1. North Carolina State doesn’t have much time left to build an NCAA Tournament-worthy résumé, ESPN’s Andy Katz writes. But the Wolfpack haven’t lost hope.
2. Greg Anthony and Jason King discuss other teams, with even higher expectations than the Wolfpack had, that are struggling for one reason or another in a four-minute video on Yahoo.com.
3. From unexpected struggles to unexpected success, we have Hofstra — and CBSSports.com’s Matt Norlander reports how the unlikely rise of Mo Cassara to head coach has helped one Pride player, Charles Jenkins, emerge as a superstar.
4. How big a deal is Syracuse’s clash with Villanova Saturday? The Orange are looking to break last year’s record for an on-campus crowd by exceeding 34,616 fans in the Carrier Dome, the Associated Press reports.
5. Speaking of records, the V Foundation, named in honor of Jim Valvano, brought in a record $1.2 million in donations for cancer research during Jimmy V Week in December, according to the Associated Press.
6. A CBSSports.com wire report indicates that USC freshman Bryce Jones will leave the Trojans. He’s averaging 7.6 points and 2.6 rebounds in 20.5 minutes per game. Check out the comments on this story, which contain a lively debate about the strength of the Pac-10 vs. the Mountain West.
7. If you’re so worked up about your favorite players or team that you decide it’s a good idea to threaten NCAA president Mark Emmert, as ESPN.com blogger Eamonn Brennan indicates some fans have done, you really need to re-evaluate your priorities in life.

1/17
• Pittsburgh 74, Syracuse 66
• Connecticut 61, Villanova 59
• Missouri 75, Kansas State 59
• Chattanooga 91, Charleston 88

1/18

• Alabama 68, Kentucky 66
• Illinois 71, Michigan State 62
• Tennessee 59, Georgia 57
• Nebraska 79, Colorado 67
• Maine 72, Vermont 58

1/19

• Texas 81, Texas A&M 60
• Louisville 88, St. John’s 63
• Purdue 63, Penn State 62
• Notre Dame 66, Cincinnati 58
• Old Dominion 64, James Madison 58
• Memphis 76, Southern Miss 75
• Indiana State 70, Missouri State 69
• Northern Iowa 77, Wichita State 74
• Oklahoma State 96, Iowa State 87 OT
• Marshall 75, West Virginia 71

1/20

• Washington 85, Arizona 68
• Wofford 88, Chattanooga 56
• Virginia Tech 74, Maryland 57
• Santa Clara 85, Gonzaga 71

Michael Protos explains that although Denis Clemente’s absence can’t help Kansas State, the source of the Wildcats’ struggles lies primarily at the free throw line.

Phil Kasiecki wraps up his coverage from the 2011 Spalding Hoophall Classic in Springfield, Mass., with highlights from Monday’s action and his list of the best players from the weekend — a list of some of the best future college players in the country.

Game day tweets from Phil Kasiecki’s season-long tour:

• Traffic on the Mass. Pike was so bad, Virginia got to Conte Forum less than an hour before tip.
• Tony Bennett has a legitimate beef about the prior trip, as Josh Southern hauled down Assane Sene. In football he’d get flagged for holding.
• Chris Martin can flat-out shoot, and early on it looks like that’s true for Bishop Gorman’s Roscoe Allen as he has two treys.
• St. Patrick’s leads 24-22 with 3:32 left in the half in a well-played game, for the most part. Officials are generally letting them play.
• Things just got contentious on the court after Chris Martin got fouled hard on a breakaway. Martin is still down.

1/21
• Green Bay at Butler
• Lipscomb at East Tennessee State

1/22

• Ohio State at Illinois
• Michigan State at Purdue
• Texas at Kansas
• Kansas State at Texas A&M
• Villanova at Syracuse
• Marquette at Notre Dame
• Tennessee at Connecticut
• Saint Mary’s at Vanderbilt
• Kentucky at South Carolina
• Boston College at Florida State
• Temple at Xavier
• BYU at Colorado State
• George Mason at James Madison
• VCU at Old Dominion
• Indiana State at Wichita State
• Richmond at Massachusetts
• Memphis at UAB
• Morgan State at Delaware State
• New Mexico State at Utah State

1/23

• Belmont at East Tennessee State

According to Ken Pomeroy’s team efficiency ratings, the top conference thus far is the Big Ten. The Big East and Big 12 are within sniffing distance, but the bottom feeders of those two hurt the overall power rating of their conferences. However, there’s little doubt that those three conferences appear to be the best from top to bottom in the country.

Among the power conferences, the second tier is led by the ACC, with the Pac-10 and SEC right behind. It’s worth noting that the Mountain West Conference has a nearly identical rating to the SEC, which means that the conferences could end up with a similar number of NCAA Tournament bids. That might not happen because the SEC has a little more balance at the top while the teams at the bottom — Mississippi State, LSU and Auburn — really drag down the conference. The Mountain West is more balanced, but only San Diego State and BYU look like locks for the NCAA Tournament.

After those top seven conferences, Conference USA, the Atlantic 10, the Missouri Valley Conference and the West Coast Conference appear in line to place their regular-season winners into the NCAA Tournament regardless of whether those teams win their conference’s tournament and automatic bid. The conferences with the haziest outlook for earning multiple bids are the Horizon League, Colonial Athletic Association and Western Athletic Conference. All three are strong, though their top teams have gaudy records but few quality wins. Butler might be the exception, cashing in on its run to the NCAA championship game with a brutal non-conference schedule that will boost the Bulldogs’ RPI.

For everyone else, it’s a familiar situation: Win your tournament or risk missing the Big Dance.