Boilermakers and Hoyas both win, big.
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Detroit and DePaul tied, in 1st OT. Villanova up slightly over La Salle, early.
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Well, DePaul tried to give this game away, not only by going under .300 from beyond the arc but by hitting .500 from the line - including 2 misses with 16 ticks left to ice it. But they hold on for a 68-66 victory in OT. Villanova up double-digits with 4 minutes left in 1st, but they're not yet playing like a # 4 team against La Salle.
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'Nova with an 8-point lead at the half, which is hardly comfortable. The Running Rebels have an early lead over Pitino's Cardinals.
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With just under 6 minutes in the half, UNLV up 30-22 over Louisville. The Cards are shooting like they've had too much pre-game Jack, Jack.
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As any fool could foresee - which means I qualify - there was a lot of movement in the Top 25 rankings due to all those "upsets" over the last few days. Oklahoma's out, Notre Dame's out, Illinois' out, Minnesota's out, Michigan's out, and others moved up or down or in. Meaningful games Saturday include:

Bradley 72 - Illinois 68 = The Illini go from # 20 to out.
# 9 Michigan State 106 - U.Mass 68 = This spanking didn't keep the Spartans from dropping from # 2, badly.
# 3 Villanova 81 - La Salle 63 = Nice Philly win, but beyond that so what?
# 24 UNLV 76 = # 20 Louisville 71 = Pitino's boys drop four spots, and Rebels run into ranks.

On Sunday:

# 2 Texas 77 - Rice 59 = Another "meh" win for the 'Horns.
# 7 West Virginia 84 - # 25 Portland 66 = Despite this whipping, Portland gets ranked. Enjoy it - it won't last long.
# 10 UNC 80 - Nevada 73 = The Heels shake of pesky Wolf Pack late to get Roy his 600th.
# 12 Washington 63 - Montana 59 = And this is the 12th-best team in the nation? Pleeze.
Alabama 68 - Michigan 66 = This loss alone didn't knock those Logans from # 15 to out, but it didn't help.
# 18 Clemson 70 - # 23 Butler 69 = Had Butler pulled this out, they would not have dropped as far from 12th.
# 19 Texas A&M 66 - Minnesota 65 = A good weekend for the Aggies, yet maybe not that good.

Bottom line: Although rankings don't mean jack yet, the previous 5 days makes it seem the Big Ten may be in for a loooooong season. Maybe not, but they ain't shown much so far.

Tonight's pretty light on top-notch action, with only:

# 5 Kentucky vs. N.C. Asheville
# 10 Syracuse vs. Colgate
# 16 Georgetown vs. Mount St. Mary's

Yawn.
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You know, that Virginia/Penn State game tonight may be fun to watch. There's no "national" implications, but it should be a decent matchup.
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As everyone expected, those games with ranked teams last night were no contest, with the smallest of the 3 margins being 21 points. And as I expected, that Penn State/Virginia game was the one worth watching, with the Nittany Lions topping the Cavs 69-66. Tonight's interesting game out of the Top 25 is Maryland visiting Assembly Hall to take on the Indiana Hoosiers. The Terps have a better team, but it's not easy to win in Bloomington - though of late it's not been easy for the Hoosiers to win, period. Yet there are also a few good games scheduled within the ranked:

# 4 Purdue vs Wake Forest = This too could be a good one.
# 13 Florida vs. Florida A&M = Will the Gators come back to earth? Likely not this evening.
# 22 Cincinnati vs. Texas Southern = Well, the Bearcats care. Anybody else?

And the big one, the rematch of last year's championship:

# 9 Michigan State vs. # 10 UNC = Don't expect the Heels to blow the Spartans off the court in this one. They may win it, if they play well, but any blowout would more likely be them getting blown off their own court.

Enjoy - I won't know if I shall, until about midnight anyway.
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I must admit, I did not expect my # 10 Tar Heels to do again pretty much what they did to the # 9 Spartans last season, yet they ran them off the court once more in the first half, 50-34, then held on while Michigan State came back for the 89-82 victory. Looking at the stats, it's a bit of a shock that the Spartans even made it that close, seeing as how they went 2-20 from beyond the arc, and only 7-42 from outside the paint. Well, I'll take it, regardless. Other scores from the evening's Big Ten/ACC challenge:

# 4 Purdue 69 - Wake Forest 68
Maryland 80 - Indiana 68 = I thought this might be closer, but looks like the Hoosiers are still in slide mode.
Virginia Tech 70 - Iowa 64 = A decent game.
Northwestern 65 - N.C. State 53 = An indecent one, for Sidney's sad-sack Pack.

Two other games worth watching last night were:

Temple 76 - Western Michigan 70
Evansville 91 - Tennessee Tech 90 in 2OT = Wanna bet there are some sore throats croaking in Cookeville today?

There are plenty of games involving ranked team tonight, and not just the balance of the Big Ten/ACC matchups:

# 1 Kansas vs. Alcorn State = OK . . . and?
# 3 Villanova vs. Drexel = Ditto.
# 6 Duke vs. Wisconsin = Now THIS could be interesting. Can Dook move that bulk outta the paint?
# 11 Tennessee vs. E. Tennessee State
# 14 U. Conn vs. Boston U.
# 15 Ohio State vs. Florida State = And this could be a good game too.
# 17 Gonzaga vs. Washington State
# 18 Clemson vs. Illinois = This too may be a good 'un.
# 19 Texas A&M vs. Prairie View A&M = This too will be a stinker.
# 20 Louisville vs. Stetson = Sheesh.
# 23 Butler vs. Ball State = Ehhh.
# 24 UNLV vs. Arizona = This one's in Tucson - look for the Rebels to run outta runs.
# 25 Portland vs. Portland State = Sounds like it will be played in cement, don't it?

Some other potential good games this evening, out of the ranked, include:

Arkansas vs. Oklahoma
Old Dominion vs. Richmond = Two quality mid-majors here.
Minnesota vs. Miami = More Big Ten/ACC action.
Boston College vs. Michigan = Ditto.

And believe it or not:

Georgia Tech vs. Siena = The Saints have a nice program, and their two losses were on the road to Temple (by 4) and St. John's (by 9). Meanwhile, The Wreck hasn't played much of anybody yet, and the one they did was a loss to Dayton - a close one, also by 4 - yet their wins haven't been awe-inspiring.

Enjoy the games.
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Not all the big games last night were part of the Big Ten/ACC challenge, but let's get that out of the way first. Speaking of firsts, the Big Ten won the challenge 6 games to 5 for the first time in its 11-year run. Congratulations to the Big Ten for this, and it just shows to go ya what can happen if you just hang in there and try - unlike the chicken$#!+ Big Mouth Conference, who backed out of a similar challenge against the ACC years ago because they were tired of getting their butts kicked. Of course, the ACC still holds a 67-41 overall lead, but if the Big Ten can keep repeating this year's success they can catch the ACC - in about 2026. However, it does help make up for the crappy week before this one for the Big Ten boys.

Scores from these games, and others that weren't stompings:

Wisconsin 73 - # 6 Duke 69 = I could smell this one coming.
# 15 Ohio State 77 - # 21 Florida State 64
Illinois 76 - # 18 Clemson 74 = I could smell this too; Clemson normally chokes.
Miami 63 - Minnesota 58
Boston College 62 - Michigan 58 = Remember when the Wolverines were ranked?

Other scores among the ranked:

# 17 Gonzaga 74 - Washington State 69
# 23 Butler 59 - Ball State 38 = OK, only 59 points scored, for a team looking for a top 10 rank just 2 weeks ago? Sheesh.
# 24 UNLV 74 - Arizona 72 in 2 OT = I figured the 'Cats could win this one, and they almost did.
Portland State 86 - # 25 Portland 82 = As I predicted (somewhere above), hello and goodbye to Portland's ranking.

But don't think all the hoops action is just amongst the ranked teams. You should check out the scores of other matchups last night, such as: Holy Cross/Brown; Cornell/Bucknell; Sacramento St./UC Irvine; Yale/Hartford; Northern Iowa/Iowa St.; LA Tech/La Monroe; Richmond/ODU; UAB/Middle Tenn. St.; and VCU/Rhode Island. All of these were fun fun fun.

Not much action tonight:

# 2 Texas vs. USC = Sounds like a BCS game, don't it?
# 12 Washington vs. Texas Tech = Washington is carrying the burden for the entire Pac-10 at the moment. Will it be too much?

Have fun.
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Last night # 2 Texas held Southern Cal to 30% shooting, and it's a good thing for them they had good D, for their O still stinks. There's no shame in winning 69-50, but there's little glory either - especially when you're ranked so high. And apparently it was too heavy a burden for # 12 Washington, hauling the whole Pac-10 around on its shoulders, as they lost to Texas Tech 99-92 in OT. Interesting factoid: Tech scored 30 points in the second half, yet managed 19 in the extra 5 minutes. Guess the Huskies could have used a bit of Longhord D themselves.

Again, there were a number of good games scattered all over the country yesterday: Furman/App.State; Baylor/Ariz.State; CSU Northridge/Idaho; Belmont/Kennseaw St. (OT); Murray St./Eastern Kentucky; High Point/Presbyterian; Eastern Ill./Tenn.St (3OT); and Radford/Winthrop (OT). There is likely a good game tonight near you, wherever you are out there, so why don't you get off yer dead @$$ and catch one?

Speaking of good games tonight, the only one I foresee is Manhattan/Niagara, but there may be others hiding in the weeds. However, it's likely none of them will involve ranked teams, since all we have are:

# 9 Michigan State vs. Wofford
# 13 Florida vs. Jacksonville
# 19 Texas A&M vs. Akron

Now Saturday is an entirely different matter, yet I'll only mention the two early games for now. At noon # 15 Ohio State takes on Eastern Michigan, which could be a decent game for a while anyway, and could even be another loss for the Buckeyes if they try to phone it in. But the big game at 12:30 involves the two winningest programs in the nation, when # 5 Kentucky (1995 Ws) hosts # 10 North Carolina (1991 Ws) in what should be a war between two schools that don't like each other one damn bit. We'll keep an eye on this starting early tomorrow afternoon, and will have a final before we lock this up until Monday.

Enjoy, fellas - I hope I shall too, and with a Tar Heel victory I will.
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Sorry to say, that Manhattan/Niagara game did not live up to my expectations, yet there were a dozen great contests outside of the ranks last night. As for the ranked teams, they all won - however, none were very impressive:

# 9 Michigan State 72 - Wofford 60 = Yeah, so?
# 13 Florida State 85 - Jacksonville 67 = Ditto.
# 19 Texas A&M 74 - Akron 62 = Dit-two.

Already today Ohio State is beating Eastern Michigan like a toy drum on Christmas morning, while Kentucky/UNC is about to tip off. Again, aside from a slew of good matchups outside the rankings, the rest of today's schedule include:

# 4 Purdue vs. Buffalo = Yawn.
# 6 Duke vs. St. John's = Maybe we'll see if the Redman are relevant again today.
# 8 Syracuse vs. Maine = Should not be a contest.
# 16 Georgetown vs. American = Will not be a contest.
# 17 Gonzaga vs. Wake Forest = Will be one.
# 20 Louisville vs. Charlotte = Will likely be one too.
# 23 Butler vs. Valparaiso = Has some potential, but I wouldn't bet the farm.

Sunday's lineup includes these games:

# 1 Kansas vs. UCLA = I bet the Jayhawks thought this would be a test when they scheduled it. It won't.
# 3 Villanova vs. Maryland = Now THIS will be a test, for both teams.
# 12 Washington vs. CSU Northridge = Now this won't.
# 14 U.Conn vs. Harvard = If they matched graduation rates, the Crimson wins in a cakewalk.
# 18 Clemson vs. South Carolina = An instate rivalry that will be a war.
# 21 Florida State vs. Florida International = And one that will not be one.
# 25 Portland vs. Idaho = Portland could lose its second in a row, but even if they win by 100 points you won't see them ranked come Monday.

Enjoy, my brothers.
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Great Thread Thomas.
Thanks for all the work.

ROCK, CHALK, JAYHAWK..... KU

http://graphics.fansonly.com/schools...halk-chant.mp3
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Thank you, Jeff - I love my hoops. I just wish some other folks would jump in with their :-) too.
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Ohio State has already won their game, and it's only halftime. The score is 62-25 at the break. Kentucky is kicking my Heels butts midway through the first half, to the point where it's getting shameful. Carolina better either wake up or go home.
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UK leads UNC by 15 at the half. Quite a hill to climb, and if Roy doesn't convince them to make some adjustments the Heels won't top it.
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Heels cutting into lead with 15 minutes left, but need to make some stops.
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If UNC wasn't missing layups and open shots, they'd have the freakin' lead. There's still time, but that time is now.
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Heels have cut it to 6 with 5 1/2 left, and are already in the bonus. There's still a chance.
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TV timeout with 3:34 left. Heels down three, with the ball.
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