As we sports junkies await the penultimate pigskin playdowns, there was a weekend of hoops.

A veritable hoopadelic bounty of b-ball.

Can I get a witness?

Say Hallelujah!!!

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Today’s quote from a national hoops scribe:

The point is, even the best teams in college basketball sometimes have to grind out ugly ones. Beating a middling team by one or two points is by no means disqualifying come the Big Dance.

The reference was to Florida’s recent escape against South Carolina.

Of course, the same can be said of Louisville’s fending off of Eastern Kentucky. Thanks to a late layup by broken-thumbed Noah Waterman.

It happens.

Especially as the season grinds from January to February, and some fatigue sets in even for the most settled of squads.

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Duke outlasted U of L’s next foe Wake Forest in Winston Salem.

Jon Scheyer went to a zone, making the Deacons not so Demon. Steve Forbes’ team lost its way.

This Cardinal fan’s immediate thought: Will Pat Kelsey need to go to a zone Tuesday, and if so, will he? He has been disinclined to do it thus far.

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As I’ve previously expressed, my sense is I consume way more college basketball than most people. Like on Saturday from noon until bedtime.

I’m a hoopaholic.

It allows me perspective beyond my beloved Cardinals.

Like what other schools might be similarly situated, jockeying for the bubble or beyond, loftier seeding.

Consider Vanderbilt.

After winning but nine games last year under Jerry Stackhouse, they changed coaches on West End Ave. in NashVegas.

Mark Byington has done the same thing in Music City that Pat Kelsey has done in DerbyPlace.

Vandy is 16-4. With fine-inducing court-storming Ws on the last two Saturdays over Tennessee and Kentucky. (They shut down the Cats in the last two minutes, scored the last six points for the victory.)

I might remind Card fans that both of those defeated schools had their way with U of L.

So, yeah, there are other schools upticking.

That said, 15-5 Louisville is KP#25, BT#24. While the ‘Dores are KP#44 and BT#38.

After one take me to the river field storm in football and consecutive hardwood court storms, the SEC might level Vandy the ultimate sanction, Double Secret Probation.

Dean Wormer?

Admittedly I pay special attention to Vanderbilt, where my brother went, where The Professor and several other good pals matriculated, and where I, had I any sense, would have gone. Who knows where I’d be today?

But I digress.

Vanderbilt and Louisville are having similar reawakenings.

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My favorite take by an announcer in the midst of my marathon viewing came from Jay Bilas during the slugfest between Auburn and the Volunteers.

When yet another baller hit the deck, Dan Shulman offered that they hadn’t seen a game with so many guys down all year.

To which, Bilas shared the best of his surfeit of football analogies: “At least not since Ohio State/ Notre Dame.”

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The bloom is off the rose section.

Ed Cooley in his second year at Georgetown stands 0-4 against his old school, Providence.

John Calipari’s Razorbacks lost again. At home to Oklahoma.

Meanwhile, the Freedom Hall experiment having failed and back on Norris Place, Bellarmine is 3-18, 0-8 in the ASUN, and has dropped 11 in a row.

Ever hitting his head on the ceiling Buzz Williams took a haymaker yesterday. A&M blew an 18 point lead and fell to instate rival Texas.

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My favorite game of the day: Houston’s double OT thrilla over Rock Chalk Jayhawk. In Allen Fieldhouse.

At one point, a Cougar got an assist on a pass while he was sprawled on the hardwood.

But my favorite play.

With about ten seconds left in the first OT, down six Houston drains a trey. Self’s dudes still had a three point advantage and just needed to inbound from under the Cougar basket. About seven seconds left. Cougs stole the ball, guy stepped back behind the line, drained the triple. Let’s play five more.

Kelvin Sampson’s teams are relentless.

 * * * * *

Ignore at your peril.

Mr. March Tom Izzo is baaaaaaaaaaaaack!

Sparty is 17-2, 8-0 in the Big Whatever.

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Doc called me near the end of an early Saturday window.

Said something like, “Wonder who’s going to be coaching BC next year?” Went on to explain how the Eagles had done something boneheaded at the end of regulation, allowing North Carolina to get to OT.

First thing asked I, who was watching a tilt between middle of the pack dwellers Pitt and Cuse, “How come you’re watching that schlepper game?”

Then, my question was, “Who’s going to be coaching in Chapel Hill if the Tar Heels need OT to beat the Eagles in the Dome?”

Doc: “Hubert Davis will be fly fishing somewhere next season with Mike Woodson.”

Which snarky conversation I thought of this Sunday afternoon while watching IU, up 2, give up a triple when they had a foul to give. But didn’t use it when a Terp drove the lane, then was able to kick it out for the game winner.

Best part of the afternoon for departing Hoosier fans will be the biscuits and apple butter in Brown County. (Assuming that’s still a thing, haven’t been there in a long while.)

Coaching. Execution.

Gotta have it.

— c d kaplan