Well, the Duke-Florida State contest in Tallahassee just wrapped up, and I think what we’ve seen from Duke near the end of this one has provided the rest of the ACC with some very interesting information. I know how much everyone likes to see Duke lose, so let me shed some insight into this. Follow me after the jump, but only if you want the formula to beat Duke.
Well, first of all, let’s just admit – you cannot lose your head when playing Duke tight. That’s true in Cameron, obviously, but it doesn’t help on the road, either. As Ryan Reid showed us this evening, losing your cool is not a good thing. I would be exceedingly surprised if the ACC doesn’t look at this one again with the intention of giving an automatic one game suspension for the slap/punch/arm bar that he threw tonight. He was not the only Seminole to lose focus in the last give minutes. Mike Patrick and Jay Bilas noted that Jason Rich was spending every play yapping at the officials.

This leads to key number two: coaching. Coaches at the D-I level all know basketball strategy just fine. There is a difference between the top tier coaches and someone at the Ivy League level, but, by and large, strategy is not where coaching is lacking. Coaches must prepare their players to play 40 minutes, and that means 40 minutes on the court, and 40 on the bench. Emotion is huge in games where teams step it up against the top teams in the land, but it cannot rule your play. This is the hardest thing for a coach to do, especially at home. How many times do we see UNC or Duke lose on the road and the fans stream out on to the court immediately after the buzzer? This is because these are emotion-filled games. You can’t take that away from your players, but you have to try and get them to focus and execute, especially when crunchtime rolls around.

At this point, you’re probably saying to yourself: “But what about basketball? This isn’t some metaphysical debate, this is about the play!” That’s true, and FSU showed the entire country how to do that tonight. Make Demarcus Nelson and Gerald Henderson drive into a crowd. They are not spectacular ball handlers and typically make bad decisions on kick out passes. And, as an added bonus, throw everything at Nelson when he drives. His free throw shooting is atrocious, and a serious liability. He’s a good, level-headed player as a whole (just not on passing in traffic), but he cannot finish from 15 feet out without anyone guarding him.

Now for the final point, which for those teams, pundits, and fans (such as myself), who thought that Duke was not going to be a Top 20 team this year: You must stop the big shot, but, the key is, you don’t know who is going to step up. One night it’s Scheyer, another night it’s Henderson. Tonight? Greg Paulus showed up in the last five minutes, and FSU did nothing to deny him the lane. When Paulus can get inside (which should not happen, he’s a point guard with a poor first step), he becomes very dangerous, as he protects the ball well going up for the lay-in (easy to draw the foul and finish), and he sees the kick out 3-pointer very well. He and Singler demonstrated this one tonight. What everyone thought was Duke’s biggest weakness – no big time, go to scorer – has started turning into a serious strength. If they continue with this sort of “go-to rotation,” the ACC is going to be a real brawl this year.

Way back in the halcyon days of Storming the Court (okay, 3 months ago) I wrote a Big East preview looking at the coming season. While much of what I said was flat out wrong (see Louisville being the second best team and Pitt being a disappointment), the underlying premise has been borne out so far in conference play: the bloated Big East has a middle of 6-7 teams that appear to be exactly the same. Each has their strengths, and each has major flaws which makes for a wide open race for fourth in the league, and for a nailbiting Selection Sunday for quite a few teams. After the jump, I dissect the morass which is the middle of the Big East.

        Louisville was predicted by most to be a Final Four contender in the preseason. Of course, that was before the loss of two starting forwards and the continued troubles of Derrick Caracter sent Louisville to a shocking four non-conference losses and a loss to Cincinatti. However things have started to look up for the Cardinals as they have finally gotten healthy and won 7 of their last 8. For all of its faults, Louisville is still an extremely talented team who plays stingy (top-15 in the country ) defense every night.

Fatal Flaw: Free Throws. Stay with me here: Louisville’s offense is predicated on its big men, who should get to the line quite a bit. Surprisingly, they are only averaging about 20 free throws per game, good for 170th in the country. A powerhouse frontcourt team should be getting to the line at a much higher clip. This might be a subtle sign of problems to come.

        West Virginia is another brawny Big East team that can bang with the best of them. Bob Huggins has done a great job in Morgantown after taking over for the Michigan-bound John Beilen. Huggins has coached a Mountaineers team which has flown under the radar somewhat after playing a relatively soft non-conference schedule. Despite not having a prototypical star player, West Virginia has been unbelievably efficient on both offensive and defense, ranking in the top 10 in the nation in both categories.

Fatal Flaw: Playing on the road. All four of West Virginia’s losses have come away from the comfortable confines of Morgantown. In each of these games, the Mountaineers’ field goal percentage has gone down, and their turnovers have gone up. West Virginia must learn to win away from home in order to separate itself in this muddled Big East.

        Notre Dame: Quick, name the team with the longest home winning streak in college basketball. You probably guessed from the heading that it is indeed Notre Dame. The Fightin’ Irish haven’t lost at home in over 20 games, and have been shooting the lights out from beyond the arc. As of today, Notre Dame is an NCAA tournament team.

Fatal Flaw: Depth. Notre Dame plays an 8-man rotation, but even that figure is misleading. Two of the first three players off the bench are forwards. In fact, beyond Kyle McAlarney and Torey Jackson, Notre Dame has almost no guards. In a Big East that is renowned for physical play, foul trouble might spell doom for the Fightin’ Irish.

        Villanova is yet another mystifying Big East team that has more question marks than answers so far this season. Jay Wright’s four-guard offense has worked fairly well this year, but Villanova seems to be prone to the killer “what the hell” losses. They have dropped gimme games to Depaul and Cincinnati already in the Big East. Villanova has what other teams would kill for in great point guard play from Scottie Reynolds, but they haven’t been able to blow teams out so far this year, which could come back to bite them in Big East play.

Fatal Flaw: Defense. The Wildcats are one of the worst defensive teams in the Big East, giving up over 52 percent in adjusted field goal percentage (where 3 pointers made count 1.5 times to correspond with their point value), which is 273rd in the country (h/t Kenpom.com).

        Syracuse is perhaps the most exciting team to watch in the Big East. They are unbelievably athletic and love to run, but that style has been seriously hampered by injuries, especially to Even Dievendorf. Despite only having 7 scholarship players left, Syracuse can still run and shoot teams out of the gym, and will be a dangerous out if (big if) they can survive Big East play and make the tournament.

Fatal Flaw: Turnovers. I bet you thought I would say defense, didn’t you? While Syracuse’s defense is still a problem, what is more troubling is the turnovers. Syracuse is turning the ball over 16 times a game this season, which is about 5 too many. When the Cuse starts turning the ball over, they have to play faster and more frenetically, and thus give up more transition buckets off of missed shots. The turnovers start a vicious cycle that hurts Syracuse’s already suspect defense.

        Connecticut rounds out our band of merry enigmas in the middle of the Big East. UConn didn’t play anyone in their non-conference schedule after losing to Memphis in the Preseason NIT, and thus rolled into Big East play with at least a modicum of confidence. And then promptly went 2-2 in their first four games, which I guess is what I should have expected them to do in this year’s Big East. The Huskies’ offense has improved quite a bit this year, and Hasheem Thabeet has finally begun to get his feet under him, while Jeff Adrien has been a solid inside player.

Fatal Flaw: They can’t win a close game. Three of their four losses have come by less than 6 points, and in a league such as the Big East with so many evenly matched teams, that is not a good flaw to have. Connecticut better learn how to win close games if it wants to avoid another year of watching March Madness from home.

I’m trying a new format for the justifications this week, please tell me if you like it.

1.     Memphis- More quality wins that UNC and no losses means that they are number 1.
2.     UNC-Can pass Memphis with more quality wins in the ACC, which are harder to come by this year.
3.     Kansas-Same as UNC.
4.     UCLA-The clear 4th right now. With the strength of the Pac-10, they may have the best shot at passing Memphis.
5.     Tennessee-After early season struggles, Tennessee has roared back with good wins over Ole Miss and Xavier.
6.     Butler-Holding steady now, but will be passed as teams get better wins than are available in the Horizon.
7.     Texas A&M-Same as Butler, could fall even with wins as their schedule doesn’t get interesting until Jan. 30.
8.     Washington State-Ran into the one type of team that it cannot play against in UCLA. Should rebound,  however.
9.     Michigan State-Still the best in the Big 10 despite an embarrassing loss to Iowa.
10.     Dayton-The Flyers added another impressive win over Rhode Island last week. The Pitt win looks better, too.
11.     Indiana-The toughest team to rank: lots of good wins, but no marquee top-50 wins yet. Expect them to rise.
12.     Duke-The Bluedevils have only played 11 games, and only own good wins over Marquette and Wisconsin.
13.     Marquette-Linked with Duke since the beginning of the season, lost head to head and lost spot.
14.     Xavier-The first 3-loss team in the poll, but their wins (and losses) are solid.
15.     Vanderbilt-Not so much a penalty for the loss to Kentucky, but for the relative lack of quality wins so far.
16.     Texas-Another enigma of a team. Great wins, but is falling rapidly.
17.     St Mary’s-The Gaels own lots of good wins, and in as muddled a bottom half, that is good enough for 17th.
18.     Wisconsin-Another “eh” team that just happens to have “good” losses and a few quality wins.
19.     Ole Miss-Much like Vandy, Mississippi moves down because of a lack of good wins more than their loss last week.
20.     Rhode Island-Should not be penalized because of losing to Dayton at home. They could easily move back up.
21.     Pittsburgh-Win over Georgetown keeps Pitt in the poll this week.
22.     West Virginia-Yet another flawed Big East team who has good wins over Marquette and Syracuse.
23.     Notre Dame-See previous two.
24.     Oregon-Looking to be back on track after wins over Arizona and Stanford.
25.     Drake-No good wins, but 5-0 in the MVC gets you a spot in this flawed period in college basketball.

Last weekend was a very interesting one for many reasons. We saw two more undefeateds fall, as Washington State got manhandled at UCLA, and Vanderbilt lost a double overtime decision to Kentucky. Perhaps now we will stop getting hits for Kentucky fans searching firebillygillespie.com (On second thought? Naw, they’ll probably keep right on searching). Neither of these losses are particularly troubling, although the continued breakdown of Vanderbilt’s defense, even against an undermanned Kentucky team, is the kind of trait that leaves a team watching the Sweet Sixteen from home. Kevin Stallings will never be called a defensive genius, but this team needs to tighten up on the defensive end.

Join me after the jump as  I  look at a plethora of bonus basketball and your weekly SWAC update.

    Overtimes Galore: Last weekend’s games featured an incredible ten overtime contests, 3 in regular OT, 6 in double OT, and one triple overtime game. Let’s hit the highlights: The officially reeling Southern Illinois Salukis, who haven’t won a game after being stunned at the buzzer by AJ Graves, lost in Double OT 64-62 to Indiana State. Southern Illinois just cannot win a close game, pure and simple. In the Valley, that means you are in trouble. Delaware, perhaps the biggest surprise of conference play so far, moved to 5-0 in the CAA with a Double OT win over Old Dominion. The school with the only female mascot in D-I (blue hens) might be on its way to a shocking NCAA Tournament berth. VMI returned to its high-octane ways with a 93-91 overtime victory to open up Big South play. They are lead by Reggie Williams, the best player in the nation that no one knows about. Finally, Arkansas beat Alabama 71-67 game that featured two teams that looked like they belonged in the NIT. While Alabama is surely heading there, Arkansas can sneak back into the tournament if Gary Ervin remembers how to play point guard.

A two-fold improvement? How often does a team double its points from the previous game? Extremely rarely. Yet that happened not once, but twice this weekend. St Louis, who set an all-time low for points in the shotclock era in an unwatchable 46-20 defeat at George Washington, scored 57 in an overtime loss to Dayton. Boston College, fresh off a 57-51 defeat to Robert Morris, put up an unbelievable 112 in a 39-point pasting of Wake Forest. More on the rarity of this later.

The Mighty SWAC: Week Two

Jackson State, the closest thing the SWAC has to a real basketball program, has risen to the top of the league with a 3-0 record. Mississippi Valley State and Grambling remain winless against D-I competition.

What’s that you say? You’ve been trying to figure out the Big Ten Rule? Well, fortunately, every now and again – well, let’s check that, and say most of the time a game occurs between a Big Ten team and a second Big Ten team – we have proof of this disgusting, horrid rule that I came up with. Unfortunately, this abortion of a description of one of collegiate athletics’ top conferences was once again prescient in today’s Iowa-Michigan State game which finished with No. 6 MSU (Seriously? 6? I still think they deserve a D-II asterisk for the rest of the year on any ranking) losing to the Hawkeyes 43-36. After 40 minutes. This doesn’t even approach the St. Louis debacle of earlier this week.

 First, I want to point out the ESPN headline for this game: Mighty Spartans? No. 6 Michigan State runs into Iowa.

I don’t think that we can use the word “run” when describing a D-I basketball game that finished at 43-36. I want to point out that Michigan State was one of my picks for teams we don’t know jack about at this stage of the season. Ok, self-congratulation over. Well, not quite. Games like this are the reason that the Big Ten Rule was conceived.

When said game includes the supposed top team in the Big Ten, I forsee a wonderful future for the Big Ten Rule.

Sorry, folks, its been a very busy few days for me. Here my Week 9 Blogpoll ballot to tide you over until more real posts about the start of conference play come tomorrow. A quick note on the poll: there are certainly not 25 teams that deserved to be ranked in America. Once you get by Wisconsin, its a complete mess for resume rankers, as the teams with good wins have a lot of losses, and the teams with few losses have no good wins. Ugh.

1. Memphis
2. North Carolina
3. Kansas
4. UCLA
5. Washington State
6. Michigan State
7. Tennessee
8. Butler
9. Texas A&M
10. Vanderbilt
11. Indiana
12. Dayton
13. Duke
14. Marquette
15.  Ole Miss
16. Rhode Island
17. Texas
18. Xavier
19. Oklahoma
20. Wisconsin
21. St. Mary’s
22. Villanova
23. Providence
24. West Virginia
25. Drake

Regular readers will know that I often enjoy analyzing the misery of the dregs of college basketball, and this is no exception. Join me after the jump as I examine these beaten down teams in a schadenfreude-filled trip of terrible basketball.

Mississippi Valley State (0-9):

The first of the four winless SWAC teams is Mississippi Valley State. Sadly, the best thing about this basketball team is the stellar nickname, the Delta Devils. MSVT suffered one of the worst losses ever when they played Washington State, a stifling defensive team. The Delta Devils managed just nine second-half points in a 71-26 drubbing. Their closest call came against Montana, to whom they dropped a 69-62 game.

Will they win a game? The answer has to be yes for any team in the SWAC, a league whose best record is 2-7.

Grambling (0-7):

Grambling is the second of the winless SWAC teams, and quite possibly the worst. According to Ken Pomeroy’s invaluable rankings, Grambling has the worst offense in all of the land. The Tigers have suffered the embarrassment of losing not once, but twice to Division II basketball teams. Grambling also lost to Houston by a wopping 42 points. Their best effort so far was against Georgia, but that still was a 13-point defeat. At least Grambling fans can take solace in the school’s legendary marching band.

Will they win a game? Again the answer must be yes, but this team should finish at the bottom of the putrid SWAC.

Alabama A&M (0-9):

Alabama A&M is just a terrible basketball team. The Bulldogs have one of the most befuddling stat lines I have ever seen; their assist to turnover ratio is 1:2. Yes, you read that correctly, for every assist Alabama A&M makes, they turn it over twice. Alabama A&M does hold a little place in college basketball trivia this year, however; they were the team that Gardner Webb beat in the Preseason NIT before they shocked the college basketball world by beating Kentucky. The Bulldogs have actually suffered the closest defeat of any team on this list, having dropped a 78-76 heart breaker to Winston Salem State.

Will they win a game? In the SWAC? Yes they will.

Alcorn State (0-12):

Alcorn State is the final winless team in the SWAC, and has the dubious distinction of having the worst loss of any team on this list. Yes, Alcorn State got blown out 86-73 by the Bulldogs of Tougaloo University, a liberal arts college with an enrollment of 913. If that wasn’t enough to convince you that your local YMCA team could hang with the Braves, listen to this stat: Alcorn State is giving up 48.6 percent made shots from behind the 3-point line. To put this in perspective, there is not a single team in the land that shoots better than 45% from deep. Yet, somehow, the Braves manage to let their opponents make 1 out of every 2 shots from behind the line. Five 6’5″ boards of wood might do better.

Will they win a game? Yes, they will win a game, but I will be tracking this team solely to see if the 3-point shooting defense continues.

1.     Memphis
2. North Carolina
3. Kansas
4. Washington State
5. UCLA
6. Michigan State
7. Tennessee
8. Duke
9. Georgetown
10. Marquette
11. Indiana
12. Texas A&M
13. Butler
14. Dayton
15. Texas
16. Vanderbilt
17. Mississippi
18. Villanova
19. Rhode Island
20. Pittsburgh
21. Wisconsin
22. Clemson
23. USC
24. Arizona
25. St. Mary’s

Nothing shocking at the top of the poll; Memphis has been at the top spot since Week 2. It will be interesting to see if they can stay there as the schedule takes a turn for the worse in Conference USA play. What was interesting, however, was the gap between number 6 (Michigan State), who received an average rank of 6.25 and number 7, Tennessee, who had an average rank from the voters of 8.63. That 2-rank difference was the largest in the poll, and illustrates that there seems to be an upper tier of about 6 teams forming right now.

I’m a little surprised that Clemson is still ranked. Their only good win is at Mississippi State, who has been a big disappointment this year. Really that ranking just underscores that there is a scarcity of worthy teams for ranking from about 20 to 25.

I had a lot of fun doing the poll this week, and please be sure to check back in next week back at <a href=”march-to-madness.blogspot.com”> March to Madness </a> where the blogpoll will return to its rightful home.

While the full Blogpoll ballot will not be published until Wednesday, my Blogpoll ballot undergoes yet another major shakeup. This is to be expected with resume ranking early in the season, as teams have less of a body of work to fall back on after a loss; on the flipside, a team can leap-frog a lot of other teams with a quality win or two. Both of these extremes are evident this week, as Pittsburgh fell from 6 to 25 after losing to Dayton and also losing Levance Fields to injury. Tennessee, on the other hand, moved up 6 spots after beating Gonzaga (and Xavier last week).

A quick reminder: this poll is determined by the team’s resume, not perception, who is hot right now, or who will be in the Final Four in March. This poll reflects what each team has done so far in the season. Justifications after the jump. Without further ado, here is the poll:

1. Memphis

2. North Carolina

3. Kansas

4. Washington State

5. Michigan State

6. UCLA

7. Tennessee

8. Butler

9. Texas A&M

10. Vanderbilt

11. Indiana

12. Dayton

13. Duke

14. Marquette

15. Ole Miss

16. Rhode Island

17. Texas

18. Villanova

19. Oklahoma

20. St. Mary’s

21. Arizona

22. USC

23. Providence

24. Wisconsin

25. Pittsburgh

Firstly, you will notice that Georgetown is nowhere to be found on my poll. That is not any reflection of the quality of the team or how I think that they will do in March; the simply have only one RPI Top 100 win (Alabama) and thus, at this time, do not deserve to be included. Fear not, I am sure that they will be in subsequent polls and will go deep into March Madness.

Memphis retains the top spot after adding another impressive win. North Carolina moves up to number 2 because of the drubbings of Valparaiso and Nevada last week; both these schools have good RPI rankings now, but these wins should devalue as conference play gets underway. This is another way of saying that UNC is very close to the 3rd and 4th place teams, Kansas and Washington State. Washington State certainly hasn’t done anything wrong, however their schedule has taken a downturn while others have beat more quality opponents.

One of the toughest calls in the entire poll was ranking Michigan State ahead of UCLA. The head-to-head win was extremely compelling evidence, however Michigan State’s resume outside of that loss was just too strong to be denied. Let’s put it this way however: neither of these teams should be worried about their rankings as both will be favorites to reach the Final Four.

Tennessee’s three quality wins over Xavier, Gonzaga, and West Virginia vaulted it up to the 7th spot in the poll. Similarly, Butler moved up to number 8 based on its wins over Florida State, Southern Illinois, and Texas Tech. Texas A&M and Vanderbilt rounded out the top ten.

Another surprise was Dayton in 12th. Dayton’s big win over Pittsburgh merely augmented its already strong resume. Two teams that suffered this week were Duke and Marquette, who have a paucity of quality wins. Duke gets the nod at 13 based on its head-to-head win. Ole Miss comes in at 15th with solid wins over Winthrop and Clemson. Rhode Island is 16th, while Texas falls to 17th after losing to Wisconsin at the buzzer.

Villanova and Oklahoma were another two teams whose resume were very similar. While Oklahoma has one more quality win, they also have two more losses. In the end, that put Villanova at 18 and Oklahoma at 19. St. Mary’s moves back into the poll at number 20 as their wins are stronger than most give them credit for.

I did not penalize Arizona heavily for losing at Memphis without Jerryd Bayless as they come in at 21. USC stays steady at 22, while Providence and Wisconsin move into the poll for the first time, the latter after their impressive win over Texas.

Pittsburgh fell all the way to 25. This was a combination of the fact that their profile, besides the Duke win, is extremely thin, and the loss of Levance Fields for at least two months.

The Southern Illinois-Butler game certainly lived up to its billing, as both teams played with tournament intensity, especially on the defensive end. The Salukis, as expected, held Butler’s three-point gunners to well below their season averages from beyond the arc, and contained AJ Graves most of the night. Southern Illinois would have easily won the game, but for free throws. While Butler went 21/30 from the free throw line, Southern Illinois made only 3 out of 12 free throws, unacceptable for a team that plays so many close ballgames. And, of course, it bit them in the end. After the Salukis missed yet another free throw, Graves drove down the court with 5 seconds left and hit a 35 foot 3-pointer as the horn sounded to give Butler the hard-fought victory. Southern Illinois has almost no room for error left after another tough loss against a quality opponent.

The second buzzer beater came in the Texas-Wisconsin game. Both teams came out looking sluggish, probably due to the 10 AM start in Austin to accommodate ESPN. Wisconsin’s number 1-ranked defense in the nation (according to Ken Pomeroy) was able to largely contain Texas’s high-scoring guards by forcing them into bad shooting nights. While Augustin and Abrams got their points, it took them quite a few more shots to do it. Inside, Connor Atchley was dominated offensively and defensively by Brian Butch, who had 21 points and 11 rebounds. On the final play of the game, Wisconsin set a high screen for Michael Flowers with Butch, and while Flowers’ defender hesitated for a split second to double Butch, Flowers drained the game-winning 3 from the top of the key. This Wisconsin team looks remarkably different from the team that was blown out by Duke just a month ago, and is probably going to finish second in a really bad Big Ten.

Join me after the jump for more upsets, and two undefeateds losing

Just ten days ago, Pittsburgh was on top of the basketball world. Having vanquished Duke in what so far is the game of the year in Madison Square Garden, Pitt enjoyed a top-10 ranking, an undefeated season so far, and thoughts of a Final Four run. How quickly fortunes change in college basketball. On Saturday, the Panthers took on the Dayton Flyers, another extremely solid team out of the A-10, and were blown out of the building. Worse still than the loss was the injury to senior point guard LeVance Fields, who broke his foot. Fields will be out at least until the end of February. With the loss of Mike Cook for the season, this means that Pitt is down two starters for the foreseeable future. Without Fields, the Panthers will struggle somewhat in the physical Big East, but Dejuan Blair and Sam Young are good enough to keep Pitt in the hunt for a top-3 finish in conference.

Another team that was riding high coming into the weekend was Miami. Off to their best start in school history at 12-0 and its highest ranking in a decade. They were facing their final non-conference test against Winthrop in a neutral site game in Tampa. The Eagles have been (comparatively) disappointing this year after last year’s great campaign; they lost 3 starters and their coach. However Winthrop is still a very dangerous team who should be favored to win the Big South yet again. They were able to contain Miami’s star point guard Jack McClinton, and pulled off the upset, roaring back from an early second half 11-point deficit to win 76-70. It will be interesting to see how Miami responds to this los, especially in ACC play.

Finally, Oklahoma looked to be another disappointing team early in the season. After a lackluster performance in the Preseason NIT an a loss to Stephen F. Austin, Jeff Capel’s team looked more like Oklahoma State than Texas. However the Sooners responded with back to back wins over Arkansas and Gonzaga coming into Saturday’s showdown at West Virginia. The Mountaineers controlled this game for the first 35 minutes, but let Oklahoma back into the game. Oklahoma forced overtime, and then double OT, fouling out both of West Virginia’s starting forwards by double overtime. In that second extra period, Oklahoma’s Longar Longar and Blake Griffin took over inside, propelling the Sooners to an 88-82 victory. While I am still skeptical of both of these teams, this game showed that both Oklahoma and West Virginia will probably on the right side of the bubble come March.

Odds and Ends: Sam Houston State’s undefeated season finally came to an end in overtime at San Diego State on Friday. …Illinois dropped another puzzler at home, this time to a 4-7 Tennessee Tech team that is just flat out bad. More on the decrepit Big Ten later this week…Eddie Sutton whiffed on his first attempt for win 799 with San Francisco this weekend; he will try again Monday…Mississippi State got a big win against Missouri which could turn their disappointing season around…Memphis continued its dominating start, clobbering an injured Arizona team by 17…Boise State continued its surprising start, beating BYU 73-70.