Weekend Look Back: Cheerleader goofs, Fredette does opposite

Duke and Texas both lost. So guess who's No. 1 again? Jimmer Fredette strengthened his case for National Player of the Year. Dwight Hardy strengthened his case for Big East Player of the Year. Louisville got a huge win. Washington took a terrible loss. And Cliff Ellis released a statement he should've never released.
Let's recap it all with the Weekend Look Back.

Dwight Hardy is making a serious run at Big East Player of the Year. (US Presswire)

Best game of the weekend: Any game between two ranked teams that goes to overtime and features a male cheerleader getting a technical foul for prematurely running onto the court in the final second is a game worth celebrating because that means it was equal parts competitive and bizarre. So let's start with Louisville's 62-59 OT win over Pittsburgh that would've been a 62-57 win if not for a Louisville cheerleader grabbing the ball and tossing it into the air after Louisville's final basket. Problem was, the game wasn't over. So the guy got a technical that allowed Pitt's Ashton Gibbs to take and make two free throws and cut the lead to 62-59 with 0.5 second left. Because there was so little time, Gibbs couldn't get a desperation heave off on the subsequent possession; so Louisville escaped. But that's beside the point. The point is that a male cheerleader made an out-of-reach game reachable in the final second because he got a technical, and now, well, here's Rick Pitino: "All good things have to come to an end, and the male cheerleader [at Louisville] comes to an end," Pitino joked. "Hopefully he'll learn the rules."
Worst game of the weekend: The game was bad only in the sense that it wasn't really competitive because North Carolina led from start to finish. Beyond that, it was actually pretty good because Tyler Zeller (25 points and six rebounds), John Henson (10 points, 15 rebounds and seven blocks) and Harrison Barnes (21 points and six rebounds) all played like stars in Sunday's 87-76 win over Maryland, and the outcome means we're now only a UNC win over Florida State and a Duke win over Clemson from an epic matchup between the rivals next Saturday night on CBS that would, under those circumstances, determine the outright ACC champion.
Win to brag about: Winning on the road is hard almost regardless of the opponent. (Just ask Mike Krzyzewski and Rick Barnes.) But it's especially difficult when the opponent has a top-five RPI and 27 victories, which is why BYU's 80-67 win at San Diego State strengthened the Cougars' quest to earn a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. Jimmer Fredette, the nation's leading scorer, finished with 25 points and nine assists Saturday. While doing so he proved he can kill you when you leave him open or find teammates who can kill you when you run extra defenders his way. That's scary stuff.
Loss to hide from: Washington has gone from the Pac-10 favorite to a bubble team thanks to Sunday's 80-69 home loss to Washington State. The Huskies are now 19-9 overall and just 10-6 in the league with only two top-50 RPI wins; they're 7-6 against the top 100 with three losses outside of the top 100. So they'd better close the regular season with wins over UCLA and USC. Otherwise, Washington likely will have to do work in the Pac-10 tournament just to make the NCAA tournament.
Player who deserves improper benefits: Connecticut's Kemba Walker has long been considered the likely Big East Player of the Year, and for good reason. But at what point does Dwight Hardy become a viable alternative? The St. John's guard got 34 points in Saturday's 81-68 win at Villanova. He's averaging 25.1 points in the Red Storm's past nine games and is the main reason they've gone 8-1 during that stretch with victories over six projected NCAA tournament teams: Duke, Pittsburgh, Connecticut, Cincinnati, Marquette and Villanova.
Player who does not deserve improper benefits: I didn't see the game because I was at BYU-San Diego State. But whichever Texas player let Alec Burks get loose for 33 points in Saturday's 91-89 loss at Colorado, that's the guy who doesn't deserve improper benefits. It's unacceptable to lose that game after building a 21-point lead. It might end up being what costs the Longhorns the Big 12 title and a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.
Why I'm smarter than you think: I kept Ohio State No. 1 in the Top 25 (and one) after the Buckeyes lost at Wisconsin because they still had the nation's best body of work, and I also kept Ohio State No. 1 in the Top 25 (and one) after the Buckeyes lost at Purdue because they still had the nation's best body of work then, too. Meantime, most others in the business of ranking basketball teams switched to either Kansas, Duke or Pittsburgh. But now look. The Buckeyes -- after Sunday's 82-61 win over Indiana -- almost certainly will regain the top spot in the AP poll. It's a development that'll provide me with an opportunity to explain why I was right about No. 1 all along, which is good because I need something to offset my hardheadedness concerning Purdue.
Why I'm dumber than I think: Purdue beat Ohio State last weekend, at which point I admitted I was wrong to ever doubt that the Boilermakers could be nationally relevant without Robbie Hummel. It was a nice moment for me. I felt good about it. And then I turned right around, disregarded everything I had just written and picked Purdue to lose Sunday at Michigan State. Needless to say, Purdue did not lose Sunday at Michigan State. The Boilermakers instead cruised to a 67-47 win, and now here I am ... playing the idiot again.

Three things you should know before you go

1. Virginia Tech's 64-60 win over Duke late Saturday represented a huge night for Seth Greenberg, who celebrated with his family and was immediately told, live on national television by ESPN's Dick Vitale, that his Hokies are a lock for the NCAA tournament. My colleague Matt Norlander doesn't quite agree, and I think he's probably right. So Virginia Tech would be wise to get over the Duke win, ASAP, and back it this week with wins over Boston College and Clemson, just to be safe.
2. Wichita State and Missouri State entered Saturday's game with identical conference records and the final minute of that game with identical scores, which means the Missouri Valley Conference championship was in the balance until Missouri State's Adam Leonard made a 3-pointer with 48.2 seconds remaining to propel the Bears to a 69-64 win. The victory secured their first MVC title since joining the league two decades ago. That's the good news. The bad news is that Missouri State might need to win this week's MVC tournament to make the NCAA tournament because its resume -- featuring zero top-50 wins and three losses outside of the top 100 -- still lacks the kind of substance the selection committee typically rewards.
3. Georgetown proved what most reasonable basketball minds suggested last week -- that there is no way to replace Chris Wright. The senior point guard watched Saturday's 58-51 loss to Syracuse with a bandage covering his surgically repaired non-shooting hand that was injured in last week's loss to Cincinnati. Counting that game, the Hoyas are now 0-2 without Wright. They scored 46 and 51 points in those games. Those two point-totals represent Georgetown's lowest two point-totals of the season.
On tap: Kansas State is at Texas on Monday night. On Tuesday, Vanderbilt is at Kentucky. On Wednesday, Texas A&M is at Kansas. On Thursday, UCLA is at Washington.
Final thought: Coastal Carolina coach Cliff Ellis released a statement this weekend in response to last week's New York Times article that detailed how and why his program is under NCAA investigation. The statement read, in part, like this: "The New York Times recently wrote an article about me and my basketball program. There are falsehoods in this story that are designed to paint a picture of things that are not true. I have retained a lawyer, Mr. Tommy Brittain, to see what recourse we have with these falsehoods."
In other words, Ellis is thinking about suing the New York Times.
Trust me, this is as far as it will ever go.
You'll never hear about Ellis filing a lawsuit against the New York Times just like you never heard about former Kentucky star Eric Bledsoe filing a lawsuit against the New York Times just like you never heard about future Kentucky star Anthony Davis filing a lawsuit against the Chicago Sun-Times. (Remember when I told you Davis would never actually file the lawsuit?) Everybody threatens to sue media companies but almost nobody ever does it because when they do they lose. Which is what Brittain, if he's worth his retainer fee, will tell Ellis very soon while reminding the coach that the New York Times hasn't lost a journalism-related lawsuit in the United States in more than 50 years.
Seriously, more than 50 years.
Is Coastal Carolina really gonna be what brings down the New York Times? Somehow, I doubt it. But I sure hope Ellis tries because, like I said about the Davis case, there would be nothing better than watching a college basketball coach have to discuss recruiting practices under oath. Nothing better.
extracted from cbssports.com