Figured I’d let this loose, as its recently was released by the NCAA. Whatever, it is what your eyes say it is, but this one really stinks if you ask me.

Set to broadcast nationally…

»Ohio State @ Maryland; 7 ET (ESPNU).

»Washington State @ Baylor; 9 ET (ESPNU).

 A slender slate of games on Thursday, so we’ll delve into some more obscure stuff after biting into the three ranked contests.

–No. 17 Oregon 80, No. 25 Kansas State 77 (OT). A bonehead play by Kansas State stymied what could’ve been a potential 3-point attempt and allowed the Wildcats to take it into a second overtime. But Beastly and Co. were not enough (Oregon can really rebound the ball and move quickly in the half court) and Kansas State loses again. I still think they are a Top 25 team, but they won’t be for much longer now.

–No. 19 Gonzaga 70, St. Joseph’s 65 (OT). An overtime win for the Bulldogs, and a pretty impressive output by St. Joe’s. The Hawks looked dead at home, but rallied from a large deficit (it was a 29-12 Gonzaga lead at its worst point) to almost get a huge win at home. Maybe St. Joe’s can put together a worthwhile season and turn some heads this year.

–No. 22 Southern California 66, Oklahoma 55. The Sooners made it an ugly game for awhile, but USC pulled away as the second half moved on. I love Davon Jefferson’s game and think he will be the most irreplaceable player on this team in a very short amount of time.

Notable:

–George Mason 85, Drexel 38. GMU is 6-1 and poised to finish with 25 wins this season. Also, you know I love the double-up.

–Hampton 64, Virginia Commonwealth 55. Not a good loss for VCU, who is now sitting at 3-3 and can ill afford any more losses if they want any hopes of garnering an at-large berth in March.

–Charlotte 63, Wake Forest 59.  This is certainly considered an upset—this is Wake’s first loss of the season—but the player’s will certainly not blame it on the forced coaching change from the off-season. Hopefully the Demon Deacons can stay focused and bounce back from this one.

I wasn’t going to bring up everyone piling on Bobby Knight for his hunting escapades, but then this video (which you will see and hear audio from for the next five days) popped up, so I guess I’m obligated.

It’s pretty freaking hilarious, I do admit. All details of the incident aside: Seriously, could you expect the BK to act any differently than he does in this video?

 Via the Dallas Morning News, please give it two minutes of your time.

Set to broadcast nationally…

»No. 19 Gonzaga @ St. Joseph’s; 8 ET (ESPNU).

»No. 17 Oregon @ No. 25 Kansas State; 9 ET (ESPN2).

»Oklahoma @ No. 22 USC; 11 ET (FSN).

Last night was the first night I really sat down and digested a few good continuous hours of college hoops on the tube. I was surprised with some of what I saw (a gutty UMass win at the Carrier Dome) and disgusted with other competition (Illinois/Maryland), so let’s do what we do.

–No. 1 North Carolina 66, Ohio State 55. This the game that most people watched, so it was obvious to anyone that the shooting was just dreadful for both teams. Ohio State shot 27 percent; the Heels 38. It was officially Jon Diebler’s coming out party (that fall-away bank 3 at the end of the first half was beautiful). Looks like Roy Williams has this team running up and down the floor as well as anyone in the country, per usual.

–No. 2 UCLA 83, George Washington 60. Gee-Dub is a small team and they were pushed to exhaustion by the time they ran into the tunnel at halftime. No chance here.

–No. 4 Kansas 87, Florida Atlantic 49. Brandon Rush is molding back to form; he lead the team with 17 points against FAU.

–No. 5 Georgetown 66, Old Dominion 48. That may quiet the stirring that Old Dominion is a better team this year than last.

–No. 8 Texas 98, Texas Southern 61. Longhorns are averaging 86 points/game.

–No. 9 Texas A&M 76, Alabama 63. Out of the gates running, the Aggies are standing strong at 7-0.

–No. 10 Michigan State 81, No. 24 North Carolina State 58. Even at No. 24, NC State is ove-ver-ray-ted. God, this team is lousy. Why they even stepped into the Top 25 is beyond me. And as for MSU, they continue to save face for the pitiful Big 10 in this so-called “challenge”.

–No. 23 Xavier 93, Oakland 68. Consider me a-twitter over this X-men team. Great rebounding and a balanced offensive attack should keep this team in almost every game this season.

Notable:

Massachusetts 107, Syracuse 100. In watching most of this game, it was pretty impressive to see the Minutemen hang with Boeheim’s kids, but, to be fair, Syracuse played about as sloppy as they possible could for only having 13 turnovers.

Arkansas 94, Missouri 91. Good win at home here for the Razorbacks (Mizzou is definitely on the come), so we’ll see if Ark can get to a 9-1/10-2 record and get back into the good graces of the voters.

Maryland 69, Illinois 61. This was torture for a basketball lover’s eyes. Such terrible basketball was played by both teams, Maryland just ended up playing better bad ball.

Penn State 66, Virginia Tech 61. At 2-3, the Hokies need to straighten themselves out quickly. They seem like a shadow of the team that made some dents in the NCAA Tournament last season.

Kent State 81, Saint Louis 40. Rick Majerus’ Saint Louis team will not have a fun practice following this double-up.

Virginia Military Institute 156, Columbia Union College 91. For those of you who follow the game, you’ll know that VMI made the tournament last year, and scoring in such colossal numbers is just the type of business they are in. But still, 156 IN A 40 MINUTE GAME?

…Then be sure to tune into tonight at 7 p.m ET on ESPN, when they will air (as they do every year) all 13 minutes of Jim Valvano’s speech from the 1993 ESPY Awards (you know, when they meant something?). (more…)

Set to broadcast nationally…

»UMass @ Syracuse; 7ET (ESPN Classic).

»Boston College @ Michigan (Big 10/ACC); 7 ET (ESPNU).

»North Carolina State @ No. 10 Michigan State (Big 10/ACC Challenge); 7:13 ET (ESPN).

»Illinois @ Maryland (Big 10/ACC); 7:30 ET (ESPN2).

»Alabama @ No. 9 Texas A&M; 9 ET (ESPNU).

»No. 1 North Carolina @ Ohio State (Big 10/ACC); 9 ET (ESPN).

»Virginia Tech @ Penn State (Big 10/ACC); 9:30 ET (ESPN2).

I ate some Au Bon Pain (or aw-bone-pohn) tonight for the first. Bangin’. Now let’s review some games.

–No. 3 Memphis 104, Austin Peay 82. Six Tigers scored in double figures. Let’s move on.

–No. 7 Duke 82, No. 20 Wisconsin 58. Yikes. Gotta admit that I thought Wisconsin could keep it too close for comfort for the Blue Devils in this spot. Yeah, not so much. Duke is getting quite dangerous and it appears that anyone who thought that Coach K might be losing his fastball, well, that was just a pipedream.

–No. 11 Tennessee 93, North Carolina A&T 59. No troubles for the Volunteers here, and it could’ve been much worse for A&T—the Vols shot just 43 percent from the field and 58 percent from the line.

–No. 14 Pittsburgh 80, Boston University 53. That is likely to be your America East representative in the 2008 NCAA Tournament, just so you know.

–No. 15 Indiana 83, Georgia Tech 79. Georgia Tech hung around for awhile (and contained Eric Gordon), but Indiana is clearly the better team.

–No. 18 Clemson 61, Purdue 58. Didn’t catch any of this game, but I think this about played out like it should have. Purdue has a pretty decent squad this year that could get better each month, but Clemson has the horses to outplay them at this point in the season.

Notable:

West Virginia 110, Maryland-Eastern Shore 44. I will not lie to you: I’ve never even heard of Maryland-Eastern Shore until about 17 seconds ago. But I do know that’s a sexy little double-up by the Mountaineers.

Set to broadcast nationally…

» Georgia Tech @ No. 15 Indiana (ACC/Big 10 Challenge); 7 ET (ESPN).

» Northwestern @ Virginia (ACC/Big 10); 7 ET (ESPN).

» Minnesota @ Florida State (ACC/Big 10); 7:30 ET (ESPN2).

» No. 20 Wisconsin @ No. 7 Duke (ACC/Big 10); 9 ET (ESPN).

» Purdue @ No. 18 Clemson (ACC/Big 10); 9:30 ET (ESPN2).