ESPN Men's Basketball

Since you liked the November feature so much, here's the next installment...

Even though NCAA Tournament at-large berths aren't doled out until March, what happens at this point of the season really does matter. Following is the most important result, as far as impact on the field of 65, from each day of December. Remember, this isn't necessarily the biggest or most shocking win of the day -- just the one that might have the most impact on the eventual NCAA field.

New Mexico State 80, Chicago State 74
Very light day, but the Aggies were coming off three straight tough road losses, including a game against rival New Mexico that they lost principally due to free-throw follies. This win kick-started what's now a nine-game winning streak -- one that has included a revenge beat-down of the Lobos and a sweep of UTEP -- that has NMSU looking like a dark-horse threat in the WAC.

DePaul 64, Kansas 57
Clemson's 21-point pasting of South Carolina was notable, but DePaul's win over Kansas may have saved its season. The Blue Demons were 1-4 in D-I games entering the contest, but since its 14-0 run late against the Jayhawks, DePaul has only a one-point loss at UAB blemishing a ledger that includes wins over Wake Forest and a decent UC Irvine team and a 28-point victory over Cal (after the Golden Bears lost DeVon Hardin) in which the Blue Demons won the second half 58-27. In a Big East where the middle tier is playing considerably better than expected, DePaul could have been buried early if not for the win over KU.

Michigan State 82, Bradley 53
This is a tough pick, but for subtle bracket impact, I'll take Michigan State's 29-point win over Bradley rather than Florida State's upset of Florida or Notre Dame's win over Maryland in D.C. The Seminoles got the huge nonconference win they needed after flopping against Wisconsin and Pitt, but that win really only impacts one team -- FSU. Notre Dame's win was big for the Irish and may have set the tone for the upset of Alabama a few days later, but all three of those teams look solid to make the NCAAs. The Michigan State win, though, cuts to the center of the ongoing Missouri Valley/mid-major debate; results like these sometimes can get glossed over because of name recognition when the outcome actually is somewhat surprising. I don't fully agree with Jay Bilas' take on this topic, but I do agree that if we're going to hold the Valley up as a quasi-high-major conference, then it should get dinged for having a mid-level team get trucked by a Spartans team that, at the time, was still developing.

Wisconsin 82, Winthrop 79 (OT)
Wisconsin showed it could hold off a very solid team that was shooting the lights out while Winthrop missed out on a huge chance to get the marquee win it probably will need for at-large consideration. The Eagles have played the Badgers and North Carolina very tough, but since they also have lost to Maryland and Texas A&M -- and with their best win being either at Old Dominion or at Mississippi State -- they likely will need to win the Big South's automatic bid, fair or not.

Washington State 77, Gonzaga 67
Another tough choice over Oklahoma State's win over Syracuse at MSG, which signaled that the Cowboys were better than we expected, but as far as unexpected NCAA Tournament impact, the Cougars' win here probably is more important. Everyone suspected Tony Bennett could coach, given his dad's track record, but the way the Cougars don't panic down the stretch of games (see this one and the tough loss at UCLA), despite typically having lesser talent and an offense not designed for catch-up, is a credit to the job he's doing. The Pac-10 is going to be rough, but there seems to be no reason why Wazzu can't nab a bid if it keeps playing at this level. Going to Pullman will not be pleasant for Pac-10 foes.

West Virginia 71, North Carolina State 60
A light day for bubble impact, but this result was another piece of evidence to support our preseason assertion that coach John Beilein's Mountaineers will be much better than many projected. His back-cutting offense and funky 1-3-1 zone defense are among the best and most difficult to prepare for in the country, and the 'Eers don't need top-200 recruits in order for the system to work. The schedule has been very light, so we'll see what the Big East season brings, but West Virginia looks like it could be right in the bubble mix until the end. Not bad for a team picked by one publication to finish 16th in the Big East.

Notre Dame 99, Alabama 85
A no-brainer. A lot of people wrote off the Irish after they crashed out of the NIT Season Tip-Off against Butler, but the Bulldogs' title run took some sting out of that result, and this one confirmed that both teams in that game were quite good, especially on the heels of Notre Dame's win over Maryland.

Louisville 74, Ohio 71
Not very much to pick from on this day. Not to bang on the MAC unnecessarily, but this was a missed chance for the Bobcats to gain a name win on the road, given Louisville's early-season lethargy.

Drexel 81, Villanova 76
Lots of contenders on this day (Gonzaga by 20 over UW, UNLV dumps Nevada, Wichita State wins in Casper, Wyo., to cap a four-Saturday road win streak), but this seemingly out-of-place result appears to have ignited the Dragons' surge to presumptive CAA favorite. This win backed up the victory over Saint Joe's and started the stunning three-game road run through Syracuse and Temple, too. For a league that looked very one-bid a couple of weeks ago, Drexel may be putting together enough of an at-large ledger to make it two, if needed.

Boston College 73, Maryland 62
Yes, Texas beat LSU, but both teams (presumably) will be in the NCAAs. However, Boston College, with a dossier that includes a blowout defeat at Kansas and losses to Vermont (bad), Providence (understandable, but not great) and Duquesne (awful), is no lock. The Eagles might very well need an above-.500 ACC record to get an at-large, so getting this league opener in December could loom large down the stretch.

Mississippi State 70, Miami (Fla.) 52
Very little impact on this day, but this result suggested at the time that the Bulldogs may be a bit better than expected and/or Miami was worse. For Miami, losing leading rebounder Anthony King has been part of the problem, but this loss started a 1-4 stretch that, combined with Mississippi State's loss at George Mason, hints that the original statement may be slanted more toward its latter half.

Nevada 76, St. Mary's 58
This is a real reach, as the day was basically devoid of games that mattered, but this win did come directly after the Wolf Pack's only loss of the season (at home to UNLV), so maybe it was good to get back on track. It appears second option Marcelus Kemp regained his perimeter stroke in this one, too. After a four-game, 6-for-21 stretch, he's now made 14 of his last 30 from the arc.

UMass 72, Louisville 68
The Minutemen scheduled road games at Pitt, Louisville and Kentucky in an effort to gain scheduling brownie points, and got this one. Problem is they dropped the other two and have lost to BC, which may not bode well for an at-large unless the 'Ville really improves and earns UMass some extra credit.

Appalachian State 93, Brevard 53
OK, forget Dec. 12 being classified as the "real reach" when we're going with a non-D-I win here, but this game did come on the heels of Appalachian State's disappointing 69-37 loss at Virginia Tech and initiated a six-game winning streak that includes wins over Virginia and Vanderbilt on neutral courts and at VCU.

A four-game Friday was headlined by Oregon's throttling of the Eastern Washington Stuckeys. Let's move on...

Butler 68, Purdue 65
A fifth neutral-site win for the Bulldogs provided validation after the loss at Indiana State and may have cemented them as an at-large team, barring a hideous collapse in Horizon play. Georgia beating Gonzaga was a bigger shocker, for sure, but those Bulldogs are no lock for NCAA consideration in the tough SEC.

Indiana 57, Southern Illinois 47
You can argue all you want about whether IU was the favorite or how much play this result got when it happened, but this will be a very good win for the Hoosiers come NCAA evaluation time. The Salukis, with their suffocating defense, look poised to challenge for another Valley crown, even though at times they can't score at all.

Saint Louis 51, Missouri State 50
I'll first apologize to all of our Bears fans, as I didn't know the full circumstances of this ending before slagging Missouri State in our podcast the morning after this game. Secondly, should we now wonder if this is college hoops' equivalent of the Oregon-Oklahoma football game, when the wrong team won in large part because of referee error? It will be very interesting to see how the committee judges this game if one or both of these teams are bubble-bound.

Appalachian State 80, Virginia 69
We mentioned Drexel over Syracuse earlier, so let's note this one from the Cavaliers' standpoint. Considered a sleeper early in the season, that win over Arizona in the opener looks like years ago as the Cavaliers have lost to Purdue, Appalachian State and Utah since. Virginia has two big games (Gonzaga, Stanford) up next before entering ACC play, where they already sit at 1-0 after beating NC State in December.

Bucknell 68, Xavier 67
Less notable for the winner, as the Bison likely torpedoed their own at-large hopes awhile back, than for the loser, which may have suffered some profile damage. Bucknell's a good opponent and the Bison's record may be much better by season's end, minimizing the hit, but it's never good to lose a game like this at home when you are trying to build up some room for error in A-10 play.

Washington State 64, San Diego State 54
Another game that is not at all a bad loss in a vacuum, but could be part of some trouble in composite. Combine this loss in Seattle with the pounding at home against Arizona and the silly scheduling and subsequent loss at Western Michigan, and you have an Aztecs team that doesn't have much to fall back on -- other than a rapidly decaying win over Cal -- should it get passed by in the MWC. Unlike last season, when they probably were safe either way, the Aztecs very well might have to win the league's auto bid to get an NCAA berth this season, which is surprising given the talent and expectations coming in.

Kansas State 68, USC 55
When two bubblish teams meet on a neutral court, the result is significant. The Trojans validated head coach Tim Floyd's fears by kicking the ball away an awful 27 times in this one (36.5 percent of their possessions). It's hard to beat any team when you negate more than one out of every three trips down the floor. This win should look pretty good by March for a pretty good K-State team.

Seton Hall 94, Penn 85
Could go with K-State over New Mexico or USC over Wichita State, both in Vegas, but let's highlight a different genre of impact game -- the under-the-radar win. It remains galling to me how many coaches/programs don't seem to understand how to schedule to best help their profile. This is a case where Seton Hall is going to get paid off handsomely. The young Pirates got a good test, won a home game (very RPI friendly) and beat a team that is a virtual lock to have 20-plus wins and has a very strong chance to be a Top 100 RPI team (extremely RPI friendly). It's hard to say whether the Hall can remain in the at-large mix, but if it does, this win will be a significant piece of its puzzle.

Christmas break. No games.

Northern Iowa 76, Bradley 65
A light day, so we'll remind people that the Valley a) has great RPIs from top to bottom, which is setting itself up for many bids, and b) the secret part of the "perfect RPI storm" last season in the Valley was that all the contenders won virtually all of their home games in league play. If you keep winning at home in the Valley, you are very likely going to make the NCAAs.

Indiana State 89, Purdue 70
This very easily could have been Duquesne over a banged-up BC team, but this one is interesting on both ends. Purdue lost earlier to Butler in a bubble impact game and then got pasted by the only team to have beaten Butler  yes, another Valley squad.

Winthrop 71, Old Dominion 65
Could have been Xavier over Illinois, which is a nice makeup for the Bucknell loss. It also could have been Air Force over Santa Clara on the road by 30 -- the Falcons fourth road win by that margin or more this season and a game that really puts a damper on any two-bid WCC talk short of Gonzaga losing in the conference tourney. In this one, the CAA took another hit to its multi-bid hopes.

Georgetown 67, Michigan 51
Baaaaaaad week for the Wolverines when you throw in the 37-point loss at UCLA. Softest 12-3 record in the land is screaming "20-win NIT team" at this stage -- that is, if the Wolverines can right the ship and start winning games against comparable opponents. Jay Bilas, who called this game for our network, says Michigan's issues are all mental; they better figure things out quickly, as the Big Ten is not great, but it's not very forgiving, either.

UCLA 96, Washington 74
It wasn't this close, either. With Arizona up next, Washington is being threatened with an 0-3 league start. The bigger issue, one which will be explored tomorrow, is how to interpret teams like Washington and their results, and how to make educated judgments about the teams they have played (and those teams' foes, too).

Andy Glockner is the men's college basketball editor at ESPN.com. E-mail him with comments.