College Hoops Saturday: Spartans Upset Buckeyes, Mizzou Rolls, Tar Heels Bounce Back

For more on the 2012 conference tournament schedule, visit SB Nation’s NCAA basketball hub.

The UNLV basketball team had an excellent Saturday, beating fellow top-25 team and Mountain West foe San Diego State, 65-63. Even better: Flavor Flav showed up in the student section and hung out with the fans for a bit, sporting UNLV gear as he cheered on the team. Not a bad showing for the Runnin’ Rebs.

But the best part, captured in photos of the dunk, was Moser’s face along the way. Behold, Mike Moser dunk face.

Saint Mary’s had won 12 consecutive games until Thursday, when Gonzaga snapped that winning streak in Spokane. The schedule worked out kindly for the Gaels, however, handing them an obvious rebound game on Saturday. Santa Clara had not won in the WCC entering the game, and they did well to keep the game interesting until the under-eight minute media timeout.

Princeton had a great offensive night, shooting 50 percent from the floor and going 17-24 from the free-throw line. With just over five minutes remaining, the Tigers would capture a lead that they would never relinquish. Of the Tigers’ 17 made free throws on the night, 14 came in the final five minutes of the game.

Until Saturday, Harvard did not allow an Ivy League opponent to score more than 60 points a game. Their usually fantastic defense was merely average against Princeton, while the Tigers were able to take advantage of enough of the open shots they were given to win the game.

Kentucky took an 11-point lead into halftime, and they looked like they were going to coast to an easy win. Vanderbilt were very poor shooting the ball in the first half, and their defense was average. Kevin Stallings apparently did something right in the locker room, as Vanderbilt looked much better in the second half. They led on two separate occasions, but Kentucky’s defense was suffocating down the stretch and didn’t allow the Commodores to score in the final four minutes.

Lamb hit another massive three with three minutes remaining, putting Kentucky up for good. Their defense didn’t give Vanderbilt a single quality look for the rest of the game as they slowly expanded their lead to the winning six-point margin.

Instead, Flav jumped right into the student section, clock and all, and hung out with the rowdiest fans in the building. He was caught on TV in the front row, decked out in UNLV gear, shades and his trademark clock. Of course this happened. College basketball is the best.

Photographic proof of Flav’s appearance after the jump.

Jared Sullinger recorded 17 points and a season-high 16 rebounds for Ohio State (21-4, 9-3), but also had a career-high 10 turnovers in the Buckeyes’ first loss in Columbus since February 17, 2010. They were riding a 39-game home win streak entering Saturday’s contest.

Aaron Craft dropped in 15 points in a losing effort as Ohio State shot just 26.4 percent from the floor in the contest, including a 2-for-15 mark from three-point range.

We already know Frank Martin is one of the most, if not the most, animated college basketball coaches in the land. On Saturday, Martin and Texas head coach Rick Barnes were snapped in moments of emotions, and when the two shots are combined they create a hilarious scene.

And Barnes returns fire.

Both teams have four games remaining as the battle for the MVC regular season crown and the all-important conference tournament seeding comes down to the wire. Creighton has a much tougher road ahead with Illinois State, Missouri State and Drake on the slate.

For more on Mid-Major squads like Wichita State and Creighton, head over to Mid-Major Majority.

For more on these two teams, visit Florida blog Alligator Army, Tennessee blog Rocky Top Talk and SEC blog Team Speed Kills.

A last-second shot victory over North Carolina and a blowout victory over Maryland make for a pretty good week in Blue Devil Country.

Moser is the Rebs’ best player, and he showed why he is a leading candidate for Mountain West Player of the Year, finishing with a box-score-filling 19 points, nine rebounds, six steals and four blocks, with only one turnover. Marshall scored the winning bucket, but played the facilitator to perfection in the 39 minutes, 23 seconds before that. He finished with eight assists, only one turnover and six rebounds in the win.

For more on these two teams, visit Mountain West Connection. For all the results from Saturday’s big day in college hoops, check out this storysteam.

For more on the Oklahoma State Cowboys, visit Cowboys Ride For Free. For more on the Kansas Jayhawks, visit Rock Chalk Talk.

Marquette gets the rest of the week off as they prepare for the unpredictable UConn Huskies next Saturday while Cincinnat will get a chance to bounce back against lowly Providence on Wednesday.

For more on the Golden Eagles, check out Anonymous Eagle. For more on the Bearcats, visit Down The Drive.

Here’s Florida’s uniforms for today’s game against Tennessee, thanks to Alligator Army:

This design doesn’t really do the Creamsicle-colored shoes and socks justice, though. Truly delicious-looking. The Dukies are wearing very similar kits for their game against Maryland:

It’s a bit blurry, but look closely: San Diego State’s section, affectionately known as The Show, appeared to struggle with the following sign before their game against UNLV at Viejas Arena:

But wait! Did they really struggle with our/are, or were they set up?

Mizzou now hosts Oklahoma State, one of two teams to beat them this season, on Wednesday night in Columbia. Baylor, which will tumble out of the top ten, hosts Iowa State on Monday night.

For all your Mizzou news, visit Rock M Nation, SB Nation’s Tigers blog. For all your Baylor coverage, visit Our Daily Bears, SB Naton’s Baylor blog.

Florida State bounced back from its upset loss to Boston College this week with a 65-59 home win over state rival Miami. The Canes came to Tallahassee riding a five-game ACC winning streak, which included a win at Cameron Indoor Stadium. But Leonard Hamilton’s defense bottled up the Canes on the offensive end, and held Reggie Johnson to just four points.

The Seminoles are now tied with North Carolina for first place in the ACC, while the Hurricanes are two back in the loss column and tied for third place.

For more news, analysis, and discussion on the Orange, visit Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician, SB Nation’s Syracuse blog. For all your Huskies news, visit The UConn Blog.

For more news, analysis, and discussion on North Carolina, visit Carolina March, SB Nation’s Tar Heels blog. For more on the Cavaliers, visit Streaking The Lawn, SB Nation’s UVA blog.

Kevin Jones, a strong Big East Player of the Year candidate, had yet another dominating performance on the inside for the Mountaineers. Jones finished with 22 points and grabbed 11 rebounds. Deniz Kilicli teamed up with Jones in the paint and had 17 points of his own, before a late charge call fouled him out with under two minutes to go. Truck Bryant, however, could not get anything to fall all afternoon and finished just 3 of 17 from the floor, including a last second desperation three to tie it that fell short.

For more on the West Virginia Mountaineers, visit SB Nation’s Mountaineers blog The Smoking Musket. For more on the Louisville Cardinals, visit SB Nation’s Louisville blog Card Chronicle.

It’s a great day of college basketball with 17 of the Top 25 teams in the country in action. The day is headlined by a matchup between No. 6 Baylor and No. 4 Missouri at 1:45 p.m. ET and a matchup between No. 11 Michigan State and No. 3 Ohio State at 6:00 p.m. ET.

Here are some other Top 25 matchups on the day:

The two teams that have distinguished themselves as the class of the Big 10 year in and year out will battle Saturday evening, as the No. 3 Ohio State Buckeyes host the No. 11 Michigan State Spartans. The Buckeyes (21-3, 9-2) and the Spartans (19-5, 8-3) play classic Big 10 basketball, predicated on defense, rebounding and forcing a whole lot of missed shots.

Location: Value City Arena, Columbus, Ohio

Location: Stephen C. O’Connell Center, Gainesville, Fla.

Date & Time: Saturday, Feb. 11, 4 p.m.

The Cavaliers, on the other hand, have gotten where they are purely on defense because, frankly, their offense is pretty bad. They’re 261st nationally in points per game, 246th in rebounds, and 180th in assists, yet somehow have lost only four games this season, which should tell you everything you need to know about their defense. Scott is averaging better than 17 and 8 for them, too, and he’s a candidate for ACC Player of the Year on leadership alone. This is in Chapel Hill, though, which makes a Wahoos win seem unlikely.

Location: Dean E. Smith Center, Chapel Hill, N.C.