College Basketball: Tuesday's Top 25 Results

No. 19 Purdue 60, No. 10 Michigan State 54  –UPSET–

Everybody pile on that Purdue bandwagon. No, really—they’re good engineers at that school, so the vehicle can probably support the weight. 11-1, the Boilers are in conference play, so you have to have them as close to a lock as humanly possible right now.

Robbie Hummel had himself a ballgame. Damn, it’s like there are all of these impact freshman all around the country, you know? Purdue appears to be a legitimate team (or the Big Ten could be this weak.) Spartans have dropped two of their past three.

No. 5 North Carolina 75, Virginia 74

What’s up with Carolina? They keep escaping in these games, but they’re showing a lot of vulnerability. And by a lot of vulnerability I mean not a lot of defense and a helluva lot of luck.

Hansbrough threw up one of those awkward types of shots. One of those: I’m-falling-away-but-I’m-Tyler-Hansbrough-so-this-will-go-in-even-though-I’ll-probably-fall-on-the-floor-anyway type of shots. You know the type. He’s probably one of the best ever at it, too. Then Singletary sinks a huge three, but UVA can’t foul immediately and after Ellington misses the front end of a one-and-one, the ball just kind of bounces off of everyone’s hands, giving Baby Blue the win.

No. 9 Butler 83, Wisconsin-Milwaukee 75

U Dubs (that’s the other school for those in the back of the class) hit a three right before the buzzer to tie the game and send into an extra session, but Butler escapes again, keeping their hopes for a three-seed alive and keeping their hopes for national respect alive.

Mike Green, aka The Best Player You Don’t Know About, had 24 points, 13 rebounds and eight assists. Yet, here’s what I love about Butler: By shutting Green down, you don’t really handicap this team; they’ve got too many weapons and work too well as a unit to allow that to happen.

No. 22 Pittsburgh 82, Providence 63

And the Big East really starts to separate the water from the oil now. Ronald Ramon drained five treys; Sam Young put 22 points down. Still, we all can agree that Pittsburgh would have to get a huge break to make the Sweet 16 this year, right?

If you think otherwise, let me know: [e-mail].

No. 24 Vanderbilt 93, Kentucky 52

What a grease fire. Nugget you might like to know: Vanderbilt is 5-4 on the road, undefeated at home.

Notable

Marquette 89, Seton Hall 64: Losing by 25 at home is one way to prove you were a pretender.

Kent State 79, Central Michigan 66: Golden Flashes get 20 wins in their first 25 games (they’re 9-2 in the MAC). It’s hard to argue an at-large case against them right now.

Northern Illinois 88, Akron 78: Why is this notable? Well, the Zips (17-7) were on the bubble before losing at home to 6-17 Northern Illinois.