Vanderbilt

There comes a point in many teams' season where they're faced with a choice: fold up the tent and accept the result, or put up a fight in the face of adversity. That point for Tennessee may have come at the 13:02 mark in the second half, as a Festus Ezeli dunk extended Vanderbilt's lead to 42-31 in front of a raucous crowd at Memorial Gym. Bruce Pearl called a 30 second timeout, making sure to also send Melvin Goins, Tobias Harris and Scotty Hopson back into the game, and from that point forward the Volunteers outscored Vanderbilt 29-9 and winning by the final score of 60-51.

While Vanderbilt (20-6, 8-4) would need a lot of help to catch Florida atop the SEC East standings there's still the matter of sewing up a first round bye in next month's SEC Tournament, and they can move one step closer with a win over Tennessee (16-11, 6-6) Tuesday night. Tennessee won the first meeting between the two, with the Volunteers slumping at the time and needing a second-half revival of sorts (combined with some poor decisions from the Commodores) to pull off the comeback.

Many fans and pundits alike felt that Ohio State's trip to Madison would be the point where they'd suffer their first loss of the season. But after a first half that didn't do much to separate either team those prospects didn't look good as Thad Matta's group went on a 23-6 run to push their lead out to 15 points with 13:21 left in the game. Thankfully for the Badgers Jordan Taylor and company had other ideas, answering with a 30-8 run of their own and eventually going on to win 71-67 at the Kohl Center.

In a game that didn't provide much separation in terms of the starters and their production it was a reserve who proved to be the difference in Wisconsin's 66-59 win over Purdue in Madison. Ryan Evans supplied 10 points and some sold defense off the bench, most importantly tying up E'Twaun Moore on a drive to the basket with 25 seconds remaining and the Badgers up 63-59.

Another Tuesday night means another important game in the Big Ten, with Purdue (18-4, 7-2) hitting the road to take on Wisconsin (15-5, 5-3) in the always-imposing Kohl Center. While there is quite the distance between both of these teams and undefeated Ohio State atop the conference standings, both get the Buckeyes at home later in the season, meaning that the winner on Tuesday night can still entertain some hope of winning a share of the Big Ten crown.

The lesson learned this weekend: almost anyone can be had. And that should make for an exciting month of March if results like the ones we saw become the norm. Twelve ranked teams went down on Saturday, but it should be noted that four of the losses came to opponents who were also ranked and eight of the twelve lost on the road. How does one narrow these results down: ask the simple question of which losers may be in some trouble at this point in the season. One such victim has to be Syracuse, who has now dropped four straight and has to play at Connecticut on Wednesday night.

If Notre Dame can play defensively against Syracuse and Connecticut the same way they did last night, Mike Brey's team will be situated well within the Top 10 at the end of a rough slate to begin Big East play. Georgetown, one of the nation's best three point shooting teams, made just four of eighteen in a 69-55 loss in South Bend. Tim Abromaitis led Notre Dame with 20 points and Tyrone Nash added a double-double (15 points, 10 rebounds) in a game that the Irish controlled for most of the way thanks to their defense.

While Mike Krzyzewski going for win number 880, which would push him past Dean Smith and into second place all-time, is a big deal that does not make Duke playing UNC Greensboro at the Greensboro Coliseum the game of the night. That distinction goes to the Big East opener for #9 Georgetown (11-1) and #15 Notre Dame in South Bend.

Coming off of a tough loss at North Carolina, which featured a somnambulant Terrence Jones failing to shake off the after-effects of a pregame nap, the Kentucky Wildcats needed to get back on the winning track. And after a slow start against Notre Dame in the second game of the SEC/Big East Invitational, John Calipari's team woke up late in the first half and carried that effort over after the break. The end result: a 72-58 win for the Wildcats at Freedom Hall to give the SEC a sweep of the first two games (another doubleheader will be played in Pittsburgh on Saturday).

Eleven games involving Top 25 teams are on the schedule for tonight, with the lone meeting of ranked teams taking place in the second game of the SEC/Big East Invitational doubleheader at Freedom Hall. Notre Dame, winners of the Old Spice Classic, takes on a Kentucky team that's coming off of a close loss at North Carolina over the weekend. While many are obsessing over the question as to whether or not the school's appeal of Enes Kanter's suspension is upheld, the true concern for John Calipari's team right now may be the play at the point despite that lack of frontcourt depth.