TMA: And then there were four

The Morning After is our semi-daily recap of last night's best basketball action. It had last night off; thank goodness for programming diversity on the TVs in the United Center.

Yes, Duke lost last night. It was probably only a matter of time, especially given Kyrie Irving's injury, but talk of an undefeated Duke season grew noticeable, if not necessarily overwhelming, during Duke's brilliant Irving-powered early stretch. In fact, we should have known all along: Teams don't go undefeated in college basketball anymore. That's was Dana O'Neil's reaction to Florida State's huge upset of the No. 1 Dukies Wednesday night, and I'll let her excellent piece stand in here.

Likewise, if you need to get caught up on wins by Syracuse, Villanova, and Pittsburgh, Dana has you covered.

No. 3 Kansas 84, Iowa State 79: Kansas was one of four undefeated teams -- San Diego State, Ohio State, and Syracuse being the others -- to survive Wednesday night. Three of those wins (KU's, SDSU's, and OSU's) were tough challenges. Two of them were on the road in hostile conference environments. One of them was in Ames, Iowa.

Last night Kansas, like Ohio State, found itself in the sort of dogfight that, even in a win, further solidifies Dana's premise that it's just about impossible to go undefeated in college basketball anymore. That's because Iowa State, for all its personnel turnover in Fred Hoiberg's first year, has morphed into a surprisingly tough defensive team. In an up-tempo game that featured 50 combined points from the Morii (33 for Marcus and 17 for Markieff), Iowa State held the Jayhawks, the nation's 12th-most efficient offense, to 1.03 points per possession. Neither team shot the ball particularly well, and, in the end, Bill Self's team won with sheer athletic superiority: The Jayhawks grabbed many more of their misses than did the Cyclones, and they got to the foul line three times as often.

That was the difference in the game, that athletic superiority, but Iowa State deserves credit not just for its impressive one-off performance but for being a surprisingly tough team all season long. This was supposed to be a holdover year for Hoiberg and company until this offseason's wave of talented transfers (Michigan State's Chris Allen, Minnesota's Royce White, among others) becomes eligible next fall. And sure, Iowa State isn't going to the tournament this season. But if this team is the worst the Big 12 has to offer -- and it isn't, but it was supposed to be -- then the conference is going to be a basketball bear for years to come.

No. 2 Ohio State 68, Michigan 64: Speaking of surprisingly tough teams, here's what Michigan has done in its two home outings since a 66-50 loss to Wisconsin last week: Forced No. 3 Kansas to overtime and taken Ohio State to the utter brink of defeat. That's an impressive pair of losses, even at home, and like Iowa State, it portends positive things to come for the Wolverines. This season is not the rebuilding disaster we predicted for either squad.

As for Ohio State, the Buckeyes yielded a 12-point lead in the second half before eventually holding off the surging Wolverines and stealing the win. Given how well Michigan shot from the field -- John Beilein's team posted a 64.1 effective field goal percentage and had its highest overall field goal percentage (52.2) in a loss since 2006 -- this was a borderline impressive feat. Much like Kansas, Ohio State won this game by getting to the foul line, the product of its superior athleticism and skill in the low block. But it was another league-play survival effort, the third-straight game in which the Buckeyes have had to hold off a clearly inferior team as the game wound down in the second half. In other words, this one fits last night's premise, too: This team, as good as it is, is going to lose eventually. It's just a matter of time.

No. 6 San Diego State 55, UNLV 49: This was not a game for the offensive record books. UNLV posted a 36.9 effective field goal percentage; SDSU was only slightly better at 39.6. UNLV scored .78 points per trip; SDSU was only slightly better with .87. The difference, as in the two games discussed above, came on the offensive glass and at the free throw line, where the Aztecs outrebounded UNLV and vastly exceeded the Rebels in free throw rate. This was as ugly as wins get. And yet somehow, given SDSU's 18-game winning streak (which following Duke's loss becomes the longest winning streak in the country) I don't think the Aztecs or their fans will mind.

Everywhere else: Another interesting result in the Big 12 last night: Colorado, fresh off its invigorating home win against Missouri on Saturday, went into Manhattan, Kan. and came away with a 74-66 win against No. 20 Kansas State. Signs of an improved Buffaloes team? A product of Kansas State's ongoing woe? In the end, probably a bit of both. In the end, if Colorado is getting 20 points from anyone not named Alec Burks or Cory Higgins (Wednesday night, this player was Levi Knutson), the Buffs are going to be tough. ... Memphis' disappointing season went from bad to avert-your-eyes-ugly Wednesday night as the Tigers fell 64-58 to Southern Methodist, somehow. ... Marcus Denmon had a very Marcus Denmon-type game, hitting five 3-pointers and scoring 27 points in Missouri's well-earned win against a sneakily tough Nebraska team. ... Texas A&M thoroughly dominated Oklahoma State. ... Temple easily handled St. Bonaventure. ... and UNI got a very UNI win (46-44) at Illinois State.

Source: http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/21105/tma-and-then-there-were-four

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