Villanova rises in polls after Cincy win

Villanova used a furious second-half effort to soundly defeat Cincinnati on Sunday, and the Wildcats were rewarded with a boost in the national top-25 polls.

The new ESPN/USA Today coaches' poll rates Villanova at #16, and the updated AP poll ranks the 'Cats at #17.

Next up for Villanova is a road game with a hot Providence team on Wednesday.

Clemson gets robbed at Duke (w. video)

Right after scoring 5 points in a single trip down the floor to tie the game, the #17 Clemson Tigers got robbed by the officials when #10 Duke was awarded an extra 2 full seconds on the final possession. What happened next? Duke scored with one-tenth of a second left on the clock to "win" the game. If the error hadn't been made, time would have run out 1.9 seconds prior to the winning basket and the game would have been sent to overtime, and Clemson had the momentum.

Instead, the Dukies get another batch of Cameron Indoor home-cookin' and take the win, 68-66. The worst part about the whole thing is that the referees actually took the time to review the play on the television monitors and somehow concluded that act of Clemson's catch, shot, flight, and made basket took only 0.6 seconds, contrary to any definition of common sense.

This sort of thing seems to happen unusually often at Cameron Indoor Stadium, doesn't it? And surprise, surprise, ESPN's Mike Patrick, play-by-play announcer and Duke-fanboy extraordinaire, had nothing to say about the bonus 2 seconds during the broadcast. To be fair, ESPN did highlight the error on the ensuing broadcast of SportsCenter.

Here is the key play on YouTube. The timing error is clear as crystal. Here's hoping the ACC will investigate this situation.



For those interested, here is the original, unedited ESPN broadcast of the last 12 seconds of the game. Notice how Patrick tries to advance the ridiculous argument that Clemson's last basket only took up 0.6 seconds including the catch, shot, and flight of the ball. Unreal.

Carnage in the top 25

It was a rough night to be a top 25 team in college basketball. Of the nine teams in the top 25 that played tonight, six lost. Five of the eight top-25 games tonight ended in upsets.

#11 Duke fell in Atlanta to unranked Georgia Tech, 63-74. It was the Blue Devils' second straight loss.

#10 Oklahoma State was annihilated by #6 Kansas, 57-87. Though this was not an upset per se, the wide margin of victory and sheer dominance exercised by the Jayhawks certainly came as a shock to the Cowboys.

#12 Butler, the darling mid-major du jour, was beaten in overtime by the relatively unknown Illinois-Chicago.

#20 Tennessee lost a nail-biter to intrastate rival Vanderbilt, 81-82. The Volunteers had come into Nashville with a 9-game win streak intact.

#22 UConn was exposed by a very good, but unranked, Marquette team. The Golden Eagles went into Storrs and ended the Huskies' 31-game home win streak in their 73-69 win.

Finally, #25 Maryland, everyone's favorite sleeper pick in the ACC, was embarrassed at home by conference foe Miami.

#7 Pitt, #6 Kansas, and #1 UNC managed to win their games, though Carolina trailed for a while against the unranked Virginia Cavaliers. Pitt beat a DePaul team that had been flying high after its win over Villanova.

In Big East action not previously mentioned, Louisville blew out South Florida, and upcoming Villanova-foe Syracuse beat Rutgers in Jersey.

Just another Wednesday in the wacky world of college basketball.