Texas 80, Arkansas 76

Since it doesn’t appear as though anybody wants to be Colt McCoy’s understudy, this was an awesome result for the local university’s athletic department (still coping from the bombshell revelation that one of their touristy season ticket holders likes kitty kats).  After beating LSU in Houston earlier this month, Texas’ last second defeat of the Razorbacks has the hosts sporting a 2-0 record against the SEC going into this Saturday’s trip to Knoxville.  Kevin Durant was beating himself up on the postgame show about some foul shots he missed in the 4th quarter, but were it not for his 28 points and 13 rebounds, Texas would have easily lost their 3rd game of the year.

There were more lead changes in the 2nd half than I bothered to calculate, and while Durant was double teamed in the low post pretty often, guards A.J. Abrams and D.J. Augustin were efficient from long range, connecting for 6 three-pointers between them.  Rick Barnes credited Connor Atchley with the finest game of his collegiate career, and while Atchley’s line wasn’t a work of art (26 minutes, 7 points, 1 rebound, fouled out) his 4 blocks were bigger than Val Kilmer’s sense of entitlement.

St. John’s suspended C Aaron Spears on Wednesday for the wonderfully vague “violaton of team rules.”  I wasn’t aware Norm Roberts had a rule against sharing the same name as Usher’s drummer, but like Ryne Sandberg, I supposed Roberts is trying to draw the line somewhere.

No (half-assesed) summary of Wednesday’s college hoops would be complete without acknowledging the tremendous job Washington did keeping Big Baby in check.  Finally, the Huskies should be able to emerge from the stigma of being associated with Nate Robinson.