Last night

The Orlando Magic moved to 13-3 on the year after defeating the Trailblazers 85-74 in Portland. Maurice Evans was the busiest player off the Magic bench, putting in 27 minutes of work. Mo had seven points and two rebounds on the night. For Portland, LaMarcus Aldridge battled foul trouble that limited him to just over 27 minutes on the court. Despite the short PT, The Marcus still managed to pour in 16 points and grab five rebounds.

Tonight

Daniel Gibson and the Cavs hope to stop the red-hot Celtics in Cleveland. (6 PM CST, NBA TV)

The Milwaukee Bucks and Royal Ivey host the Philadelphia 76ers. (7 PM CST)

Kevin Durant and Chris Mihm are two Longhorns on opposing sides when the Sonics and Lakers meet up in Staples. (9:30 PM CST)

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).

After a quick weekend in the greater NYC area, here’s your jet-lagged, turkey-stuffed, bargain-priced NBA update…

Friday

Maurice Evans again rode the pine with his new squad as Orlando took out the Bobcats, 105-92.

The two most storied NBA franchises met once again, and the Celtics bested the Lakers, 107-94. Chris Mihm missed all four of his shots in his fourteen minutes of action, but grabbed five boards and dished out two dimes.

LaMarcus Aldridge dominated in Portland, and the Trailblazers knocked off the Kings, 87-84. L.A. had another double-double — this time with a 28/12 line — and blocked three shots in the contest.

It was a quiet night by Kevin Durant standards, as the rookie finished with twelve points and five boards in a 98-93 home loss to the Nets.

Saturday

It should’ve been another battle of UT guards, but T.J. Ford was forced to miss the Raps/Cavs tussle thanks to the stinger that took him out of Tuesday night’s game against the Mavs. Cleveland finished on top, 111-108, as Daniel Gibson scored 17 points to go with three boards, three assists, and a steal in over 43 minutes of play.

He does exist! The Magic found Maurice Evans on their roster and played him for eleven-and-a-half minutes in a 120-99 pasting of the in-state rival Heat. Mo finished with six points on 3-of-7 shooting and left the rest of his line blank.

The Bucks edged the Mavs in Milwaukee, 97-95. Royal Ivey played an even ten minutes and knocked down two free throws to go with an assist.

Sunday

T.J Ford missed another game with a lingering neck injury, but the Raptors were victorious at home, downing Chicago 93-78.

Daniel Gibson earned the rare seventh foul when he was assessed a technical after fouling out of a 111-106 Cavs win over the Pacers. D-Gib’s foul trouble limited him to only 15 minutes, in which he scored eight points and grabbed four rebounds.

The Spurs knocked off the Supersonics in Seattle, 116-101, but they had difficulty shutting down Kevin Durant. K-Smoove had 25 points on 11-of-17 shooting and added six boards and four assists on the night.

Chris Mihm hardly saw the floor as the Lakers lost 102-100 to the Nets, but finished the night with four points and four rebounds in his three minutes of action.

Tonight

Maurice Evans and the Magic head west to face the Portland Aldridges. (9 PM CST, NBA League Pass)

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.