You simply must check out how, in his attempts to get back to school for a game against Albany, Xavier’s Tu Holloway went through his own version of Plains, Trains, and Automobiles. Even more impressive was what he did when he made it back — 32 minutes, 11 points on 4-6 shooting, nine dimes, one turnover, and all while sick and exhausted. And let us say this — Tu, we love ya, man, but the image of you on a Greyhound bus with a morbidly obese man snoring on your shoulder is freaking hilarious. At least you didn’t have a conversation upon waking that ended with the words, “Those aren’t pillows!“

Speaking of Xavier, you can likely find coach Chris Mack down at City Hall in Cincinnati inquiring as to whether the Cintas Center was, in fact, built on a Native American burial ground. Whatever it is, there’s something out there that doesn’t like Xavier basketball — yesterday it was announced that freshman swingman Jay Canty (1.0 PPG, 1.3 RPG, 9.5 MPG) has a broken right foot and will be shelved for a month. That leaves XU with nine scholarship players. If we know Coach Mack, though — and we don’t — he’ll somehow get the Musketeers to overachieve in March even if he has to suit up the mascot and a pull a couple of business majors out of Smith Hall in order to have enough practice players.

“Some guys hate losing more than they love winning.” A memorable line from a simply outstanding look at the life of Rutgers basketball under new boss Mike Rice. Writer Adam Zagoria intimates that Rice might just be the right man to bring the Knights back to prominence in the future, and that’s been our position as well; this article makes us feel confident about that prediction.

The Niagara Gazette’s Jonah Bronstein invites all Western New Yorkers to come out and see native son Jimmer Fredette when he and BYU arrive at Buffalo tonight to play the Bulls. Bronstein and UB head coach Reggie Witherspoon anoint Fredette as the best player “ever to visit Western New York,” which we assume to mean UB’s Alumni Arena in this case. Bold claim, but the gentlemen make an interesting case.

We’ve heard from so many people rooting for Northwestern to finally make the NCAA Tournament this season. Chicago Sports Guru takes a look at some NU stats and offers an intriguing breakdown of the Wildcats’ remaining schedule. And we’re totally diggin’ the “John and Juice” reference in the article’s title — strong work, fellas. Despite the 9-1 start, though, KenPom projects a 18-11 (8-10) final record for the ‘Cats, but six of those crystal-ball Ls are predicted to be by four points or less. The next chance for NU to change fate (that is, the next KenPom-predicted L) is this Friday at Purdue. KenPom gives the Wildcats a 12% chance of winning. Ouch.