RTC contributor and bracketologist Zach Hayes will deliver ten permeating thoughts every Tuesday as the season progresses.

I’m taking a bit of a detour from our normal Ten Tuesday Scribbles format this time around. Rather than list and discuss ten players/teams/developments in college basketball that caught my eye this past week, I figure this would be an opportune time to properly gauge the debate-friendly National Player of the Year race. Here’s my top ten ranking of the players I feel are most deserving of capturing this esteemed award when the season comes to a close.

10.  Jacob Pullen (Kansas State)– The 2-15 FG, 0-6 3pt stinkbomb last night against Avery Bradley and Texas puts a bit of a damper on this ranking, but dropping him out of this list would be remiss given his phenomenal junior campaign to date. Pullen has put together some spectacular performances against quality opponents, including 26/5/4 against Dayton in Puerto Rico, 28/6 on 10-16 FG against UNLV in Vegas and one of the best shooting efforts of the season in a win at Alabama: 30 points on 10-15 FG, 4-4 FT and 6-9 3pt. While Pullen has encountered a bit of a shooting slump since, he’s still one of the quickest guards in the nation with one of the smoothest jump shots. Jamar Samuels and Curtis Kelly led the way last night, and backcourt mate Denis Clemente is also potent, but coach Frank Martin knows how Pullen plays will determine how far the streaking Wildcats can go this season.

9. Jimmer Fredette (BYU)- A bout with mild mononucleosis has slowed down the explosive Fredette in recent weeks, but the complimentary pieces on a super-talented BYU team have certainly picked up the slack en route to a glamorous 18-1 record. Fredette is the catalyst and offensive machine that makes Dave Rose’s offense work, utilizing 31% of BYU’s offensive possessions and scoring at a clip below 20 per contest. Fredette shoots a stellar 44% from deep, 50% from two-point range and a remarkable 91% from the charity stripe. The junior guard isn’t just an explosive scorer, though, ranking 58^th in the nation in assist rate. He’s best known for one of the best individual performances of the season at Arizona on December 28. Fredette scored 49 points on 16/23 FG and 9/13 from three to go along with nine assists and seven rebounds. Mono doesn’t seem to be slowing down Fredette too dramatically, either. This past Saturday against Colorado State, Fredette scored 21 points in just 24 minutes.

8. Quincy Pondexter (Washington)– Always a player blessed with tremendous length and talent, Pondexter had been a bit of an enigma during his career at Washington, showing glimpses of stardom but unable to maintain any sort of consistency. This year, the 6’6 senior has molded into a bona fide superstar. The last five Pac-10 games are a perfect example of how important Pondexter is to the fortunes of the Huskies, even more so than sophomore point guard Isaiah Thomas. After defeating Oregon State, Washington lost their next three games in conference and Pondexter totaled just 32 points in those three contests while battling foul trouble. Washington has rebounded nicely with two blowout wins on their rocking home floor in which the lanky forward has scored 52 points on 19/31 FG and 12/12 FT. Overall though, Pondexter’s senior season has been of the consistent variety, scoring 20.3 PPG and grabbing nearly eight boards per game while shooting 56% from the floor.

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Now that we’re starting to get into the meat of the college basketball conference we are starting to get quality games on a regular basis which means that we will be having the return of our regular feature. There isn’t a “blockbuster” game tonight like Texas-Kansas State, but there are 3 games that feature potential NCAA tournament teams matching up against each other that are worth keeping an eye on while you try to catch up on the last two hours of 24.

Northwestern at #25 Ohio State at 7 PM on Big Ten Network: This is clearly a big game for both teams. As has you may have heard (from basically every site covering college basketball) Northwestern has never made the NCAA tournament, but despite the loss of Kevin Coble the Wildcats are firmly on the bubble this year. A victory over Evan Turner and the Buckeyes in Columbus would be a big boost following their upset win at home over a Purdue team that is rapidly falling apart (more on this in a bit). To knock off the Buckeyes in Columbus (where they are undefeated this season), they will need big games from John Shurna (16.8 PPG and 7.1 RPG) and Michael Thompson (14.4 PPG and 4.4 APG with a 2.7 to 1 assist to TO ratio). The key for Thad Matta‘s squad will be Evan Turner being Evan Turner (my choice for national POY) and someone else (David Lighty, Jon Diebler, or William Buford–all averaging 13.3 PPG) helping him out so the Wildcats can’t throw double teams at Turner all night. As much as the Northwestern story intrigues us, we suspect that tonight will not help their case as The Villain and the Buckeyes should be able to hold on for the win, but given what happened this weekend a Big Ten upset wouldn’t shock us.

#16 Clemson at #18 Georgia Tech at 7 PM on ESPN2 and ESPN360.com: For the Duke haters out there, this game could be viewed as a match-up of the two teams most likely to challenge the Blue Devils in the ACC this season (we’re almost ready to give up on UNC this season). Paul Hewett”s Yellow Jackets have been maddeningly inconsistent alternating between wins against Duke and UNC and losses against Georgia and Virginia. Meanwhile, Oliver Purnell‘s Tigers have started off with their customary impressive early season record with their only losses coming against Duke, Texas A&M, and Illinois with a majority of their wins coming against a bunch of cupcakes in non-conference play (ok, the Xavier win was nice) and they just blew out UNC in Littlejohn Coliseum. The key to this game will be the match-up on the inside with Trevor Booker (15.4 PPG and 8.3 RPG) going up against Gani Lawal (15.2 PPG and 9.2 RPG) and Derrick Favors (11.5 PPG and 8.6 RPG). Despite the Yellow Jackets’ inconsistency lately, we’re going to go with the homecourt and the fact that we never trust Clemson in big games here.

#15 Purdue at Illinois at 9 PM on ESPN and ESPN360.com: The big question here is how the Boilermakers will respond to Matt Painter calling out the entire team except for Robbie Hummel and E’Twaun Moore after their three-game losing streak. The key for Illinois will be if they can get Demetri McCamey going against Chris Kramer. They will probably rely on their running him through a bunch of screen in their motion offense (ESPN Insider required) to get Kramer off of him. On the other side of the ball, Purdue needs JaJuan Johnson to start playing like the All-Big Ten player that he is and not the guy who scored 17 points combined in their last three games (all losses). If Purdue plays the way they did early in the season, they are clearly capable of pulling off the road win. Given the experience on the Boilermakers team, we’re going to go with them bouncing back on the road against Bruce Weber and the Illini.

WOW.  284 of the 345 Division I college basketball teams are in action on Saturday, and an inordinate number of those games are being broadcast on TV somewhere.  We all know what happened last week — an upset-lover’s dream, with a wave of surprising results that started about halfway through the day and kept rolling through Sunday night.  And then we had the equally compelling performances by Villanova’s Scottie Reynolds on Monday night and the Robbie Hummel/Evan Turner show on Tuesday.  What will this weekend bring?  If you check the schedule, many of these match-ups are pretty intriguing, with quite a few highly-ranked teams heading into the home lairs of some squads that really need wins (Purdue at Northwestern comes to mind, where we’ll be courtside with RTC Live).  There are some excellent early games of which we’ll be keeping track, starting off with an incredible (not to mention VITAL for both teams) A-10 game involving Dayton at Xavier at 11 AM ET.  How about a little bit of #5 Syracuse visiting #9 West Virginia at noon?  Maybe you’d prefer a couple of angry ACC teams coming off of losses with #18 Georgia Tech traveling to Chapel Hill to say howdy to #13 North Carolina at 2 PM ET?  Well, whatever hoops we can find (and as I say, it is everywhere this weekend), we’ll be live-blogging it here for most of the day, not to mention we have two OTHER RTC Lives we have in store in addition to the aforementioned Purdue/Northwestern: Arizona at Oregon at 4:30 PM ET, and Portland at Saint Mary’s at 10 PM ET.  We’ll be here starting at about 11 AM for the first game, so get that refresh-button finger warmed up and join us — and better yet, let us know what you’re watching and what’s on your mind.  See you in a bit!

11:00: So here we go with Dayton at Xavier.  What a rivalry, and what a way to start the day!  This is something like the 4,286th meeting between these two schools (OK, actually 115th, I think).  Both teams are currently undefeated in the A-10, and this one would REALLY look good on the ol’ NCAA Tournament resume’.

11:10: I’m sitting here wondering what sort of high-flying exploits Dayton’s Chris Wright will have on display.  It’s also fun to watch Dayton coach Brian Gregory on the sideline; he’s a high-energy guy, not that Chris Mack’s not.  Gregory is one of those coaches where, if you’re just talking basketball with him, you want to ask him, “Hey, are there some lines I can run for you?  Could I do a couple of miles out on the track?”  In other words, he’s a good motivator.

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There are some REALLY good games on tonight and many of them will be somewhere on the tube, so we figured tonight we’d step up with a special edition of our weekend live-blogging feature.  To start off, we’ll be checking on Boston College at Duke (ESPN), Pittsburgh at Connecticut (ESPN2), and Cincinnati at St. John’s (ESPN-U), and we’ll branch out to other networks as well throughout the night.  We want to know what you’re watching, as well.  Keep hitting that refresh button and we’ll see you in the comments section.  It’ll all start off momentarily…

7:03 pm ET: Wow, where to start?  This is a ridiculous night of hoops.  SO many games on, which is why we’re here.  The first thing I notice is the wardrobe symmetry between play-by-play man Rece Davis (?!?) and Bobby Knight.  Both in the v-neck sweaters.  Is it good when Bobby Knight is influencing your wardrobe choices?  I guess Rece can make it work.

7:07: Yeesh.  Not exactly a good trip for Nolan Smith.  A missed dunk and then a missed 10-foot jumper from almost behind the backboard.  Meanwhile, over on the Big Ten Network, Minnesota is keeping up with Michigan State early; MSU has a 24-21 lead at the under-4 TVTO.  I’m especially fired up for this UConn-Pitt game.  Can Pitt continue this ascent after being basically forgotten about in the early part of this season?  Up on the Huskies early in Storrs…

7:20: UConn looks like a YMCA club team.  They’re straight up on defense, if you can call it that.  At this point they seem severely uninterested.  Pitt has guys moving on offense without the ball, talking on defense, etc.  That’s how you build an early ten point lead on a team in their own house.

7:23: Maybe that Jerome Dyson dunk will get UConn going.  UConn’s strategy is obvious, and that’s to run Pitt into the ground.  UConn scored on four straight possessions so it looks like they’ve finally shown up mentally.  But what’s this?  Interesting score…South Florida up at home on West Virginia 23-12 over on ESPN 360 with about 7:00 left in the first.  Virginia has an early lead on Georgia Tech and BC just got a NICE dunk by Reggie Jackson to go up one on Duke.

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Jason Prziborowski is the RTC correspondent for the Big Ten Conference.

Three things from the past week:

• Purdue suffers first loss of the season – Well, the pundits got it right this time around. Pundits 1, Jason 0. Purdue just couldn’t get it done against Wisconsin up at the Kohl Center, so they will have to figure out how to get done at Mackey later in the season. Unbeatens losing is in style right now, as Kansas decided to follow up with a loss of their own to Tennessee. Read about Kansas here: Kansas Goes Down
• Minnesota bounces back and takes out the Buckeyes – I will save Evan Turner’s stats for the Ohio State section, but will dedicate this portion to Blake Hoffarber. Talk about a sharpshooter. Blake filled up the stat sheet with a career high 27 points, hitting six 3-pointers in the second half alone. The Gophers will have to get it done against Michigan State next, a much tougher test than OSU.
• Jon Leuer breaks wrist – The good news: Wisconsin beat Purdue. The bad news: the collateral damage from that victory was a broken wrist by Jon Leuer. Leuer was the second leading scorer, and having a 15.4/6.2 year. They will need to figure out where to get his numbers and big body for the rest of the year, as he was the lone soldier inside for the Badgers. If you want to read more about Leuer’s wrist, here is a good one: Leuer breaks wrist, out indefinitely
• Don’t question Evan Turner’s backbone(s) — We’ll have more coverage of the OSU win at Purdue in next week’s Big Ten update, but suffice to say for now that Turner is back in the POY race and OSU got a big win despite a first half for the ages by Robbie Hummel:  Full RTC coverage here.

Now three Big Ten teams are in the top 25: Purdue #6, Michigan State #7, and Wisconsin #13.

Power Rankings (before Tuesday’s games, though records are updated):

1. Purdue                                   14-2, 2-2
2. Michigan State                  13-3, 3-0
3. Wisconsin                            13-3, 3-1
4. Minnesota                          12-4, 3-1
5. Ohio State                           12-5, 2-3
6. Illinois                                   12-5, 4-0
7. Northwestern                   12-3, 1-2
8. Michigan                              8-7, 2-2
9. Indiana                                 7-8, 1-2
10. Penn State                          8-8, 0-4
11. Iowa                                      6-11, 0-4

Top Story:

• The Big Ten separation continues – The three teams that have been in the AP Top 25 all year continue to do well in the Big Ten, and continue to get closer in the rankings. Teams in the middle of the pack are Northwestern, Ohio State, and Illinois, with Minnesota floating between the two. Illinois has had a great schedule thus far, but I don’t think they can continue their run much longer.

Coming Up:

• Ohio State 70,  Purdue 66 – Right, this isn’t “coming up,” but needs mentioned here.  Ohio State has Turner back, and he is putting up ridiculous stats again, but the rest of his team isn’t following suit, though William Buford’s 19/7 were a big help on Tuesday night. The ridiculous stats belonged to Purdue’s Robbie Hummel, at least in the first half, as he hit eight treys and hung 29 on the Bucks.  But OSU knew how they could send a message by pulling out this game, and they got it, largely on the back (*ahem*) of Turner, who had 23 of his 32 points in the second half. Purdue doesn’t have the same target on their back as they did when they were undefeated, but they’re still a great squad that will be projected deep into the NCAA Tournament, so this was still a vital road win for the Buckeyes.
• Minnesota @ Michigan State – January 13^th – 6:30 ET – Minnesota is on a roll, disposing of Ohio State at home, but they now they must venture to MSU to take on the Spartans at home. If the Gophers can hit from 3-point land like they have been, this will be a battle.
• Wisconsin @ Ohio State – January 16^th – 8:00 ET – Ohio State got trounced at the Kohl Center, but as opponents from all over are finding out, it is a place where a lot of fine teams go to die. The Buckeyes are hoping to keep riding the momentum from the win at Purdue, and this will be a good test for Wisconsin to see how they play without Jon Leuer. The Badgers should pull it out, but if the rest of the Bucks step up to anywhere near Evan Turner’s level, it could get really interesting.
• Illinois @ Michigan State – January 16^th – 3:30 ET CBS – The battle of the unbeatens, at least at this point anyway. Illinois shouldn’t lose to Penn State, but it could be a tough one for Michigan State against Minnesota. They should have the edge at home. It’s quickness versus power in this one. Illinois is quick and MSU is powerful. I say the edge goes to the Spartans.

Breaking It Down:

• Purdue knocked off the mountain. Now there are only two unbeatens left in the country, and Purdue isn’t one of them. Now it’s back to reality for Purdue, as they have been a blue collar type of team, and Wisconsin out-blue-collared them at home. Purdue would do well to forget the OSU game, and gear up for Wisconsin again at the end of the month at Mackey Arena. A couple of positives for Purdue in the losses to Wisconsin and OSU  were E’Twaun Moore’s 24 points on 10-14 from the field and 2-3 from long range against the Badgers, and you know about Robbie Hummel’s first-half exploits against OSU, shooting 8-10 from three and 9-11 for the half, overall.
• The Spartans are nipping at the Boilermaker’s heels. If we are playing the matchup game as I like to play, Michigan State is the top team in the Big Ten right now. How so? Michigan State beat Wisconsin, who then beat Purdue. Of course those games don’t determine much, because, last night’s OSU-Purdue game notwithstanding, it is apparent how rare a road win is going to be this year in the Big Ten. The Spartans took care of the Badgers at home, and then the Badgers took care of Purdue at home. MSU needs to take care of business at home against Minnesota to continue its unbeaten streak in the Big Ten. Kalin Lucas needs to continue to lead, as Coach Izzo expects it every game out.
• Wisconsin riding high, but what about Leuer? I have already mentioned the victory over Purdue as well as the injury to Jon Leuer, so I won’t spend too much time on those things here. One quick point about Leuer is similar in nature to the Evan Turner injury to OSU, except that instead of being a point guard, he is a 6’10 post presence, something that Wisconsin is otherwise lacking. They need to get points from a couple of other guys, maybe even freshmen. I am sure Bo Ryan will figure out a way to make up for this loss. Northwestern will have more to say about what kind of effect this will have on the Badgers, though, only to be followed up with Ohio State with Evan Turner right after.
• Ohio State has Evan Turner, needs supporting cast. Okay, so how well is Evan Turner playing since coming back from his fractured back? Well, I don’t know most guys who, in their second game back, are leading their team in every single category that stats track.  His numbers from the Minnesota game: 19/8/7/4 stls/2 blks. Talk about a cascading waterfall of ridiculous stats for anyone, let alone a guy who just returned from a broken back. Now that he is back to almost triple-double form, other guys need to step up, or see the season go down the drain, and quickly at that. The scheduling committee didn’t take it lightly, though, and there won’t be too much time to celebrate the comeback against Purdue, with Wisconsin up next.
• Minnesota is climbing the mountain, but where is base camp? Minnesota shut down Ohio State, but got smoked by Purdue, so I think they are finding that they are likely to be the fourth team in the Big Ten. Fourth is probably good enough to get into the tournament if they keep it up. Anything over #4 in the Big Ten is probably out of their reach though, as Purdue, MSU, and Wisconsin are all better teams. They could drop lower, though, so they need to continue to focus and beat teams that they should, especially like they did to OSU at home.
• Illinois is perfect so far. Thank Indiana and Northwestern for making Mike Tisdale look like an all-American. I will give it to Tisdale, as I saw him play on Saturday; the guy has a good stroke, and he can knock down free throws. He did have a couple of easy dunks, and all of that got him to 27 points against the Hoosiers. When a team shoots 39 free throws they should win, especially if they knock down 27 of them.   He didn’t exactly slow down against Penn State on Tuesday putting up 16/13.  Led by Demetri McCamey’s 25 points (including five threes), Illinois took out Penn State but they’ll run into a wall against Michigan State. They are quick, but they make too many mistakes to beat a solid team like the Spartans.
• Northwestern gets up, will they fall again? The Wildcats recovered from their 0-2 start in conference by taking down Michigan, confirming that Michigan should be in the bottom half of the conference, but not showing where Northwestern should end up quite yet. Drew Crawford came alive again and took over scoring responsibility, pouring in 25 points. The bad news: they have Wisconsin, Purdue, and Ohio State coming up. Could be a while before they get another win. 
• Michigan will have to settle for a spoiler. It’s official: Michigan has two players, and they won’t be going to the tournament. It’s disappointing for Michigan that they were so overhyped to begin the season, and now they are getting beaten by teams like Northwestern and Indiana. They do have the potential to ruin someone else’s season, so I hope they can do that.
• Indiana is a great first half team. Once again, I went to another home game, and through half time, thought that Indiana had a great chance to pull off an upset against the Illini. What it came down to in this game was free throws. Illinois shot a ton of them and hit a lot, whereas Indiana couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn from the free throw line when it counted at the end. More maturation of these players will have to occur before they can hit clutch free throws. Their next test is to try to beat a Michigan team that they beat at home, only this time on the road. They really need a road win to get their confidence back.
• Penn State is hoping for a sunny day. January 16^th will be a special day for Penn State. That will be the day that they get their first Big Ten win. That game is at Iowa, so it will be a tough road test, but if there is a game that should be winnable for Penn State, that’s the one. If not, Indiana at home on the 21^st is one that should be close.
• Iowa gets their 6th, against Tennessee State. Not much to say about Iowa. If they hadn’t beaten 4-14 Tennessee State I don’t know where they would have gotten their next win. Maybe they can pull off a home win against Penn State.  We’ll have to wait and see.

Hummel vs. Turner.  Ohio State 70, #6 Purdue 66.  Evidently Robbie Hummel got tired of hearing about how great Villanova’s Scottie Reynolds was last night.  My favorite tweet last night from a hoop-o-phile friend came in two parts: “What do Robbie Hummel and a Swarthmore sorority have in common?  They both have a lot of threes.”  Hummel came out and hit eight shots from behind the arc in the first half, setting off a chain reaction of texts, tweets, and phone calls that rivaled the second half of Tennessee vs Kansas a couple of nights ago.  Hummel tied a school record in the first half — meaning a record for a whole game — with his eight treys, also adding a two and, for completeness’ sake, a trio of free throws to end the half with 29 points, equaling Ohio State’s output for the half.  That’s right.  At halftime, it was OSU 29, Robbie Hummel 29.  Here’s the problem, though.  The rest of the Purdue squad contributed only 12 points in the first half on five field goals.  The halftime lead was 41-29, and if you were watching this one you never felt like the Buckeyes had been put away.  You also saw Evan Turner get a little more confident in his movement and ability to take contact with each trip down the floor.  In the second half it was almost like Turner was waiting to see how much his teammates would contribute before wresting control of this game.  And that he did.  This thing looked like a done deal just before the under-4 TV time-out with Purdue up 62-52.  Turner then went on a 14-0 run by himself, and in doing so, not only put OSU in a position to win with a 64-62 lead, but vaulted himself back into the talk for Player of the Year…as one of the two favorites.  OSU simply outhustled Purdue down the stretch and, with Turner solidly back as master and commander, were effectively unfazed by Purdue’s tight defense in both the half- and full-court sets.  Purdue never so much as tied the score after Turner’s 14-0 run.  Two William Buford (19/7) free throws with 16 seconds left closed the scoring and sealed the unlikely Buckeye victory.  Robbie Hummel’s first half was legendary, there’s no question.  And it had a lot of flash (something you don’t necessarily think of when you think of Purdue basketball), since 24 of the 29 points were from threes.  We don’t mean to drag down Hummel’s 35/10 night, but Evan Turner had 23 of his 32 in the second half, and considering whom he did it against, where it was done, and the fact that he did it while playing all 40 minutes with two bones still healing in his spinal column, we think it’s an easy call to say that Turner’s second-half 23 was more impressive than Hummel’s first-half 29, even though that probably won’t be the popular opinion.  There’s one thing on which everyone can agree, though, after what we saw from Evan Turner tonight: his backbone is not to be questioned.

Turner is Back

Kentucky Remains Unbeaten.  #2 Kentucky 89, Florida 77.  In an era of college basketball where many teams (even in the Top 25) have barely a single serviceable point guard, John Calipari’s team boasts two.  Everyone knows about the spectacular John Wall, but it might just be his backcourt mate Eric Bledsoe who has the longer-lasting impact on the UK program (think: Brandan Wright’s vs. Tyler Hansbrough’s careers at UNC).  Tonight Bledsoe scored in just about every way imaginable — driving, twisting layups, mid-range jumpers, three-pointers — as he dropped 25/7/5 assts/3 stls on a Florida team that appears to be going nowhere fast.  Think about how far this Gator program has fallen since the “04s” left Gainesville.  With a record of 11-5 (0-2 SEC) and an RPI rating in the 80s (and dropping), a third straight NIT is looking like a realistic possibility.  When is it acceptable to openly question whether Billy Donovan simply caught lightning in a bottle with that spectacular recruiting class to win back-to-back national titles in 2006 and 2007?  It’s utterly ridiculous that he hasn’t been able to sustain the success of at program after winning back-to-back (it’s not like we’re asking for F4s; a simple NCAA second round would be nice at this point).  As for Kentucky, the Cats moved to a still-perfect 17-0 and broke a five-game losing streak in Gainesville tonight while shooting 52% and answering every run that Florida made (including the start of the game when the fans were wild, and a late run to tie the game at 72-all).  We’re on record as saying that when UK loses (and they will), it will be in a situation where the young players are not focused because they do not respect the opponent — they were clearly focused for Florida.  John Wall added 19/4/6 assts and Patrick Patterson had 15/7, while Florida got 20/4 from Erving Walker who almost singlehandedly brought the Gators back into the game late.  According to Pomeroy, UK will be favored in every game it plays until February 16 at Mississippi State, but we have a sneaky suspicion that one of these ‘lesser’ teams will give the Cats their first loss (@ South Carolina is our best guess).

More Upsets!

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Zach Hayes is RTC’s resident bracketologist plus author of the weekly Ten Tuesday Scribbles and Bubble Watch columns.

With college football crowning another faux-national champion Thursday night in Pasadena, the college sports scene can officially shift its axis to basketball. While a number of college basketball diehards such as yours truly were knee-deep in mid-major box scores and enthralling non-conference tournaments since the season tipped off in mid-November, it’s perfectly understandable for our college football-fan brethren out there to have been entranced in the gridiron scene during this time. For many folks out there, college basketball truly begins when a football champion is crowned and conference play heats up, when Rece and the gang show up on our TVs every Saturday morning at 11 AM and the bubble begins to take its early shape. For those people, you sure missed plenty of exciting hoops action. To get you caught up in what has gone down thus far on the hardwood, here’s a summary for your enjoyment, divvied up into the six major conferences and all the rest:

ACC

What we’ve learned: There was much back-and-forth debate entering this season whether Duke or North Carolina represented the class of this conference. After two solid months of play, it’s fairly evident Duke has separated themselves from their bitter rival as the class of the ACC. While the Tar Heels may top Duke skill-wise up front, Carolina simply does not boast the backcourt to even contend with the Dukies’ tandem of Jon Scheyer and Nolan Smith. The primary knock on Duke heading into this season was point guard play with Elliot Williams transferring to Memphis. As a true sharp-shooting 2-guard who creates his shots coming off screens in Redick-like fashion, could Scheyer handle the responsibility of running the Duke offense? The answer has been resounding in the affirmative: 19.7 PPG, 46% FG, 92% FT, 43% 3pt and an otherworldly 4.8 A/TO ratio that currently leads the nation. Another key to Duke’s early season success has been Coach K’s willingness to adjust his defense to fit his roster. Rather than employing the normal Duke on-ball pressure attack, Krzyzewski is utilizing more of a sagging defense that plays into the frontcourt depth Duke enjoys with six players that receive time at 6’8 or taller.

Scheyer Has His Devils Looking Great This Season

What’s still to be determined: After Duke and Carolina (and let’s not go overboard following the Heels loss to Charleston, they’re still clearly the second best team in this conference), who will emerge as the third contender behind the top two dogs? An ever-shifting proposition, the current edge probably goes to Florida State despite their utter lack of point guard play. The Seminoles are one of the tallest teams in the nation and have a few capable long-range shooters that get open looks when defenses collapse on Solomon Alabi and Chris Singleton. Plus, they’re off to a head start with a December win at ACC foe Georgia Tech. Plenty of folks think Clemson could be that team behind powerful big man Trevor Booker, but they lack a second scoring option and I can’t stop thinking back to their collapse at home to an inexperienced Illinois squad. It would be unwise to count out Gary Williams, and the jury’s still out on Virginia Tech and Miami due to their soft schedules, so I’ll give the current edge to Wake Forest as that third team. The road win at Gonzaga’s on-campus arena stands out, Ish Smith has turned into a fine point guard and Al-Farouq Aminu has as much pure talent as anyone in this conference.

NCAA Locks: Duke, North Carolina.

Likely bids: Clemson, Florida State, Wake Forest.

Bubble teams: Georgia Tech, Maryland, Miami (FL), Virginia Tech.

Make other plans for March: Boston College, North Carolina State, Virginia.

Big East

What we’ve learned: The NCAA picture is shaping up quite similarly to last season when Louisville (regular season champion), Pittsburgh and Connecticut all received #1 seeds. There will be much back-and-forth debate about whether the top three teams this season — Syracuse, West Virginia and Villanova –– holds the edge in this conference, but does it really matter? Right now you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn’t think Kansas, Texas, Kentucky and Purdue are the likely #1 seeds (of course plenty could change, we have two months of games left), while those top contenders in the Big East are likely all on the second seed line. Even of greater importance though is the obvious revelation that Jamie Dixon can coach basketball. You wouldn’t be alone if you counted out Pittsburgh following a near-loss to Wofford, a 47-point output at home vs. New Hampshire and a second half butt-kicking at the hands of Indiana, but those losses came without their most athletic player, Gilbert Brown, and their best defender, Jermaine Dixon. Those two have returned to action with the most improved Big East player Ashton Gibbs (who recently broke the all-time Pitt record for consecutive free throws made) as a fearsome trio that has carried the Panthers to road wins over previously-undefeated Syracuse and fringe-top 25 Cincinnati. If Dixon is able to coax his Panthers into a NCAA Tournament team after losing such enormous production and leadership in Sam Young, DeJuan Blair and Levance Fields, there is little debate on his merits as National Coach of the Year.

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The (Big) Red Scare. #1 Kansas 71, Cornell 66.  Normally, an early January game between a top-ranked Kansas squad and…well, pretty much any Ivy League school sounds about as thrilling as getting the measles twice.  Tonight was different.  Cornell came into Kansas’ dreaded Allen Fieldhouse already with a few wins over big-conference teams like Alabama, Massachusetts, and St. John’s.  They were riding the momentum of a ten-game winning streak and could boast a kid in Ryan Wittman who is nothing close to a kept secret any more.  Wittman (24/4/3 assts), a 6’6 long-range bomber averaging 19 PPG and 44% from distance, had appeared on various “best outside shooters” lists (including ours) and already had people wondering if Cornell was actually good enough to get in as an at-large team this year.  But this is no ordinary place or opponent.  This is Kansas, and this is Allen Fieldhouse, they of the 50-game home winning streak and current #1-ranking that, to be honest, hasn’t really been challenged yet.  It was close from the start; neither team led by more than three in the first half, and Cornell actually led at the break by that margin.  You still had the feeling, though, that this was one of those games in which Kansas would come out in the second half and end it early.  We’ve all seen this game before, right?  A team hangs around for a half by playing the best 20 minutes of basketball they’ve ever played, like Mike McD thinking he’s going to complete his run on Teddy KGB’s place.  We all know it’s a matter of time until Kansas turns over the two aces and sends whatever upstart they’re facing back to law school, a bratty Gretchen Mol, and Joey Knish’s delivery truck, right?  But when Cornell jumped on the Jayhawks to start the second half and extended their lead to eight, panic began to take root.  With Kansas up 53-47 with 9:45 left, the calls, texts, and more frequent network updates started.  When Kansas had still failed to reclaim the lead with under five minutes left, it was on.  Upset alert.  #1 is in trouble.  And it’s an Ivy League team. I mean, come on — ESPN even broke off of a DUKE GAME to provide bonus coverage!  Kansas, elevated by the home crowd, would eventually break free from Cornell’s expert control of the pace and take a 61-60 lead with 4:03 left, and you got the feeling that Cornell was done.  They would actually take the lead once more at 64-63 with less than a minute left, but Sherron Collins decided it was time to take over.  Handling the ball almost exclusively for Kansas, Collins (33/4/3) scored his team’s last eight points and four out of five FTs down the stretch.  Give Cornell credit for going for the kill, though.  Down 66-64, they found Wittman off a screen with 29 seconds left and he was never thinking about a two.  He would miss that three, and a later one to tie, and Kansas would eventually prevail.  This was probably the worst thing that could happen to the rest of the Big 12, since now Kansas has learned (if they weren’t aware before) not to take their position for granted, and they know there’s no such thing as a night off.  Coaches secretly love these close games early in the season because it empowers and tempers your squad, making them tougher for eventual tournament games.  As for Cornell…if the committee still considers “quality losses,” it doesn’t get much more quality than this one — to #1 Kansas, in their house, a 50-game home win streak on the line.  The Big Red will probably gain Top 25 votes from this, and it should actually help their curb appeal.  So, hands up, who wants to see Cornell opposite them as a first round opponent on Selection Sunday??  Yeah, we thought not.

Evan Turner Triumphantly Returns.  Ohio State 79, Indiana 54.  OSU wasn’t going to lose this game at home regardless of whether Turner played or not, but his presence on the court was apparent in terms of inspiring confidence in his teammates and his ability to share the ball.  He played twenty minutes, contributed 8/4/5 assts while committing three fouls, but most importantly, he didn’t really appear rusty out there other than the first few sets.  The only thing that kept him from playing more than half the game was early foul trouble, but the most important takeaway from this blowout game was that it was obvious to anyone who has watched the Buckeyes play without Turner that everyone else appeared comfortable again.  Jon Diebler in particular was the primary beneficiary, as he had a 21/3 assts/3 stls night on 5-8 from three without having to worry about running the offense (along with William Buford) nearly as much.  Turner said afterwards that the eight-week prognosis originally suggested by OSU officials was a bit of a hedge, and he was only out of commission for 4.5 weeks, but all that matters now is that Turner is back in the lineup and OSU should be back in contention for the Big Ten title and the Top 25 in short order.

Unreal Score of the Night.  Seattle 99, Oregon State 48.  Right now Craig Robinson’s numbers are looking even worse than his brother-in-law’s, as Seattle — barely a D1 school, as a brand-new Independent — came into Corvallis and obliterated the Beavers in their own building.  A 58-21 second half is simply unconscionable for a Pac-10 team playing at home against a mid-major of any kind.  Seriously, even Gonzaga with Adam Morrison, Dan Dickau and Austin Daye all starting shouldn’t be able to do what the Redhawks did to Oregon State tonight.  Cameron Dollar should be proud of his team with road wins over Utah and OSU this season already, and circle 1/26 on your calendar as Seattle will visit crosstown rival Washington for another program-making shot at glory.  

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This has been buzzing around for 24 hours, but it’s now been confirmed by Jeff Goodman that Ohio State superstar and November NPOY favorite Evan Turner will return to the court this evening in the Buckeyes’ home game against Indiana.  It was a little bizarre how everyone in Hoops Nation seemed to forget about Turner as soon as he broke several vertebrae in his back in a nasty fall versus Eastern Michigan.  We wrote in this space a month ago that Ohio State would be lucky to go .500 while he was out (expecting him to be on the mend until early February), and they’ve gone 3-3, losing all of their away games.  After tonight’s game against IU, the Buckeyes face games at Minnesota and Purdue, with a home game against Wisconsin.  OSU needs Turner back on the floor, and in a big way.  Even if he’s not 100% tonight or this weekend, his presence will go a long way toward keeping his team focused and calm.  This is great news for the Buckeyes, and even better news for college basketball. 

Jason Prziborowski is the RTC correspondent for the Big Ten Conference.

Three things from the past week:

• Big Ten takes down Big East – Purdue beats West Virginia. If anyone tuned in, it was pretty clear that Purdue deserves its #4 ranking, while proving that the Big Ten can hang with the Big East. As an aside, Pittsburgh is currently 3-0 in the Big East, taking down Syracuse for its first loss. Reminder: Indiana beat Pittsburgh earlier this year.  Check out the story here at ATB – New Year’s Weekend
• Cinderella lost her slipper – Unfortunately for Northwestern, its early season Cinderella had a setback on its way to the Big Dance. Northwestern sneezed, and now find themselves out of the top 25 after losses to Illinois and Michigan State.
• The Bucks got scratched – I could have predicted the Wisconsin game, especially up in Madison, although I didn’t think it was going to be a 20 point blowout. The one that shocked me though, was the loss to Michigan, especially after they were coming off an upset loss to Indiana. It is pretty clear that the current OSU team cannot contend in the Big Ten. Can Evan Turner come out and play? Hopefully sooner than later.

Now three Big Ten teams are in the top 25: Purdue #4, Michigan State #10, and Wisconsin #17.

Power Rankings

1. Purdue    14-0, 2-0
2. Michigan State    11-3, 1-0
3. Wisconsin    12-2, 2-0
4. Ohio State    10-4, 0-2
5. Minnesota    11-4, 2-1
6. Illinois    10-5, 2-0
7. Northwestern    10-3, 0-2
8. Michigan    7-6, 1-1
9. Indiana    7-6, 1-0
10. Penn State    8-6, 0-2
11. Iowa    5-10, 0-3

Top Story

• Big 10 Madness has begun – Conference play started this past week in the Big Ten, and they didn’t disappoint. Indiana loses Maurice Creek, their top scorer and player, and then they upset Michigan at home. Michigan, not to be outdone, gets revenge for what their football team couldn’t do against OSU. Wisconsin, not wanting to miss out, blows out both OSU and PSU. Surprisingly, only Michigan and Minnesota have at least a win and a loss. Everyone else either hasn’t lost, or hasn’t won.

Coming Up

• Wisconsin @ Michigan State – January 6^th – 6:30 ET – Unless things change with Purdue, this is really the game that decides who will be in 2^nd place. Wisconsin hasn’t ventured out of Madison much this year, so hopefully MSU can capitalize at home.
• Purdue @ Wisconsin – January 9^th – 1:30 ET – Apparently the pundits are saying that this game is the one that Purdue will lose, but depending on what happens when the Badgers take on the Spartans, this could be the game that really separates Purdue from the pack.  Check out what the pundits say about the four teams who are left chasing perfection: Four Teams Chasing Perfection
• Ohio State @ Minnesota – January 9^th – 3:30 ET – Ohio State is clearly vulnerable, and this game could show just how vulnerable. I think that Purdue will hand it to the Gophers on the 5^th at Mackey, but Minnesota is tough at home, and OSU is not at full strength. The Bucks could fall even further. This isn’t even factoring in what happens with the Indiana @ OSU game.

Breaking It Down

• Purdue is one of four left still standing. Purdue now has a huge bull’s eye on its back. As one of only four teams left unbeaten, it will make a team’s season to take down Purdue. If Purdue’s Big Three in Hummel, Johnson, and Moore can duplicate what they did against West Virginia, any team in the land will have their hands full.
• The Spartans took care of business. Like I said last week, good teams are supposed to win games against opponents who aren’t as good, and that’s exactly what MSU did against Northwestern. Tom Izzo hasn’t been happy with the leadership on this team all year, and he benched Kalin Lucas as a result. Lucas got the message loud and clear, and brought his A-game against the Wildcats. He and others will have to bring much more against Wisconsin.
• Wisconsin shifting gears to spring ahead in the Big Ten. I have already mentioned plenty about Wisconsin both in the games to watch, and what happened in the last week, so I will keep it brief here. Wisconsin had a pretty good draw in their first games, given that they played an Evan Turner-less OSU and then Penn State. They don’t have the good fortune of that continuing, with upcoming games against MSU and Purdue.
• Ohio State needs a recovery game, and quick. I have talked plenty about OSU, so I will just mention their upcoming game against Indiana. Clearly this is a home game for OSU, so they should take care of business, but if they slip and Indiana brings its varsity team, OSU could be 0-4 if Minnesota doesn’t let them off the hook at home.
• Minnesota got two bye games, but now has to climb a mountain. Yes, Minnesota had a seven game streak, and yes, Minnesota is 2-1 in the Big Ten. That’s the good news. Now for the bad news. This is now officially the point in the year, as evidenced by the Purdue game last night, when Minnesota has to play real teams.  Like Tuesday’s game against Purdue, their upcoming game against Ohio State is must-see for this reason.
• Illinois likes long games. Illinois went more than the distance twice this past week, getting the better of Northwestern, and coming up short against Gonzaga. Was Mike Tisdale’s career high 31/11 against Northwestern a fluke? It might seem so, as he followed up with four points and five fouls against Gonzaga. They disposed of Iowa at home, and now hit the road to Bloomington where I will be watching this game just prior to school starting again. I expect to see plenty of fans at Assembly Hall.
• Northwestern has fallen, can they get up? The good news: my man John Shurna is back, and in a big way. He had a 27/7 game against Illinois and followed it up with a 29/6 game against Michigan State. Clearly, he is a conference gamer. The bad news: not everyone else on the team has come with him, including their defense. Michael Thompson has been ice cold, going 2-10 against Illinois and then following it up with 2-8 against MSU, never achieving double figures in either game. Nothing close to his 15.3 PPG average on the year. The past two games, opponents are averaging 90 PPG, whereas they had only allowed 63.7 PPG for the year. The Wildcats will need to find a way to deal with the Big 10 fire power if they want to make the Big Dance.
• Michigan continues its inconsistent season. Each game is a new surprise for Michigan. One would have thought they would have come into Assembly Hall and disposed of Indiana without Maurice Creek, but they didn’t. Then, one would think they would fall to OSU, even without Evan Turner, but they didn’t. What is Michigan going to do next? That’s what I want to know. Clearly whatever happens will involve two guys by the names of Manny Harris and DeShawn Sims, the fab two.
• Indiana steps up in Creek’s absence. Indiana brought the team that played against Pittsburgh to the game against Michigan. I will refer to that team as the varsity squad, as they have brought the junior varsity to a couple games (Loyola, most games in Puerto Rico, etc). The stats against Michigan actually mirror the Pittsburgh game, where Verdell Jones III and Christian Watford led the team. Creek’s points look like they will be coming from Jordan Hulls and Devan Dumes, both streaky three-point shooters. Indiana can play with anyone if they bring their varsity. Will they?
• Penn State bruised during Week 1. Talor Battle is putting on a one man show. Too bad it’s a five man game. Battle went for 23/6/4 against Minnesota and 15/4/4 against Wisconsin. Penn State’s 46 points against Wisconsin isn’t going to get it done in the Big 10, especially when only 3 points come from the bench. Bench production has been a problem all year for Penn State, as it is probably a cause of the starters running out of gas at the end of games.
• Iowa is fishing for a W. As predicted last week, Iowa lost the first two Big Ten games. The good news: Aaron Fuller likes to play during conference games (12.5 PPG in conference vs. 5.1 during the rest of the year). Keys to winning: Iowa needs the bench to get involved every game. Against Purdue: The bench scored 9 and Iowa scored 56. Against Minnesota: The bench scored 28 points and Iowa scored 74. Coincidence? I think not. I am still not sure Iowa will get a W for a while. Go fish.