A couple of close calls for ranked teams last night, but no major upsets. North Carolina held off Davidson after blowing a seven-point halftime lead, while Texas A&M used a second-half comeback to beat UTEP. As discussed in the comments on yesterday’s post, A&M’s clear weakness is the free-throw shooting of DeAndre Jordan (1-for-6 last night). It’s just a matter of time until the Hack-a-Shaq strategy is put into play against this guy.

The rest of the Big 12 fell on its face last night, with Okie State losing to UNT by 9, Tech falling to the Bearkats of SHSU, and Iowa State being toppled by the Bradley Braves. That’s gotta be good for the ol’ conference RPI.

An interesting link comes our way from the folks over at Bring on the Cats. It turns out that one stat overlooked amidst KSU’s 2-0 start and Michael Beasley’s stellar debut is the fact that the Wildcats have turned over the ball 47 times in two games. That’s right, they are averaging 23.5 turnovers in a pair of games against Sacramento State and Pittsburg State. And, even more noteworthy, new coach Frank Martin doesn’t give a shit.

Another link courtesy of long-time LRT reader Caradoc, in which we learn about P.J. Tucker’s time playing for Hapoel Holon in the Israeli league. Turns out, a nutjob threw a firecracker on the court on Sunday and the security guard who acted quickly enough to retrieve it lost three fingers for his bravery. I know this usually doesn’t happen at basketball games over there, despite the turmoil going on outside of the arenas. But still, let’s get P.J. home. Maybe he can join Kenton Paulino on the Austin Toros…

(That link from Caradoc also brings us to the shameless begging portion of this update. If you see an article that you think we’d find interesting, please send it along. Contact at longhornroadtrip dot com. We’ll show you the love.)

Tonight the Coaches vs. Cancer tournament hits the semifinal stage, pitting UConn versus Gardner-Webb in the opener (6 PM CST) and #3 Memphis versus Oklahoma (8 PM CST). Both games are on ESPN2. It’ll be a great chance to catch freshmen phenoms Blake Griffin and Derrick Rose, so tune in or set the Tivos accordingly. And an interesting fact on that Gardner-Webb/UConn tilt — since the Runnin’ Bulldogs weren’t expecting to beat Kentucky, these games at MSG are being sandwiched between those they had already scheduled. Now they will be forced to play five games in eight days, including a second one against UConn next Wednesday night.

ESPNU’s got basketball all day from Puerto Rico. Check out this stellar lineup — Houston vs. VCU (8 AM CST), Marist vs. Miami FL (10:30 AM CST), Temple vs. Providence (1:30 PM CST), and the College of Charleston vs. Arkansas (4 PM CST). Something tells me I won’t be wasting a sick day to watch these games.