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A chance to be one of the best players in the nation.

That's how Kentucky coach Matthew Mitchell described what the future might hold for A'dia Mathies not long before her sophomore season began. Almost two seasons later, her exact place on such an inexact list remains up for debate, but she is the go-to player on the first Kentucky team to win an SEC regular-season title in her lifetime. It's a pretty good label in its own right.

Mathies didn't turn in a spectacular line in Sunday's 76-40 win at Mississippi State, a victory that clinched Kentucky's first regular-season title since 1982, but the Wildcats didn't need individual brilliance to get by the Bulldogs. With what is essentially an 11-player rotation, the Wildcats rarely turn one player loose on the box score, relying on that depth and collective defensive effort to force nearly 23 turnovers per game. But from her freshman season, when she scored 32 points in her first NCAA tournament game, and added 21 more in a subsequent win against top-seeded Nebraska, Mathies hinted at a knack for knocking out soliloquies, even in a supporting role alongside Victoria Dunlap.

There have been 14 instances of a Kentucky player scoring at least 20 points in a game this season; Mathies is responsible for 10 of them. Sure, a handful of those came against the likes of Northeastern and Southern Miss, but Mathies also put up 20-plus points in victories against Arkansas, Duke, Louisville and South Carolina. She also turned in a performance that ranks near the top of any list of the best singe-game efforts of the season with 34 of her team's 61 points in a one-point victory against Tennessee. Mathies' shooting percentage remains almost unchanged from an inconsistent sophomore effort, but in more than doubling her 3-point output and dramatically improving her long-range accuracy, she has become a much more efficient scorer. She's not a perfect player, nor is a Kentucky team that recently lost three in a row a perfect champion. But only Baylor need worry about perfection right now. For everyone else, it's about being better than those in the other uniform.

It took three decades for Kentucky to get a chance to celebrate a second conference championship. It shouldn't take much more than 24 months for the Wildcats to welcome a second SEC player of the year to program lore.

Making a case for March: Duke. While we're celebrating regular-season conference titles, full credit to Duke for a March-like performance in beating Miami and North Carolina in roughly the span of 72 hours to clinch the ACC regular-season title.

The math seems to add up to Duke earning a No. 2 seed, no matter the weekend results and no matter what happens in the ACC tournament, but the Blue Devils are trying to keep the calculators working right up to the final hour. More importantly, they showed both a toughness and an offensive efficiency in the two victories that they'll need regardless of seeding. As was the case in a loss against Maryland, rebounding remains an issue without injured starter Richa Jackson -- Miami piled up 19 offensive rebounds and North Carolina totaled 15 against a team that entered the weekend allowing just 12.3 offensive rebounds per game. But the champions, bedeviled so often by offensive inconsistency in recent postseasons, shot 49 percent against the Hurricanes and 52 percent against the Tar Heels, with point guard Chelsea Gray putting an exclamation point on things by setting the single-season assists record.

Best individual weekend performance: Natalie Novosel, Notre Dame. South Florida went on the road and made life difficult for Notre Dame over the weekend, just as it did against Connecticut four weeks ago. And just like Connecticut, which turned to Tiffany Hayes for a big scoring day, Notre Dame turned to a senior to get it out of trouble. Actually, two of them, but Devereaux Peters (17 points, 18 rebounds) has been piling up double-doubles by the bundle in recent weeks. The less predictable boost, at least by recent standards, came from Novosel, whose 32 points nearly matched her total from the previous four games combined and came after a stretch of eight games in which she hit double figures just three times.

Novosel hit all 12 of her free throw attempts against the Bulls. One of the best at getting into seams around the basket and either finishing or drawing a foul (rivaled by few this side of teammate Skylar Diggins in that regard), she's averaging 4.6 free throw attempts per game this season. That isn't bad by almost any standard, but it is down from 5.9 attempts per game a season ago. She's scoring at almost the same overall rate as a season ago, and her team is winning at an even greater rate than it did last season, so Novosel and the Fighting Irish are still doing just fine. But the more whistles you hear, the more likely it is she's driving opponents to distraction.

Best team weekend performance: Princeton. What did Princeton do to merit this? Did you see any other teams clinching berths in the NCAA tournament over the weekend? Or doing so for the third season in a row, for that matter? The Tigers spent the weekend doing what they have done with impressively numbing regularity in Ivy League play in recent seasons, beating Harvard by 30 points and Dartmouth 37 points to wrap up another conference title. That they did it with three games still to play in a league that doesn't hold a tournament is just Princeton's style. A strong contender for the weekend's top individual honors, Niveen Rasheed put up 24 points, 16 rebounds, five steals and four assists against Dartmouth, but she split the vote with teammate Lauren Edwards, who scored 29 points in the same game, including 7-of-10 from the 3-point line.

Saving her best for last: Justine Raterman, Dayton. Raterman's career would not have been diminished had the final week of her final regular season gone differently, but the Flyers senior did what program greats are supposed to do. Raterman scored 25 points in 23 minutes in her final home game, a rout against Xavier, but the performance that mattered most came on the road Saturday against Duquesne. Behind her 32 points (on 12-of-21 shooting), eight rebounds and three steals, the Flyers came away with a 74-69 overtime win. While the No. 3 seed in the Atlantic 10 tournament was already a given, the win keeps a team hovering around 40 in the RPI in the mix for at-large NCAA tournament consideration.

Lending a helping hand: Casey Garrison, Missouri State. Injuries took a toll on several potential mid-major powers this season, most notably those that took the likes of Northern Iowa's Jacqui Kalin and Toledo's Naama Shafir off the court. But the small matter of an injury to her shooting hand isn't stopping Garrison from fueling Missouri State's run in the Missouri Valley Conference. As the Springfield News Leader recounts, Garrison (who already donned a mask this season to play through a broken nose) simply started shooting with her left hand when she sprained the thumb on her more familiar shooting hand. Her first game as a southpaw? She scored 20 points. A lefty off the court, shooting with that hand was apparently nonetheless a relatively new experience. With Garrison leading the way, Missouri State owns first place in the league and 10 victories in a row, including Sunday's 80-76 win at second-place Illinois State.

The week ahead (Monday-Friday)

Notre Dame at Connecticut (ESPN2, 9 p.m. ET Monday): Are we headed for a season in which neither Connecticut nor Tennessee win regular-season conference titles? Kentucky already locked up the SEC, and Notre Dame, which already clinched a share of the Big East title, can go for its first outright title with a win in Hartford. Of course, it might also be just the first of two games between the team in Hartford in the next eight days, if the conference tournament leaves them opposite each other in the final. Skylar Diggins and Natalie Novosel combined for 19 free throws when the Fighting Irish won an overtime thriller in South Bend earlier this season. In 15 games since, only one Connecticut opponent -- the entire team -- attempted as many as 19 free throws (Louisville's 21 attempts on Feb. 7).

Baylor at Texas A&M (ESPN2, 7 p.m. ET Monday): Forget the 12th man; Texas A&M could use a sixth player. In five meetings between these two since the beginning of last season, Texas A&M's bench scored a total of 21 points (17 from Karla Gilbert). That worked out on the fourth try a season ago, and it's not like the Aggies roll bench points against everyone else. But without Danielle Adams and Sydney Colson around, it's a tough way to go about stopping the nation's No. 1 team.

St. John's at Georgetown (Monday): There are still matters of Big East tournament seeding at stake, in addition to a chance for St. John's to post the program's best league record, but this one is big for momentum alone. St. John's didn't win a true road game until Jan. 11 at Syracuse, but wins at Rutgers and, as you might have heard, Connecticut beefed up that road profile. With Da'Shena Stevens coming off a 21-point effort over the weekend, it's worth noting no St. John's player has hit more than five field goals in a game against Georgetown since the 2007-08 season.

Appalachian State at Chattanooga (ESPN3, 7 p.m. ET Monday): It's a chance for Appalachian State to clinch the outright Southern Conference regular-season title, but only if it can beat third-place Chattanooga on the road. Appalachian State's Anna Freeman is one of those quintessential do-everything mid-major players, averaging 15.1 points, 6.3 rebounds, 3.7 steals, 2.7 assists and 2.1 blocks per game.

Florida Gulf Coast versus East Tennessee State (ESPN3, 12 p.m. ET Wednesday): Get Championship Week started by watching a team that has the potential to do something in the main draw -- if it can take care of business in the Atlantic Sun tournament. Florida Gulf Coast faces East Tennessee State in a quarterfinal. This game comes just four days after the same teams met to end the regular season, a 71-64 win for the Eagles that was one of just four wins by single-digit margins in an unbeaten conference season.

Kansas State at Iowa State (Wednesday): There isn't much doubt Kansas State will be in the NCAA tournament, but an overtime loss at Missouri raised more eyebrows when it comes to a team that already seemed to have an inflated RPI. For a team that has shown an ability to go on the road and win, notably at Marist, South Dakota State, Kansas, Oklahoma State, Texas and Texas Tech, adding a win in Ames, Iowa, would be a boost. On the other side, Iowa State needs a win badly, if not desperately, to shore up its own at-large r´esumé.

Oklahoma State at Kansas (Wednesday): Both teams need victories in the struggle for NCAA tournament at-large consideration. Kansas got a badly needed result with a win at Texas Tech last week, fueled by 20 points and eight assists from Angel Goodrich. But the Jayhawks are just 3-8 in their last 11 and playing without Carolyn Davis, do they need to sweep Oklahoma State and Oklahoma?

Louisiana Tech at Fresno State (Thursday): Such is life for a mid-major like Fresno State, that all of the work of a 12-game winning streak and clinching at least a share of the WAC regular-season title can be partly negated by one tough loss. But a 62-61 loss at mid-table San Jose State does damage Fresno State's NCAA tournament at-large potential. Before they can worry about that, or even the conference tournament, the Bulldogs face the best women's basketball rivalry in the WAC. Ki-Ki Moore scored 20 when Fresno State won 61-59 in Louisiana.

Monday headline: St. John's puts the exclamation point on a wild week

Doubt is a dangerous thing for an athlete. It's a great thing for fans of a sport.

And doubt is suddenly easier to find than discounted Valentine's chocolate.

The truth is we can't know if St. John's 57-56 victory at No. 2 Connecticut on Saturday, which ended the latter's 99-game home winning streak, will leave lingering doubts in the minds of any Huskies. They will say otherwise, regardless of what happens when they next take the court Tuesday at Pittsburgh or a week from now against Notre Dame.

We can't be sure if No. 4 Notre Dame questions its own fallibility after last week's loss at home against West Virginia. After a relatively easy win against Providence on Valentine's Day, the only game the Fighting Irish have played since the loss, Skylar Diggins talked about the importance of her team regaining its "swag and confidence."

Nobody outside of No. 1 Baylor's huddle knows if even a dominant defensive effort in the second half of Saturday's 56-51 win against Texas Tech carries more weight in the Lady Bears' minds than 35 percent shooting or a halftime deficit.

And on and on it goes for what for so long seemed like a race with four favorites, a handful of contenders and a whole mess of pretenders. Is No. 5 Duke damaged goods after losing in the closing seconds at Maryland, the Blue Devils' 16-game ACC winning streak ending in their first game since losing starter Richa Jackson to a season-ending injury? Can No. 8 Kentucky recover after losing its grip on first place in the SEC with a loss at cellar-dwelling Alabama?

What we do know after a nine-day span in which three top-five teams lost, two of them at home against unranked opponents, is that a lot of us don't know quite as much as we thought we did when the month began. If teams like Connecticut can lose at home against unranked St. John's, surely Maryland or Miami can't be counted out on a neutral court in March? There might even be room for a Tennessee surge or a Delaware run on the way to Denver.

For that matter, a St. John's team not deemed one of the best 25 in the nation on Valentine's Day has reason to believe it can get the last laugh by playing games beyond April Fool's Day.

If only because just about every team this side of Stanford was complicit (and the Cardinal had their own eyebrow-raising close calls), there's little reason to think anything other than the favorites are still the favorites. Baylor is still unbeaten and still has Brittney Griner. Connecticut is still limiting opponents to shooter percentages that would rate as barely passable batting averages. Notre Dame's Sklyar Diggins is an increasingly unsolvable puzzle for opponents. Stanford just clinched a conference title. And everyone else still has a question mark for every answer.

But long before St. John's guard Shenneika Smith hit a 3-pointer to silence Gampel Pavilion and give a perpetually plucky Big East overachiever something far sweeter than a moral victory, Geno Auriemma warned of what this season might bring. He was one of the few who never had a doubt that a stretch of days like we just witnessed was possible this season.

"I think history has proven over the past five, six, 10 years, maybe, that the unexpected has been happening," Auriemma said on the eve of the season. "Not necessarily the unexpected in that the unexpected team wins the national championship, but unexpected in terms of who is there at the end. And I think that is going to continue; I really do. I think there are probably teams out there … that are going to all of a sudden kind of put it all together in February and make a run. They're being viewed as kind of fringe players in this play [in the preseason], but I think that time has proven there are more of them making an impact at the end than there ever has been before."

Best weekend team performance: St. John's. You were expecting something else? Saturday's win stands alone as a signature moment in program history, but it hardly came out of nowhere. St. John's led Baylor at halftime when the teams met in December in Madison Square Garden, playing without an injured Da'Shena Stevens and losing Nadirah McKenith to injury during that game, and more recently won at home against Louisville and on the road against Rutgers. Healthy again, Stevens was a big part of both last week's victory against the Scarlet Knights and this week's win against the Huskies, while Smith hit the shot heard around Queens with the 3-pointer to put her team ahead for good in Storrs.

But McKenith's performance can't be overlooked, both on the day and the season. The junior fueled a team effort that produced 65 field goal attempts, the third-most against Connecticut this season, and just nine turnovers, the fewest against Connecticut this season. With seven assists and two turnovers, McKenith became the first player this season to have at least five more assists than turnovers against the Huskies. Before Saturday, St. John's seemed like a veteran team capable of overcoming its own liabilities and beating any opponent on a given night, save one of the members of the very top tier. It's tough to keep that caveat in place now.

Department of turning over a new leaf: Connecticut. The end of any streak on the verge of triple digits is a big deal, but the sky is not falling in Connecticut. Heck, Saturday's loss arguably wasn't the most momentous streak snapped in the state over the weekend, given Trinity College falling short of a squash championship for the first time in 14 years. What the basketball loss did reinforce is just how much Connecticut depends on its defense for offense -- and just how good the defense has been for much of this season. After the game, Auriemma lamented the sizable edge St. John's had in field goal attempts. Some of that had to do with 17 offensive rebounds from the Red Storm, who still have fewer rebounds on the season than their opponents, but it also goes back to ball possession. In addition to limiting opponents to 30.8 field goal shooting, the Huskies are forcing 20.6 turnovers per game this season, more than at any time during the Maya Moore era. Without the scoring opportunities those turnovers provide, Connecticut is left to depend on a half-court offense that, for all the potential of its individual parts, is not as great a collective asset as the team's defense.

Best weekend individual performance: Brittany Hrynko, DePaul. It isn't easy to get attention in the Big East these days without beating Note Dame or Connecticut, but No. 20 DePaul continued its impressive run by ending West Virginia's run of three consecutive wins against ranked teams behind 21 points from Hrynko. The Blue Demons could have crumbled after losing All-American Keisha Hampton to a season-ending injury early in the Big East season. That they remain in the Top 25 and the thick of the Big East race has a lot do with Anna Martin (17.5 points per game in Big East games) and Katherine Harry (10 points and 10.5 rebounds in Big East games). But those two needed help on the road against a Mountaineers team that held Louisville, Notre Dame and Rutgers to 50, 63 and 50 points, respectively, in their three most recent games. Enter Hrynko, a freshman guard, who hit 7-of-14 shots, including 4 of 8 from the 3-point line, and added six assists and four steals in a 77-63 win.

Best weekend individual play: Alyssa Thomas, Maryland. With 4.1 seconds left and Maryland leading Duke by two points in Sunday's ACC showdown, the Terrapins star had Blue Devils star Elizabeth Williams' left arm in her face as the two fought for position on the right block. That stalemate down low forced Duke's Chelsea Gray, after a drive to the baseline on that side of the court, to throw the ball back out to Shay Selby at the top of the key. When Selby released a pass to Haley Peters in the left corner with 2.9 seconds left, no Maryland player was even on the same side of the court as Peters. But by the time Peters released a jumper with 1.3 seconds left, an airborne Thomas was close enough to deflect the shot out of bounds for a block as time expired. Two stops on opposite sides of the court in the span of three seconds at the end of the game. That's how a star who suffered through a 2-for-11 shooting day with five turnovers still plays like an All-American.

Auditioning for a new role: Allison Vernerey, Duke. The bad news for Duke in its first game without Jackson, its fourth-leading rebounder and second-leading offensive rebounder, was Maryland winning the battle of the boards by a 45-36 margin. That included nine offensive rebounds from Tianna Hawkins, who scored the winner on a second-chance opportunity, and 30 total rebounds combined from Hawkins, Thomas and Lynetta Kizer. The good is, well, the Blue Devils are done with the Terrapins for the regular season.

But the rebounding numbers aside, and coach Joanne P. McCallie unsurprisingly singled that out as the difference in the game, Duke got good effort from Vernerey in an expanded role. Playing a season-high 32 minutes, she finished with four offensive rebounds and three defensive rebounds and did her part for a defense that was stingy on Maryland's first looks. There's no getting around how big a blow Jackson's injury is to Duke's chances, but Sunday's game might not be quite as much of an indication of impending calamity as the numbers suggest.

Beyond the big six conferences: Shey Peddy, Temple. There might not be a team suffering through a longer season than Rhode Island, which fell to 1-26 after Sunday's 84-41 loss against Temple, but even the Rams don't give up many lines like that put forth by Temple guard Peddy. Keeping her team a game behind unbeaten St. Bonaventure in the Atlantic 10 race, Peddy took the difficult route to a double-double with 22 points and 10 steals in 29 minutes. After a modest start to the season, Peddy is averaging 18.2 points, 5.0 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 3.1 steals per game in conference play.

The week ahead (Monday-Friday)

Notre Dame at Louisville (ESPN/ESPN3, 2 p.m. ET Monday): Facing games this week against Notre Dame and DePaul, Louisville almost put itself in a world of hurt before rallying for an overtime win at Pittsburgh on Valentine's Day. No team held Notre Dame to fewer points in the postseason last season than Louisville, which dropped a 63-53 decision in the Big East tournament. Skylar Diggins and Natalie Novosel combined to shoot 5 of 15 from the floor with 11 turnovers that day.

Ohio State at Penn State (ESPN2/ESPN3, 7 p.m. ET Monday): The first of two games this week in BCS conferences with first place on the line. For all their history, the Lady Lions are looking to clinch a share of their first Big Ten title since 2004, a drought the Buckeyes have done their fair share to prolong. Already accurate from long range, Maggie Lucas is shooting 56 percent (14 of 25) from the 3-point line in her past five games.

Vanderbilt at Kentucky (ESPN2/ESPN3, 9 p.m. ET Monday): The Wildcats look to snap a three-game losing streak, while the Commodores look to prolong a stretch in which they've won six of seven. Vanderbilt does have two road wins in that run, at Auburn and at Mississippi State, but a win at Tennessee-Martin is its lone road win against a team with a winning conference record. The good news, or bad news, is it gets another shot if Monday doesn't work out, visiting LSU on Thursday.

Texas A&M at Oklahoma (Tuesday): A share of second place is on the line in Norman. The Sooners committed at least 20 turnovers in seven of their first 13 games, a stretch that concluded with 23 turnovers in a 75-58 loss at Texas A&M. They've turned it over 20 times just twice in 13 games since as they look to end a six-game losing streak against the defending national champions.

Nebraska at Michigan State (Thursday): Throw in Purdue visiting Michigan the same night and there will be a lot of jockeying for position as the four teams that begin the week tied for third in the Big Ten look to shore up one of the top four spots and a bye in the first round of the conference tournament. The Cornhuskers close at home against Ohio State and could use another road win here to erase the sting of a three-game losing streak that ended Sunday.

Wichita State at Illinois State (Thursday): The Shockers are tied for first (with Missouri State) in the Missouri Valley and lead the conference in field goal offense and defense, but they face a tough test at third-place Illinois State here. The Redbirds won when these teams met in Wichita, shooting 48 percent against that otherwise-stingy defense.

Miami at Duke (Friday): This is other game for first place this week, and it'll likely be for the regular-season title (although while Miami closes at home against Boston College, Duke still has to visit North Carolina in its final game). Miami got the road win it needed at Maryland last week, but adding a victory in Durham would seem likely to lock up a No. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament. After a huge game earlier in the week against NC State, Pepper Wilson had four fouls in 15 minutes for Miami against Florida State on Sunday. The Hurricanes could use her size against the Blue Devils. Riquna Williams is just 15 of 61 from the floor in three career games against Duke.

1. Delaware (22-1 overall, 13-0 Colonial Athletic Association)

That Delaware had at least a little something going for it even before Elena Delle Donne showed up was clear when coach Tina Martin picked up career victory No. 300, all at Delaware, in Sunday's win at Georgia State. And even while Delle Donne was busy collecting 31 points, 8 rebounds, 2 blocks and 2 steals in just 25 minutes in Sunday's game, there were hints of why this is a team with the right supporting cast for a once-in-a-lifetime star. Lauren Carra scored 19 points, including 3-of-6 shooting from the 3-point line, Danielle Parker totaled 11 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists and 6 steals, Trumae Lucas finished with 9 assists and 1 turnover and the whole cast limited Georgia State to 36 percent shooting and forced 25 turnovers. Georgia State isn't a good team, but with Delaware facing challenging road games this weekend against teams that do fit that label, Hofstra and Drexel, the Blue Hens used the warm-up game to offer a nice reminder of why there's more than one reason to like them.

2. St. Bonaventure (24-2 overall, 11-0 Atlantic 10)

The Bonnies remain perfect in 2012, and the math starts to look pretty simple to complete a perfect conference season and claim the No. 1 seed in the Atlantic 10 tournament. All that remains for St. Bonaventure is home games against Xavier and Fordham and a road trip to Rhode Island, teams with a combined 5-25 A-10 record at the moment. Along with an earlier win at Temple, Saturday's 56-55 win at Dayton might have been the most impressive of the conference slate (although those nonconference road wins at West Virginia and St. John's also gained some sheen after those teams went to Notre Dame and Rutgers, respectively, and won Sunday). Against Dayton, the Bonnies got just three points from Jessica Jenkins, but showed they have other go-to options (17 points, 8 rebounds by Megan Van Tatenhove) and plenty of depth (13 points off the bench from CeCe Dixon).

3. Green Bay (21-1 overall, 11-1 Horizon League)

Losing one regular-season game every 14 months ought to buy a team leeway, but Green Bay falls from the top spot after a 70-58 home loss against Detroit. Playing without injured starter Sarah Eichler, one of its best one-on-one defenders, Green Bay saw several streaks come to an end against Detroit, including a 40-game regular-season winning streak, 27-game home winning streak and 36-game conference winning streak. So how did the Phoenix respond two days later? How about what might be the line of the year in college basketball from should-be-All-American Julie Wojta: 30 points, 20 rebounds, 8 steals, 5 assists and 4 blocks in a 64-59 win against Wright State, the league's third-best team.

4. Florida Gulf Coast (23-2 overall, 15-0 Atlantic Sun)

Since a five-point loss against NC State in Hawaii on Dec. 28, Florida Gulf Coast has won 15 in a row, 12 of those games by double digits. That probably says something about both the Eagles and the Atlantic Sun, but if the past week in women's college basketball proved anything, it's that winning isn't ever a given. Florida Gulf Coast hit just two 3-pointers in Saturday's win against Belmont, missing 17 shots from the arc, but such shooting woes for the nation's most prolific 3-point shooting team don't matter much when you limit the league's third-place team to 34 points and 31 percent shooting.

5. BYU (22-4 overall, 10-2 West Coast Conference)

BYU scored 46 points in the second half of its conference showdown against Gonzaga. It could have skipped the first half. A 70-40 victory for the Cougars on Feb. 9 goes down as one of the more eyebrow-raising scores of the season, mid-major or otherwise, even if the Bulldogs still hold a half-game lead in the standings (with a game remaining against BYU on Feb. 25 in Spokane). BYU is as balanced as any team in the nation when it comes to finishing; four players have attempted between 217 and 236 field goals. But there's one hand distributing most of the makes. Haley Steed has double-digit assists in back-to-back games and is closing on the top five nationally in assists per game.

6. Princeton (17-4 overall, 7-0 Ivy League)

Expect the Tigers to keep saying all the right things about the Ivy League, and Friday-Saturday back-to-backs aren't easy regardless of the opponent, but there isn't much left to challenge this team until the postseason. Princeton rolled through the often-tricky Dartmouth-Harvard road trip without a worry over the weekend, winning by 31 and 28 points, respectively. It's not hurting them at the moment, so perhaps it isn't a problem, but it's interesting that a team that was so strong in assist-to-turnover ratio in recent seasons is currently working with a mediocre 0.80 ratio.

7. Fresno State (20-4 overall, 8-0 WAC)

Their opponents shoot a better percentage from the floor than they do. Their opponents get more rebounds than they do. So how do the Bulldogs keep rolling along? The winners of nine in a row, including five road games in the past three and a half weeks, the Bulldogs keep getting more opportunities than the teams they play and make those opportunities count for more. Not since the fifth game of the season has an opponent had fewer turnovers than Fresno State, which ranks in the top 10 nationally in turnover margin. Throw in the chance to hit 18 of 29 shots from the 3-point line, as Fresno State did against Nevada on Saturday, and it's easy to explain this ranking.

8. Middle Tennessee (21-5 overall, 13-0 Sun Belt)

The wins haven't come easy, with three of Middle Tennessee's four February victories by single digits, including a 67-64 escape against Western Kentucky, but they have come. With just two reserves averaging more than seven minutes a game, the Blue Raiders need at least one of their familiar faces to step up at all times. Icelyn Elie has done so of late. The team's third-leading scorer topped 20 points in three of the past four games. The Blue Raiders can lock up the best record in the Sun Belt with a win Saturday against Florida Atlantic (ESPN3, 4 p.m. ET).

9. Gonzaga (22-4 overall, 10-2 West Coast Conference)

With a 1-2 record against BYU and Saint Mary's, including that 30-point rout at the hands of the Cougars, Gonzaga is not on firm ground here, owing its standing in large part to neutral-site victories against Georgia and Dayton in December. The good news is the remaining three regular-season games are all at home, including the Feb. 25 tilt with BYU. Also on the positive side of the ledger, Gonzaga is running a positive assist-to-turnover ratio at the moment, with 450 assists against 400 turnovers. Why is that worth noting for a team that ranked among the national leaders last season with 245 more assists than turnovers? Because take away Courtney Vandersloot, and last season's team actually finished with a negative assist-to-turnover ratio.

10. Temple (16-8 overall, 9-1 Atlantic 10)

Temple returns on the strength of nine consecutive wins in the Atlantic 10, keeping the Owls at least nominally in the race for the top seed in the Atlantic 10 tournament, despite St. Bonaventure's torrid pace. Other than a loss at Northern Illinois, there aren't any head-scratchers on the Temple résumé, with only Villanova an NCAA tournament question mark among the seven other teams to beat Tonya Cardoza's team. Conference play has been a boon to all involved, but Victoria Macaulay more than most. The 6-foot-4 junior center is averaging 10.5 points, 8.5 rebounds and 2.2 blocks per game in Atlantic 10 games.

Next five: South Dakota State, UTEP, Marist, San Diego State, Central Arkansas

Monday morning headline: Kentucky leaves the door open.

The last time Kentucky was 21-3, which also happens to be the only time prior to this season that Kentucky was 21-3, Madonna had yet to record a No. 1 hit and Eli Manning was 2 years old.

That was the 1982-83 season, and the nearly three decades between then and now represent one more reason a 61-51 loss at LSU on Sunday is hardly cause for panic.

Good teams lose games, particularly in places like Baton Rouge. That said, you take the good with the bad when you apply for membership in college basketball's elite. And in at least cracking open the door it could have slammed shut on the rest of the SEC, Kentucky showed some familiar, if far from crippling, vulnerabilities on the road.

LSU turned over the ball 26 times against Kentucky's pressure, three fewer turnovers than teams average this season against the Wildcats but hardly a model of ball control. The same was true of Middle Tennessee, which turned over the ball 28 times in a 70-58 win against Kentucky in late December. Even Notre Dame gave away the ball 22 times in beating the Wildcats, who never relent in running wave after wave of pressure at foes.

So what's the catch? In addition to all those turnovers forced, and the total is 701 and counting through 24 games, Kentucky has allowed opponents to record just 218 assists. But Notre Dame, Middle Tennessee and LSU, the three teams to come away with wins, accounted for 48 of those assists, nearly one out of every four against Kentucky this season. The Lady Tigers fed the turnover machine, allowing the Wildcats to score 26 of their 51 points off them, but they also recorded assists on 11 of 17 field goals, shot 57 percent from the field and went to the line 31 times. Kentucky is going to get its turnovers more often than not, but it seems to be the other possessions, the ones that end in bad shots and flustered sets, where opponents give away the game. Credit Adrienne Webb and the rest of the Lady Tigers for not joining that list on this day in Baton Rouge.

Weekend's best team performance: UCLA. Leading Washington State by just three points with a little more than 11 minutes remaining in Saturday's Pac-12 game, UCLA used a 25-4 run to blow the game wide open with almost four minutes still remaining on the clock.

Yet much as Bruins coach Cori Close might have wished to pull her key players for those final minutes of the blowout, for reasons of recuperation as much as mercy, she had no such options.

At least the first-year coach didn't have to waste much time learning names.

In the race for second in the Pac-12, which is what the conference boils down to with Stanford around, UCLA remains in the thick of things at 7-4, one game behind California in advance of Thursday's trip to Berkeley. The remaining schedule isn't particularly friendly to UCLA, beginning with the back end of the Bay Area trip and a game at Stanford, but even the opportunity to write their own ending is a major achievement for a team with essentially six players.

Three players -- starters Jasmine Dixon and Atonye Nyingifa and reserve Moriah Faulk -- are out for the season with injuries, while two top recruits never made it to Westwood after former coach Nikki Caldwell left for LSU. The roster carnage left the Bruins at 8-10 overall and 3-4 in the league following a loss against Oregon on Jan. 21.

But the four-game winning streak that was extended Saturday has a lot to do with six players doing all they can and one player, in particular, filling the role of at least two. Junior Markel Walker finished with a triple-double against the Cougars: 14 points, 15 rebounds and 10 assists. In the four wins, she averaged 17 points, 12.3 rebounds and 5.5 assists.

Weekend's best individual performance: Chelsea Poppens, Iowa State. There's a good story brewing at Iowa State, one that will be a great story when coach Bill Fennelly is able to tell it at full volume. With Fennelly undergoing treatment for a cancerous lesion on his vocal cords, Iowa State dropped its first five conference games (a rugged opening stretch with road games at Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas and no relief at home against Baylor and Texas A&M).

Well, the Cyclones have won four of five since that opening stretch, including a 71-56 victory against Texas on Saturday. Poppens totaled 27 points and 10 rebounds in just 24 minutes against the Longhorns, hitting 9-of-11 shots from the floor. The junior forward topped 20 points three times in the past five games.

Michigan's best import: Porsché Poole, Michigan State. A kid from Ohio who shares a spelling, if not a pronunciation with the most ostentatious of foreign import automobiles? It doesn't seem like a perfect match, but Poole is the heart of Michigan State's resurgence. A week after rescuing the Spartans from a potential fifth consecutive defeat with 32 points, six rebounds and six assists in a win against Penn State, she came up with 23 points, nine rebounds and five assists in a 65-63 victory against Michigan. In what had been essentially a one-possession game for the entire second half, Poole cut a four-point deficit in half with 2:14 to play, assisted on Lykendra Johnson's tying basket with 53 seconds remaining and hit the winner with 3.9 seconds to play.

Best defense on campus: Davidson. The Wildcats are 10-2 in the Southern Conference and in the thick of the title race with Appalachian State and Chattanooga. They're also second in the conference in field goal defense, so Davidson knows its way around a stop or two. But the first-half line from Saturday's game against Charleston still stands out: Davidson 24, Charleston 4. The Wildcats won the game 46-23, holding Charleston to 10 percent shooting. For the record, Davidson's football team gave up more than 23 points six times this season.

Part of the club: UTEP. Bowling Green, Delaware, Green Bay, Miami, Stanford and UTEP all reached 20 wins over the weekend (Florida Gulf Coast and Gonzaga got there Thursday). The last of those might be the one flying most under the radar. UTEP doesn't have the schedule strength of some of its mid-major counterparts, but with a 20-2 record, two 10-game winning streaks and a perfect 9-0 record in Conference USA, it is doing something right. For one thing, the Miners are ensuring opponents don't do much right. UTEP is limiting teams to 32.5 percent shooting and forcing 18.7 turnovers per game.

The (busy, busy) week ahead

Maryland at Georgia Tech (Monday): After a loss against Virginia Tech on Jan. 26, Maryland coach Brenda Frese said her team had an open discussion as to which direction it wanted to go from there. Maryland blitzed Boston College in its only game since that loss, but Monday's game against a Georgia Tech team half a game ahead in the ACC standings will reveal more about the answer. It didn't have Alyssa Thomas in the game against the Virginia Tech, but she was back against Boston College and had 24 points and 11 rebounds in an earlier win against Georgia Tech.

North Carolina at Duke (ESPN2/ESPN3, 7 p.m. ET Monday): With road games at Duke on Monday and at Miami on Wednesday, North Carolina could make a run at the story of the regular season or drop completely out of the ACC discussion before Valentine's Day and risk playing itself onto the NCAA tournament bubble against a backloaded schedule. No doubt Elizabeth Williams will figure prominently in any success for the Blue Devils, but keep an eye on Allison Vernerey. No Duke player has a better career scoring average against the Tar Heels than Vernerey (9.4 points per game in five games).

Oklahoma at Baylor (Monday): Things didn't go so well for the Sooners in the first game in Norman, and the return match in Waco isn't likely going to be any better if Aaryn Ellenberg, Whitney Hand and Morgan Hook shoot 2-of-16 from the 3-point line again. Then again, a lot of teams keep digging deeper when they find themselves in an early hole against the nation's top-ranked team. Baylor was No. 12 in the nation in 3-point field goal defense entering the weekend, but no team ranked in the top 30 in that statistic had faced more 3-point attempts.

Oral Roberts at South Dakota State (Monday): There are a lot of high-profile games on Monday's schedule, but there's a good one slightly off the radar in Brookings, S.D. The home team has a two-game lead on Oral Roberts in the Summit League standings, but South Dakota State's lone conference setback came in a 71-65 loss at Oral Roberts. In fact, the Jackrabbits have dropped five regular-season games in a row against Kevi Luper and the Golden Eagles, dating back to the 2009-10 season.

American at Lehigh (Wednesday): Seeding is everything in one-bid leagues without a neutral site for the conference tournament. American (8-0) can all but wrap up the regular-season title and No. 1 seed in the Patriot if it gets a win on the road against second-place Lehigh (6-2). After some close calls early, including a 55-49 home victory against Lehigh, American won each of its past three conference games by at least 23 points.

Tennessee at Vanderbilt (Thursday): Kentucky's loss against LSU opened a door to the SEC title that seemed to close when Tennessee dropped a stunner at home against South Carolina midweek. The Lady Vols are strong overall against the 3-pointer (giving up shots at just a 25.8 percent clip), but both Notre Dame's Skylar Diggins (5 of 7) and South Carolina's Markeshia Garant (7 of 12) punished them recently. It was a high point in an otherwise decisive loss for Vanderbilt, but will Christina Foggie (5 of 12) be able to replicate her shooting from the team's first meeting?

Gonzaga at BYU (Thursday): Given Stanford's domination in the Pac-12, this might be the best conference game west of the Continental Divide this season. Or at least one half of the best home-and-home series. BYU bounced back from a surprise loss at Pepperdine on Feb. 2 to rout Saint Mary's on Saturday. That helped create a little breathing room between Gonzaga (10-1), BYU (9-2) and the rest of the conference. The Cougars get their next four games at home before a trip to Gonzaga to wrap up the regular season.

Fairfield at Marist (Friday): It likely won't be the case by the end of the night Monday, but Marist opens the week in the unfamiliar territory of second place in the MAAC, half a game behind Fairfield in advance of Friday's tilt (Marist could pull into a tie with a win when it hosts Saint Peter's on Monday). The Red Foxes dropped a 48-44 decision at Manhattan on Saturday, ending a 34-game regular-season conference winning streak.