I’m expecting a busy afternoon and evening, and thus probably won’t be able to watch as much basketball as I’d like. But there’s plenty to talk about, with the day’s biggest games being Drake @ Butler at 5:00 PM on ESPN2 (the BracketBusters marquee game) and, of course, Tennessee @ Memphis at 9:00 PM on ESPN2. Although, don’t sleep on Kent State @ St. Mary’s at midnight on the Deuce, which Kyle Whelliston says is potentially the most consequential ‘Busters game of them all, bubble-wise.

Anyway, here’s the scoreboard. If you’re watching the games and you feel like commenting, fire away.

P.S. Nice wins for USC and Notre Dame on Thursday night, eh?

P.P.S. Check out 4th through 9th place in the Pac-10 standings. Wow. Is that conference balanced or what?

UPDATE: Tennessee wins, 66-62! Come Monday morning, the Vols will be #1 in the nation for the first time in school history. (Er, on the men’s side, that is.)

And so ends Memphis’s bid for an undefeated season. The Tigers were 8-for-17 from the free-throw line, and they didn’t hit a single three-pointer after their white-hot start in the game’s first 12 minutes.

Oh, and Drake beat Butler in another very exciting game.

…per a bet I lost.

Harumph.

UCLA 56, USC 46, final. Bah.

Terrible game by the Trojans down the stretch. UCLA’s shooting was cold enough that USC had every opportunity to win, but the Trojans couldn’t hit a shot to save their lives for a long while there, and they — particularly O.J. Mayo — kept turning the ball over at crucial times.

Of course, in light of their injury problems, I suppose at some level it’s impressive that the Trojans were able to hang in there with the #6 team in the country at all. The number of minutes their starters played was obscene; those guys were tired by the end. But still. There’s no excuse for mistakes like the ones O.J. was making, no excuse for the laziness on the boards, no excuse for settling for low-percentage shots down the stretch. Bottom line, they could have won that game, and they let the opportunity slip away.

P.S. If you’re wondering about the “per a bet I lost” language, I’m just mirroring what Mike said after the first game. :)

P.P.S. The abomination in the sidebar at right, and the new blog subtitle (”Mike Tran owns me”), will remain up until 12:01 AM tomorrow.

Stupid freakin’ blankety-blank Fox Sports Net South is showing the Nashville Predators game, even though the schedule on TVGuide.com says very clearly that we were supposed to get the Duke-Wake Forest game (which Duke lost!) followed by USC-UCLA (which is now underway). Harumph!!

I don’t know if they’ll take us out to the basketball game once the hockey game — which is now in overtime — ends. I hope so. But anyway, it’s a tight game early between the Trojans and Bruins.

UPDATE: Yaaay! They’re taking us out to the game in progress.

UPDATE 2: Thanks largely to poor ball-handling and rebounding, USC trails 35-29 with 16:55 left in the game.

UPDATE 3: USC is playing like crap. But so is UCLA, so the Trojans are still only down by 6 with under three minutes left.

Fight on Trojans! Beat the Bruins!

(Onesie and blanket courtesy of Keri and Jake. “Fight on” socks courtesy of Papa & Nana.)

P.S. Of course, Mike Tran is hoping the Trojans lose tonight… which just proves that Mike Tran hates babies. :)

Freakin’ baby-hating Bruins. Have they no decency? ;)

Pete Carroll and new UCLA football coach Rick Neuheisel have reportedly reached an agreement that will allow the Bruins and Trojans to renew the old tradition of both wearing their home jerseys when they play each other.

Sweet.

The Daily Bruin and Bruins Nation have more. (Hat tip: Doc and Chris Newbury.)

The possibly season-ending injury to Daniel Hackett isn’t just potentially devastating for the USC Trojans’ hopes of making some serious noise this month and next. It’s also potentially devastating to my hopes of forcing Mike Tran to wear a USC sweatshirt and do the victory sign in front of Tommy Trojan, and capture it all on camera for posterity — as he’ll be required to do, per the terms of our bet, if USC beats UCLA at the Galen Center on Sunday night.

Alas, Hackett will definitely be out for at least that game, and probably much more. (Hopefully O.J. Mayo will still be able to play, at least. Good grief.) Meanwhile, injured Bruins guard Luc Richard Mbah a Moute will probably be back.

If the Trojans win on Sunday (FSN, 10:00 PM EST), it would guarantee that I win the season-series bet, and Mike would have to get me the glorious above-described photo by March 1. If the Bruins win, there’s no immediate winner of the season-series bet, though either Mike or I could still win it if the teams meet again in the Pac-10 tournament.

I’ve been so focused on politics during my limited, non-baby-consumed free time over the last month that I haven’t been able to pay much attention to college basketball — and when I have, my attention has usually been focused on USC or Gonzaga. But Notre Dame has been doing really well, building a 7-2 Big East record, with two of those wins (along with both losses) on the road. The Irish are currently alone in second place in the conference standings, and ranked #21 or #22 in the country, depending on which poll you believe. Admire Mike Brey!

Anyway, tomorrow at noon in a nationally televised ESPN game, they’ll look to avenge one of their road losses — their worst loss of the season, in fact — against #16 Marquette. That’s always a fun game at the Joyce Center, with a boisterous visiting crowd. Hopefully the Leprechaun Legion will be up to the challenge. Go Irish, Beat Golden Eagles!

Also tomorrow: USC vs. Wazzu. The Trojans have improbably rallied from their 0-3 conference start to take sole possession of third place in the Pac-10 with a 6-4 record — and five of their remaining eight games are at home. Tomorrow is one of the three road games, against struggling Washington State (the Cougars have lost 4 of 5 after starting 16-1 overall and 4-1 in conference). Big-time game for ‘SC, though alas, the ABC telecast at 3:30 PM is regional; we get Texas-Iowa State instead. Harumph. Regardless: Fight on Trojans, Beat the Cougs!

Well, in football recruiting, anyway. Today was National Signing Day, and the Irish recruiting class is ranked #2 by both Rivals and Scout. USC is #10 and #13, respectively, their lowest rankings since 2002 (and behind UCLA, according to Scout… ugh!).

#1 Memphis — a winner at Houston last night — is the only unbeaten left in college basketball, after #2 Kansas lost at #22 Kansas State, the Wildcats’ first home win over the Jayhawks since the first Reagan Administration. (See, I can inject presidential politics into any post!)

You know what this means: North Carolina is in line to ascend to #2, and Duke to #3. We’re getting closer and closer to that 1-vs.-2 matchup for Dukie V’s big return. Duke just needs to win at home against N.C. State and Miami, UNC just needs to win vs. BC and at Florida State… and, oh yes, Memphis needs to lose at home against UTEP on Saturday. That last part is the major obstacle to this scenario. :)

Speaking of unbeatens, Drake is 10-0 in the Missouri Valley, and 19-1 overall. Unreal.

On tap tonight, a whole bunch of intriguing games, including a nationally televised USC-Arizona game at 10:30 PM on FSN. ESPN’s Bubble Watch has the Trojans in the "work left to do" category (though that was before their win at Oregon) and the Wildcats in the "should be in" category. Joe Lunardi gives USC a #8 seed and UA a #5 seed at the moment. Both teams are 4-3 in the Pac-10, in a three-way tie with ASU (who USC also plays this weekend) for fourth place. Anyway… Fight on Trojans, Beat the Wildcats!

USC 95, Oregon 86 in overtime. Sweet! That’s a huge road win for ‘SC, which is now 4-3 in the Pac-10 after starting 0-3.

‘Twas a good day on the road for both the Irish and the Trojans.

USC has had an awfully impressive track record on the recruiting trail in recent years, especially in the area of quarterbacks. John David Booty was the top QB recruit of the Class of 2003; Mark Sanchez was the top QB recruit of the Class of 2005; Mitch Mustain was the top QB recruit of the Class of 2006. All three went to USC (after a brief sojourn at Arkansas, in Mustain’s case).

Well, the embarrassment of riches continues: the Class of 2009’s top quarterback recruit, Matt Barkley, announced yesterday that he will go to USC. (Hat tip: Andrew Leyden.)

Sweet.

(Previous post here. Context here.)

USC 72, UCLA 63!!!!!!

I OWN MIKE TRAN!!!!!

WOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

I look forward to learning about Mike’s man-crush on O.J. Mayo.

CBS is showing OSU-Tennessee here (harumph), but USC-UCLA is underway. I’m sure I don’t need to remind you of the stakes. GO TROJANS!!!

I didn’t realize this, but the Nevada caucuses are actually held in the morning and afternoon, local time, so results will likely be known by 3:30 PM EST for the Republicans and 5:00 PM EST for the Democrats, according to Mark Halperin. The polls close at 7:00 PM in snowy (!) South Carolina.

UPDATE: All of this pales in comparison, of course, to another event at 3:30 PM EST tomorrow: the USC-UCLA basketball game, a.k.a. Mayo-Love I, at Pauley Pavilion, which will be aired nationally on CBS. Beat the Bruins!!!

UPDATE 2: Fox News has called Nevada for Romney. He’s got three golds and two silvers! Will he get his first bronze in South Carolina?

UPDATE, 2:15 PM: The CNN entrance poll suggests that Romney will get a vote percentage in the mid-to-upper 40s — and Ron Paul will finish second with around 20%!

It also shows that a quarter of voters were Mormons (compared to just 7% of the state population), and Romney get 94% of their votes. But Paul got 63% of independents, who made up 14% of the electorate.

UPDATE, 3:03 PM: CNN’s on-screen vote tally shows Obama 86%, Clinton 14%. It’s a landslide! Of course, that’s with 7 votes reporting. Not 7 percent of the precincts — 7 votes. It’s Obama 6, Clinton 1. [CORRECTION: I guess those are actually county delegates, not votes.]