Caught 3:10 to Yuma last night. B+. Now I anticipate Cloverfield, though the girl is dragging me along to see Juno (which I hear is quite good) this weekend. If there’s some charming, endearing and yet smarmy Jason Bateman, then I’m sure I’ll be fine.

–UPSET–Charlotte 82, No. 19 Clemson 72. Just when you think you can catch them napping, the A10 strikes again. Yes, the 49ers got themselves a very nice little win, while Clemson suffers back-to-back losses, evidently suffering from a Carolina-induced hangover from Sunday. Don’t count Charlotte out of the at-large picture—there’s plenty of season left.

–No. 8 Tennessee 85, No. 16 Mississippi 83. Predicted this was going to happen a week ago, so it comes as little surprise, though you have to love the effort from Andy Kennedy’s Rebels on the road. Bested by only a point in each half, I really thought that Ole Miss was going to steal this one on the road—and really take their story to a national level by beating 8th-ranked Tennessee. Twenty-three second-chance points and out-rebounding Tennessee, Ole Miss played about as best as they could, but Tennessee (which only got 10 from Chris Lofton) earned this win.

–No. 17 Dayton 92, No. 22 Rhode Island 83. Look below.

–No. 1 North Carolina 93, UNC-Asheville 81. After all of that “Wayne Ellington scoring 32 points” business, Psycho T gets back to his own business and leads the team in scoring once again—23 points in win, while Carolina put the cruise control on for the second half. But that’s not the story, no, it’s the dunk Hansbrough had on the 7′7″ Kenny George of UNC-A. Dear God this man will give me nightmares until July. Video will be on the site by later on day. George made Hansbrough look 5′10″!!

–No. 2 Memphis 99, East Carolina 58. Who got theirs? Derrick Rose (19 points), Robert Dozier (13 and 10) and Andre Allen had 13 off of the bench. Again, this Tiger team goes 10 deep and will run the weak ragged in the first weekend of The Tournament.

–No. 9 Duke 74, Temple 64. Buddy of mine (actually a roommate) put money on this game for Duke to cover. The line was 13.5. Yeah, that’s all that I really enjoyed from this game. Duke seems to be letting the inferiors play a little closer than you’d expect. More on this next week, so look for the post.

–No. 13 Vanderbilt 80, South Carolina 73. The ‘Cocks had the lead on Vandy and it seemed as though they might be the SEC team losing its blemish-free reputation last night. The freshman stud Ogilvy supplied 24 for Vandy as they move to 16-0 and have a pissed off Kentucky team waiting for them this weekend.

–No. 20 Pittsburgh 79, South Florida 66. Getting off the schnide are those Panthers, who might have needed this win with a feisty Seton Hall team coming to town on Saturday.

–No. 24 Xavier 83, St. Bonaventure 68. Nothing goes with B.J. like C.J. B.J. Raymond and C.J. Anderson both had 21 points and was there any doubt? In fact, by XU standards, this was too close to the vest! Only a 15 point win for the Muskies? C’mon, boys! I know you didn’t need to be reminded, but Xavier is much better than the 24th-best team in the country. One of the five most exciting teams to watch this season, no doubt.

Notable:

Arizona State 64, Arizona 59 (OT). Great win for the Sun Devils. Meanwhile THERE’S the Arizona Wildcats we all know and love—suddenly they’ve got five losses, yet we’ll continue to overvalue this team for the remainder of the season.

Ohio State 79, Iowa 48. The Big Ten is having a down year, but the Buckeyes will be in The Dance again if they play for most of the season like they did on Wednesday night.

Saint Joseph’s 98, Massachusetts 92. While the Hawks remain an enigma with this win, the loss puts the M’Men to an 11-4 overall record and doesn’t help them keep up with the overall profiles of Dayton and Xavier. Bad loss here for UMass.

Cincinnati 74, Syracuse 66. Bad loss for the Orangemen on the road. Seems they’re just as inconsistent as last season…

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