Breakfast Buffet: Saint Louis’ rout of Butler throws the A-10 further into chaos
1. One of college basketball's most difficult tasks is determining the Atlantic 10 pecking order, and that challenge became even more difficult Thursday after Saint Louis thumped first-place Butler by 17 points. Seven games into the league season, every team has at least two losses, 11 schools are within two games of first place and the program in last, Rhode Island, got its lone win in Saint Louis, the same place where the ninth-ranked team in the nation wasn't even competitive. You'd have better luck solving a Rubik's cube than listing the A-10's the top five.
2. Much like Kansas' blue-out jerseys from earlier in the week and Tennessee's orange-out jerseys from a a few weeks ago, another Adidas school will go with the monochromatic look on Saturday. Louisville will don these all-white jerseys with a splash of red for its white-out game against Marquette on Saturday. My initial reaction: Pretty slick, though I wonder if jersey numbers will again be difficult to read on TV.
3. CBSSports.com's Jeff Borzello polled 20 coaches and scouts, asking which of the top players in the Class of 2013 have the most bust potential. The leading vote-getters were Florida-bound forward Chris Walker, Indiana-bound Noah Vonleh and Kentucky-bound Andrew and Aaron Harrison. One guy who not surprisingly didn't get a mention: No. 1 overall prospect Andrew Wiggins.
4. If NC State hasn't better figured out how to play without point guard Lorenzo Brown, the Wolfpack could be in store for another loss. Brown, who missed the final 30 minutes of Tuesday's loss at Virginia, will be a game-time decision Saturday against first-place Miami as a result of the sprained left ankle he suffered in Charlottesville. “He was limping pretty good (Wednesday), which was not a good sign,” NC State coach Mark Gottfried said on his weekly radio show. “But we’re just going to work with him around the clock."
5. Matt Carlino's step-back 3-pointer at the shot-clock buzzer with 12 seconds to go saved BYU's flickering at-large hopes for at least another day. The shot extended the Cougars' lead at Pepperdine to four points, enabling BYU to eke out a 63-61 victory in a game it trailed by 11 points at halftime. Carlino, who has endured an erratic season, was benched for much of the first half as a result of his poor play.
NC State senior Scott Wood isn't merely just one of the nation's deadliest 3-point shooters. He also apparently has some trick shots in his repertoire. Check out this video of Wood throwing the ball off the wall of the gym, letting it bounce and spinning it back into the basket, a shot he apparently also sank twice before the cameras were rolling.
"It was an absolute joy to watch one team play. The problem was it wasn't the team I was coaching." -- Butler coach Brad Stevens showing he didn't lose his sense of humor despite his team's 75-58 loss at Saint Louis on Thursday night. The Billikens have torn Butler and New Mexico apart at home ... and also lost at home to Rhode Island. College basketball is hard to figure out sometimes. (Fox Sports Midwest)
• Unless Youngstown State-Detroit is your idea of must-see TV, enjoy your night and save your energy for a Saturday hoops marathon.
