Around the Top 25: Thursday’s Results

Fa-Fa-Friday is here. Let us rejoice. Remember how great Friday felt in high school? It’s a different feeling now, but just as good.

–No. 5 UCLA 67, No. 17 Washington State 59. Wazzu has dropped five of their past eight. Seeing UCLA stop Washington State whenever they wanted to (Westbrook and Collison were everywhere) showed me why UCLA can be considered the favorite to win the title. But man oh man do I want to see Kevin Love and Tyler Hansbrough go up against each other.

–No. 9 Stanford 72, Oregon 43. Forty-three points from the Ducks? They can’t be so much worse than they once were, can they?

–No. 13 Xavier 80, Saint Louis 74. Would’ve completely missed the end of this game if my brother hadn’t called me with about a minute to go to tell me that Saint Louis had closed the deficit. The ending was something out of the March playbook: Drew Lavender drives to the lane, puts up a crazy layup that goes begging only to see it tipped it at the last second by teammate Derrick Brown. The Musketeers escaped their tough test on the road, only making them more suited for a high seed in just over a month.

–No. 14 Indiana 83, Illinois 79 (2OT). Great, great game. Give it to Illinois, who isn’t that good this year but was able to get up for this game. Also, I don’t think the Gordon spurning Illinois had anything to do with Illinois’ play, but certainly added to the drama. Think about it: Why would the players care? They were negotiating in the decision; they’re just players. Illinois’ Shaun Pruitt cost his team the game due to his 1-for-7 free throw shooting down the stretch. Great shots in the final seconds by Flash Gordon (who had a real bad night), who banked a crazy 3 to tie the game and send it to the first overtime, and MJ’s kid. Top 10 game of the season, no doubt.

–No. 21 Pittsburgh 55, West Virginia 54. The final play was seemingly drawn up to perfection, but I don’t know if it was improvisation (I’ll have the video up on the site later). Ronald Ramon, who has been off-and-on this year, swishes home the game-winner and lifts Pitt from the dead. West Virginia is now facing the problem that plagued Notre Dame a few years ago: the ability to lose every single close game in the final minutes.

Notable:

Massachusetts 78, Rhode Island 76. UMass is now officially The Huge Team Playing Well That Remains Under the Radar. Don’t be fooled: None of your friends know about this team—don’t let them lie to you in March. “Dude, UMass? They were really good this year. I'd love them to get to the Sweet Sixteen.” Great game that featured its largest lead only get to seven points (in favor of the M’men). Rhode Island only has four losses and shouldn’t worry at all right now.

Utah State 77, Fresno State 72. The Aggies (17-2) are making a push.