A bracket-busting weekend provided college basketball fans with a lot of action, as the March Madness picture saw some major changes.
As Selection Sunday draws closer, the postseason picture begins to come into focus. Some teams are firing on all cylinders heading down the stretch, while others couldn't have picked a worse time to stumble.
Among the former group are the Louisville Cardinals. Five days after drilling the Pittsburgh Panthers on the road, the Cardinals eked out a 61-59 road win over the Marquette Golden Eagles on Sunday. Freshman guard Jerry Smith, who grew up in the Milwaukee suburbs and was offered a scholarship by Marquette coach Tom Creen back in eighth grade, hit a game-winning trey to knock off the Eagles as time expired. The Cardinals netted a No. 20 ranking for their efforts, and the team is now armed with two attractive wins to catch the eye of the selection committee.
Another squad to watch come March is Texas A&M, which has flown under the national radar because of its unaesthetic, half-court, grind-it-out style, and a lack of marquee players. But coach Billy Gillispie's boys have won 15 of their last 17 games, including a 69-66 road win over the then-No. 6 Kansas Jayhawks on Feb. 3 and a 100-82 throttling of Kevin Durant and the Texas Longhorns two days later. The two losses incurred during that stretch have come by a combined four points.
The Aggies boast all the necessary ingredients for a run into the Elite Eight: a tenacious defense, a game-changing point guard in Acie Law IV, quality big men like Joseph Jones, veteran leadership, and excellent coaching. Don't sleep on Texas A&M.
In the premier mid-major matchup of the weekend, the No. 15 Southern Illinois Salukis picked up a solid 68-65 road win over No. 12 Butler. In a game between two defense-minded teams - Southern Illinois entered the contest ranked third in the nation in defensive efficiency - the play of star point guard Jamaal Tatum was the difference for the Salukis.
The Bulldogs had no answer in the second half for Tatum, who sunk eight-of-11 free throw attempts. Butler has lost twice in its last three games and this loss, to the one upper-tier team on its schedule in a nationally televised game, could prove damaging to its hopes of securing a high seed.
In Pac-10 action, the No. 17 Oregon Ducks continued their swoon, getting blasted on the road by the Stanford Cardinal 88-69. The Ducks have lost six of their last eight and were swept in their Bay Area swing by the Cardinal and Cal for the seventh-consecutive year.
Ernie Kent's Oregon team plays a three-guard lineup that lives and dies with the three-point shot, as proven by the team's 8-of-27 clip from beyond the arc against Stanford. The Cardinal picked up its fifth win of the year against a ranked opponent and could clinch an NCAA Tournament berth with a pair of good road performances against No. 5 UCLA and No. 22 USC this weekend.
As for UCLA, the Bruins bounced back nicely from their Feb. 10 road loss against West Virginia with an 81-66 storming of No. 24 Arizona on Saturday. Sophomore point guard Darren Collison led coach Ben Howland's Wildcats to the victory, notching 17 points, a career-high 15 assists, and lofty praise from Arizona coach Lute Olson, who called Collison the best point guard in America after the game.
No. 4 UNC grabbed the top spot in the ACC standings from No. 22 Boston College with a 77-72 victory in Chestnut Hill. Sophomore star Tyler Hansbrough led the Tar Heels with 17 points and seven boards, while the Eagles' Jared Dudley, who finished with 22 points, missed three free throws with 1:29 left that would have tied the game.
It is the fourth time this season that UNC has responded to a loss with a victory over a ranked opponent on the road, with the first three wins coming against Tennessee, Clemson and Duke. Boston College has now dropped its second-straight game and must hit the road to face Virginia Tech, which has already beaten UNC twice this season.
Meanwhile, Vanderbilt knocked off top-ranked Florida 83-70 Saturday, handing the Gators their first loss in SEC play and snapping their 17-game winning streak. Florida, who has trailed by double digits in four separate games this year before coming back to win, finally dug itself a deficit it could not overcome. Vanderbilt won by out-shooting the nation's most accurate team from the field, hitting at better than a 57 percent clip, including nearly 48 percent on threes.
After the win, elated fans rushed the court, a violation of SEC rules that could result in a hefty fine for the school, as Florida became the fifth ranked opponent to fall to the unranked Commodores this season.
