Blacked Out Home Game

The College Basketball Closer is written by the gang at Storming The Floor.

Sunday afternoon, I had written half of the Closer and saved it, planning to watch the Sunday games and then finish up. Twenty minutes later, half my state lost power, and it didn't come back until 6am. I had to endure the horrors of a Sunday without basketball (or the internet, or Playstation. It's a wonder I survived).

We did get one chance to practice our bball skills, however. Since my five-year-old son was afraid to sleep in his freezing room with no night light, we let him sleep in between us. He spent the night practicing his post moves against the double team - throwing an elbow to gain extra space, backing me down to the edge of the bed before putting on a flawless spin move. It was an inspiring performance.

I got pretty annoyed by the lack of power. I'd like to say I thought about how I didn't really need all that junk and found out that talking and telling stories was really a good use of my time, but I can't. I need basketball on TV, and I need constant internet score updates and email, and I want them mainlined into my cerebral cortex from now on.

I will say that there is one thing worse than a night without basketball, however. When I woke up this morning, I discovered that a night without reliable refrigeration of dairy products is not really to be desired, either.

Top 25 Action

Memphis 85-UCF 64. Dozier hits four-of-eight, girlfriend. At least he's sorry. Duke 90-BC 80. Singler devours Rice, Oates. Remains painfully skinny. North Carolina 103-Clemson 93. Oliver's Army put up a good fight, but couldn't top 103. UCLA 61-Washington 71. This is why you never want to be the "team to beat". They do. Kansas 100-Baylor 90. Arthur's turn to star. Schedule has Chalmers down for next week. Georgetown 51-Louisville 59. Pitino ditches surrender-colored suit at halftime. Tennessee 47-LSU 45. A good sign. Have to win low-scoring games in March. Wisconsin 67-Purdue 72. (Previously?)Unranked Boilers now atop Big Ten. Respeck, mon! Stanford 71-Oregon State 56. Ward, weren't you a little hard on the Beavers? Michigan State 70-Northwestern 55. The top-ten team nobody has much to say about. Butler 62-Wisconsin Green Bay 57. Favre played his heart out for Green Bay. Lost. Texas 71-Iowa State 65. A nice warm-up for the Big Monday game with Kansas. Indiana 59-Ohio State 53. Hoosiers get 20th win, keep pace with Purdue in Big Ten. Xavier 76-St. Joe's 72. St. Joe's was streaking, but X now has a 2-game lead on them. Drake 73-Evansville 65. Tough loss for Purple Aces and their superfly mascot. Marquette 83-Notre Dame 86. Irish won it with free throws. That will work in March. Washington State 74-USC 50. Welcome back to the land of the living, Cougars! Texas A&M 77-Mizzou 69. Stefhon Hannah's arrest caps a crap week for the Tigers. UConn 80-Georgia Tech 68. UConn thinking big with Hasheem Thabeet's 24/15/6. Vanderbilt 66-South Carolina 65. Finally, Vandy making friends with road games. Florida 77-Georgia 67. Gators now getting scoring from a guy named Chandler. Ugh. Kansas State 82-Oklahoma State 61. Beasley gets his 19th double-double of the year.

Three Feet High and Rising

Kentucky (6-2 SEC) Virginia Commonwealth (11-2 Colonial) UNLV (7-2 Mountain West)

Tonight's Big Game

Kansas (23-1) at Texas (19-4). Bill Self will get a stern test in Austin after his boys laid triple digits on Baylor two days ago. May be forced to one day explain to Darrell Arthur that Slim Shady is white, but is keeping that information in reserve for right now. The Longhorns are 11/2 games back of the Jayhawks, but would welcome this chance to make up some ground on their home court.

Eric Angevine writes about college basketball for Storming the Floor, and contributes regularly to Chicago Sports Weekly. He can be reached at [email protected].