Without Luke Harangody, Notre Dame fell to St. John's yesterday.(AP)

Three Big East teams were upset. It’s been bizarro world in that conference this year.

—UPSET—Louisville 66, No. 2 Syracuse 60. I don’t make too much of this result; sometimes teams just have bad games. Syracuse played really badly, yet nearly beat a mediocre Louisville team. The key is to not overreact. I have a Syracuse co-worker. I guarantee she’ll be bitching about this in the office this morning. I promise you the result of this game will have zero impact on how the Orange play a week from now, let alone March. Rautins only had 12. That’s a part of it. Same could be said for Wesley Johnson with only 14 points. But perhaps it’s a bit of the balancing scales, as SU could have/should have very easily lost to UConn last Wednesday at home. The intentional foul on Kris Joseph was a joke, I know. The blown calls in the Big East this season have been as plentiful as chocolate wrappers in garbage cans this morning. Interesting that Pitino admitted that he wanted to keep the pace slowed down. Syracuse couldn’t beat Louisville’s zone and Louisville didn’t press. Odd, odd game. Orange hasn’t defeated Louisville since 2006, by the way.

—UPSET—Rutgers 71, No. 8 Georgetown 68. Rutgers is God-awful, so this confounds and astounds me. Greg Monroe continues to learn how to be a leader, even if the teams around his is erratic. He had 19, eight rebounds and four blocks. I don’t think this saves Fred Hill’s job by any means, but Rutgers fans get a nice little token from this season. And for the 10th time this season: Will we ever get to trust Georgetown? No. Them and the Yellow Jackets. They’re both the same.

No. 13 Ohio State 72, Illinois 53. David Lighty with 17, Jon Diebler hit six 3-pointers and Ohio State quickly humbled the Illini. If you turned into this game at 1:15, it was already over. It’s OK, though; Illinois just had wins over Wisconsin and Michigan State. Getting your doors blown off by the team with the player of the year (Evan Turner had 16, 11 rebounds, eight assists; what the F else is new!) is a fine trade off after beating two other really good Big Ten teams. It was the worst loss in Bruce Weber’s tenure in Champaign. Each week the best team in the Big Ten seems to rotate. Buckeyes continue to ascend. How foolish was I to think they’d be my sleeper team back in January. Everyone knows about these guys now.

Notable:

Northwestern 77, Minnesota 74 (OT). Plenty left to do for Northwestern. With the way the Wildcats normally play defense, and with how they played it in this game, they probably should have lost before the extra five minutes. But they gut out a win at home to keep the respirator going. I think they’re pretty much dead, but losing here would’ve been patting the dirt on the grave.

St. John’s 69, Notre Dame 68. No Luke Harangody is reason enough for the loss. Uh … no. It was a home game. Tim Abromaitis did step up, but his 24 points weren’t enough in ‘Gody’s absence. We now have proof that a 16-team conference can only produce five worthwhile, watchable teams. It’s gotten ugly out there, folks, don’t let anyone lie to you. Look out for the Red Storm, who beat Louisville before this one. Will Norm Roberts save his job, to the dismay of Johnnies fans?

Florida State 62, Boston College 47. In a murky ACC, the Seminoles have to keep beating the teams they should. Caught some of this game, and early on it looked like FSU players were more concerned with dates they had after the game.