Listing of the top seeds, analysis, top game summaries.

NEIL JOSHI, The Sports Lounge
JSB COLLEGE BASKETBALL COLUMNIST

Top-ranked and undefeated Memphis narrowly escaped its toughest test of the season, rallying past a determined UAB squad for a 79-78 victory on Saturday afternoon.

Down by seven with just over a minute to go, Calipari’s Tigers found a way to escape the upset bid, hold on to the #1 ranking, and remain the nation’s last unbeaten team. Chris Douglas-Roberts won the game with a three-point play the old-fashioned way with six seconds left. The foul call on Douglas-Roberts was suspicious to say the least, but it still managed to cap a remarkable game-ending 9-1 run.

Now at 25-0, the Tigers are going start to find out what it’s like to be the Patriots. With each win, the pressure is only building towards a historic 40-0 season. If Memphis were somehow able to run the table toward the title, they would be the first team ever to get to 40 wins and supplant the ‘76 Hoosiers as the last undefeated team.

Proceedings in Conference USA were supposed to be smooth for the Tigers, who survived a challenging nonconference schedule unscathed. The nation’s 10th best conference supposedly had little to no quality that could threaten Memphis until the NCAAs. It seemed like a perfect scenario for Memphis to run the table to 34-0 before entering the Tournament as the clear #1 team in the country. In reality, Conference USA has provided the nation’s top ranked with its stiffest competition yet. No team had been able to put the Tigers on the ropes until the Blazers did. Then, with a minute left, they shrunk, and Memphis took advantage. It’s a sign of a great team to be able to pull off near-impossible feats like that. The Tigers long-awaited encounter with Tennessee is this Saturday, and it promises to be one of the best of the year.

Other Notable Games From Saturday:

Syracuse 77, #8 Georgetown 70
This bubble thing is becoming a real annoying routine for Jim Boeheim and the Orange. Once again, Syracuse’s status in the NCAAs is constantly changing. Last week, after a loss to last place South Florida, Syracuse was certainly out. But, the brutally young Orange came back and put together a solid effort to take down Georgetown. Syracuse is teetering on the edge, and has an imposing schedule coming up. Stay tuned. Meanwhile, the Hoyas are looking extremely disappointing. They are nowhere near their Final Four level of a year ago, and at this point, appear to be third of fourth best team in the Big East.

#17 Connecticut 74, South Florida 73 (OT)
It turns out that the last place Bulls can actually play a little bit. Fresh of their domination of Syracuse , South Florida put another scare into the Big East’s hottest team. Craig Austrie went the length of the floor and hit a runner at the buzzer to turn the tides. The Huskies are looking pretty great at the moment, currently on a nine game winning streak. After beating Notre Dame at home last week, UConn has become the team to beat in the Big East. Analogous to what Georgetown was able to do last year, the Huskies appear to be peaking at exactly the right time.

#14 Drake 65, Northern Iowa 55
The surprising Bulldogs clinched their first Missouri Valley Conference title since 1971, and improved to 23-2, 14-1 in conference, comfortably ahead of everyone in this “down” year for the league. Drake has been the nation’s biggest surprise; one of the most impressive parts of their resume is the #11 spot they occupy in the Ken Pomeroy rankings. Next Saturday, Drake will hit the road to face Butler in the BracketBuster. You could just call that the mid-major Super Bowl because both have established themselves as the two best thus far. There will be a Tourney-like atmosphere for that one, and a lot will be at stake for both teams.

#24 Vanderbilt 61, Florida 58
The Commodores held serve at home, preventing the Gators from getting a much-needed win that would boost the resume. February is all about getting wins when you can get them, and the two-time defending champions really missed out here. Vanderbilt was on Cloud 9 after a 41-point win against Kentucky and was vulnerable in this game. The Gators had the lead in the final minute, but couldn’t figure out a way to score during crunch time. Since a two-game losing streak, the Commodores have won five straight and working on improving the seed they get in the tournament.

#7 Stanford 67, Arizona 66
In a high quality game that truly speaks to the strength of the Pac-10, the Cardinal won it with defense. The Wildcats had an opportunity to hold for the last shot, but Robin Lopez got a hand on Chase Budinger’s potential game-winning shot. Arizona has the best schedule in the nation, but unfortunately hasn’t been able to win any of the games. They really let one get away here, and it’s due to their lack of depth. The Wildcats have become reliant on just two players, Budinger and freshman Jerryd Bayless. Bayless has become a star as a freshman; he has really got it done while going unnoticed. Those two combined for 54 of the team’s 66 points. This severe lack of depth is going to tough to overcome. Arizona still needs to improve their profile if they want to go dancing.

#22 Kansas State 100, Missouri 63
Michael Beasley had 40 points and 17 rebounds, joining Tyler Hansbrough as the only freshman with 40 and 10 in a game in the last decade. The Wildcats had revenge on their minds against the Tigers, who had beaten them in an earlier matchup this year. They came out firing in this one, and the game’s final result was never in question. Kansas State made no doubt with this beatdown, and as good as Beasley was, fellow freshman Bill Walker was wonderful himself. Walker has been in Beasley’s shadow the whole year, but his contributions can longer be overlooked. He had 18 points and nine rebounds as the number two man behind Beasley. During tournament time, Walker’s importance will only be magnified as teams gear up for Beasley. He’s proven time and again that he can handle it. Kansas State will be an interesting case study leading up to March as a team that will always have the potential to do major damage if given the right draw.

#13 Indiana 80, #10 Michigan State 61
Amid extensive scrutiny following the NCAA’s investigation of Kelvin Sampson’s recruiting violations, the Hoosiers managed to still pull out a much-need victory. After a slow start, Indiana found itself, led by Eric Gordon, and managed to blow out the overmatched Spartans. Unfortunately, IU lost its big man, D.J. White, in the process. Gordon managed to step it up in his absence, scoring 28 points on an efficient 9-15 from the field. The freshman will need to start making these wonderful performances a routine, especially come Tuesday night when the Hoosiers host Purdue in a battle for first place in the Big Ten.

Wake Forest 86, #2 Duke 73
Someone finally figured out the overachieving Blue Devils. The Demon Deacons attacked Duke all night long, and managed to foul out five of their players. Wake is in the midst of a highly successive season following the death of their coach Skip Prosser, and have even elevated themselves into a bubble team in the ACC. The Deacons were able to score an impressive win to top off the resume, and improve to over .500 in conference. They have made the best case out of any other team in the league for a fifth bid, behind Duke, North Carolina, Maryland, and Clemson. Duke, meanwhile, was going get plucked at some point. They have been pretty impressive thus far, but still need to address their deficiencies down low. Until they do that, Duke will always be vulnerable. Brian Zoubek, the team’s sole hope at over 7-feet, is attempting to make a comeback, but he has looked terrible. The Blue Devils are experts at rolling through the regular season with gaudy records, then getting bumped early in the Tournament, and this team fits that bill perfectly.

#6 UCLA 56, USC 46
The Trojans, like Arizona, really missed out on a chance to help their cause at home. Also like the Wildcats is the ridiculous lack of depth that Tim Floyd has. He played only six players the entire night. To their credit, USC put up a fight against the revenge seeking Bruins, but the taxing style of the game wore them down. Russell Westbrook played amazing defense on O.J. Mayo all night long, and held USC’s star freshman to a season-low four points, the first time he failed to score at least 10. The Trojans should be sweating at the moment, sitting right with the Arizona schools at 6-6 in the conference. The Pac-10 is a logjam of teams hovering around .500; one of these teams will need to get hot if they want to go dancing.

Weekly Seed Report
A look at the top sixteen seeds for the Tournament. Last week’s seed is in parenthesis.

#1’s: Memphis (1), Tennessee (1), Duke (1), Kansas (1)
#2’s: UCLA (2), North Carolina (2), Texas (3), Stanford (2)
#3’s: Xavier (3), Connecticut (4), Indiana (4), Georgetown (2)
#4’s: Butler (-), Notre Dame (4), Louisville (-), Purdue (-)

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