Sully's Court

The downer: The Great Alaska Shootout, which was one of the original Thanksgiving tournaments, has suffered because of the proliferation of other tournaments. It used to be a big-time event, but this year's field? San Diego State, Western Carolina, Louisiana State, Seattle, Hampton, Portland State, Northern Illinois, and the host school, Alaska Anchorage. ESPN no longer airs the games, which is an obvious problem. Alaska Anchorage athletic director Steve Cobb told the Associated Press that Versus might show the tournament next season. He's also striving to get some schools from BCS conferences.

Back in business: Seattle University used to be a good Division 1 program -- Hall of Famer Elgin Baylor led Seattle to the Final Four in 1958. The historic University of Texas-El Paso team -- then known as Texas Western -- that won the 1966 national championship with five black starters lost only once that season, to Seattle. Seattle dropped out of Division 1 in 1980, but its back this season and won its first D1 game in 28 years by beating Louisiana Tech in the Great Alaska Shootout. The school plans is to eventually play all its home games in KeyArena, vacated by the NBA's SuperSonics. The Redhawks (they were called the Chieftians when Baylor played) star player? Austen Powers. I'll let you insert the joke.

At least he's interesting: Jimmy Patsos, the wacky coach at Loyola (Md.) who left the court at Boston College and sat in the nearly empty stands to watch the game, decided he was going to stop the nation's leading scorer, Stephen Curry, when his team played Davidson.

"If Oklahoma can't stop him, how is Loyola College going to stop him?" Patsos asked, referencing Curry's 44-point performance against the Sooners. Then he proceeded to stop him, albeit in an unusual manner: Loyola had two defenders covering the sharpshooter no matter where he was on the court. Curry was held scoreless, but Davidson won, 78-48. As far we know, Patsos stayed in the bench area all night.

Highly respected Davidson coach Bob McKillop had some cool words for Patsos. "It seemed to me they were willing to risk the game at the expense of locking Steph up. When you put two people on somebody and you do it for 30 minutes and at the end of the game, you have to wonder what the reasons for that are."

Welcome back: Syracuse, which won its early-season tournament with consecutive wins over Florida and Kansas. Jim Boeheim has a Big East contender.

How bad can two losses be? If those losses are to Jacksonville State and Wisconsin-Green Bay, pretty bad. It means new UMass coach Derek Kellogg has a lot of work to do. He’d have to really turn things around to have a good season now.

Bo's analysis: Interesting quote from Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan about UConn: "[Connecticut is] a very difficult team to come from behind against. Three or four turnovers can quickly change a game. We're not immune."

My UConn analysis: Jerome Dyson has really improved and now looks like a top-notch guard. He makes quite a combination with A.J. Price. Hasheem Thabeet, who was named MVP of the Paradise Jam tournament, is still overrated. The scouts who told the Globe's Marc Spears how good he is must be the same ones who touted bust Michael Olowokandi to the Clippers in 1998.

Something else to reconsider: I thought Binghamton, loaded with transfers, would be a threat to Boston University in America East. After watching BU hit shot after shot in beating Northeastern, I could be wrong. Plus this: Binghamton lost to Central Connecticut, 76-51, while missing all 19 of its 3-pointers, which is three short of the NCAA record for most misses without making one. Poor Canisius was 0 for 22 in a game in 1995.

Ties don't count: Idaho State lost three straight in overtime to Hawaii, Boise State, and Long Beach State.

Surprising results, amazing margins:

Wake Forest 62, Winston-Salem 31: Big House Gaines couldn't bear to watch.

Liberty 86, Virginia 82: If you're a UVA hoop fan, I guess now you say give me death (in a sports sense, of course).

Talladega 69, Southern 64: The was a restrictor plate game, not Southern's strength.

Western Kentucky 68, Louisville 54: Here's some simple analysis -- the Cardinals shot 26.8 percent.

Buffalo 83, Temple 73: People were starting to get on the Owls bandwagon. Not now.

Ohio State 59, Samford 22: Samford went for two after its third touchdown.

Bad losses:
St. Martin's 83, Colorado State 76: The Saints are located in Lacey, Wash. just southwest of Tacoma. They also upset our local Division 2 power, Bentley, earlier this season.

Presbyterian 47, San Jose 46: The game was played in Clinton, S.C., a long way to come for a bad loss.

Five rising:

Dayton: The Flyers are flying high after stomping Marquette 89-75 on a neutral court.

Florida State: The Seminoles are 7-0 after beating Cal to win the Las Vegas tournament.

Gonzaga: The Zags won the Disney World tournament by beating Oklahoma, Maryland, and Tennessee.

Minnesota: Tubby Smith is getting it done. The Gophers are 7-0. He also has a freshman center named Ralph Sampson who looks just like his father and shares some playing mannerisms. He's 6-feet-10-inches, six inches shorter than his dad.

Nebraska: The Huskers are 5-0 after rallying from a 13-point halftime deficit to beat in-state rival Creighton. Funny t-shirt in the stands: “Hatin’ Creighton.”

Five falling

Charlotte: The Cedric Maxwells had some hype in the preseason but are now 1-6 after finishing last in the Anaheim eight-team tournament.

Fordham: The Rams are 0-5 and lost by 20 to James Madison on Sunday.

Oregon State: The Beavers lost at home to Yale and Montana State (in overtime). Coach Craig Robinson requests a player stimulus package from his brother-in-law, Barack Obama. Robinson did win his first game when the Beavers beat Fresno State Sunday.

Rutgers: The Knights are 4-2 but their two losses have been to Saint Bonaventure and Lehigh.

Siena: The Saints, projected a mid-major monster, had a tough weekend in Disney World, losing all three games.

The week's George Mason (best mid-major): Butler. The longest-running performance of Cinderella this side of Gonzaga wasn’t supposed to have much this season but is now 5-0.

This week's Final Four: North Carolina, Pittsburgh, Oklahoma, Purdue.

This week's national champion: North Carolina.