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First good day of hoops in awhile last night.. 76 games, 13 Top 25 games, 4 Top 10 games, and 1 Top 15 upset.. In overtime, #13 Washington fell at USC in their Pac-10 opener. The Huskies are 10-0 at home, but 0-2 on the road. Spencer Hawes was impressive for the losers with 24 points, and more impressively playing 47 minutes (not bad for a 6-11 freshman). He's scored 20+ in 5 of 6 games. For USC, the less heralded freshman, Taj Gibson came through with 22 points and 10 boards, arguably his best game yet. Gibson is quietly putting up one of the best rookie seasons in the country at 13 and 10 per game. USC improves to 11-3 and finally has Gabe Pruitt healthy again. The junior guard had 18 points and 5 assists in just his third game back.

Puerto Rico hasn't been kind to Virginia. The Cavaliers got spanked by 24 against a mediocre Utah squad. UVA was undone by another poor shooting night from Sean Singletary and lack of interior presence. Singletary has only shot 50% once all season (and that was just 3 of 6), and is now at a woeful 35% on the season. For a player widely considered the top point guard in the ACC and one of the best in the nation, such poor shooting won't get it done. Virginia's lack of inside strength was exposed by 7-foot Luke Nevill, who scored 26 in the win.

On the flip side, Appalachian State continued its glory run in PR by beating 7-2 Central Florida. A win by the Mountaineers over Vandy today could solidify them as the kings of Puerto Rico..

If you're wondering what game I am referring to in the title, that would be the overtime thriller between Utah and Rhode Island, won 85-84 by the homestanding Rams on Saturday. What could possibly taint a game like this? For starters, the game was nowhere to be found on television. Of course, a game between these two programs would be left off the major networks schedules, but shouldn't the game at least be televised locally? I don't live in either state, so I had to refer to the NCAA's TV schedule (http://www.ncaasports.com/broadcast/schedule/divi-m-basketball) to figure this one out. Had this game been on TV, we all would have some visual evidence to see whether or not the second negative was justified.