in the Paradise Jam in the Virgin Islands in November was a killer and a relatively weak nonconference schedule made for a disappointing Selection Sunday after going a stunning 12-4 in league play.

The Tide returns the core of that team, including big man JaMychal Green, who is expected to star for USA basketball at the World University Games, as well as wing Tony Mitchell, who may be just as gifted an offensive player.

Bama has a legitimate chance to finish in the top four in the SEC along with Kentucky, Vanderbilt and Florida, with Mississippi State quite possibly on its heels. The Tide will be projected as one of the favorites along with Purdue to win the Puerto Rico Tip Off in November. Playing at Dayton, against Kansas State in Kansas City, and against Oklahoma State in Birmingham gives the Tide winnable games against well-respected programs that will be in a bit of re-tooling mode this season.

"The postseason was good for us since our guys had never been,'' Grant said of the NIT run. "We played a good schedule last year but we didn't win any of those games -- at Purdue, at Providence, at Oklahoma State and the bad weekend in the Virgin Islands. We weren't able to make up for that week.''

Like most coaches at big-time football schools, Grant will take advantage and make sure all recruiting visits are scheduled around home Alabama football games. But that is for 2012 and beyond.

"There's no question that you have to take advantage of having 100,000 people on campus and get a feel for that atmosphere,'' said Grant, a former assistant at Florida and one-time head coach at VCU. "We took advantage of that at Florida and we're taking advantage of it here. We didn't have that at VCU.

"I go in stages and right now this is when my emphasis for our guys is to go to class, get off to a good start academically and get them through the preseason conditioning to get ready for practice in October. I try to compartmentalize since we go both semesters.''

Grant knows the Tide's place at this time of year. So, too, does Barbee, who is entering his second season at Auburn. This is still fairly new to Barbee, who he played at UMass and was an assistant at Memphis before he was head coach at UTEP. None of those places are dominated by football.

He makes sure he's at the home football games and said no one was as big a fan of the Tigers' national championship run as he was last season. But Barbee takes a bit of a different approach.

"The recruits and parents come in for those weekends and the pageantry and it's impressive," he said. "But they're not football players and they want to know what it's like for basketball and if it's over the top for every game. We have to sell them on basketball.''

And that's what he's trying to do, even in the shadows of a defending national champion.

Barbee is convinced the Tigers will be more than a pest this season in the SEC. Auburn has Texas guard Varez Ward healthy and eligible after he sat out last season. Clemson wing Noel Johnson is also eligible. And the team's top returning player -- guard Frankie Sullivan -- is healthy after an injury-riddled season limited him to only six games in 2010-11.

"We're in a good stage, similar to what occurred at UTEP where there wasn't a lot left and we've now had two good recruiting classes to set the foundation,'' Barbee said. "I think Varez Ward will be as good a point guard as anyone has in the league. Frankie Sullivan will be one of the best shooters and now we've added Noel Johnson, we've added [freshmen] Cedric McAfee and Willy Kouassi and no one is talking about us.

"And they shouldn't be. We were supposed to be the worst team in the BCS last season and yet we win four SEC games and should have won eight or nine.''

Playing its first season in the school's new $92.5 million arena, Auburn also beat Sweet 16-bound Florida State and a couple of those SEC losses were indeed decided in the final seconds.

Nevertheless, the Tigers will be picked near the bottom of the league again. But Barbee fully expects for his team to be a tough out and have a chance to finish much higher.

So here in mid-August, as the two most recent kings of college football get set for another season, not many people on either campus are buzzing much about basketball. And that's fine. It's not their time.

Most SEC basketball programs -- with the exception of Kentucky and Vanderbilt -- understand that feeling. But Barbee senses that hoops isn't the distant, mere distraction that it was for so many years.

"It seems like things are changing with what Kentucky did last year, what Florida and Georgia and Vanderbilt did,'' Barbee said. "I think this league is as tough as ever. I think you're seeing a lot more basketball talk in the SEC right now.''

No one is foolish enough to think Auburn or Alabama basketball can unseat football in popularity, now or ever. And neither coach is seeking to do so.

All they're doing is preparing their teams under the shadows of uber-elite football programs. And that's why they can't squander this time of the year when they can work in relative obscurity.

The World University Games is usually the one international competition, outside of the Olympics, the U.S. expects to win.

Elite European players aren't usually in school. And in an Olympic qualifying year, the likelihood that national teams would have top players playing in this event is low.

Still, the Americans lost this event two years ago, falling to Russia in the semifinals. The U.S. beat Israel in the consolation game to take home the bronze medal with a 6-1 mark. Host Serbia won the gold.

Purdue coach Matt Painter is well-aware of the stakes in China over the next two weeks. The U.S. is coming off a disappointing fifth-place finish at the FIBA U-19 World Championships in Latvia last month. The gold in the World University Games isn't with Team USA, either.

And that's exactly why Painter, who will be assisted by Butler's Brad Stevens and Tennessee's Cuonzo Martin, wanted to put together a team, not an all-star tour.

"We have three weeks together and we have to have the right mindset,'' Painter said prior to leaving for China on Monday. Painter was an assistant on the U-19 gold medal team two years ago in New Zealand. "It's very important to be on the same page.''

That's why he was thrilled to see two players from that U-19 gold medal-winning team on this roster in Pitt's Ashton Gibbs and Kentucky's Darius Miller.

"It was important for them to talk about their experience in New Zealand and what it meant to sacrifice minutes and how important this was,'' Painter said.

On Thursday in Huizhou, the Americans play a Chinese team called New Century in an exhibition game before pool play starts Saturday. Based on the groupings, the U.S. should win its group with the toughest challenger probably being Israel (Finland, Hungary, Mexico and South Korea are also in Group D). Host China and Brazil are in Group A; Serbia, Turkey, Canada and Australia are in Group B; and Russia and Lithuania headline Group C. The medal round is Aug. 20-22.

Here is Painter's breakdown of the 12 finalists representing the United States:

Tim Abromaitis, Sr., F, Notre Dame: "He's a very good player, and a guy that we can swing between small forward and power forward. He'll cause a lot of matchup problems for other teams.''

Marcus Denmon, Sr., G, Missouri: "When he's on, he changes the game. He can be a high-energy guy. His performances in practice have been strong. He has the potential to carry this team with his shooting and energy.''

Ashton Gibbs, Sr., G, Pitt: "He's a tough, hard-nosed player that simply gets the job done. He comes early and stays late. He's a very good shooter, can make 3s and will knock down the shots for us. He's our point like he was for us on the U-19 team.''

Draymond Green, Sr., F, Michigan State: "He's a very versatile, intelligent basketball player. He knows what's going on. He plays hard and he cares. He wants to win. He will impact the game for us.''

JaMychal Green, Sr., F, Alabama: "He's a guy that is going to have to score down low for us. He's a very talented kid. He's going to have score and rebound for this team to win.''

Scoop Jardine, Sr., G, Syracuse: "He's a very experienced player who has played in a lot of big-time games. He will help us get through the dog days of pool play to the medal round. He's a point guard who will help us and create for himself.''

John Jenkins, Jr., G, Vanderbilt: "He's a big-time shooter. He needs to score for us. He has to be aggressive. He will look for his shot and help us defensively at the 2-guard. I think we'll win the battle at the 2-guard with him.''

Orlando Johnson, Sr., G, UC Santa Barbara: "He can score the basketball. He's a good shooter, can drive the ball, post-up and pull-up with his left hand. He has to help us defensively and put points on the board. He was someone who positively surprised us at the trials. We recruited him when he left Loyola Marymount, and I'm kicking myself now that we didn't get him. He's a really good player.''

Greg Mangano, Sr., F, Yale: "I think he was the right piece for this team. He plays his role. He defends and plays post defense. He runs the court and does the little things. He could do for us what Arnett Moultrie and John Shurna did for the U-19 team two years ago -- doing key things down the stretch in the medal round. We wanted that last spot on the team to be a player with size and it came down to him and Aaric Murray [West Virginia] and Yancy Gates [Cincinnati], and we just felt that Greg would complement the other guys.''

Trevor Mbakwe, Sr., F, Minnesota: "He's tough. He's hard to handle. He's got great energy. He's got a great motor. He can really move his feet on the perimeter. He's got an impressive work ethic and a joy to coach. We were always in awe of him at Purdue. He's got brute strength and athleticism and will do a great job for us around the basket.''

Ray McCallum, So., G, Detroit: "He's so talented. His young. But he can play either guard spot and you can tell how hungry he was to make this team. He was one of the last guys we invited but he has a chance to really impact these games.''

Darius Miller, Sr., G, Kentucky: "If we throw Darius in there with Abromaitis and Green, we can play different ways. He can help us play bigger or smaller. He has really improved his shooting since we had him in New Zealand. He's going to be good against a zone, and we'll just have to find the right place to play him. He's a very good player and will help us a lot defensively.''

Andrew Steele was working out two weeks ago, running outside in Alabama's June heat, when he stopped because of a headache.

"I had to go lay down," Steele said. "I didn't feel well. My stomach felt funny. So over the next few days I talked to the trainer."

The word was that he was still suffering from the lingering effects of a concussion. Steele's fourth concussion -- the first one occurred while playing football in high school while the other three were basketball related -- happened on March 12 in the SEC tournament against Kentucky. He didn't finish the game or play in the NIT run to New York.

Alabama coach Anthony Grant had prepared Steele for the likely end of his college career if symptoms persisted. They did, and his Crimson Tide playing days were over.

"I looked at the situation and remembered how [former Alabama player] Mikhail Torrance had a heart thing and he kept going and he almost lost his life over it," Steele said. "I kept thinking about as much as I like basketball, with concussions, you can't predict which one is going to do the worst to you."

Steele has a sickle cell trait, which he said had nothing to do with the concussions, but does mean it takes a bit longer to get back to normal after recovering from illness. Steele had only played the first six games of the 2009-10 season before a stress fracture in his left leg sidelined him for the season. Steele missed the first 13 games for the 2010-11 season with soreness in his knees then the five NIT games because of the concussion.

All of that factored into his decision to stop playing basketball, graduate in December, stay on scholarship and possibly pursue a master's degree at Alabama.

"I know the risks," Steele said. "This was a good decision to make."

Steele played in 54 games in three years at Alabama from 2008-11, averaging 3.6 points and 2.3 rebounds while dishing out 44 assists and committing 39 turnovers. The story -- a player that had decent hype out of high school but just couldn't stay healthy -- could end there.

But it doesn't.

Steele is the second member of his family who was unable to finish his college career because of injury. Steele's brother, Ron Steele Jr., who played in Israel last season and is hoping to work his way into an NBA camp in the fall, dealt with a number of knee injuries during his career at Alabama. Ron missed seven games in 2006-07 then all of the 2007-08 season after surgery on both knees on April 3, 2007. He left the team on Jan. 21, 2009, after missing a pair of games because of plantar fasciitis.

"It's been a difficult process," their father, Ron Steele Sr., said "But Andrew is going to graduate and Ron graduated. Basketball ends at one point in your life and you have to go forward. Ron should have been in the NBA but he had to go overseas. He may still have a chance to make it. But we're OK. We're happy as long as they're happy."

Ron Jr. played in 104 games over a four-year period. He declared for the NBA draft after his redshirt junior season, only to come back to play in just 15 games as a senior in 2008-09. But that season was Andrew's first with the team, and former coach Mark Gottfried's last as head coach.

"I'm pretty sure it's a rare case for a family to have two sons that got hurt like this," Andrew said. "But my parents have been making sure we're always OK. They don't push us. They just wanted to make sure we were healthy first. But it actually was a blessing in disguise that my brother got hurt because we had a chance to play together for my freshman year. I needed him for that adjustment from high school to college."

Gottfried said that learning about Andrew's sudden career-ending decision made him sad.

"I feel bad for them, they have such a great family," said Gottfried, now the head coach at NC State. "I really believe that Ron would have been as good as anybody in the country but he never was able to stay healthy."

Gottfried said that Ron Jr. was never able to fully practice on a consistent basis while dealing with the knee injuries.

"I didn't get a chance to coach Ron but he has always come back and worked our camps and I saw that this is such a great family," Grant said. "We've had a lot of conversations about his health. But his attitude has always been good. He always understood the big picture. They all understand that playing athletics is an opportunity that they've been able to enjoy, but it's not the be-all, end-all. It was important for them to get an education."

The perspective that Ron Sr. has is quite obvious when you discover what other curveball he's been dealing with lately.

Ron and Linda Steele were in their home on April 27. They heard the wind. They sought cover in their home. The devastating and deadly tornado that ripped through Tuscaloosa also hit their area of Birmingham. Ron Sr. said two homes survived on his block. He and his wife were in one of them.

But the damage was severe. They have spent the past five weeks in a hotel, only returning to their home this week.

"All the other homes were blown away," Ron Sr. said. "We had a tree fall on the right side of our house. A piece of plywood came through the bathroom and ripped the shower. The backdoor was ripped off. We just ran downstairs, hid in the closet and prayed. The wind was blowing, glass was breaking and we thought we were going to leave here. In about 45 seconds to a minute, it was over, but there was a large tree blocking the front door [area]. It was a mess. There were deaths in our neighborhood."

Andrew said his apartment in Tuscaloosa was spared. He assumed his parents' home was fine, too.

"I thought the one place that I could go to and be safe was home but they took a direct hit so I couldn't avoid it," Andrew said. "But my parents are extremely strong. They told me there are so many things you can't control, but what you can control is how you react. I'm thankful that they were OK. There were people who lost everything."

The Curry family will have a hectic spring with decisions looming that could affect the careers of both Stephen and younger brother Seth.

The latter announced Tuesday that he was transferring. Seth Curry, who led the nation's freshmen in scoring with 20.2 points a game for Liberty University this season, wants to play at a higher level, notably in the ACC and in the state of North Carolina (NC State, Wake Forest, Duke or North Carolina).

As for the elder Curry, he will likely be a lottery pick if he decides to leave the Wildcats and enter the NBA draft.

Dell Curry, a former NBA guard and Seth and Stephen's father, said Tuesday night that the family will take time on each decision. He said the family is waiting to see which schools contact Liberty for a release.

"This is a whole new process," Dell said of looking for a new school. "He chose Liberty because of coach [Ritchie] McKay. He really liked him and the university, but after playing in the league, we feel that he can play at a higher level."

McKay said Tuesday that he was treating Seth Curry almost like a one-and-done player who has hit the higher-profile schools. He said Curry did help the Flames in his one season, helping them go 23-12 and earn a spot in the inaugural CollegeInsider.com postseason tournament.

Meanwhile, Dell Curry said he has been in contact with his NBA friends about Steph's standing in the draft.

"It's obvious he'll be a high draft choice, but he is a student and he desperately wants to finish school," Dell Curry said, adding that Stephen can't make a bad choice here.

"You watch the maturity in his game and how he's played," Dell said. "He's talented enough. But it's a long, tough year. It's a grown man's league. You've got be ready mentally more than anything."

Dell said Davidson's failure to make the NCAAs after last season's magical run to the Elite Eight was a "big disappointment" for Stephen. The Wildcats lost to Saint Mary's in the second round of the postseason NIT in Moraga, Calif., on Monday night.

Dell Curry said Stephen will need to decompress over the next couple weeks before making an early-entry decision.

The deadline to declare for the draft is April 30. Because of Dell's strong ties within the league, Curry should be able to make the decision with more information than most and without agent involvement.

• The NIT was looking at a potential field in New York of Florida, Kentucky, Auburn and Saint Mary's with a decidedly SEC twist that could've been an interesting sell in the Garden. Instead, Penn State beat Florida and Baylor beat Auburn. Tonight, Notre Dame hosts Kentucky (ESPN2, 7 ET) and Saint Mary's goes to San Diego State (ESPN2, 9 ET) to determine the rest of the semifinal participants in New York.

• A source close to the Alabama search said there isn't a Plan B. The Tide is banking on landing VCU's Anthony Grant.

• Another source said Georgia will wait to make a run at Missouri's Mike Anderson once the Tigers are done playing in the NCAAs.

• Another source said representatives of Arizona's coaching search are promising $2 million and chartered flights, something that doesn't happen in the Pac-10. But at least one Arizona source said that high-profile coaches will be disappointed once they get down to it and see the rebuilding that must occur with the Wildcats, if the expected departures of juniors Chase Budinger and Jordan Hill and possibly Nic Wise occur.

Mark Gottfried went on a field trip with his fifth-grade son to a science center Wednesday.

"I had a blast," Gottfried said Thursday.

Thursday afternoon, Gottfried was in line with all the other parents for an afternoon pickup at the elementary school. How often has that happened during his 10-plus years as coach at Alabama?

"Not in the afternoon," Gottfried said.

Less than a week removed from his resignation, Gottfried is at peace with the decision. He said he and athletic director Mal Moore talked over the weekend and came to the mutual understanding that a change was needed. Who initiated the conversation? Gottfried said he did, but "it's not important. We sat down, we visited and came to that conclusion."

Gottfried refused to be negative about his "resignation." He said he has and will have zero negative things to say about Alabama. He played for the Tide for four years, coached for 10-plus years and "loved the place."

"We had some tough luck recently," Gottfried said. "We weren't as good the past year, and that's my responsibility. I hold my head high. But I want to coach again."

Gottfried said he stands by his record of one Elite Eight, two SEC West championships and, he said, seeing 26 out of 27 seniors who finished their eligibility with him graduate.

"I want to be aggressive [in a coaching search]," Gottfried said. "I have a passion to coach. I'll evaluate every opportunity, but at this point I'm still recovering."

Gottfried said he encouraged assistant and good friend Philip Pearson to take over for him once Pearson was asked to do so Monday. He told him to "coach your butt off and learn from the experience. I told him to put your stamp on it. I told every player to play their butt off."

Gottfried said any issue with Ronald Steele, who stopped playing because of plantar fasciitis, is dead. There were reports that Steele didn't want to come back from the injury because of Gottfried, but these haven't been substantiated.

Gottfried acknowledged that a mid-season coaching move is a trend.

"It's what's happening; you can't deny it," Gottfried said, hours after fellow SEC coach Dennis Felton of Georgia was fired. "We like to think we're different than professional basketball. We're becoming a lot more aligned."

SEC commisioner Mike Slive said he doesn't see it that way.

"I don't see a trend. I think it's very hard to evaluate what a particular institution is doing at a particular time," he said. "Do I have an overall view? My first reaction was, what impact does it have on the student-athletes? Did the coach and the institution come to a mutual understanding? How does it affect the student-athletes?"

• Kansas athletic director Lew Perkins said that he doesn't think athletic directors would make a mid-season coaching move without having the financial resources for a buyout in place. He said the money can come from annuities that are tucked away for a rainy day instead of from buyout money that must be sought from boosters. But he also said none of these decisions to terminate come from the AD alone. He said the president has to be involved every step of the way.

Perkins said athletic directors who make these moves are looking to get ahead of the coaching search. He said athletic directors aren't supposed to talk to coaches during the season but the process gets started through coaching searches.

"College athletics has become a big business and the pressure of winning is part of it," Perkins said. "The decisions now are business decisions, and ultimately, as an athletic director, you're responsible for balancing the books. If you look across the country there are a lot of empty seats in arenas. But you shouldn't fire someone unless you have someone who can change the program."

Memphis coach John Calipari, who was fired early in a season with the New Jersey Nets, said the firing of a college coach in the middle of the conference season can have a lasting effect on a team.

"You're dealing with young people, and you don't know the effect that it will have on them," Calipari said.

• Miami's Frank Haith and VCU's Anthony Grant are expected to be candidates at both SEC openings. UAB's Mike Davis, an Alabama alumnus, would take the job if offered, according to a source close to Davis.

• Minnesota's Tubby Smith made it clear in the local papers in Minneapolis that he intends to stay put despite reports that the SEC schools and Arizona could come calling.

• Kansas' Cole Aldrich broke his nose against Nebraska, but KU officials don't expect him to miss any games.

• Bracket Buster day announcements will come out Monday at 6:30 p.m. on ESPNU. The home-road determinations have already been made for the Feb. 20-21 games. A select number of teams from the America East, Big Sky, Big South, Big West, Colonial, Horizon, Metro Atlantic, Mid-American, MEAC, Missouri Valley, OVC, Patriot, Southern, Summit, West Coast and WAC are participating. The key is to find matchups between potential NCAA-tournament teams. They may not make or break a bid, but it could help in the selection process.

Here are my suggestions for the games that should happen:

Butler at Davidson: The kings of the Horizon League and the Southern Conference, respectively. These two teams should get into the NCAAs, regardless of winning the conference tournament.

Utah State at Saint Mary's: This would pit the leader of the WAC that few in the country know about against one of the top two teams in the WCC. Gonzaga doesn't participate in the event, so this is the perfect matchup for Utah State to get some national recognition.

Northeastern at Siena: The Huskies are the class of the CAA at this juncture, having beaten VCU on the road and taken out George Mason at home. Siena is unblemished in the MAAC. This may sound regional, but these are two teams that have enough talented scorers to win a first-round NCAA game.

A few undercard suggestions:

Northern Iowa at Long Beach State: No need to scoff at this one. The Panthers are leading the Missouri Valley, but it's not like they are a national name. This game would pit the two leaders of two conferences -- the Valley and the Big West.

Cleveland State at Portland State: This is a bit of a logistical reach, but you can pit two upset-minded programs, both Vikings, against each other. Cleveland State won at Syracuse, while Portland State won at Gonzaga.

Bradley at UIC: A solid in-state matchup.

Illinois State at Nevada: The Redbirds have slid, but you can't go wrong playing the Wolf Pack in Reno for a quality matchup.

Boise State at San Diego: The Broncos are below Utah State and the Toreros a step below the Gaels and Zags, so this makes sense.

Buffalo at Vermont: The Bulls may be the best squad in the MAC, but the problem is finding a quality road team for them to play. This is a regional matchup against a Vermont team that has enough talent to win the America East.

VCU at Creighton: The Bluejays have dropped lately, but this would still give the Rams a tough road game against a name opponent.

George Mason at BU: The Terriers are on a roll and deserve a decent opponent. George Mason would fit the criteria.

Morgan State at Drexel: Todd Bozeman's crew upset Maryland and could win the MEAC against the surging Dragons in the CAA.

• Oklahoma sophomore forward and leading national player of the year candidate Blake Griffin does his own mailbag on the Sooners' Web site. He's quick with his wit. Keaton Homer of Eagle River, Alaska, asked him a question, and Griffin's response was: "Wow, a question all the way from Alaska. I've always wondered … can you see Russia from there?"

• At least one former infractions-committee member told me that the fact that others were on the conference calls that Kelvin Sampson had with recruits will make it hard for him to prove that he was wronged in his appeal. And while Sampson came out and said he doesn't want to coach again in college, the consensus is that another institution wouldn't touch him within the five-year show-cause. Athletic directors and presidents don't want to mess with having to defend a hire and see what sanctions would follow to a committee on infractions.

• The NCAA confirmed that Gene Keady can't be on the selection committee for the newly created Collegeinsider.com postseason tournament and the NIT. The battle for teams between this venture and the CBI for the teams not selected by the NIT could get very interesting.

• Arizona interim coach Russ Pennell said he isn't putting a must-win tag on the weekend's home stand against Washington and Washington State. But he fully understands how critical these two games are to the Wildcats' chances of getting back into at-large status. Arizona still has wins over Gonzaga and Kansas that will carry weight in a potential at-large situation if it can right itself quickly from its 2-5 Pac-10 start.

• Looks like I won't have to eat crow on Providence and Villanova. I have said on the air and here in this space how much PC and Villanova needed to win a quality game against a Big East team that is a lock for the NCAAs. PC got its win against Syracuse, while Villanova beat Pitt.

• Georgetown's slide to 3-5 after losing at Cincinnati raises similar questions to Notre Dame at 3-5. Watching Georgetown, one would think there is no way the Hoyas don't deserve to be in the NCAA tournament. But the Hoyas will still need to win more games. Georgetown has lost four in a row and plays at Marquette on Saturday. So the slide could hit six. Road games at Syracuse and Villanova remain, too. The Hoyas may need to get to 10-8 to feel safer about a potential bid.

• The Nick Calathes-Jodie Meeks SEC player of the year race should be quite a chase. Calathes put up a triple-double for Florida in the Gators' win over Georgia, which ended the reign of Dennis Felton. Calathes scored 20 points, grabbed 13 boards and dished out 10 assists.

• Doesn't it feel like Florida State always plays North Carolina and Duke tough in Tallahassee but has one devil of a time beating either in the final possession?

• Saint Joseph's continued its usual undefeated run in the A-10 after a subpar nonconference schedule. The Hawks beat Richmond on Wednesday.

• Missouri can't be expected to beat all similar teams in the Big 12. But the Tigers probably can't afford to lose by 16 to Kansas State if they want to be taken seriously for a bid, unless they start knocking off Kansas, Texas and Oklahoma.

• Nebraska coach Doc Sadler looked positively drained after the Huskers couldn't get past Kansas with a few chances late in the game. Teams like the Huskers get few opportunities for statement wins like they had Wednesday.

• Can we stop hyping a No. 1 team's losing when it falls to a team that was just ranked No. 1? Wake Forest was No. 1. The Demon Deacons beat No. 1 Duke. Wake also beat North Carolina. So Wake's beating a No. 1 team shouldn't be hailed as some monumental event.

Sometime over the weekend, after Alabama had lost to Kentucky on Saturday, Mark Gottfried met with his family and at least one close friend to discuss his next move.

The best move it turned out was to resign, leave on his own terms and hope to land another job, according to multiple sources close to the situation.

Gottfried had decided, after council with his inner circle, that the worst thing to do would be to fight the inevitable firing that would come at the end of the season.

As one source said, the snowball effect could've taken him over and then there would've been no exit strategy.

Gottfried's move is akin to what Mike Davis did at Indiana three years ago. Davis removed himself from the cauldron in February instead of waiting for the Hoosiers to potentially relieve him of his duties. He then ended up getting the UAB job in the spring, once Mike Anderson left to go to Missouri.

Ironically, Davis and Anderson are two potential candidates for the Crimson Tide, according to multiple sources. Alabama may not formerly hire former Tide coach and Kentucky athletic director C.M. Newton (Davis' coach at Alabama in his first year), but the school is expected to lean on Newton to some degree.

Regardless of race, the pool of candidates is expected to include VCU's Anthony Grant and Miami's Frank Haith, according to sources close to the program. The same sources don't expect Minnesota's Tubby Smith to go to Alabama, but a pitch could be made in his direction.

Multiple sources, and interim Alabama coach Philip Pearson, said Gottfried wants to coach again. Pearson talked at length about the recent chaos for him personally during a podcast with me Monday night. You can listen to it here: CBB Podcast

The Tide hasn't been helped by all the injuries of to Ronald Steele (knee injuries kept him out last season and then a troublesome heel this season) and the early-entry attrition to the NBA draft.

Alabama has been hurt maybe more than any other school by early defections. Players like Mo Williams, Rod Grizzard, Kennedy Winston, Gerald Wallace and Richard Hendrix left early. Recovering from these losses wasn't an easy chore. In this writer's opinion, Wallace and Williams are the only two so far who clearly were told the right information in regards to their NBA future.

Pearson said during the podcast that the Tide is still close to having a quality season. Alabama (12-7, 2-3 SEC) lost a lead to Texas A&M at home, couldn't catch Clemson on the road and then Steele's injury led to three of four losses in conference play. Bama is at Arkansas on Thursday night. Pearson said he firmly believes the team can still make a run in the SEC.

Pearson said he met with each player and talked to their families. He said he wasn't sure if Steele would return now that Gottfried was gone. Steele's brother, Andrew, is on the squad and Andrew said it's a sensitive situation. Pearson said the Tide also signed five players in the fall and that he would continue to ensure they were happy with their decision. Like Gottfried, Pearson is an Alabama grad and said he has no problem recruiting for his alma mater.

Pearson's situation is reminiscent of Andy Kennedy's at Cincinnati. Kennedy was an assistant and good friend to Bob Huggins. When Huggins was bounced at UC, Kennedy was asked to be the interim. He didn't hesitate because he knew it was the best move for him, too.

Pearson understood the same thing. He said that Moore did say that his contract would be redone to reflect him coaching the team for the rest of the season. But he said there were no promises made beyond this season. Pearson said he fully understands he's in an unstable situation.

One interesting side note to watch with a potential Davis candidacy is highly-touted Alabama talent DeMarcus Cousins. Cousins committed to UAB in the fall, but wouldn't sign because the school wouldn't sign off on an agreement that said it would let Cousins out of his national letter of intent if Davis left for another job. Cousins is a free agent on the recruiting market with schools like Memphis trying to lure him now. But an open job at Alabama may have him waiting even longer.

• Notre Dame is in trouble -- as in making the NCAA tournament. Yes, it sounds blasphemous to say, but it's true. The Irish are 12-7, 3-5 in the Big East. Look at some of the games remaining for the Irish: at Pitt, at UCLA, Louisville at home (suddenly with two straight home losses the Irish are no longer invincible at home), at West Virginia, at Providence, at Connecticut. The Irish better start winning these games. If the Irish were to lose at least four of those and finish 9-9, they will be an interesting test case for the committee. The Big East tournament could be crucial for the Irish.

• Meanwhile, Marquette is the real deal. I firmly believed it after the Golden Eagles beat Providence. Beating Notre Dame is yet another example. The easy thing was to say that Marquette has the toughest end-of-season schedule of any Big East team. And it does. But now if the Golden Eagles continue to play the way they are, why can't they handle it? The end of season run consists of at Georgetown, Connecticut, at Louisville, at Pitt and Syracuse. Going 3-2 in this stretch is hardly out of the question. That seemed like a reach a few weeks ago.

• Blake Griffin is ridiculous … as in ridiculously good. All he did in the Bedlam game Monday night was put up another double-double, his 17th of the season. He threw up 26 points, 17 boards and three assists in Oklahoma's 89-81 win over Oklahoma State. Start clearing space for the player of the year honors.

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 Friday before a blockbuster weekend:

• Alabama won't have senior point guard Ronald Steele for Saturday's game at Auburn. Alabama coach Mark Gottfried said Friday that Steele is out indefinitely with plantar fasciitis on his left foot. Steele sat out last season with knee injuries. He declared for the NBA draft but then returned. This could be a crushing blow to the Tide. Steele had started to resemble his old self when he scored 23 points, dished out 10 assists and had two steals in an 11-point win over Georgia Tech.

But the coaching staff said Steele started to complain that his foot was sore. He still had 10 points, four assists and just one turnover in the loss at Clemson. He played 36 minutes in the SEC-opening win over LSU but was 2-of-10 for five points, two assists and three turnovers -- easily his worst game of the season. Gottfried held him out of the road game at Mississippi State, an 83-74 loss to the rival Bulldogs.

In his absence, Mikhail Torrance scored 20 points with two assists and zero turnovers in 22 minutes, and Brandon Hollinger scored seven points and had two assists and two turnovers in 31 minutes. Gottfried said Torrance and Hollinger will share the point guard duties for the foreseeable future.

"I still think we'll be OK," Gottfried said.

The Tide were counting on Steele's being healthy this season, especially if they were going to make a comeback and be competitive in the SEC. Now at 11-5 and 1-1 in the SEC, Alabama heads to Auburn on Saturday, with Ole Miss and Kentucky next week at home.

Alabama played poorly early in the season in losses to Mercer and Oregon (in Maui) but then won nine of 10 games, with the only loss being to Texas A&M in overtime at home. So there was still hope, especially after giving Clemson fits for 40 minutes in a loss in South Carolina. But the season is still fragile without Steele, and a lot of it will be determined by how the Tide does this week with the next three games. The SEC West is wide open, but it's likely open only to those who are at full strength.

• Northwestern's loss Thursday had to be crushing. The Wildcats were ahead for most of the game against Purdue but couldn't close out the Boilermakers in the final few seconds. The loss describes the Bill Carmody era: close, but just not good enough to finish off a key game. Northwestern fell to 0-4 in the Big Ten, 8-6 overall and likely to continue the longest drought of a high-major conference team never making the NCAAs. Meanwhile, Purdue desperately needed the win to get to 2-2. A 1-3 start could have been devastating for the Boilermakers' chances of catching Michigan State.

• Start including Tubby Smith of Minnesota in all coach-of-the-year conversations. Smith's Gophers won in overtime at Wisconsin on Thursday behind Lawrence Westbrook's 29 points. The Gophers are 4-1 in the Big Ten and 16-1 overall. Amazing.

• Butler continues to roll. The Bulldogs are 15-1 overall and 6-0 in the Horizon after beating Loyola. Brad Stevens should also be in any coach-of-the-year discussions.

• Connecticut gets plenty of kudos for sweeping a three-game Big East road trip to West Virginia, Cincinnati and St. John's.

• Northeastern's Bill Coen continues to do his part to set up a showdown of undefeated CAA teams Wednesday night in Boston after winning at Delaware on Thursday. The Huskies (11-5, 6-0) play at Hofstra on Saturday, while George Mason (13-3, 6-0) plays host to James Madison on Saturday.

• UCLA's Darren Collison said the right thing about not overlooking Arizona before a huge game against Arizona State on Saturday. But USC diminished somewhat the Bruins-Sun Devils matchup as the game of the Pac-10 season. The Trojans crushed the Sun Devils in the second half to win 61-49 and send ASU to its second loss in the Pac-10. Collison is making a play to unseat favorite Pac-10 player-of-the-year candidate James Harden of ASU. Collison has a remarkable 23-to-5 assist-to-turnover ratio in the first four Pac-10 games. He also is 22 of 24 at the free-throw line. The real mega-matchup now in the Pac-10 is looking more like UCLA-Cal on Jan. 29 in Westwood and Feb. 28 in Berkeley. The Bears will try to stay unbeaten in the Pac-10 when they travel to Stanford on Saturday for Mike Montgomery's return to Maples Pavilion.

• UCLA's scoring options are getting more varied with the development of Nikola Dragovic. He scored 15 points against Arizona and can make game-changing 3s. He had two 3s against the Wildcats.

• Oregon State coach Craig Robinson suffered a tough loss Thursday night when the Beavers couldn't close out Washington State in regulation and lost to the Cougars in overtime 61-57 in Corvallis. Robinson has a busy week, with a home game against Washington, which easily beat Oregon on Thursday; practice Sunday; and then a trip to Washington, D.C., on Monday for his brother-in-law's inauguration. Robinson will be in D.C. on Monday night and Tuesday before flying Wednesday to meet the team in Berkeley for Thursday's game against the Bears. Robinson wanted to hold practice Sunday so he could put in the plan for Cal. He's giving the team Monday off and will have an assistant lead practice Tuesday. He said he will meet up with the team in time for practice Wednesday.

• Bradley is hardly the Chicago Bears. But the Braves are mimicking the 1985 Bears' Super Bowl Shuffle. The Braves recorded this video (now on YouTube) at their October preseason gala. The MVC shuffle video is being sold for $20, with the proceeds going to the Danny Dahlquist Memorial Scholarship fund at Bradley University. Dahlquist was a redshirt freshman on the Bradley soccer team who was killed in a house fire before the start of the 2007-08 season. His scholarship was endowed last year. Here is the video.

Bradley, by the way, is off to a hot start in the Missouri Valley; the team is better at playing hoops better than at singing or dancing. The Braves are 5-1 in the Valley; 11-6 overall; tied with Northern Iowa for first; and a game ahead of Illinois State, Creighton and Drake.