College Basketball Roundup: Tough Being on Top

No. 1 Tennessee 69 No. 18 Vanderbilt 72

Chris Lofton couldn't hit a 3-pointer late in the game, and his teammates only managed one for the whole game.

Just one day after reaching the No. 1 ranking for the first time in school history, the Tennessee Volunteers suffered a letdown following their upset of Memphis Saturday and fell to SEC East rival Vanderbilt. Lofton scored 25 points, hitting 6 of 15 threes, but his last three were all misses, as the Vols could not overcome Shan Foster's 32 points.

Foster put the Commodores on his back and led them to a huge win, hitting 9-of-13 from the field, including 6-of-9 3-pointers and 8-of-11 from the foul line.

Tennessee's shooters were off all night, shooting just 32 percent for the game. Besides Lofton, the Vols hit only one of 11 from beyond the arc, by JaJuan Smith, who finished with nine points.

Despite the horrible shooting, Tennessee (11-2, 25-3) kept the game close. It was only their second SEC loss, the other coming against Kentucky. The Vols beat Vanderbilt (9-4, 24-4), 80-60, back on Jan. 17 and host Kentucky, with a chance to avenge their earlier loss Sunday.

A win over the Wildcats would all but secure the best record in the conference, the SEC East title, the top seed in the SEC tourney, and a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. Kentucky is 9-3 in the conference and hosts Mississippi tonight.

Ohio St. 69 No. 12 Indiana 72

Once again, the Buckeyes came up just short. Ohio State (17-11, 8-7) now has lost three straight and five of their last seven, placing them in an iffy, bubbelicious position for the NCAA tourney.

Hoosier Armon Bassett led the scoring with 23 points. Stalwart scorers Eric Gordon and D.J. White had 17 and 16, respectively.

This was the first home game for Dan Dakich, who replaced disgraced Kelvin Sampson, who retired Friday amidst a swirl of recruiting violation allegations and NCAA sanctions. Dakich was greeted warmly by the home crowd as Indiana (13-2, 24-4) won for the second straight time with Dakich as coach and has racked up four straight overall.

No. 15 Connecticut 79 Rutgers 61

The Huskies got back to business after losing to Villanova Saturday, crushing an undermanned Rutgers team that was thoroughly outplayed by taller, faster UConn players. The Huskies outshot the Scarlet Knights, 52-42 percent and outrebounded them 41-24.

It was the eighth straight loss for Rutgers, who fell to the bottom of the Big East at 2-14 and 10-19 overall.

The Huskies (11-4, 22-6) still trail 12-3 Louisville and Georgetown by one game in the Big East standings. Sandwiched in between is Notre Dame at 11-3. All the teams have three regular season games left, except the Irish, who have four.

UConn doesn't play any of the top three, but Louisville has both Notre Dame and Georgetown on the schedule. The Hoyas will have to contend not only with Louisville, but also with Marquette (11-5, 21-6). Notre Dame may just sneak in and win the Big East title. Following the tilt at Louisville Thursday night, they play at DePaul, host St. John's and finish at South Florida. Those three teams are a combined 11-32 in conference play.

No. 20 Drake 83 Missouri St. 86

The Missouri Valley conference is one of the best in the nation, top to bottom. Ample proof of that statement was made by Missouri State last night, knocking off top dog Drake in a game that was anything but a fluke. The Bears of Missouri State are eighth (of 10) in the conference standings with a 7-10 record, but are 15-15 overall and have already posted wins over Bradley, Indiana State, Southern Illinois and Northern Iowa, all teams ahead of them in the standings.

Drake, the only team from the conference who is ranked, already has wrapped up the MVC title, though they've now lost three of their last four in the conference. The upcoming conference tournament should produce a winner other than the Bulldogs and the second entrant to the NCAAs. The conference easily could place four solid teams into the field of 65.

Correction: In a post last week, I mistakenly mentioned that Selection Sunday was March 9. It is actually March 16, which means the championship game will be held on Monday, April 7.

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