ESPN Commentary

Forty names, games, teams and minutiae making news in college basketball (Adam Morrison (1) mustache grooming kit sold separately):

Nobody is out of the NCAA Tournament in mid-January. (OK, Savannah State (2) is, but you know what The Minutes is saying.) Nevertheless, some obnoxiously accomplished members of the old-money hoops aristocracy are flirting with the March low-rent district (i.e., the NIT).

Last time we had a Big Dance without either Kansas (3) or Kentucky (4): 1989.

Last time both missed the tournament because of bad basketball, not probation: 1979.

Last time Kansas, Kentucky and Louisville (5) whiffed on the big tournament: 1976.

And on the off-chance young North Carolina (6) falters over the next seven weeks, last time they held the NCAAs without the Jayhawks, Wildcats, Cardinals and the Tar Heels: 1963.

Those schools have a combined 16 national titles and 49 Final Fours -- including half of the 2005 Final Four -- and could potentially sit out March Madness. CBS might need to cancel coverage.

If you check this week's Bracketology, you'll see a 65-team field that currently lacks Kansas and Kentucky. Carolina and the Cardinals are both in bracket, but that was before Louisville was capped by St. John's Tuesday night.

Kansas somehow drop-kicked a seven-point lead in the last minute of regulation against Missouri to lose in overtime Monday night. (Five missed free throws in that time figured rather prominently, including two with less than a second left by hard-working, hard-luck Christian Moody (7). By all accounts, he's a fine young man, but Christian Moody is no Christian Laettner (8) when it comes to clutch shooting.)

That leaves the Jayhawks at 10-6, with five of those losses by four points or less. They're a gruesome No. 116 in the ESPN Daily RPI. They're 0-4 against the RPI top 50, lost at home to Nevada and against St. Joseph's at MSG in a week's time in December, and lost at home to Kansas State Saturday. The Wildcats had lost 31 straight to their instate rivals before that game.

This week alone, Kansas has done wonders for the job security of two Big 12 coaches. Jim Wooldridge had been feeling the heat at K-State, and Quin Snyder was all but roasting on a spit at Missouri. Now they have the worst Jayhawks team since before Danny Manning (9) to thank for a sudden boost in their tepid approval ratings.

But as bad as Kansas is at this point, remember this: It beat Kentucky (11-6, No. 43 RPI) by 27 less than two weeks ago -- with The Minutes' main squeeze, Ashley Judd (10), as a horrified courtside onlooker. If the Jayhawks are in trouble, so are the Wildcats (who also have a 26-point loss to Indiana on the books, the two worst losses since Tubby Smith (11) arrived in Lexington in 1997).

Unlike rebuilding Kansas, Kentucky began the year in almost everyone's top 15. It has done nothing but backpedal since then, chasing itself out of the Top 25 for the first time in five years with a hail of missed shots. Kentucky hasn't broken the 70-point barrier in 2006 and hasn't scored 80 since November.

The Cats actually made shots and flashed smiles Tuesday night while winning 69-55 at Georgia, after a team sit-down with sports psychologist Dr. Andrew Weiner. Given the results, the entire anxiety-ridden state could use a few minutes with the shrink (12) -- but that victory is only significant if it carries over through a soft stretch in the SEC schedule.

(There aren't too many tough stretches in that league this year. Kentucky could win its next four, leading up to its Feb. 4 visit to Florida.)

Smith has had previous teams that looked terrible at this stage of the season and righted the ship, so you can't close the door on UK just yet. But it's only open a crack.

And as much as Kansas can at least take solace in beating Kentucky, Kentucky can take solace in beating Louisville.

A succession of leg injuries has retarded the young Cardinals' progress -- the latest being a sprained ankle for leading scorer Taquan Dean (13), who has played a total of 12 minutes in the past three games. But even fully healthy, it's hard to envision this team being great. They have zero quality wins to date and are No. 78 in the RPI. When you're run out of the Garden by this St. John's team, it puts a new twist on "New York, New York": If you can lose here, you can lose anywhere in the Big East.

Even before the St. John's defeat, Rick Pitino (14) sounded the alarm, saying his team is headed to the NIT if it keeps losing at home (Louisville is 0-2 in Freedom Hall in Big East play). The next home game is against Connecticut on Saturday which, to the Minutes, sounds like another long stride toward the Little Dance.

And then there is North Carolina, which has the best excuse of the four, after losing its top 26 or so scorers from the '05 national championship squad. The baby blues have acquitted themselves well this season, but double-digit losses to USC and Miami -- the latter at home -- are enough to make The Minutes wonder how they'll hold up in ACC play. Especially on the road.

... Texas forward Brad Buckman (15).

Each week, The Minutes will attempt to ruthlessly interrogate a college basketball player with questions of supreme importance and report the answers back to the readership. Here's what Buckman had to say:

Forde Minutes: Can Vince Young (16) hoop?
Brad Buckman: I hear he can. There is a picture of him in a basketball uniform in the coaches' office, so I am guessing he can.

FM: Does he shoot a basketball better than you throw a football?
BB: Probably worse. I've never seen his shot, but I am sure it's not any better than [how] he throws the football [laughter].

FM: As a native of The Minutes' favorite college town, do you have any restaurant and night life recommendations? (Unless, of course, you've never eaten out or left the library.)
BB: My recommendation would be Eddie V's (17). It's my favorite place, so I go there as much as I can. I usually take my parents there so they can pay for it.

FM: What's the toughest crowd in the Big 12 and why?
BB: Toughest crowd is Oklahoma State (18). That gym is straight up and down, so you feel like you are getting crowded. They are right on top of you and it's always nonstop noise. We had to practice with the horn one time, just to get used to the environment.

FM: What is the surest way to get into Rick Barnes' (19) doghouse and the quickest way to get out?
BB: I got in the doghouse Tuesday night (in the home win against Texas Tech) for shooting the ball too much. The best way to get out is hustle. Make plays that no one else does and play as hard as you can.

FM: How do you get your hands on so many balls, especially off the glass?
BB: I have been around so long, I feel like I know where the ball is going to go after someone shoots it. I like that kind of game. I like getting down low and getting rebounds, because half of my points come off rebounds. I know if I can get a few boards like that, I can score.

The most consistently inconsistent team of this (and perhaps any) season is Saint Louis (20).

Billikens fans have been rendered motion sick after watching their up-and-down team alternate wins and losses for their first 16 games of the season. Longtime school sports information director Doug McIlhagga (21) has put out a call to other schools to see whether anyone has ever had a longer win-loss-win-loss streak. So far, he's not found another one.

If you're scoring at home, it's officially eight victories and eight losses, as follows: WLWLWLWLWLWLWLWL, with SLU outscoring opponents for the season by a total of two points. Going back to last season, the Bills have an 18-game streak without a winning or losing streak.

If that's not the living definition of a .500 team, The Minutes doesn't know what is. But maddening as the mood swings might be, they haven't bothered coach Brad Soderberg (22).

"If this is an inconsistent year, I'll take it over what we did last year," said Soderberg, whose team was 9-21 in 2004-05. "I literally have not brought this up one time with our players. The only time it's come up is from the media."

In its first year in the Atlantic 10, Saint Louis has flirted several times with consecutive victories and/or defeats. The Billikens appeared doomed to a second straight loss when they trailed St. Bonaventure by three with 35 seconds left on Jan. 3, but hit a 3-pointer to tie the game and then won it on free throws with 2.6 seconds left.

Next game, on the verge of a winning streak and a major upset of George Washington, SLU let a four-point lead unravel in the final two minutes of regulation and lost in overtime -- shooting 5-for-15 from the foul line along the way.

Last Saturday against Massachusetts, the Bills got a fadeaway jumper from freshman Tommie Liddell (23) with 1.5 seconds left to win, 60-58. That set the stage for the Wednesday night game at Richmond, where the Spiders pulled away late to win 65-54.

Next up is a real test to the nonstreak: at red-hot Xavier Saturday. At least Saint Louis will be catching the Musketeers after their annual emotional battle with Cincinnati.

Soderberg has been at a loss to explain this phenomenon, but he's sure of one thing: The players' effort has been consistent, even if the outcomes haven't been.

"That's really been a pleasure to me," he said. "They just play the next game. They don't let anything carry over from the game before."

Clearly.

The Minutes and everyone else who watches college basketball knows that Duke has been the premier recruiting program in America for just about 20 years. But it seems the clout of Mike Krzyzewski (24) is only growing stronger. (Must be those 30-second American Express recruitfomercials. (25))

When Bruce Weber loses Jon Scheyer (26), a Chicago-area kid whose high-school coach happens to be Weber's brother, you know the Blue Devils are strong. And when Louisville loses Nolan Smith (27), the son of late Cardinals great Derek Smith, you wonder whether there's anyone K cannot get.

Scheyer, a senior, committed last season to Duke, wounding the Illini in the midst of its finest season. Smith, a junior, committed last week, stunning the Cards. Both are considered among the finest players in the nation in their respective classes.

Not only does Derek Smith's jersey hang from the wall in Freedom Hall, Pitino announced a well-timed fund-raising effort in October to name the team's practice floor after him. And Nolan Smith's big sister, Sidney, attends Louisville.

In the end, it didn't matter. Neither did Weber's family ties.

Duke had an in with the Smiths because assistant Johnny Dawkins (28) was a former teammate of Derek's and has remained a family friend. Duke had an in with Scheyer because assistant Chris Collins (29) attended the same high school (Glenbrook North). But mostly, Duke had an in because it is Duke, the smartest and most persuasive recruiting outfit going.

"The bottom line is this: By keeping a short target list and high profile, Duke has been able to insert itself into nearly every situation it wants," Scout.com national recruiting analyst Dave Telep (30) said. "Having a short list is one thing, having a short list that lends itself to the profile of kid you want to coach and recruit is another. Most programs have difficulty identifying who they really are and, in turn, who they want to recruit. Duke, as a staff, researches and pick [its] spots extremely well. ... For all intents and purposes, if given just a little bit of time, they can move into the top three of just about any kid they target, and quickly.

"In my opinion, the key is Krzyzewski -- no surprise there. Given his serious national profile, when he really inserts himself into a recruiting scenario, it makes a huge splash and happens quickly. Take Smith for example: Once he began being able to get in touch with K minutes after a Duke game and then [he] invited Nolan and his family to Durham for a game, it was over. He spent two hours with the family, and within two weeks, he's a Blue Devil."

Maryland-Baltimore County coach Randy Monroe (31) continued a proud-bordering-on-trite tradition in college basketball by evicting his underachieving team from its own locker room recently.

Seems Monroe's Retrievers (32) have been playing like dogs of late, losing three straight America East games to drop to 6-10 overall. After the second of those defeats, Monroe booted his players out of their recently refurbished digs (the locker room was redone, to fancy effect, before last season). The team was forced to dress for games and practices in a media workroom, and has not been allowed to wear UMBC-issued gear to practice.

Suitably chastened and inspired, UMBC lost its first game posteviction to Hartford 74-73. That snapped a five-game losing streak for the Hawks.

The 32-year-old Monroe was following in the footsteps of coaching legends like Krzyzewski, Geno Auriemma (33) and Bob Huggins (34), who are among the coaches to either shut down their teams' locker rooms entirely or to remove many of the trappings of success contained within. But The Minutes has to wonder:

During these disciplinary purges, have any coaches ever kicked themselves out of their own offices and worked in the hallway? Turned in their courtesy cars? Stopped using their free country club memberships? Refrained from cashing a check from the sneaker companies?

The Minutes doesn't know the answer for sure, but it has a pretty good idea.

For those who believe the Worldwide Leader obsesses a bit too much on the Duke-North Carolina rivalry, know this: ESPN did not broadcast the 58-hour game played within the last week between the two schools. No Dookie V, no Jay Bilas, no Hubert Davis working that epic contest. No, sir.

But we're here to talk about it now.

Students from the two schools put themselves in the Guinness Book of World Records with a continuously played game that lasted nearly 2½ days on the Carolina campus.

Brilliant!

Wait, wrong Guinness (35).

Bravo, then.

A total of 24 students from the two schools balled, slept, ate, studied and balled some more in Fetzer Gymnasium on the Chapel Hill campus from Saturday morning until Monday evening. When not on the competing, they stretched out on air mattresses and tried to rest. Other than periodic individual five-minute breaks, nobody left the gym.

Final score: Duke 3,688, North Carolina 3,444.

The 244-point margin of defeat is the worst in the rivalry for the Tar Heels since Matt Doherty (36) was the coach.

The kids raised $60,000 for Hoop Dreams Basketball Academy, a nonprofit organization that uses basketball to improve the lives of children with life-threatening illnesses.

Then they staggered off to class Tuesday.

"People were at least physically present in class," reports North Carolina student Greg Richmond (37), one of the event's organizers.

Richmond said the entire Carolina team went to watch "Glory Road" the night before the game for inspiration. Then they played the part of Rupp's Runts against Texas Western.

Meanwhile, the Duke players had a run-in with the law the morning of the game. Running late, some of them were pulled over for speeding on the way to Chapel Hill. Explaining their plight got them scant sympathy.

"Hurry up and give me your license so I can write your ticket," the officer reportedly said.

The event turned out to be as star-studded as a varsity installment of the rivalry. Former vice-presidential candidate John Edwards (38) tossed up the opening tip, and Carolina's chancellor and Duke's president both made appearances to bolster morale. On Monday, Heels coach Roy Williams (39) even showed up to offer some encouragement -- and a few coaching tips.

"He told the players who to pass to, and told Duke to stop fouling our girls," Richmond reported. "He should have come a little earlier -- perhaps before the Miami game [a double-digit Heels loss]."

Richmond said fans were there off and on throughout the game, and occasionally got too loud for the resting players to tolerate.

"Some of the players couldn't sleep," Richmond said. "So we gave them pompons to cheer silently."

Another wine-and-cheese Carolina crowd. Albeit for humanitarian reasons. And a good cause.

As successful as the event was as a fund-raiser, it didn't meet the projected goal of $80,000. (Duke won the fund-raising contest, too.) Anyone wishing to donate can contribute at www.basketballmarathon.com.

Jan. 12: Sacramento State 107, Idaho State 106. In regulation.

The Minutes wants to know: When was the last time you saw a home team shoot 65 percent, score 106 points ... and lose?

Give it up to the Sac State Hornets (40), seeking their first-ever NCAA Tournament bid. They're 4-0 in Big Sky Conference play and 13-5 overall, and sporting a sleek, kinetic, don't-mess-with-me Hornet logo. Complete with stinger.

Pat Forde is a senior writer for ESPN.com. He can be reached at ESPN4D@aol.com.