On Saturday at 5:45 PM ET, we were approaching college basketball nirvana (unless your team lost). Five games came down to the wire simultaneously starting with Florida St. at Duke. Most of the country watched as Duke super freshman Austin Rivers drove the lane for the game-tying bucket and then watched as Florida St. elected not to use a time out. Instead, FSU’s Luke Loucks drove the center of the court and held the ball until the last possible second, drawing the defense, before sending the ball to Michael Snaer in the corner for the buzzer-beating game-winning three. It was actually Snaer’s second buzzer-beater of the game as he also hit one to end the first half. FSU became the first team to win at Duke since February 2009, but it was far from the only exciting game in this time window.

Almost simultaneously, Texas took a late four-point lead on Kansas on a J’Covan Brown three-pointer. But just when it looked like Kansas might suffer its first loss in Big 12 play, Tyshawn Taylor hit a calm floater in the lane, and Kansas center Jeff Withey converted a bucket and one that gave them the lead back. J’Covan Brown missed a three at the buzzer and Kansas held on to win.

The often criticized Tyshawn Taylor had an amazing day with 22 points, four assists, and zero turnovers as Kansas won on the road. After his sloppiness with the ball early in the season, I don’t think many people could have imagined Taylor having this perfect a performance, but his terrific ball-handling was the difference in this game. But don’t sleep on Texas either. Seth Davis said that given their schedule, the Longhorns could start 2-7 in the Big 12. And while it is true Texas doesn’t have many quality wins, they’ve been very competitive. I will be shocked if they don’t beat one of the better Big 12 teams soon. Kenpom.com only gives them an 11% chance to go 0-3 and reach that 2-7 mark, and I think they’ll finally get a resume worthy win soon.

Meanwhile on the alternate CBS feed, mid-semester high school enrollee Jarnell Stokes had already worked his magic for Tennessee, posting a double-double. And by 5:45 PM, UConn was leaning heavily on Jeremy Lamb to find a way to score. Lamb was terrific in taking the ball to the bucket late and hitting some key jumpers, but he didn’t get nearly enough help. Lamb’s three at the buzzer was from halfcourt and was well off the mark as UConn fell on the road. The SEC was in need of a huge credibility boost, and with Tennessee beating UConn and Arkansas beating Michigan on Saturday, the league finally got one. In a sense, the SEC couldn’t have picked two better non-conference opponents to boost the league’s credibility. While UConn and Michigan were both ranked, both have had poor margin-of-victory numbers this season, and neither has been unbeatable.

Since most people were watching these games, almost no one was watching Georgia’s furious comeback against Ole Miss, but it was airing at the same time on the local SEC feed. Ole Miss was up 10 points with less than 90 seconds left in the game when Gerald Robinson and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope went to work. Robinson is fantastic at taking the ball to the basket and Caldwell-Pope is just a pure scorer, and the two Bulldogs already had one fantastic comeback this year at USC. They nearly completed another as Robinson twice kicked to Caldwell-Pope for three, and twice took the ball to the bucket himself. And thanks to some Ole Miss FT misses, Robinson had a chance at a three at the buzzer that would have sent the game into OT. It fell short and Ole Miss hung on, but not without a few tense moments. Georgia is clearly undermanned for the SEC this season, but the senior Robinson will never give up, and his heart is what college basketball is all about.

Finally, Oklahoma at Texas A&M also went down to the wire with Steven Pledger hitting a crazy three pointer, and Andrew Fitzgerald hitting some miraculous pull-up jumpers in the lane as Oklahoma tried to earn the road win. But instead, the Khris Middleton mystery got even bigger for A&M. With Middleton sidelined and not playing in the second half, the rest of the Aggies played better and earned the OT victory. Middleton leads Texas A&M in PPG, but as I showed on Thursday, A&M has actually played better without him in the lineup. And with Middleton out, Ray Turner hit a put-back in the lane, and Elston Turner nailed a three pointer to send the game into OT. The pair of Turners have actually been A&M’s most efficient players, and perhaps it worked out well for them to take the key shots instead of Middleton. But you also have to give a lot of credit to the often inefficient Dash Harris for this win. Despite shooting nearly 50% on his FTs on the season, Harris hit all the big FTs in OT as A&M pulled away in the extra session. 

With one OT game, three games ending with a missed three to tie at the buzzer, and one game ending with a game winning three at the buzzer, 5:45-6:15 ET Saturday was as good as its gets in college basketball.

Match-Ups 

Every year in the NCAA tournament, we talk about how critical match-ups can be to whether a team advances. As an example, Syracuse’s zone defense is ideal for stopping Marquette’s driving offense and Georgetown’s cutting offense. But the zone isn’t great at shutting down Notre Dame’s shooting offense. The zone tries to force teams to take jump shots and that exactly what Notre Dame loves to do anyhow. I have some concerns about Syracuse, particularly if Fab Melo is academically ineligible, which Andy Katz suggested on Saturday. But I don’t downgrade them much based on the loss at Notre Dame. Notre Dame is simply a bad match-up.

Elsewhere, Oklahoma St. has a very short team by Big 12 standards, and Kansas St. lives for offensive rebounds. So no one was shocked to see Kansas St. grab 21 offensive boards in Saturday’s win. Even with Kansas St. missing 17 free throws, that sort of rebounding disadvantage was simply too much for Oklahoma St. to overcome. 

Finally, Rutgers is going to get a lot of credit for holding the Georgetown to just 12 made FGs on Saturday. Georgetown is one of the top FG% teams in the country and to hold the Hoyas to 29% shooting was a huge accomplishment for the Scarlet Knights. But those numbers are a little deceiving. Rutgers has only one true post star on the team in Gilvydas Biruta, while Georgetown often puts four players 6’8” or taller on the floor at once. And Rutgers faced a huge size disadvantage in the post on numerous occasions. That forced Rutgers into a fouling clinic. Essentially every time Georgetown had a chance at an inside basket, Rutgers fouled. It almost worked, which shows how much better Rutgers is playing, but Mike Rice is still one dominant post-player away from having an NCAA tournament caliber team. Indiana might be a nice analogy for Rutgers. If they can add a Cody Zeller type player this off-season, the sky is the limit.

Reevaluations 

Because of the bad match-up, the loss by Syracuse does nothing to dissuade me that the Orange are a dangerous team. But Baylor’s home loss to Missouri raised a lot of questions. I thought Baylor’s defense was better this year. But then Kansas abused them on Monday, and against Missouri they had no defensive answers either. From about the 9 minute mark until about the 3 minute mark at the end of the game, Missouri simply scored every time down the floor. A team with as much talent as Baylor can’t let a team keep scoring like that. The Bears are too long and too athletic not to force some bad shots. Scott Drew’s problem has always been his team’s defense, and once again that’s holding Baylor back. 

Besides owing Tyshawn Taylor an apology, I probably owe Renardo Sidney an apology. Despite looking completely exhausted, Sidney hit a three pointer in OT and his post-feed to Dee Bost set up the game-winning bucket for Mississippi St. Vanderbilt actually had four shots to win this game, Festus Ezeli missed a great shot in the lane in regulation, and because of Mississippi St.’s struggles at the line, Vanderbilt got three chances for a game winning shot in OT. None went in. 

Saturday was an important home win for West Virginia, but I can’t help feeling it didn’t need to be that close. I realize that as one of the three veteran leaders on the team, Truck Bryant needs to take a lot of shots. But he will continue to cause Bob Huggins to pull his hair out if he doesn’t have a better understanding of when he is struggling. Despite a 2-15 shooting performance in regulation, there was Bryant taking a bad three in the corner in OT. And there was Bryant rushing the ball on a fast-break and turning it over when Huggins wanted him to run clock. Bryant is certainly one of the better players in the Big East, but the best thing a point guard can do is realize when his shot isn’t there. That’s when he needs to work even harder to get his teammates involved.

Final Thoughts 

South Carolina, Texas Tech, Pittsburgh, and USC all entered Saturday winless in conference play, and none were competitive. But Virginia Tech beat conference rival Virginia on the road Sunday to get their first ACC victory.

In hockey, the standings list OT losses separately from regulation losses. I wish the same thing existed in basketball. True, the selection committee will give teams credit for an OT loss. But OT losses can be easy to forget for those of us who quickly peruse the standings. Villanova and St. John’s may be struggling in Big East play this year but Maalik Wayns and D’Angelo Harrison put on an epic duel down the stretch. St. John’s earned the loss, but it came in OT, and it truly was a case where both teams deserve some credit for a great game.

It is way too early to talk about whether the P12 will get multiple bids. It will depend on whether some teams can separate themselves from the pack or whether the standings remain jumbled. After Arizona’s Kevin Parrom air-balled a three at the buzzer in the loss at Colorado (on a play where he was almost certainly fouled), and after Cal fell at Washington St., the standings are far too jumbled. That’s not a good scenario for multiple bids, but a lot can change between now and the start of March.