Enter the 2011-12 Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

Notre Dame lost a great deal from last season’s team that entered the month of March playing about as well as any team in the country. Gone from that team are Big East Player of the Year Ben Hansbrough and important role players Tyrone Nash and Carleton Scott, the latter a big defensive leader for that team and a surprise early defection. Already, projections for this team were going to be that they were unlikely to contend for the top of the Big East. When they went 0-2 in Kansas City, including an 87-58 thrashing at the hands of Missouri, it looked like they would be who many thought they would be.

That wasn’t all. The Fighting Irish were not certain to have Tim Abromaitis back, as he played in two exhibition games in the 2008-09 season where he redshirted. But the NCAA granted him this year, so that helped as he was an experienced player and was second on the team in scoring last season. Then in late November, he tore the ACL in his right knee in practice, putting him out for the season.

At that point, the outlook was decidedly not good. But no one told head coach Mike Brey and his team that, and after Saturday’s convincing 76-59 win over Marquette, the Fighting Irish are alone in fourth place in the Big East.

“From the start of the season, no one thought we would be here,” said sophomore point guard Eric Atkins.

Notre Dame hasn’t compiled its record by beating up on the bottom feeders of the conference. Along the way, they have knocked off Louisville, Seton Hall and Connecticut on the road, and now Syracuse and Marquette at home.

“I am very proud of my group,” said Brey, who at this point looks like the runaway Coach of the Year in the Big East, if not nationally. “I told them in one of the final media timeouts that I felt like I was coaching men today. Last year’s team was men. That had a look of more than one fifth year senior on the court. I am thrilled where we are.”

Notre Dame can only get better given that this is a young team with a lot of players who are just finding themselves. Scott Martin is the only other senior besides Abromaitis on the team, while the emerging perimeter unit of Atkins, Jerian Grant and Pat Connaughton are sophomore, sophomore and freshman respectively. Connaughton wasn’t expected to play much, but he scored 21 points on Saturday and now starts on the hardwood as well as the mound (the San Diego Padres drafted him last year).

“Right now, we’re really confident that we can beat any team – we can play with any team,” said Grant. “Our team confidence is really high right now, and I’d like to keep it that way because we are playing really well.”

That’s one thing no one can doubt at this point. The Irish have proven that to this point, and as a more confident team they will be even tougher to beat.

We take you coast to coast with news from around the college basketball nation.

Arizona had a big weekend, sweeping their trip to northern California after a 56-43 win at Stanford on Saturday. The Wildcats may be starting to come alive at a good time.

Syracuse got Fab Melo back for Saturday’s game, and they rolled to a 95-70 blowout win at St. John’s. The win was the 879^th in Jim Boeheim’s career, tying him with Dean Smith for third on the all-time list.

Seton Hall’s struggles continued as Connecticut annihilated them 69-46 in Hartford.

Kentucky had an easy time at South Carolina, committing just three turnovers in their blowout win.

The Big 12 gets a little more interesting at Missouri rallied to knock off Kansas in a big rivalry showdown. Both teams are now 8-2 in conference play.

Who’s on top of the ACC? No, not Duke, although the Blue Devils will be tied if they beat Miami on Sunday. North Carolina is in a tie after a big 83-74 win at Maryland to move into a tie for that spot. The team they are tied with is Florida State, as the Seminoles are 7-1 after a 58-55 win over Virginia.

Temple is now alone in first place in the Atlantic 10 after a 73-56 win at Rhode Island, combined with Saint Joseph’s knocking off La Salle earlier in the day. Temple’s perimeter trio continues to be the driving force for this team.

Wyoming knocked off road-weary UNLV in a close one after the Runnin’ Rebels ran into snow-related travel delays en route to Laramie.

Northern Iowa beat Creighton on a buzzer-beater, right after Creighton had tied it on a big shot.

Iona won a big showdown against Manhattan for the lead in the MAAC.

George Mason grabbed a share of the lead in the Colonial Athletic Association with a 54-50 win over Old Dominion in a first-place showdown. The Patriots are joined by VCU, 59-56 winners over Northeastern, and Drexel, 65-57 winners at Towson, at 11-2 in the conference.

Mississippi Valley State is now 10-0 in the SWAC and two games ahead in the standings, after knocking off Alabama State.

Sunday’s key matchups:

• Michigan at Michigan State
• Miami at Duke
• Northwestern at Illinois
• Stephen F. Austin at McNeese State
• The biggest one of all: New York Giants vs. New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI

Northeastern is now 7-5 in CAA play, which is a respectable mark. But take a closer look, and one notices problems. One is that they are now three games out of fourth place, which means they need some help if they are to ultimately get a bye in the conference tournament next month. That has meant everything over the years, and it’s very difficult to win four games in four days. Perhaps more importantly, the Huskies have put that record together only against the teams they “should” beat. The Huskies are 0-4 against the teams that are ahead of them in the standings.

This is about what was expected of the Huskies. They have just one senior on the roster, Niagara transfer Kashief Edwards, so this team looked to be about a year away from contending. They were one of several teams that one could put in a hat and pull them out when trying to project the middle of the pack before the season. There is some experience in the backcourt, but youth up front, and depth was an unknown. The youth up front has shown plenty of promise, adding to the idea that this team could contend next year.

In fact, that the Huskies are even in the first division of the CAA might seem like a case of over-achieving when looking at their non-conference record. A six-game losing streak in December doesn’t usually foreshadow being 7-5 at this point in conference play. The issues the Huskies showed in December – turnovers and a lack of backcourt depth – are still around, although the former has been lessened. But the lack of backcourt means starting guards Jonathan Lee and Joel Smith are playing without much rest, and will be more likely to wear down later in the season.

If the Huskies don’t at least continue to knock off the teams they should beat, they could slip back in the standings quite easily. They are now tied for fifth with Georgia State, and Delaware is breathing down their neck one game back. Both teams have proven themselves against the conference’s best teams. The Panthers handed Drexel their only loss in the last 17 games and have won at VCU, the latter marking the only time the Rams have lost at home all season. The Blue Hens almost beat the Huskies at Matthews Arena just a week earlier, beat Drexel in December and knocked off George Mason on Wednesday night.

There is still time for Northeastern to change where they stand. The Huskies are at VCU on Saturday and get George Mason at home on February 22. Last season, the Huskies had their struggles but managed to knock off VCU along the way. That game was in Boston, but it’s proof that a team like this is capable of beating one of the contenders. A month left in the regular season is a good amount of time for improvement to happen, especially in the crucial backcourt area off the bench since the two reserves there are freshmen.

But right now, where Northeastern stands is clear in the CAA. They are not contenders yet, and until they knock off a team ahead of them in the standings, that’s where they will be. They will continue to be a year away.

Northeastern took an early 29-27 lead in the second half, which was their first lead since the first minute of the game. But that lead was short-lived, and once Drexel went up 36-31 on a layup by Frantz Massenat, the Huskies were never within one possession the rest of the way.

“We pride ourselves on defense, so that was really our goal after we got up in the second half,” said guard Damion Lee, who led the Dragons with a career-high 25 points and eight rebounds.

Drexel is the hottest team in the CAA right now, having won ten straight and 16 of 17. The only slip-up in that stretch was at Georgia State just after the calendar turned over to 2012. Since then, they have turned back all CAA challengers, handing George Mason their only loss before last night and beating VCU. They also knocked off the two teams that have defeated them, Delaware and Georgia State, in their second meeting with each.

The Dragons haven’t done this easily, and it’s rarely the case that a team does this easily. The Dragons have had injuries, which was one contributor to their 2-4 start to the season. The most noteworthy one was the off-season knee injury Chris Fouch suffered, which kept the junior guard out for the first four games. Freshman Tavon Allen has missed the entire season with multiple injuries, and he figured to help this team out had he been healthy.

Even though Fouch returned earlier than first thought, he hasn’t played well yet. He’s had a couple of good games, but not a consistent stretch, and he hasn’t shot the ball well. Partly, it’s from the timing of the injury. He missed early practice, which meant no chance to mesh with new teammates, and he barely had any practice before playing. His first game was on November 30, a loss at Saint Joseph’s, and that was two days after he was cleared to play.

Another example of how this team hasn’t made it easy came leading up to Wednesday night. Drexel got off to a fast start on Wednesday night, leading 12-3 in the early going. Damion Lee was the best player on the floor, but then disappeared the rest of the half. Northeastern out-played Drexel the remainder of the half and into the second half, before Drexel turned it around and took control. Lee was a key part of that, starting with an old-fashioned three-point play to break a 31-31 tie and put them ahead for good.

Despite the convincing win, Flint said the Dragons didn’t prepare well. It would be easy to think that a veteran team like this has reached a place where they understand the target on their back as preseason favorites and what it takes to win, but the bottom line on Wednesday obscured that.

“I told them, don’t set yourself up,” said Flint. “We’re going up to a tough place to play, these guys are good in there. They gave us everything we can handle today.”

Still, Flint said there’s a lot to like with the intangibles on this team. The chemistry has been great, as Fouch and Samme Givens aren’t putting up big numbers (and as noted, the former hasn’t played all that well), but they know they don’t need to with this team and have been fine with it because the wins keep coming. The leadership has been very good, and the team plays the way one expects a Bruiser Flint-coached team to play.

Right now, the Dragons are also playing very well when one looks at the bottom line. The preseason favorites are looking that part more and more as they continue to win and in the fashion they did on Wednesday night.

“We continue to hang around and be in games and have opportunities,” said the Hofstra mentor.

Hofstra is now 1-10 in CAA play, but they have been agonizingly close in all but two CAA losses. They have dropped 17 and 12-point decisions to VCU. The other eight games have been losses by a combined 37 points, including a one-point and two two-point losses. While the Pride are now tied at the bottom of the CAA, they aren’t all that far away from knocking on the door of the first division.

The biggest issue for the Pride is offense. Although they could be better defensively, the Pride isn’t losing games at that end of the floor. Opponents are shooting over 43 percent against them, and they have been okay on the glass. They force over 15 turnovers per game as well.

“We have to continue to find ways to get the ball in the basket,” said Cassara. “I think our defensive effort is in the ballpark of where we have to be to win.”

The Pride have shot the ball reasonably well on the season, although they could improve there. The biggest stat is one that they actually did well with on Saturday, which is taking care of the ball. The Pride turn it over more than 15 times per outing, a number topped by only two CAA teams. Even with just ten turnovers, though, at crucial times the Pride committed them. On several occasions on Saturday, they had a chance to get closer and keep a rally going, but an unforced turnover would snuff that out.

“One turnover, for us, almost seems like four or five right now,” said Cassara.

A particular area of concern has been the point guard spot, and it’s not that the Pride are lacking capable players there. Rhode Island transfer Stevie Mejia started the first seven games, but an injury led to senior Dwan McMillan taking over that spot. Mejia hasn’t been anything like he was at Rhode Island, where he took very good care of the ball and ran the offense well. He’s still not 100 percent, and while McMillan has provided a steady hand, they can’t effectively rest him without losing something while Mejia is still not all the way back.

There hasn’t been an issue getting scoring from CAA leading scorer Mike Moore, and at times that has also been true of Nat Lester, who redshirted last year. Lester struggled with six points on Saturday and while he’s had big games like his 33-point effort early on, he’s also had games where he hasn’t been much of a factor offensively. Saturday was his fourth single-digit outing on the year, and he’s had five games where he has scored exactly 10 points.

Hofstra’s frontcourt isn’t one of the best in the CAA, but it’s not bad. Junior David Imes is better than serviceable and sophomore Stephen Nwaukoni has made his way into the starting lineup, and freshman Moussa Kone has been serviceable off the bench and has better days ahead. As much as this team was sure to miss Charles Jenkins, they also miss Greg Washington quite a bit, because he was a defensive presence inside and was also a senior on that team last season.

After playing four of six on the road, Hofstra now goes home for a week. Included in that recent stretch was being on the road for three of the four games they just played during the conference’s annual stretch of four games in eight days from one Saturday to the next. Cassara indicated that there is a level of frustration from the close losses, and that’s not surprising. When a good effort doesn’t have a bottom-line reward, it’s never easy, but this team hasn’t quit yet and surely won’t in the future. They’re going to keep hanging around and try to do more than just that.

In the final minutes of Wednesday night’s loss, the Blue Hens looked like they would be able to get a big win. While Northeastern isn’t a conference leader, this game was on the road and the Blue Hens came in looking for their first three-game winning streak of the season. They have won two straight on three occasions, but you get the sense that this team could really get a burst of confidence if they put together a three-game winning streak that could turn into more.

In the last minute, though, it all unraveled. A clutch three-pointer by Devon Saddler put them up 61-56 with 52.5 seconds left, and at that point they looked to be in good shape since they had not trailed since they were down one with 5:37 left. After two Northeastern free throws, Delaware turned it over and Northeastern got two free throws after an offensive rebound. With 11 seconds left, Saddler missed the front end of a one-and-one, setting the stage for Joel Smith’s heroics with 1.1 second left.

“We gave the game away, up five with under minute to go, up three with the ball and 25 seconds to go,” said head coach Monte Ross. “They went to the foul line and made their free throws; we didn’t do that.”

Saddler, one of the best players in the conference, is a very competitive young man. There’s little doubt that the missed free throw was bothering him after the game, but one can figure that if anyone will bounce back, it will be the Blue Hens’ leader.

Saddler and junior Jamelle Hagins are two of the best players in the CAA and have carried this team thus far, which was expected. They did just that on Wednesday night, with Saddler scoring a game-high 24 points and Hagins adding 19 with six rebounds and three blocked shots. Hagins, a dominant presence defensively and the conference’s top rebounder, has improved at the offensive end and now has to adjust to getting more defensive attention. Saddler, who is second in the CAA in scoring, is one of the team captains as a sophomore, which is not surprising given his competitive nature and character.

“I think those two had it going tonight,” Ross said of his dynamic duo. “In certain situations, your best players have to lead you, and I thought they did that tonight.”

Delaware looks like a team on the verge, although they may not get there this season. The Blue Hens have just two seniors, neither of whom plays much, and their four freshmen play over 43 percent of the available minutes. Where the growing pains come in is that three of the four freshmen play in the backcourt, and the fourth, Larry Savage, plays on the wing.

The Blue Hens are so experienced up front by comparison, they are redshirting the other freshman in the program, Marvin King-Davis. While that leaves them with three main bodies, they’re all good ones, and Hakim McCullar is a fourth option although he has never really gotten untracked since transferring from Rhode Island.

The support for Saddler and Hagins has been the question for this team entering the season. There are good veteran options up front in underrated junior Josh Brinkley and classmate Kelvin McNeil, an X-factor for them. The freshman guards have had some good moments thus far and look like they are a key part of a bright future based on their play thus far. But given that they are freshmen, they will make mistakes and have some inconsistency. On Wednesday night, they were a combined 2-12 from the field with eight assists and eight turnovers.

“Those guys have been good, they’ve helped us along the way,” said Ross.

Delaware will have to bounce back from a tough game to swallow. But they’ve had a few other tough losses, from the two overtime games they have lost (they have also won one) to a couple of others they have dropped by five points or less. The Blue Hens have only lost three games by double digits on the season. They bounced back from all of those, so there’s reason to believe they will bounce back from Wednesday night’s loss, although it won’t come easy as a trip to Drexel is ahead on Saturday and George Mason visits next Wednesday.

Hunter, who loved that he was able to walk to Fenway Park during the team’s trip to Boston, is full of energy and positive vibes. He’s pleasant to talk to and all along has felt good about this team, as well as the job itself. It would be easy to dismiss it as coach-speak, but he felt like a few players were ready to be better and liked the experience on the team, although it wasn’t winning experience. You can tell his confidence in the team is not misplaced by a long shot.

The Panthers didn’t start out the season the right way, as they lost three straight in the World Vision Classic in Washington. But they came back home from it and played better, and before you know it they rattled off nine straight wins to enter CAA play on a good note, and they won two more before George Mason ended the streak at 11. Now, as the Panthers are near the top of the standings even after the loss on Wednesday, Hunter sees something else to deal with.

“I took over a program that doesn’t know how to win,” said Hunter. “We’re winning right now, and we don’t know how to handle success a little. I think the easier part for me was teaching them how to win; teaching them how to maintain that is a whole other deal.”

The Panthers haven’t been able to top 12 wins in a season since joining the CAA back in 2005-06. That came after they had a good run of success in the Atlantic Sun, dating back to when it was still the Trans-America Athletic Conference. In their last eight seasons there, they had 10 or more conference wins in all but one season. It’s been different in the CAA thus far, and it doesn’t help that the Panthers joined during a stretch where the conference has had some of its best years ever.

Hunter knows he hasn’t turned this team into a perennial contender by a long shot, but this is certainly a better start than many figured. He said his players were disappointed they didn’t pull out Wednesday’s game, and more importantly, they’re all on the same page with the game plan. That’s the big reason he feels the team has become a factor right away in the conference, which is something they wanted to do. Because of both, this team should stay right in the mix. Being 5-2 instead of 2-5 makes a big difference since they won’t be playing from behind in the standings.

“I have one kid I recruited on this team, and they’ve all bought in,” Hunter said, adding that he’s been pleasantly surprised by that development. “We’re going to be a factor. Everybody’s waiting for the bottom to fall out at Georgia State. The bottom isn’t going to fall out for us. I’ll make sure that won’t happen.”

Georgia State has gotten this far in large part because of good defense. The Panthers hold opponents to just over 37 percent shooting, including less than 32 percent from long range, and force over 16 turnovers per game. They also out-rebound opponents by more than two per game, including Wednesday’s 33-24 edge over a Northeastern team that is rebounding much better than they did a year ago.

If the Panthers are to keep up their success, they will need to improve offensively to go along with keeping up the defense. While they shot over 45 percent on Wednesday night, they have struggled at that end of the floor in CAA play as most of the key offensive numbers are down since conference play began. In CAA games, they are shooting 41.5 percent from the field and less than 25 percent from long range, and they turn the ball over just under 14 times per game.

Even in looking at this aspect, Hunter’s positive feeling about this team comes through, and again you can’t help but sense that it’s not simply a coach being a coach.

“We are who we are,” Hunter said with a smile. “We’re not a great offensive team, and we’re not going to become a great offensive team by the end of the year, but that doesn’t mean we can’t win.”

So far, the Panthers have won in conference play without being a great offensive team. Being a good defensive team has shown that a team can win on nights when they don’t play well offensively. With a continuation of that and some offensive improvement, the Panthers might be better at handling success before long. That will only make Hunter an even happier person than he naturally seems to be.

Northeastern started the non-conference slate with some promising results, winning at arch-rival Boston University in overtime in the season opener and picking up a win at St. John’s before November was out. The Huskies didn’t seem primed to be as good as they were a couple of years ago, but it was a good start as they were 3-1 after winning in Queens.

Then December came, and the Huskies ran into backcourt issues. Behind juniors Jonathan Lee and Joel Smith are only freshmen, and they have had some struggles. At one point, Northeastern had at least 20 turnovers in five straight games, and not surprisingly they lost all five. In the meantime, the reserve guards weren’t getting a lot of minutes, and the Huskies at times put out a lineup that really had just one true guard on the floor.

But the Huskies closed out 2011 playing well, getting a big win at Vermont on a buzzer-beater, and since the calendar turned over they have been better. They have won six of seven, and the win over a Georgia State team that had won 13 of 14 is a big one for this team. Along the way, a key freshman has developed into a budding star in Quincy Ford, and it has happened as this team has been winning games.

Ford scored 14 points and was 4-5 from long range on Wednesday night. He also filled the stat sheet with five rebounds and three steals, and also had a key blocked shot in the second half. The team’s third-leading scorer is second in that category in conference games, having reached double figures in four of the last five games now and getting his first career double-double last week. For good measure, he leads the team in rebounding and steals.

The CAA has a lot of young talent starting their college careers off well, and Ford is right there with the best of them, especially since conference play began.

“His versatility makes us a much better basketball team,” said head coach Bill Coen. “As scary as it sounds, he doesn’t know how good he can be.”

The Huskies now head into the conference’s annual stretch of four games in eight days, and they start it on the road at Drexel on Saturday and Old Dominion on Monday. The Dragons, who were preseason favorites and then had a so-so non-conference showing in part because of injuries, will come in with five straight wins, while the Monarchs are 6-1 and already came to Boston last month and left with a victory. On the flip side, the Huskies have a 3-0 road record in CAA play thus far.

Northeastern is still in need of more answers in the backcourt. Coen seems satisfied with the improvement of Alwayne Bigby, known more for his defense and competitive streak, at the offensive end, and he’s played as one of the guards at times. Ford has helped as well since he can handle and pass. But it wouldn’t hurt if either or both of freshmen Marco Banegas-Flores and Demetrius Pollard, the latter of whom sat out Wednesday night due to a sprained ankle suffered in practice, played well enough to get more minutes. Both Lee and Smith played 39 minutes on Wednesday night, and Lee leads the CAA in minutes at over 36 per game. In CAA play that number is well over 37.

Coen said the Huskies seemed to learn well from the non-conference slate. While they would like to have had a few more wins, and had a shot in a few of the games, he pointed to games like St. John’s as a game against a team that plays a style much like that of a conference opponent that they could draw from. Princeton, who beat the Huskies during the six-game losing streak in December when turnovers were a major issue, was a team they could look at when preparing for William & Mary, who they beat last week.

Northeastern has a tough stretch ahead that will give an idea of whether this team will be a contender or not. They go into that stretch with a good road record and playing well, all at a good time.

The Huskies only played two true guards on Sunday, and spent some time with just one on the floor. At times, the shooting guard spot was occupied by sophomore Alwayne Bigby or senior Kashief Edwards, neither of whom is a guard. While freshman Quincy Ford has some guard skills, he’s more like a big wing, with better ball skills than Kauri Black, who handled the ball a little too much on Sunday as he led the Huskies with five turnovers.

In light of that, it’s not much of a surprise that the Huskies had 20 turnovers in the game, with all five starters having at least two. But perhaps more important than the number is that many came at bad times. In the second half, the Huskies fell behind early as the Tigers began with a 15-2 run aided by three early turnovers. Several times, the Huskies tried to rally back, but invariably a turnover would keep them from getting or sustaining momentum. And on a day where Princeton shot 12-18 from the field in the second half, that wasn’t the recipe for success.

But the story doesn’t end there, unfortunately for the Huskies. It marked the fourth straight game where they gave the ball away 20 or more times, and each one has been a loss. The turnovers, along with allowing Princeton to shoot over 54 percent, helped the Huskies lose despite shooting 50 percent from the field.

“I think it’s decision-making,” head coach Bill Coen said. “We just have to make better decisions in those types of situations, particularly when you’re playing against Princeton, because if you give the ball back to them you have to sit down in a stance for 35 seconds and really have to guard their stuff, which is not easy to do as guys find out.”

Jonathan Lee, who has made admirable strides at the point even though he’s not the truest point guard, played 38 minutes on Sunday, while Joel Smith played 34. That meant eight minutes on the court were occupied by someone who is not a guard. It continues a trend in recent games, as in the prior game at Bradley, only two guards got off the bench for less than seven combined minutes.

This is a problem that may not get better soon. The only two guards who have seen minutes off the bench of late are freshmen Marco Banegas-Flores and Demetrius Pollard, and given the lineups that have been out there, it’s clear the coaching staff isn’t comfortable having either out there for extended minutes right now. It’s also led to players like Black handling the ball more and trying to do too much, and putting more pressure on the forwards to take care of the ball when they get it.

At the beginning of the season, the experience of the starting guards looked to be a plus for this team. If you’re going to have one unit be experienced and the other to not be, it’s best to have experienced guards and inexperienced frontcourt players, which is largely how this Husky team appeared although Black and Ryan Pierson got a lot of minutes last year and Edwards is a senior transfer. But now, the backcourt isn’t looking like a source of strength, and that doesn’t bode well with CAA play not being far away.

Northeastern has two more games in short succession, heading to Louisiana Tech on Tuesday and North Carolina State on Thursday before Christmas. After that, only a trip to Vermont remains before CAA play begins in earnest at winless Towson. There’s not much time left, and the personnel isn’t going to change, so a solution has to emerge soon if their fortunes are to move in the right direction.

A far cry from last season, the Monarchs came into Saturday’s even on the glass with their opponents on the season. They were out-rebounded twice by double digits in losses to Kentucky and Vermont, which was unthinkable last year. After the loss to Kentucky, head coach Blaine Taylor said his team needed to be better on the boards, and while they didn’t do that right away, they sure did so on Saturday. He emphasized this facet of the game leading up to it, and the team got the message.

“He said this would be a big rebounding game,” said senior Chris Cooper, who led the way with 12 rebounds to go with 17 points.

In fact, Old Dominion controlled the inside all along. They got the ball inside just about anytime they wanted to offensively, and they controlled the glass against a Northeastern team that entered Saturday with the CAA’s best rebounding margin at +8. The numbers don’t back up how much better they were inside: they out-rebounded the Huskies 35-30 and didn’t have very significant advantages in points in the paint or second-chance points. They did have a big advantage at the foul line, going 27-34 while Northeastern only attempted 16 free throws.

Old Dominion has turned to a couple of players who were mainly reserves prior to this season to anchor them inside, and thus far Cooper and Nick Wright have done just that. Wright missed the first three games of the season due to injury, but since his return has played well. Cooper, who actually started 24 games a year ago, is averaging nearly a double-double on the season and had another one on Saturday. The potential seemed to always be there, but he was stuck behind a few pretty good upperclassmen earlier in his career.

“I don’t think Chris has played as well as he can, I probably yelled at him more than anyone out there,” said Taylor. “He can do better. What he’s doing is he’s helping us.”

As important as the frontcourt is, guards make a big difference in college basketball and that includes this team. The Monarch guards slowed down Northeastern’s guards on Saturday, holding Joel Smith to a 2-9 afternoon from the field and forcing six turnovers by Jonathan Lee. Trian Iliadis, who is handling the ball much more than he did in the past, and redshirt freshman Dimitri Batten were the primary Monarchs who did the job and combined for six assists and eight steals on Saturday as they forced 22 Northeastern turnovers.

Not only that, but they also helped lead the way with overcoming Northeastern’s pressure. The Huskies went after them all game long, and the Monarchs reacted very well to it. It was clear they prepared well, and they turned that into good game play.

“I think we handled a lot of pressure,” said Taylor, who added that Iliadis will likely see more minutes at the point. “Their style is such that they’re aggressive. I thought we worked hard to make plays when they were there.”

The other backcourt key is do-everything senior Kent Bazemore, who wasn’t even projected to be playing right now. Bazemore broke the fifth metatarsal bone in his left foot in the summer, but hasn’t missed a game yet and had one of his best ones of the season on Saturday with 21 points and eight rebounds. Bazemore said getting into game shape was a challenge, and he has been hit with minor ailments such as the stomach flu recently but said he feels his legs coming back.

Since the start of this season, the Monarchs have shown incremental improvement. It’s had to come the hard way from time to time, as Taylor noted, but this team is now clearly in a better place than they were in November.

“I think if you’ve followed us start to now, it’s been better, better, better, better, better in small steps that now add up to a number of steps when you add them all together,” said Taylor.

The Monarchs haven’t exactly rolled through their non-conference schedule, and no one expected them to. They still have good challenges left with Fairfield (in Springfield, MA for the Hall of Fame Holiday Showcase), at Central Florida and Richmond and at home against Missouri. But this is a team that looks to be getting better, and there’s a feeling this team is still a good ways from its ceiling, especially since they’re still figuring out what having Bazemore means after some preparation to be without him for the first month. When January comes this team looks like it will be doing what they usually do – winning games and contending in the CAA.

Kentucky probably has the most talent of any team in the country, but the Wildcats’ youth hasn’t been hard to see. Their freshmen have had their share of growing pains, from Marquis Teague’s early struggles taking care of the ball to Anthony Davis learning how physical the college game can be. It’s for exactly that reason that senior Darius Miller has never been more valuable than much of the early going this time around.

North Carolina is right up there with the Wildcats, but this is an older and more mature team. Whereas the Wildcats start three freshmen, the Tar Heels only played two freshmen yesterday and both came off the bench. But they start a senior, two juniors and two sophomores, and on the whole this is a team quite a ways from its ceiling just like Kentucky.

In the first half, North Carolina led by as many as nine and was the better team. They were hot from long range, going 6-9 from behind the arc in the opening frame. But Kentucky scored seven in a row at the end of the first and start of the second half, momentarily grabbing the lead and then staying right with the Tar Heels until they took the lead for good on a Davis jumper with less than eight minutes to play.

The Tar Heels had one more chance after Teague missed the front end of a one-and-one with 21 seconds left. They got the ball to John Henson, known more for his shot-blocking than scoring, and in a length-versus-length matchup, Davis got a hand on his short jumper and the Wildcats were able to run out the final seconds for a 73-72 victory.

It’s a game that many would love to see a rematch of, and considering that both teams are a ways from their respective ceilings, no one would be surprised if it materialized in the month of March.

While that was the best matchup of the day, there were a few other teams, conferences and player of note.

Marquette

Winning at the Kohl Center is hard for visiting teams to do, but Marquette pulled it off on Saturday and did so without their starting point guard. Before the game, the Golden Eagles announced that Junior Cadougan was suspended for the game due to a violation of team rules. Wisconsin has lost two straight, but neither is a bad loss as they lost to North Carolina earlier in the week. The Golden Eagles, meanwhile, are 7-0 with a blowout win over Ole Miss and Saturday’s win at Wisconsin.

Xavier

Xavier is becoming quite the second-half team. On Monday, they trailed by ten in the second half before rallying to beat Vanderbilt in overtime in Nashville. But yesterday they did themselves one better, as they trailed Purdue by 11 at the half and 19 in the second half before coming back to edge the Boilermakers 66-63. In the last 10:44, Xavier outscored Purdue 30-8.

Illinois

It seems like Bruce Weber has been on the hot seat forever in Champaign, but let’s acknowledge not only the job he has done thus far but especially what he is doing this season. After an 82-75 win over Gonzaga on Saturday, the Illini are 8-0 with wins over Richmond and at Maryland as well. Neither of those two is a big NCAA Tournament resume win, but they are worth noting because the Illini haven’t beaten up on a slew of terrible teams and could be 12-0 when they take on Missouri on Dec. 22, though they will have to get by UNLV at home before then. Saturday was the first time all season Gonzaga did not have at least four players score in double figures.

Brigham Young

No Jimmer, no problem for Brigham Young. After Saturday’s 79-65 win over Oregon in Salt Lake City, BYU is 6-2 with a win over Nevada included and the only losses being at Utah State and against Wisconsin. Granted, this isn’t the Oregon team we all thought we would see before the season with the departures of Jabari Brown and Bruce Barron, but the Ducks aren’t pushovers.

Head-scratching in the CAA

A number of conferences have their opening games this weekend before teams resume non-conference play for a little while longer. Perhaps none has had results that might leave one scratching their head as much as the Colonial Athletic Association, where three teams won on the road and preseason favorite Drexel lost to Delaware by 11 (albeit on the road). The Dragons have had a rough go of it thus far, but Chris Fouch is back so they’re closer to having their full team together. Still, Fouch was 0-9 yesterday and the Blue Hens won the battle on the glass by a 40-32 margin over a Drexel team that routinely beats up opponents on the boards.

The one other score that jumps out is Georgia State thumping William & Mary 66-34 in Atlanta. The Tribe didn’t look to be far from being a good team last season, but they’re struggling mightily out of the gates and Saturday may be the low point thus far.

We go coast to coast with other news from the college basketball nation

• Ohio State didn’t miss a beat despite Jared Sullinger being out with back spasms.
• College of Charleston lost a wealth of talent and experience from last season’s team, but the Cougars are 7-1 overall and are one of four teams that went 2-0 in early Southern Conference games this weekend. Chattanooga, who the Cougars beat last night and was picked to win the North Division, is 0-2.
• Connecticut got a big lift from Ryan Boatright with 23 points and six assists in his home debut.
• UCLA is now 2-5 after a home loss to Texas that saw them blow an 11-point lead.

Some of Sunday’s Key Matchups

Sunday is a day full of interesting matchups of teams that we’re trying to find out something about. None of these are like North Carolina-Kentucky, but they will be worth keeping an eye on.

• Baylor at Northwestern
• UNLV at Wichita State
• California at San Diego State
• Dayton at Murray State
• North Carolina State at Stanford
• Notre Dame at Maryland
• VCU vs. George Washington (BB&T Classic at the Verizon Center)
• Kansas State at Virginia Tech