Remember all the early-season hype about how good Ohio State was and how Jared Sullinger should be considered a candidate for player of the year?Well, whether you do or not, forget about all that because the Buckeyes don't even look like much of a Top 25 team presently, especially after losing their third straight game to a ranked opponent, losing at home to #16 Wisconsin on Sunday, 63-60.
The main problem with Ohio State seems to be one of depth. They simply don't have any, as evidenced by the floor time put in by their starters and the lack of punch coming off the bench. In their loss to the Badgers, five Buckeye players - all starters - logged 30 minutes or more and accounted for all but one of Ohio State points. Of the five, Sullinger scored only eight and guard Lenzell Smith Jr. didn't score at all in his 30 minutes.
Worse yet is the fact that the Buckeyes - at home - could not even match a team doing essentially the same thing, as four Badgers logged 34 minutes or more and 47 of their 63 points came from just three players.
One of those Badgers doing most of the scoring was Jordan Taylor, whose 19 points were high for the team. Taylor, an all-conference guard averaging 14.3 points per game, was 6-for-8 from the field and 6-for-7 from the line, contributing five rebounds and four assists.
Another glaring issue for #8 (not for long) Ohio State is their foul shooting. If they had done just a little better than their 10 of 19 at the stripe against Wisconsin, they would have won the game. Poor foul shooting won't cut it in the Big Ten and it is a pretty reliable indicator for an early exit from the NCAA tournament.
The Buckeyes dropped into a tie with Michigan for second place in the conference, the two 11-5 teams chasing 13-3 Michigan State with Wisconsin a game further back at 10-6. With two games left in the regular season, the Buckeyes' chances of catching the Spartans are slim. They would have to win at Minnesota and Michigan State just to tie, and the #6 Spartans would also have to lose at #23 Indiana.
With just two weeks to go before selection Sunday, there were plenty of surprises and hard-earned wins on the hardwoods of America on Saturday, though the finest performances were secured by two big men who will likely be 1-2 in voting for college player of the year, Kentucky's 
At Kansas, 
Marquette head coach Buzz Williams is serious about basketball and about team rules. So serious, that he benched three starters for violating those rules for the first half of Marquette's road trip to hungry west Virginia.
There's no telling just how big Cincinnati's, 
As the college hoops regular season winds down, these final four or five games are important for teams already supposed to make the NCAA tourney, but moreso for those on the proverbial "bubble."
In overtime, Villanova's Ty Johnson tied the game with Connecticut at 70-all on a layup, leaving just 5.8 seconds on the clock. It looked like the game was going into double overtime, but 
When talk turns to "bubble teams," there may be none more effervescent than the 14-15 (6-8 Big Ten) Iowa Hawkeyes, who turned their home court into an Indiana massacre scene Sunday, topping the youthful, 18th-ranked Hoosiers, 78-66, to keep their unlikely dream of reaching the NCAA tournament alive.
With 20 of the Top 25 teams taking to the hardwood on Saturday, there was plenty of fuel to turn February's frolics into March Madness, and, while some of the best teams in the country were easily handling their opponents, it was 
Harvard has been hovering around the lower depths of the Top 25 all season, but last week dropped out when they lost at Princeton, 70-62.
There are few teams that can shoot 38%, be out-rebounded, 44-39, and still manage to win by five points, but the Duke Blue Devils sometimes defy conventional wisdom, logic and statistics.
Notre Dame won its seventh straight game, topping Rutgers, 
It's mid-February, traditionally the time of year that college teams start thinking seriously about the post-season and their chances for invitations to the NCAA tournament.
Winning their seventh game in a row, the Loyola (MD) Greyhounds grabbed sole possession of first place in the MAAC with a decisive, 
Official attendance for Gonzaga's showdown with St. Mary's was quoted at 6,000, but inside the McCarthy Athletic Center in Spokane, Washington, it sounded more like 60,000 and the home Bulldogs treated the guest Gaels like they weren't invited.
For college basketball rivalries, it doesn't get much better than Syracuse and Georgetown. Or, how about Duke and North Carolina?
With their star player, Jared Sullinger, on the bench in the final minutes due to fouls and a late injury, senior 
After knocking off Kansas on Saturday, the #4 Missouri Tigers were back at it, this time on the road against the Oklahoma Sooners.
There's been a theory going around college basketball this season that Duke's bigs - primarily brothers Mason and Miles Plumlee - could be handled and thus, the Blue Devils taken down a few notches in the national picture.
Junior guard 
There's only one undefeated team left within the Division 1 ranks - the Murray State Racers - but, trailing SE Missouri State, 39-33, at the half, even that seemed to be in doubt.
Scoring 30 points in a 40-minute college game is normally quite a feat, accomplished merely a handful of times through a season by a select few players amid the college hoops' share-the-ball mentality. 40 in a game is even rarer, but Tennessee Tech's 
Things may be changing in the Big Ten. At least, for one day, the style was unrecognizable in Indiana.
Perfection.
When 
On Monday, the Missouri Tigers learned they were ranked #2 in the nation after topping Baylor on the road, 89-88, and improving to 18-1.
Until tournament time comes around in March, Friday nights are reserved for smaller schools and that's where we found the Iona Gaels, playing in one of just five NCAA games on the slate.
If you're going to compete in the rugged Big 12 conference, your team has to have a go-to guy who can score a load of points and keep your squad in the game.