Gus Johnson Is Screaming About Desperation Threes In An 8-Point Game; It Must Be March

Quick looks at all the early afternoon conference tournament action.

•Houston Cougars 81, UTEP Miners 73. Houston punched their ticket to the dance with only 19 wins; has Phi Slamma Jamma returned? UTEP's Randy Culpepper missed three consecutive desperation threes at the end. Adam Brown ( #31) won the aftermath.

•Vermont Catamounts 83, Boston U Terriers 70. The Flying Coppenraths return to the tournament for the first time since 2005. Marqus Blakely lead the way for Vermont, who never trailed, scoring 24.

•Temple Owls 57, Rhode Island Rams 44. Temple advances to the A10 Championship game where they will definitely not play Fordham. Probably XavierRichmond. Needless to say, Barry's jazzed.

•Kentucky Wildcats 74, Tennessee Volunteers 45. DeMarcus Cousins, John Wall and Eric Bledsoe further solidified their Lottery-bound status in a drubbing of UT. Bruce Pearl wore an orange coat, yelled a lot and lost. Business as usual.

•Duke 77, Miami Rob Iracane's 74. Kyle Singler and Jon Scheyer, the ACC co-leaders in moxie, ensured that Duke will annoy the lot of you tomorrow. Bentern's probably happy. Durand Scott had 21 for the Canes who are likely NIT bound.

•Ohio State Buckeyes 88, Illinois Fighting Illini 81. Evan Turner scored 31 and David Lighty took over in the second OT after Turner fouled out. The Illini failed to get a shot off at the end of regulation and the first OT. That's rough.