Texas 2008 target Tyreke Evans testified Thursday in his cousin’s murder trial, repeating the same story he told police back in December. Regardless of whether or not Evans ever ends up in burnt orange, I hope this situation can be resolved soon so that Tyreke can move on and focus on finishing his senior year.

Lundardi’s newest Bracketology still has the Horns #1 in the Phoenix regional. UCLA still holds the corresponding 2-seed in this projection, so hopefully the Bruins will drop enough down the stretch to make a “home” region out of the question. Perhaps Sunday’s roadie at Arizona and the home tilt with Stanford can cause some stumbles.

Clark Kellogg tells us why he doesn’t project brackets, but the only real reason to read this is to check out his use of “LOL” in the middle of what is allegedly legitimate journalism. IDK Clark, R U nutz?

I’ve been wanting to post the Russell Westbrook dunk from last weekend’s game against Oregon, but all of the videos on YouTube were of poor quality. Finally I’ve found one that is pretty solid, which you can check out below. The dunk in question happens around the 20-second mark, but be careful while watching — the Oregon uniforms were sponsored by the Bedazzler that day, so some viewers may be blinded.

There’s somebody laughing at me over in the Big 12 offices, as having two road games in a week played in far-off locales is really doing a number on my hours of sleep and amount of writing on the website. Trying to cram 40 hours of work into a week that also includes trips to and from Manhattan, Kansas and Lubbock, Texas leaves me with little time to get caught up around here. So, apologies for the lack of content beyond Fast Breaks this week, and a promise to hit you guys with this week’s blogpoll and some notes from the K-State game tonight and/or tomorrow night. For now, on to the news from around the interwebs.

The losses by Memphis and then Tennessee left the power rankings in disarray this week, and Luke Winn took the opportunity to revisit his top seven teams. When all was said and done, he shot Texas all the way to the #1 slot. Hope there’s not an SI.com curse, too…

Texas climbed to fifth in ESPN’s Power 16 this week, grabbing first-place votes from Hubert Davis and Doug Gottlieb. Dick Vitale continued his irrational voting, slotting the Longhorns in 11th behind the likes of Stanford, who has the same number of losses as Texas. Of course, the Cardinal has faced the 97th-toughest schedule in the country, while Texas has played the 3rd-toughest. Sure, polls are meaningless. But the fact that this guy actually has a vote in the AP poll is re-god-damned-diculous.

Grant Wahl has an article today exposing some truly despicable fan behavior, including death threats towards Kevin Love and bottles of water thrown at the family of Eric Gordon. I’ve heard some bad things yelled in the O-Zone at the Frank Erwin Center, but nothing like this. I suppose I’m fortunate that I haven’t run into any truly dicey situations on the road, but I’m also not related to a big-time recruit who “betrayed” a fan base. I have no problem with the student sections yelling things at the players on the court, because that’s a part of the game — but assault and homophobia need to be left in the backwoods.

There’s not enough time to do a full TV listing post tonight, but you definitely want to fire up the Tivo for a lot of great match-ups. Notre Dame and Louisville kick things off (6 PM CST, ESPN) followed by a key battle between Michigan State and Wisconsin in the Big 10 (8 PM CST, ESPN2). Thursday night also means Pac-10, so fans can check out USC/Arizona (8 PM CST, ESPN) or Washington State/Cal (10 PM CST, FSN).

Tons of great pub following the Texas win in Bramlage last night. ESPN’s Around the Rim takes a look at Connor Atchley’s success against Kansas teams, while Jason Whitlock rubs it in the face of Wildcat fans…not that it’s anything new from the Star‘s salaried Jayhawk fanboy. Over at CBS Sportsline, Dennis Dodd praises the Horns and takes digs at Kansas. What’s not to love? A little closer to home, Mark Rosner at the Statesman gives us the Longhorn angle from press row.

I missed Stewart Mandel’s new bracket projections in yesterday’s Fast Break, but with $2 “Madcow Monday” pints waiting at Manhattan’s Little Apple Brewing Company, you can see why I may have been distracted. Mandel is also slotting Texas a 1-seed, putting them out west in Phoenix. He’s also got our friends at Belmont playing their way up to a 14-seed, which makes this traveler feel much better. Elsewhere in the muddled Big 12, Stewart likes Kansas (2-seed), Kansas State (7), Oklahoma (8), Baylor (9), and Texas A&M (9).

Joe Lunardi breaks down the odds for 1-seeds in today’s column (ESPN Insider required). He’s got Texas with a 40% chance to grab a spot on the top line, citing the head-to-head win in Pauley as his reasoning. But when he projects things out to the actual bracket we’ll see in three weeks, he thinks the Horns could be headed to Phoenix as a 2-seed, where they could eventually rematch with a top-seeded UCLA team. Oh, the humanity.

After a long drive through the night, we have arrived in Manhattan and are ready for a huge match-up this evening with a dangerous Kansas State team. A game preview will be on the way late this afternoon — the Little Apple Brewery is calling our name in the meantime — but first let’s take a look at the newest polls and bracket projections before looking at some of the biggest things we saw against OU.

Texas climbed to #5 in both polls this week, leapfrogging Kansas and Duke, who both suffered embarrassing losses on the road. The Jayhawks are checking in at 6th with the media and 7th with the coaches this week, leaving the Big 12 with only two teams in the Top 25, albeit both in the top ten slots. Kansas State dropped from the rankings after losing back-to-back road games to Nebraska and Baylor, but are still sitting in the “receiving votes” category along with Texas A&M, who has dropped three straight.

Joe Lunardi is also moving the Horns up, sliding Texas on to the 1-seed line out in Phoenix. Although we mentioned last week that the home-court advantage in Houston would be bigger than a 1-seed elsewhere, this is probably the best-case scenario for a non-Houston regional. Phoenix is the closest of the other sites, and as long as UCLA isn’t the 2-seed — which unfortunately is what Lunardi is projecting — there shouldn’t be the danger of a rabid crowd for a lower seeded team.

It’s almost Friday, which means it’s one last chance to catch some good hoops before the weekend, and it’s also time to check out the newest power rankings. Luke Winn moves the Horns up 3 spots to 7th, and brings up what Texas fans have been saying for weeks — D.J.’s tired legs are a problem. You could definitely see it in the final minutes of the Baylor game, and it was pretty noticeable as he struggled versus ISU and Kansas, as well. Not that we’re complaining about Augustin here at LRT, but let’s get the kid some rest down the stretch.

ESPN analysts put Texas one slot higher, just ahead of Duke after their loss last night. Andy Katz and Doug Gottlieb were the high-water marks, with the Longhorns 5th in each ballot, while Dick Vitale continues to use illicit substances and vote Texas 12th. This level of stupidity is what makes us love the subdomain name for the folks at Super, Scintillating, and Sarcastic.

Heather Dinich of ESPN.com has a really great article on the Tony Durant, Kevin’s older brother. Dinich provides an interesting look at the winding path the man took to reach D-1 basketball, and I must say it’s refreshing to see a guy continue to work hard when he could just as easily become a leeching member of his brother’s entourage.

I know that TB and the folks over at Bring on the Cats are still steaming over the loss to Nebraska last night, but the hilarious videos they found of Michael Beasley could make any Cat fan laugh through the pain. Check out these three short clips of Beasley’s confusion, infatuation, and obsession with a reporter’s iPod.