We’re alive and back home, having driven through a pea soup of a fog from about Oklahoma City to Austin. But sleep deprivation and white knuckles are a very cheap price to see the Horns finally pull out the win in Stillwater after witnessing three prior losses there. Game wrap will be coming closer to midnight tonight, but in the meantime here’s your Fast Break around college hoops…

New rankings came out yesterday, with Texas climbing to 12th in both polls. Baylor finally crawled into the AP poll at 25th, their first ranking since the late 1960’s. Unfortunately the coaches stiffed them with only 11 points, good enough for the equivalent of 32nd. K-State is also putting pressure on the Top 25 after its manhandling of A&M on Saturday, landing in the “others receiving votes” category of both rankings. Kansas sits in 2nd in both rankings, while the Aggies slipped to 16th in the ESPN/USA Today poll and 18th in the AP after two blowout losses to unranked opponents.

Joe Lunardi’s newest Bracketology moves Texas up the S-curve to a 3-seed, although at this point the city assignments are relatively meaningless. He’s got the Big 12 with 5 teams at the moment, and Oklahoma is sitting in the first group of eight teams that missed the cut. (NIT, holla!) Kansas is obviously still holding tight to a 1-seed, while A&M has dropped to an 8, Baylor holds a 6, and K-State is the 7-seed in UNC’s bracket.

This week’s blogpoll will be released tonight, so rather than post my own vote today and then the whole thing tomorrow, we’ll throw it all up here at once and open up the discussion. Needless to say, it was a very difficult week with 15 of last week’s 25 ranked teams losing at least once, so I’m sure there will be some head-scratching going on when all is said and done.

It’s a new week, which means new polls debut this afternoon. And after the rash of upsets this past week, there is sure to be a ton of movement through the rankings. Twelve of the ESPN/USA Today Top 25 lost, including the unlucky folks at Texas A&M, Marquette, and Miami who all lost both of their games this week. A lot of the carnage happened just in front of the Longhorns, who will probably move up six slots to #13 this week. Of course, if voters decide to punish Vandy for their loss (despite the fact it came to the hottest one-loss team in the country) that could edge the Horns up even as far as 12th in this week’s ranking.

Bad news this weekend for K-State senior David Hoskins. The AP reports that his injury will now force him to miss the whole season, although he might apply for another year of eligibility according to Coach Frank Martin. I hope that Hoskins goes forward with the medical redshirt and gets his fifth year, but I also hope that Michael Beast-ly and Bill Walker are long gone by then, because I’m tired of losing to the ‘Cats at home.

I never linked up Luke Winn’s newest power rankings on Friday morning, so take a gander. Texas slipped out of the Top 16, although I have a feeling they’ll be crawling their way back in on Thursday. Butler finally cracked the Top 10, although they lost to Cleveland State the night that this was published. Oops.

My own blogpoll vote is due tonight, and the crazy weekend has certainly muddied the picture. I’m sticking with Kansas at #1 with Memphis a close second, and at the moment I like the red-hot Volunteers in third followed by Carolina, Duke, and UCLA. I’ve got fourteen hours in a car today to think about it all, and of course the Big Monday contests could make things even more confusing if Georgetown or Texas goes down. I’ll be posting my full ballot tomorrow and will try to justify any head-scratching selections, so be sure to come back and rip me to shreds if I Prothro the vote.

Thursday means new power rankings from CNNSI and ESPN, and the start of conference play also means previews from all sorts of sites around the web. Let’s take a quick run through the new stuff…

Texas moved from 13th to 12th in this week’s Power Rankings at ESPN. Hubie Davis still has the Horns slotted in 5th (huh?), while Fran Fraschilla takes a break from his usual Big 12 love-fest to drop the Horns to 15th in his ballot. Other voters varied, with most putting the Horns between 10th and 13th.

CNNSI’s Luke Winn moved Texas from 16th to 13th this week in his rankings, but spent the comment section going on about how Georgetown commit Greg Monroe was recruited by various coaches. Hey Luke, thanks for reminding Texas fans about how we missed out on the guy. Really appreciate it.

Lunardi put out his newest Bracketology on Monday, but it’s worth a link today. Joe has Texas as a 2-seed still, but their stock is dropping. Looking around at the Big 12 teams in the mix, it’s refreshing to see that someone has noticed Texas A&M’s weak-ass non-conf schedule to date — Lunardi has them slotted as a 4-seed. Oklahoma (7-seed) and Baylor (12-seed) are on the rise, while Kansas continues its death grip on a 1-seed. As for disappointing K-State? One of the eight bubble teams headed towards the NIT, according to the Bracketologist.

March Madness All Season, the preeminent college hoops blog, comes through again with a solid big conference breakdown. They’ve got OU as a sleeper team, and I’m in complete agreement. Jeff Capel has the Sooners playing great basketball after falling on their face against SFA, and I like them to earn that 4th bye slot in the post-season tourney. Be sure to check out this link, as it is a great primer for all of the great hoops headed your way from the major conferences.

Rush the Court put out their own Big 12 breakdown, and it’s worth your time to check it out. They’ve got the conference with five NCAA bids, and I’m generally in agreement. I think that K-State has a very good chance to play their way in, as they get two games against both Colorado and Iowa State. One thing that jumps out from RTC’s handy table is just how ugly the bad losses are in this conference this year. Hell, if all of Oklahoma State’s poor games were put on the page, it might just break the internet’s tubes.

Don’t forget that Longhorn Sportsline with Rick Barnes airs live at 7 PM on the Longhorn Radio Network tonight from the Pluckers West Campus location. We’ll be grabbing a table around six, so swing by, say hey, and have a few drinks. If you’re elsewhere in Texas, check the affiliate list from TexasSports.com to see if it’s on in your area.

It’s going to be a busy night preparing for tomorrow’s trip to Missouri, but I’ll try to get the Tigers pregame and Big 12 preview ready to be auto-posted while I’m at the McJob tomorrow. Get excited, hoopheads. Conference play is here!

The game of the night is in the SEC. I know it’s hard to believe in a year that the league is abnormally weak, but it is really, truly the case. It’s only on ESPN Full Court, but I believe that they are giving a free preview that package on Time Warner Cable this week. It might be the same on other providers as well, so check out your channel guide and see if you can watch the FC ones.

On to the listings…

UNC-Asheville (11-3) at #1 North Carolina (15-0) – 6 PM CST, ESPNU – The Tar Heels’ non-conf schedule this year makes me tubgirl, but it’s not really Roy Williams’ fault that Kentucky turned out to be such a bust. Tonight should be another cakewalk for the Heels as they prepare for the meat of the ACC schedule.

#7 Duke (11-1) at Temple (6-6) – 6 PM CST, ESPN – Holy shit, Coach K is playing a road game outside of conference! Well…sort of. This one’s in the Wachovia Center, and I can pretty much guarantee that the hometown Owls won’t have more than 50% of the crowd.

#20 Rhode Island (14-1) at #22 Dayton (12-1) – 6 PM CST, CSTV – The A-10 is regaining relevance this season, and these two teams are a big part of the reason why. If you haven’t seen the Rams or Flyers yet this season, be sure to check this one out. (Replays at 11 PM CST on CSTV)

#18 Pittsburgh (12-2) at South Florida (10-5) – 6:30 PM CST, ESPN2 – Without Levance Fields and Mike Cook, nothing is going to be easy the rest of the way for the Panthers. A few weeks ago, this looked like an easy win on the schedule, but now there’s no such thing as a sure bet. Pitt is going to have to win the games they should win if they want to stay near the top in the Big East, and that starts tonight. (Replays at 11 PM CST on ESPNU)

For those with ESPN Full Court…

George Mason (10-4) at Delaware (6-7) – 6 PM CST – With the URI/Dayton game on at the same time, there’s no reason you should be watching this unless you’re an alum of one of the two schools.

Georgia Tech (7-6) at Georgia (8-4) – 6:30 PM CST – It’s a rivalry game from the Peachtree State, but with the Yellow Jackets struggling, this one has lost much of its luster. On the plus side, maybe it will be competitive this year.

Rutgers (8-7) at Providence (9-5) – 6:30 PM CST – Who’s going to be 0-3 in the Big East by the end of the night? My money is on the Jersey Boys.

Syracuse (12-3) at Cincinnati (6-8) – 7 PM CST – Syracuse should roll to 3-0 in the conference with this one. Hell, the ‘Cats just lost by 12 to St. John’s. Not the kind of year Cincy fans were expecting back in November…

#15 Mississippi (13-0) at #9 Tennessee (12-1) – 7 PM CST – Although it’s better for the Texas RPI if the Vols are to win this, you can’t help but pull for the undefeated Rebs. We’ll see tonight just how real Ole Miss is, and it’s a shame this thing isn’t on one of the major networks.

The early games left a lot to be desired on Tuesday, but the nightcaps provided a handful of contests that went down to the wire, including a potential top-ten upset.

#3 Kansas 90, Loyola (MD) 60 – The Jayhawks were without Mario Chalmers, but against the over-matched Greyhounds it didn’t make a difference. Sherron Collins led the way with 18 points, while Brandon Rush took only seven shots on the night. KU opens up their Big 12 slate on Saturday on the road against Nebraska.

#6 Michigan State 78, Purdue 75 – Purdue’s Keaton Grant missed a three-pointer to tie the game with six seconds left and Sparty hung on for a conference victory at home. MSU had a comfortable nine point lead at half, but the Boilermakers clawed back and found themselves down only one point with 29 seconds left. But then, Spartan point guard Travis Walton improbably hit the clutch shot to give Coach Tom Izzo all the lead he would need. State travels to Iowa on Saturday night, looking to move to 3-0 in the Big Televen.

#8 Georgetown 76, DePaul 60 – I mentioned in yesterday’s TV listings that DePaul could possibly hang with the highly-efficient Hoyas at home, but Georgetown was having none of it. They absolutely burst out of the gates, shooting a scorching 66.7% from the field while holding the Blue Demons to a paltry 21.2% as they built a 21-point halftime lead. We’ve often seen Georgetown’s nouveau-Princeton offense methodically destroy their opponents, but the defensive performance in this one was excellent.

#11 Indiana 78, Michigan 64 – D.J. White had the first 20/20 game for an IU player since 1995 and the Hoosiers controlled this one the whole way. Usually I’d continue to talk about the game here, but I’d rather take the opportunity to point out how good the November 24th win over the Hoosiers is looking for Xavier. It is the only blemish on IU’s resumé, and the Hoosiers will soon be a top ten team with their next three games coming against the Fighting Illini, Golden Golphers, and Nittany Lions.

#16 Marquette 61, Seton Hall 56 – Marquette looked awfully flat in the first half and seemed to be in danger of dropping two straight games in Big East play. But they played incredibly well in the second half, figuring out the Seton Hall zone and fouling out some of the Pirates’ key players down the stretch. The biggest bucket of the night came from Dan Fitzgerald, who buried a three with 11 seconds left to clinch the win. With only five seconds between the shot clock and game clock, Seton Hall Coach Bobby Gonzalez had elected to play straight-up defense despite the two-point deficit. It was a confusing decision, but Fitzgerald made it completely irrelevant with his clutch shot.

Missouri 96, UMKC 76 – Mizzou struggled for much of the game, actually heading to the locker room in a 35-35 tie with the abysmal Kangaroos. But the Tigers’ pressure defense turned up in the second half, and with it came the scoring. In the end, five Mizzou players finished with double-digit scoring, led by Leo Lyons’ 22 points — 19 of which came in the second frame.

Baylor 72, Brown 62 – In the battle of the Bears, Baylor came out on top, led by LaceDarius Dunn’s 27 points. The sensational freshman hit 7-of-8 from behind the arc, including one to quash a last-gasp Brown comeback bid with 1:35 to play. Now it’s time for Baylor to prove that their impressive non-conference performance was no fluke, as they open Big 12 play with two very winnable home games against Iowa State (Saturday) and Oklahoma State (Tuesday).