A.J. Abrams was named Big 12 Player of the Week after averaging 26 points per game in Newark and being selected for the Legends Classic All-Tournament Team. LaceDarius Dunn of Baylor grabbed the Rookie of the Week honors for the conference.

After shellacking Tennessee, the Longhorns jumped to #8 in both polls this week. Kansas checks in at number four, while Texas A&M is 9th. Kansas State fell from the Coaches Poll after losing to George Mason, but hung on at #25 in the AP rankings.

No major games of note last night, although the ACC/Big 10 Challenge started with a whimper as Wake Forest topped Iowa, 56-47. Nebraska was the only Big 12 team active on Monday night, and the Huskers grabbed a 79-62 victory over Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne.

The ACC/Big 10 Challenge ramps up tonight, with Wisconsin heading to Cameron Indoor to face Duke (8 PM CST, ESPN). Northwestern will be horribly overmatched against Virginia (6 PM, ESPNU) but if you haven’t seen the ‘Hoos play this year, give them a look tonight. In the Big 12, Iowa State hosts Northern Iowa (7 PM) and Colorado makes the short road trip to Denver (8 PM).

I survived the crush of annoying families at the airports and am back in Austin, running on fumes, so let’s get to the daily look around the NCAA…

It’s only November, but the game at Allen Fieldhouse last night sure as hell felt like a late February matchup. In reality, it wasn’t a conference game, but rather the opening round of the Big 12/Pac-10 Hardwood Series. And after a Brandon Rush half-court shot nearly won the game in regulation, the Jayhawks finally downed Arizona, 76-72, in overtime. Rush looked incredibly good in his first game back after an ACL implosion, and the Jayhawks are still my team to beat come March. But between now and then, they’ll have to play a lot smarter than they did in allowing the Wildcats to nearly win a game despite turning it over 25 times.

Out west, the Trojans decimated the Salukis, 70-45 in the championship of the Anaheim Classic. (As an aside, can we stop naming tournaments “classics” when they are brand new? It’s a bit contrived, no?) The real story here wasn’t the fact that USC shot 60% while holding SIU to 33% from the field. Instead, it was that Tim Floyd kept Taj Gibson and O.J. Mayo on the bench for the first six-plus minutes of the game, with the USC SID giving out an excuse about “matchups.” Steve “the Roach” Lavin didn’t buy it on-air for ESPN last night, and I’m not buying it either. Here’s to hoping we hear more info leaked later this week…

New polls are due out today, and there’s bound to be some movement for the Horns and Aggies. Both were impressive in winning their tournaments last weekend, and quite a few teams ahead of them slipped over the past seven days. With Louisville, Tennessee, Indiana, and Oregon all losing to unranked opponents, plus Michigan State and Marquette dropping games to ranked ones, there’s going to be some seismic-level shifting in the middle of the poll.

Speaking of the Horns and Aggies, Andy Katz was spotted in New York and then again in Newark over the weekend. And as a result, we get a pair of nice articles from the Katzmeister on the two teams. Mark Turgeon is picking up where Billy Gillispie left off, Katz writes, while also wondering if Texas is actually better without Durant.

NBA updates at midday, plus more Texas basketball coverage later tonight.

The site’s going to be dead for much of the day as I fight the holiday travel crowds and make the trip back to Austin from chilly Newark. In the meantime, I recommend Kansas hosting Arizona in the Big 12/Pac-10 Hardwood Series (7 PM CST, ESPN) and USC against the Salukis of Southern Illinois (10 PM, ESPN2). If you really like your mid-major flavor, check out George Mason showing up the SEC’s Gamecocks (3:30, ESPN2).

Those of you who saw the game will likely agree with me when I label last night’s championship victory over Tennessee as one of the most impressive offensive performances of the Rick Barnes era. Absolutely everybody was involved, and the feeds in transition were a thing of beauty. I’ll get to it all in more depth later tonight, but it was certainly an incredibly satisfying win.

A-G-G-I-E-S…whoooop! Texas A&M trailed at half, but came back to top Washington, 77-63 in the first NIT semifinal. And in a match-up of two fanbases I absolutely cannot stand, Ohio State took care of Syracuse, 79-65. THE Ohio State University will meet up with the “Texas Aggies” on Friday night for the NIT title.

Looking around the rest of the Big 12, Oklahoma State lost to Illinois, 65-49 in the Maui third-place game. Kansas earned its 600th home win, defeating Northern Arizona by an 87-46 count, while the Sooners toppled Morehead State, 74-42.

You’ll get a chance to watch some outstanding freshmen late tonight as you’re fighting the effects of the tryptophan (and Jerry is playing with your toy collection). Check out Michael Beasley and K-State against George Mason (8 PM CST, ESPN2), followed by O.J. Mayo and USC taking on San Diego in Anaheim (11 PM, ESPN2). There’s also hoops all day long on the U, but we recommend Gonzaga and Western Kentucky from the Great Alaska Shootout (10:30 PM, ESPNU).

Everyone enjoy your holiday and please be safe as you make your way around the country to visit your families. Personally, I will be on my way to Newark for the Legends Classic in about 11 hours, where I’ll bring you coverage from the tournament all weekend.

We lead off with apologies to any who tried to visit the website today when it was down. Sometime in the middle of the night, the server died and was still MIA when I tried to log in and write the daily stuff at 5 A.M. I’m not sure how long the site wasn’t functioning, as I’m just now returning to find it operational once again, but I apologize to anybody who swung by during the downtime, and I also apologize for it delaying your daily reads.

Michael Beasley, O.J. Mayo, Eric Gordon, Kevin Love, Derrick Rose…we’ve all heard these names ad nauseum during the preseason, and with good reason. They are all quality players who are going to make a huge impact in their freshman seasons. But add a new name to that list — Patrick Mills of St. Mary’s College. Mills, a 19-year old true freshman point guard from Australia, had an absolutely incredible performance as the Gaels upset #11/12 Oregon, 99-87. Mills is an insanely quick guard who can attack the rim, but also has an incredible eye for finding the emerging passing lanes as the defense helps. The freshman scored 37 points in 37 minutes and turned the ball over only one time on an errant pass as the Gaels iced it away. That game between Texas and St. Mary’s on January 4th looks mighty dicey, particularly with the historically anemic crowds in the FEC that time of year.

UCLA held the lead for only 31 seconds against Michigan State last night, but they were the final 31 seconds of the game. The Bruins put together an impressive second-half comeback to knock off Michigan State, 68-63, and claim the title of CBE Classic Champions. In the consolation game, Mizzou took out Maryland, 84-70. Stefhon Hannah of Mizzou and Drew Neitzel of Michigan State were both battling flu bugs after having played each other the day before. Who knew the brand new Sprint Center was a hot zone?

In Maui, Marquette reached the tournament championship by defeating Oklahoma State in the first semifinal, while Duke won the second, 79-66 over Illinois. In the loser’s bracket, Arizona State spanked Princeton and LSU edged Division II host Chaminade. SEC power!

Tonight on the tube, Feast Week continues. And while I’m not all about gluttony, this is seriously one of my favorite times of the year. You get time off of work and more basketball on TV than it is possible to watch. We recommend Washington/Texas A&M in the Preseason NIT semis (6 PM CST, ESPN2), Marquette/Duke for the Maui championship (9 PM, ESPN), and Michigan/Butler in the Great Alaska Shootout (10:30 CST, ESPN2). The Bulldogs are for real, folks. Promise.