Less than a week away until we start printing out 27 different bracket scenarios. Here, here to real productivity and research!

Missouri Valley Championship: No. 1 Drake 79, No. 2 Illinois State 49. This massacre secures Drake to get at least a 5 seed (they should be a 4) and I think it puts Illinois State on the wrong side of the bubble picture. Did you catch the game? Drake can drive and kick so well that it’s hard to believe they ever have tough shooting games.

–UPSET–Ohio State 63, No. 17 Michigan State 54. The Big Ten is tanking for the Buckeyes! Michigan State was handling OSU, but then a flip switched and suddenly it looks like The Tournament is going to have five Big Ten reps.

–UPSET–Penn State 68, No. 18 Indiana 64 (OT). From the numbers it looked like another Indiana victory (Gordon with 26, White with 12 rebounds), but Indiana just appears to be lacking a bit of heart and carnal desire in their games. Will this be an inevitable 4-seed-losing-to-a-5 situation? I don’t know, but I do think the Big Ten will make or break this team, so let’s keep an eye on the Hoosiers to see how they play in D.J. White’s and Eric Gordon’s last days on the team.

–No. 4 Tennessee 89, South Carolina 56. I’m never a big fan of cutting down nets unless you actually win a conference tournament, make an unexpected Final Four, or actually win the title. But Tennessee did capture its first regular season title in 41 years, so I think I’ll let this pass.

–No. 9 Texas 62, Oklahoma State 57. Longhorns can still get a 2 seed if they don’t screw it up in the Big XII tournament. They will be a very trendy non-1-seed Final Four pick. Just watch.

–No. 13 Connecticut 96, Cincinnati 51. Nothing like a 30-0 run to get things all nice and cushy for the Huskies. Perhaps they are for real. Perhaps Cincinnati just really sucks and didn’t want to play a snow-induced postponed basketball game on Sunday.

–No. 15 Purdue 72, Michigan 58. Hey, look at those Boilermakers, giving Jim Nantz something to talk about on CBS for a few hours during next weekend’s telecast. Robbie Hummel! Everyone loves the pasty white boy!

Notable:

Virginia 91, Maryland 76. Not once this year have I put Maryland on the better side of the bubble. Anyone siding with me now?

Kentucky 75, Florida 70. The loss showed Florida’s ability to come back, but it wasn’t quite enough. Gators now on life support.

Clemson 70, Virginia Tech 69. A crazy game that Va. Tech almost had, but now they need an ACC final run to hope for an at-large. Could Clemson play their way to a 4 seed??

Kent State 61, Akron 58. Bubble teams can rejoice, because Kent State is in no matter what.

Conference tournaments:

• America East
  • No. 1 Maryland-Baltimore County 73, No. 4Vermont 64.
  • No. 2 Hartford 59, No. 6 Boston 52.
• Colonial Athletic Association
  • No. 5 William & Mary 56, No. 1 Virginia Commonwealth 54.
  • No. 3 George Mason 53, No. 2 UNC-Wilmington 41.
• Metro Atlantic Athletic
  • No. 1 Siena 65, No. 4 Loyola 63.
  • No. 2 Rider 76, No. 6 Marist 71.
• Northeast
  • No. 4 Mount Saint Mary’s 83, No. 1 Robert Morris 65.
  • No. 3 Sacred Heart 55, No. 2 Wagner 49.
• Patriot
  • No. 1 American 72, No. 5 Army 60.
  • No. 3 Colgate 54, No. 7 Bucknell 40.
• Southern
  • No. 1 Davidson 82, No. 5 UNC Greensboro 52.
  • No. 7 Elon 65, No. 6 College of Charleston 61.
• Summit
  • No. 5 Indiana-Purdue-Fort Wayne 66, No. 4 Southern Utah 62.
  • No. 3 Oakland 80, No. 6 Western Illinois 66.
• Sun Belt
  • No. 1 South Alabama 81, No. 8 New Orleans 77.
  • No. 4 Middle Tennessee State 65, No. 12 Troy 59.
  • No. 2 Arkansas-Little Rock 66, No. 7 Florida Atlantic 60.
  • No. 3 Western Kentucky 84, No. 6 North Texas 70.
• West Coast
  • No. 1 Gonzaga 52, No. 4 Santa Clara 48.
  • No. No. 3 San Diego 75, No. 2 Saint  Mary’s 69 (2OT).

The good and the bad of Championship Week for the small schools.

Ohio Valley Championship: Austin Peay 82, Tennessee State 64.

Atlantic Sun Championship: Belmont 79, Jacksonville 61.

–No. 1 North Carolina 76, No. 6 Duke 68. The light and dark blue gave us two pretty worthwhile games this season, so I’ve got no complaints. Hansbrough (not one foul shot??), Danny Green and Ty Lawson played up to the role, but what was Scheyer doing the whole game for Duke? He took plenty of ill-advised shots (some which were sent back by the Carolina trees) and hurt the team when it needed a few rallies down the stretch.

–No. 8 Xavier 86, Richmond 61. The loss to St. Joe’s is a distant memory.

–No. 19 Notre Dame 67, South Florida 60. ‘Gody with his typical 21 and 9 to cap off his regular season that will end with a POTY trophy. The question is: Will you buy Notre Dame as a Final Four threat?

–No. 23 Washington State 76, Washington 73 (2OT). Hmm, almost a distressing loss for the Cougs. I think Kyle Weaver has become a more determining factor than Derrick Low, though Cowgill was really the reason Wash. St. didn’t lose this one. How will this team fare in the Pac-10 tournament? They’ll be paired up against Oregon, who will desperately need to win that game. If WSU loses, they’ll probably get a 5, but don’t be surprised if its a 6.

Notable:

Arizona 78, Oregon 69. The Wildcats are not in The Tournament right now as far as I’m concerned. They are 18-13, have a sub .500 Pac-10 record and have been in a free fall for the past month. Why should they get an invite? On top of that, Oregon swept them, has a better conference and overall record and have won three straight. The Ducks should be above the Wildcats in the pecking order, and if Arizona loses to Stanford this week (assuming they beat Oregon State), they better not get a bid.

Massachusetts 67, George Washington 63. Minutemen probably only need one A-10 tournament win to assure themselves of a bid, because I don’t think that conference will only send one team.

New Mexico 71, Colorado State 52. Lobos may be the team that sneaks into the field that uninformed national sportswriters predictably bash.

Villanova 73, Providence 63. Prove it against a worthwhile opponent.

Arizona State 77, Oregon State 64. James Harden with only six points? This doesn’t help them; they’ll need two wins in the Pac-10 tournament.

Arkansas 77, Auburn 64. Don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise: Razorbacks are in.

Conference tournaments:

• Big Sky
  • No. 4 Idaho State 67, No. 5 Montana 65.
  • No. 3 Weber State 65, No. 6 Montana State 49.
• Horizon
  • No. 1 Butler 66, No. Illinois-Chicago 50.
• Southern
  • No. 7 Elon 60, No. 2 Chattanooga 57.
  • No. 6 Charleston 87, No. 3 Georgia Southern 73.
• America East
  • No. 2 Hartford 68, No. 7 New Hampshire 65.
  • No. 6 Boston 68, No. 3 Albany 64 (OT).
• Colonial Athletic Association
  • No. 2 UNC-Wilmington 82, No. 7 Delaware 59.
  • No. 3 George Mason 63, No. 6 Northeastern 52.
• Summit League
  • No. 1 Oral Roberts 84, No. 8 Centenary 56.
  • No. 2 IUPUI 69, No. 7 Missouri-Kansas City 65.
• Metro Atlantic Athletic
  • No. 1 Siena 66 , No. 8 Manhattan 58.
  • No. 2 Rider 75, No. 10 Canisius 71.
  • No. 6 Marist 66, No. 3 Niagara 62.
• West Coast
  • No. 4 Santa Clara 51, No. 5 San Francisco 50.
  • No. 3 San Diego 73, No. 6 Pepperdine 55.
• Missouri Valley
  • No. 2 Illinois State 56, No. 6 Northern Iowa 42.

Too many games, so I’ve got to break this up into three segments in order to keep you from falling asleep.

–UPSET–Syracuse 87, Marquette 72. The Eagles kind of sleepwalked through this one, allowing Syracuse to hang around on the bubble picture. If you’re going to give the Orange(men) credit for something, it certainly is their ability to score points from 23 feet and in.

–No. 2 UCLA 81, California 80. Josh Shipp does his best Larry Bird impression and Uck-lah moves closer towards a 1 seed that they probably don’t deserve. Five Bruins scored in double figures and I can only hope that Ryan Anderson (of Cal) doesn’t bolt for the NBA this year; he was a real treat to watch.

–No. 6 Kansas 72, Texas A&M 55. Kansas cruises, looking like the kind of team that’s capable of running to the Final Four without breaking a sweat. Will they keep it up? Meanwhile, A&M has an 8-8 Big XII record, spiraling towards a double-digit seed line.

–No. 10 Wisconsin 65, Northwestern 52. A blowout by Cheesehead standards.

Notable:

Mississippi 76, Georgia 62. You can pen the Rebs in for The Tournament.

UNLV 70, Utah 63. A lot of bubble teams are really coming up strong down the stretch. That just isn’t making things any easier for us.

Mississippi State 84, LSU 75. Bulldogs also lock themselves up for Greg Gumbel to call their names eight days from now.

Conference tournaments:

• America East
  • No. 4 Vermont 65, No. 5 Binghamton 57.
• Colonial Athletic Association
  • No. 5 William & Mary 63, No. 4 Old Dominion 60.
• Horizon
  • No. 2 Cleveland State 78, No. Valparaiso 73.
• Metro Atlantic Athletic
  • No. 4 Loyola 64, No. 5 Fairfield 59.
• Missouri Valley
  • No. 1 Drake 65, No. 4 Creighton 67.
• Southern
  • No. 5 UNC Greensboro 63, No. 4 Appalachian State 46.

Let’s all get ready here for the next month, when we’ll be feverishly watching the tube as all of the drama unfolds. Make sure to watch it with friends who will appreciate it as much as you.

Big South Championship: Winthrop 66, UNC-Asheville 48. Bid #2 has been handed out.

–UPSET–Southern California 77, No. 7 Stanford 64. This is more about how dangerous USC is than how much of a hangover Stanford might’ve had from that bad call against UCLA on Thursday night. Seemed like every time I looked up at the television, the Trojans had a big shot fall their way. Stanford has dropped two in a row and may confuse all of us in the coming week, depending upon how they play it out in the Pac-1o tournament.

–UPSET–Alabama 78, No. 16 Vanderbilt 73 (OT). Some think this was a trap game, and I agree. Vanderbilt had nothing to play for, they probably won’t cost themselves a seed line due to the fact that this one was on the road and they’ll remind us all of their potential in the SEC tournament. No one will remember this one in two weeks.

–No. 11 Georgetown 55, No. 12 Louisville 52. Great game, but let’s not read too much into this. The top-seeded Hoyas won’t win the Big East tournament (yes, I mean that) and more people will pick Louisville to go farther in the tournament that matters. It was nice for Hibbert to go out like this at home, because he does deserve it.

–No. 1 Memphis 94, Alabama-Birmingham 56. A terrible loss like this almost kills off UAB’s chances at an at-large. This was glorified playground ball for the Tigers, who toyed with nearly every opponent in the conference.

Notable:

Florida State 75, Miami (FL) 72. The loss probably prevents Miami from garnering a single-digit seed, but you can’t put them back on the bubble with other sketchier profiles out there.

Dayton 79, St. Joseph’s 67. Hawks can’t stay consistent, which is definitely frustrating for bubble prognosticators. Dayton finishes at 8-8 in the conference with a 20-9 overall record and a chance to sneak back in through the back door. Let’s see how this crazy A-10 tournament unfolds.

West Virginia 83, St. John’s (OT) 74. Scary that it had to take overtime for the ‘Eers to get this victory. I still have them in as of today, but a first-round Big East tourney flame-out would change that.

Baylor 86, Texas Tech 73. Bears needed this one, but the Big XII tournament looms larger.

Conference tournaments:

• America East
  • No. 1 Maryland-Baltimore County 76, No. 8 Stony Brook 60.
• Colonial Athletic Association
  • No. 1 Virginia Commonwealth 57, No. 9 Towson 46.
• Southern
  • No. 1 Davidson 72, No. 8 Wofford 49.

Start getting your stories in order, because the first round is officially less than two weeks away.

–UPSET–St. Joseph’s 71, No. 8 Xavier 66. Nothing like storming the floor when your team is far from a shoo-in for The Tournament. Then again, it was the last game ever at Alumni Memorial Field House, so I guess it’s okay. I don’t think this puts St. Joe’s in … actually, hold that thought. I’ll have a bubble post up in a little while. Xavier ruins their chance at getting a 2, I think.

–UPSET–Providence 85, No. 13 Connecticut 76. Head-scratching, but we’ll see how UConn finishes up their season against Cincinnati.

–No. 3 UCLA 77, No. 7 Stanford 67 (OT). Bruins lock up a 1 with this win last night. Stanford had them the whole game, but Darren Collison got an extremely iffy foul call with under three seconds to go. He sunk both freebies and put the game into the extra session. Only the starters scored points for the Bruins (Collison led them all with 24). Lopez twins combined for 32.

–No. 17 Michigan State 59, Illinois 51. You wipe out IU and score more than 100 less than a week ago, but only beat Illinois by eight … alrighty then. If anyone can figure out the Spartans, please let me know.

Notable:

Southern California 93, California 89. Mayo with 22, Gibson and Lewis with 21. The Trojans have the ability to make an Elite 8 run if they play as a team and avoid turnovers.

Oregon 67, Arizona State 61. Oregon starting to make things more complicated than they need to be. C’mon now!

Georgia Tech 80, Clemson 75. Dumb loss for Clemson, who may be relaxing now that they’re probably in, regardless.

Conference tournaments:

• Big South
  • No. 2 Winthrop 61, No. 3 High Point 53.
  • No. 1 UNC Asheville 75, No. 4 Liberty 57.
• Atlantic Sun
  • No. 6 Gardner-Webb 82, No. 3 Stetson 63.
  • No. 4 East Tennessee State 81, No. 5 Lipscomb 74.
• Missouri Valley
  • No. 8 Indiana State 71 , No. 9 Wichita State 67.
  • No. 7 Missouri State 69, No. 10 Evansville 46.
• Northeast
  • No. 1 Robert Morris 64, No. 8 Monmouth 50.
  • No. 2 Wagner 71, No. 7 Long Island 62.
  • No. 3 Sacred Heart 84, No. 6 Central Connecticut State 71.
  • No. 4 Mount Saint Mary’s 80, No. 5 Quinnipiac 70.

For those of you who don’t know, I am an actual sports editor in my “real life.” Last night I witnessed a 5-overtime state semifinal hockey game. Ridiculous stuff. Legs. Were. Jelly. I can’t even imagine what the players’ must’ve felt like.

–No. 2 Memphis 72, Southern Methodist 55. It’s all good when Joey Dorsey no get mad at people.

–No. 4 Tennessee 89, Florida 86. Close but no ciggy for the Gators. Relying on Nick Calathes will not get you into this year’s Tournament.

–No. 6 Duke 86, Virginia 70. No foul-ups before The Orgy on Saturday with ESPN. That’s nice.

–No. 10 Wisconsin 77, PennState 41. Third-straight year what Wiscy will have at least a share of the regular season title. Everyone loves Butch and Brett up in Cheeseland.

–No. 16 Vanderbilt 86, Mississippi State 85 (OT). Shan Foster unloads for 42 on senior night! Wow. He hit nine 3’s as well. Kevin Stallings was crying and everything is just peachy on Nashville, where Vandy did not lose this year. Miss. St. would’ve locked up a bid with a win, but they’re still in good shape. It seems that Vanderbilt won’t settle for anything less than a 4 seed.

–No. 18 Indiana 69, Minnesota 55. Senior night for D.J. White…and Eric Gordon, I guess.

–No. 19 Notre Dame 68, St. John’s 55. How about Notre Dame to take the Big East title and get a favorable 3 seed placement?

Notable:

Texas A&M 71, Baylor 57. These teams have now played five overtimes in two games. *Rimshot* Now Baylor must begin to panic a bit and work towards two conference wins in the Big XII tournament. What’s more troubling? The Bears didn’t have a single player hit double-digits in any statistical category.

Syracuse 85, Seton Hall 73. I missed this, but I’m completely going to believe what my SU alum friends tell me when they say that Syracuse looked really good.

Miami (FL) 74, Boston College 61. ‘Canes refuse to make it interesting. I think you’ve got to nearly lock them up now.

Kentucky 71, South Carolina 63. Joe Crawford, a player I used to think tended to mail it in, unleashed for 35 in not allowing UK to lose a bad one on the road. ‘Cats withstand a late push from the ‘Cocks to set up a huge game with Florida this weekend.

Villanova 72, South Florida 59. All of the bubble teams that needed to win last night (without playing another in the process), did.

Conference tournaments:

• Atlantic Sun
  • No. 1 Belmont 73, No. 8 Campbell 66.
  • No. 2 Jacksonville 65, No. 7 Mercer 57.
• Patriot League
  • No. 1 American 62, No. 8 Holy Cross 60.
  • No. 7 Bucknell 87, No. 2 Navy 86 (3OT).
  • No. 3 Colgate 76, No. 6 Lafayette 74.
  • No. 5 Army 64, No. 4 Lehigh 61 (OT).
• Sun Belt
  • No. 8 New Orleans 65, No. 9 Denver 60.
  • No. 4 Middle Tennessee 74, No. 13 Louisiana-Monroe 69.
  • No. 12 Troy 70, No. 5 Louisiana-Lafayette 60.
  • No. 6 North Texas 85, No. 11 Arkansas State 63.
  • No. 7 Florida Atlantic 91, No. 10 Florida International 64.

The only thing that could give me greater disdain for Brett Favre is if he came back and completely blew up ESPN in doing so. In other news, my wireless network went down, so I wrote an elongated version of this, only to not be able to post it and lose everything. Delicious. Abridged version straight ahead.

–UPSET–Ohio State 80, No. 15 Purdue 77 (OT). Erin Andrews is the good luck charm these days and the Bucks get a win they definitely needed. It still doesn’t put them in The Tournament though, and there’s a game against schizophrenic Michigan State this weekend.

–No. 1 North Carolina 90, Florida State 77. Carolina playing to 1 seed form. I don’t see how they play out of it.

–No. 9 Texas 70, Nebraska 66. Texas has looked shaky in their past two games.

–No. 21 Marquette 67, Florida Gulf Coast 37. Great scheduling move Tom Crean? I didn’t even know this school existed.

Notable:

Mississippi 81, Arkansas 72. Watching this game, I wasn’t really impressed by either team, but it seems to me that both are on pace for March glory.

Virginia Tech 80, Wake Forest 50. Such a convincing win will definitely help the Hokies’ case, but the profile still lacks.

UNLV 59, New Mexico 45. A great win for the Lobos, who now can claim a victory in their four games against Vegas/BYU. I don’t think Vegas can play their way out of The Tournament.

Conference tournaments:

• Horizon League
  • No. 8 Loyola 57 , No.5 Wisconsin-Milwaukee 51.
  • No. 3 Wright State 60, No. 10 Detroit 37.
  • No. 4 Illinois-Chicago 70, No. 9 Youngstown State 59.
  • No. 6 Valparaiso 75 , No. 7 Wisconsin-Green Bay 67.
• Ohio Valley
  • No. 1 Austin Peay 76, Eastern Kentucky 51.
  • No. 2 Murray State77, No. 7 Tennessee Tech 74.
  • No. 6 Tennessee State 68, No. 3 Morehead State 61.
  • No. 4 Tennessee-Martin 101, No. 5 Samford 94.
• Big South
  • No. 1 UNC Asheville 87, No. 8 Charleston Southern 63.
  • No. 2 Winthrop 76, Radford 45.
  • No. 3 High Point 59, No. 6 Coastal Carolina 56.
  • No. 4 Liberty 103, No. 5 Virginia Military Institute 88.

I’ll be pretty busy today, so I may only be able to put up one or two more posts, but I’ve got plenty of stuff in the cabinet for tomorrow.

–No. 5 Kansas 109, Texas Tech 51. The very rare late-season double-up is welcomed with open arms here at CHJ. Every single player except one (sorry, Chase Buford) scored last night en route to the rout and this thing just wasn’t watchable by 9:30 p.m. ET. Will this cause an inflamed overreaction to how good KU really is? I still think KU should be a 1 seed, but that may take a Big XII title.

–No. 22 Gonzaga 88, Santa Clara 54. Gonzaga’s all locked up now as far as I’m concerned. It’s the eighth-straight WCC regular season title for the Bulldogs, who continue to run the league despite taking everyone’s best shot. Damn impressive, Mark Few.

Notable:

West Virginia 76, Pittsburgh 62. A tight one early, but West Virginia looked mighty good on national television last night, making their case to be a Tournament team. I still have to put Pitt as a lock due to the weaknesses of so many other resumes out there.

Saint Mary’s 64, Portland 50. A good sign: Diamon Simpson goes for 23 and 9 for the Gaels.

A random question for you today: Are you for the conference tournaments? I’m thinking about doing a post on it later in the week, but I was curious to your thoughts.

–No. 19 Michigan State 103, No. 12 Indiana 74. Yes, Michigan State just scored 42 points in a 15-point loss to Wisconsin on Thursday. I know—I don’t get it either. The best part about the win for the Spartans? Raymar Morgan was MSU’s leading scorer, but only had 20. Indiana suffers its first post-Sampson loss, but was this reason for hesitation? The Spartans were flying up and down the floor from the opening tip, so Indiana could never catch their breath and get back into it.

–No. 1 Tennessee 63, Kentucky 60. This game tired me out by merely watching. Kentucky almost had it, but Tennessee’s full-court pressure was the factor in the win. I think the win would have almost definitely put Kentucky in, but the loss is still a loss (even if its close), so assume that 16-11 Kentucky is still out of the Tournament picture. The win also keeps Tennessee on the road to a 1.

–No. 4 UCLA 68, Arizona 66. Brutal loss for Arizona, who can’t seem to really put together two straight wins (remember that when you think about putting them into the Sweet 16). You think the Wildcats are still in? The RPI numbers and the stregth of schedule certainly help their case, but YOU HAVE TO WIN SOME GAMES down the stretch, Arizona. Adding to the drama was the fact that Lute Olson showed up for the first time since his hiatus. I’m sure Kevin O’Neill loved that (rumors are they are very much at odds right now; it’s an alpha dog thing). Love went for 24 and 15, but what else is new. The up-and-down, back-and-forth game also brought us Billy Packer and Jim Nantz for the first time this season, so get ready for that in your living room for the next month.

–No. 13 Louisville 68, Villanova 54. If you watched the game you probably even couldn’t tell me how Louisville did it, but they handled Villanova so methodically that it really made you believe the inevitable “Cardinals to the Final Four” hype that will be the trendy talk in two weeks.

–No. 17 Notre Dame 98, DePaul 91. The Irish are capable of winning as long as they’re scoring more than 70. No surprise here, as Mike Brey’s team hops back on the bus home from Chicago with a 12-4 league record. Yeah…I didn’t have that one back in November.

Notable:

Clemson 73, Maryland 70. Game of the night due to the fact that Clemson was down by 20 with less than 10 minutes to go and came back to pull of a great win. Terrence Oglesby had the onions to launch-and-nail a 23-footer to give Clemson the final margin with less than three seconds to go. If you’ve been following the site for a while you’ll know that I’ve never believed that Maryland is really a Tournament team, so this could really prove my point. Losing at home on senior night to a potential 7 seed when you’re up by 20 with under 10 minutes to go? I must be fair though: Clemson was more responsible for the win than Maryland was for the loss.

Temple 57, St. Joseph’s 56. The A-10 eats itself alive! The Hawks blow their chances here. Maybe a title game loss to Xavier saves them? But I don’t think so.

Grab your breakfast/lunch before you sit down to read this one.

–UPSET–Texas Tech 83, No. 5 Texas 80. Scary little comeback for the ‘Horns at the end, but it falls short. If Tech had been able to win just one more of their previous games in the past two weeks, this would win would’ve put them on the bubble. Instead, they’re still off. Though their resume looks pretty good, I think this loss prevents Texas from earning a 1 seed. D.J. Augustin goes off for 30, but

–UPSET–Bowling Green 89, No. 23 Kent State 83. Does any bubble team want to make a statement? I don’t think this will kill KSU, but it doesn’t ease matters.

–UPSET–Arkansas 78, No. 18 Vanderbilt 73. You can’t call Arkansas (19-9) a lock, but they’re almost definitely in now. In case you missed any highlights, Vandy forward Ross Neltner got his Chris Webber on and called a timeout when Vandy was out of them. This happened with less than 10 seconds to go and Vanderbilt down by ONE.

–No. 8 Stanford 60, No. 22 Washington State 53. I have been a proponent for WSU this year and was hoping they’d get a really good road win in Palo Alto. Instead they allow Brook Lopez to own in the inside (scoring 25) and will fall out of the rankings for the first time this season on Monday.

– No. 11 Georgetown 70, Marquette 68 (OT). Marquette’s ability to grind out these kind of games bodes well for them in March; they shot less than 30 percent in the second half. Still, the bad free throw shooting is what did them in. Georgetown wasn’t exactly playing textbook ball either, though. They had about 25 turnovers. The Hoyas can thank Dominic James for fouling Jonathan Wallace during a 3-point attempt that put the game into OT. Gus Johnson’s call of this one will be up later today.

–No. 24 Gonzaga 88, No. 25 Saint Mary’s 76. The win pretty much puts Gonzaga in The Dance. Saint Mary’s just needs to avoid a bottom out to feel comfortable about their chances.

–No. 2 Memphis 76, Southern Mississippi 67. I do admit that two weeks ago I thought this would be the stub-your-toe game for the Tigers. You see that great “Joey Dorsey Being Joey Dorsey” moment before the game started? Dude’s talking trash and going after a team that’s not going to be playing postseason basketball. You are a virus, Joey Dorsey. Memphis officially clinches the regular season C-USA title. Derrick Rose scores his jersey number again (23) and is now consistently becoming the “It” guy for this team as we open March’s doors.

–No. 3 North Carolina 90, Boston College 80. Tyrese Rice opened up the first half with about 15 3’s and completely knocked Carolina on their ass. But, if you need to look at why UNC should be the favored team to win the title, just look to this game. The Heels were on their you know whats and methodically came back and won this game, keeping their 1 seed hopes alive. Also, it appeared that Sydney Rice just woke up with his hands engulfed in flames. I don’t think that is too much cause for concern for Heels fans, but the defense does indeed hit spurts of lethargic effort.

–No. 6 Kansas 88, Kansas State 74. Foul trouble was definitely the issue for Kansas State, it seems. As I said yesterday, I didn’t get to see this one, but the outcome isn’t surprising. K-State, you are a great story, but it appears that Walker and Beasley—you know, just another 39 and 11 game—will not be enough to put this team into the second weekend. I could see if the Wildcats get a ripe-for-the-picking team in the first round that they could advance there, but even that could be sketchy.

–No. 7 Duke 87, North Carolina State 86. Coach K gets win No. 800. Everyone still like’s Duke’s 1 seed chances. I don’t and I’m hoping they get it anyway. The Devils really did escape with this win. The Wolfpack were up by eight with less than five minutes to go, but Duke was constantly just hangeeng uhrround. (That was my KGB impression “Rounders.”)

–No. 9 Xavier 66, George Washington 56. Lock up Xavier for no worse than a 3 seed now. The Muskies hit the 25-win plateau for the first time in (regular season) school history.

–No. 14 Butler 65, Detroit 31. Lock up Butler for no worse than a 5 seed now. Matt Campbell dropped eight 3’s en route to the rout.

–No. 15 Connecticut 79, West Virginia 71. A.J. Price had a hell of a game and really delivered in this one to help UConn keep their lead down the stretch. West Virginia currently stands at 20-9, but the beefy wins aren’t really there. Their case continues to intrigue me.

–No. 16 Purdue 68, Northwestern 43. Boilers have assured themselves of a 5 seed, at worst.

–No. 20 Drake 73, Wichita State 63. Hey! Baby Korver Klayton puts up 19 in the regular season finale for The Drake. They are definitely a lock for The Tournament, regardless if they were to flame out in the first round. When you look at the 25-4 Bulldogs right now, do they scare you? I don’t’ think they scare any potential suitors, but I think they prefer it that way; they’re crafty like that.

Notable:

Cornell 86, Harvard 53. Big Red are the first official Tournament team. More on this in just a little bit.

Oklahoma 64, Texas A&M 37. The Aggies had 10 points at halftime. They went 0-for-16 over a 13-minute period. Still, Saint Louis is not impressed. Who is to say that the Aggies are a lock for The Tournament?

Arizona State 80, Southern California 66. Southern Cal obliges the memo they received from Pac-10 management, who are trying their darndest to get those seven teams into The Tournament.

Pittsburgh 82, Syracuse 77. Jonny Flynn, Donte Green and Paul Harris had huge games, but a goof play from Harris and a subsequent T from Boehim spells NIT for ‘Cuse this year.

Minnesota 71, Ohio State 57. The Bucks blow their Dance chances with this road loss.

Mississippi State 68, Florida 59. Perhaps a de facto bubble game. It goes the way of the Bulldogs, who, in my opinion, would be in right now. It’ll probably take a weekend appearance in the SEC playoffs for the Gators to get back in the good graces of the guys in Indianapolis.

Georgia Tech 87, Wake Forest 79 (OT). Wake’s (16-11, 6-8 ACC) door closes.

Mississippi 91, Alabama 88. Rebels keep treading water.