Video Onions: McLemore, Mountaineers, Paul, Franklin and more...

Best way to relive some of last night's best plays, whether it was a dunk or Onions in the bank, is to see the video...

Let's start with Kansas, who barely escaped Iowa State at home, in overtime (97-89). The Jayhawks were down three in the final seconds, when Ben McLemore hit his fifth 3-pointer of the game. Chaos commences at the Phog.



McLemore finished the game 6-6 from 3, and 10-12 from the field, ending with 33 points. Kansas escaped this one and narrowly defeated Temple at home over the weekend. On the other side, The Mayor, Fred Hoiberg, will second guess his strategy not to foul Kansas, when his Cyclones held a 3 point lead under 5 seconds. The #foulordefend debate is a good on. Check out the hashtag on twitter.

Our old friends down in Morgantown, WV had a big road test last night in the Big 12. At Texas, the Mountaineers led by 3 with just five seconds left. They chose not to foul. Any guesses what happened next? From the corner....



Luckily, WVU ended up winning the game in overtime 57-53, which could have saved their season. A nice road win in conference to hopefully get Huggins' crew back on track.

In the Big Ten, it took only 3 minutes and change for Brandon Paul of Illinois to put Minnesota's Trevor Mbakwe on a poster.



Mbakwe and the 8th ranked Gophers had the last laugh though, winning 84-67.

Jamaal Franklin of San Diego State got his Dunk Contest resume tape ready last night, going a little Tracy McGrady, off the backboard to himself.



Other games of note in the Big East: Syracuse got a road win at the Dunkin' Donuts Center, beating Providence 72-66. The Orange rallied from a 9 point first half deficit. Rutgers, who is 2-1 after Daily Onions wrote about Mike Rice, got a nice road win over St. John's, while Villanova won its 7th straight game with a victory at South Florida. Nova heads to the Dome on Saturday to square of with Syracuse, and Daily Onions will be there.

Villa-Nosedive and Other Falls from Grace

Things haven't been as easy for Kemba lately (Getty)

After five days of relaxation in Florida, Daily Onions is back! We are a bit caramelized, but more than ready for March. Who's coming with us?

Well apparently there are a few teams out there that don't want their March performances to be something to write home about. Daily Onions will take care of the writing and we'll call out some of those teams that aren't exactly peaking at the right time. Let's start close to home in the Big East.

-Villanova: Jay Wright is all dressed up for the dance but the way his team is playing lately, it looks like his ride will be picking him up for an early exit. The Wildcats have lost five of their last seven, including home games to Syracuse, St. John's and Pitt. They've also lost at Rutgers and got embarrassed Monday night at Notre Dame, when the Irish drained 20 (not a typo) three pointers. There is no doubt that Nova has talent. One of their best players, Corey Stokes missed some time with an injury, but he's been back for the past three games. They'll need some of his hot shooting if they want to end their regular season with a W, at Pitt on Saturday. Good luck with that one. It looks as though, Villanova will be the 11 seed (seriously) in next week's Big East Tournament. If the Cats don't get things back on track quickly, they'll be back in the City of Brotherly Love before the first weekend of the NCAA tournament is even over, just like last year.

-UConn: The Huskies haven't been as bad as Villanova, but the last month of basketball hasn't been that pretty in Storrs. While Kemba Walker has been coming back down to Earth (ahem, told you so), UConn has dropped down the Big East standings as well. Since January 29th, UConn is 4-5. Prior to that, they were 17-2. Things don't get much easier for the Huskies, as they are at West Virginia tonight, which begs the question, if WVU beats #16 UConn, do they storm the court? Kemba and the crew then host the Big East's hottest team, Notre Dame on Saturday. Depending on how they fare, UConn could be in the mix for a double-bye in the Big East tournament, or they could be a 10-11 seed. Those possibilities are on opposites sides of the spectrum, similar to the discrepancy between the beginning and end of the season for the Huskies.

Grant and 'Bama still have some work to do

-Texas: A few March guarantees - St. Patrick's Day, baseball's spring training and grumbling in Texas about the Longhorns tailspin at the end of the season. As we've discussed in the is space before, we aren't confident in Rick Barnes and Texas down the stretch. This year's version of the epidemic includes losing 3 of their last 4 games against unranked teams (at Nebraska, at Colorado and home against a rejuvenated Kansas State) in the last week. We are going to "steer" (athankyou) clear of the Longhorns in the Big Dance not only because of their recent poor track record, but also because of the Daily Onions "Kentucky Corollary," where we stay way from teams that are too young and inexperienced. Four of the top six players for Texas are either freshman or sophomores. One final road test for this squad on Saturday at Baylor. A win would be huge for the youngsters confidence heading into tournament week.

-Alabama: The Crimson Tide will be staying in Sweet Home Alabama if they don't make a run in the SEC tournament. A few weeks ago we were praising 'Bama for being atop the SEC West standings. Well, they will still win the weak West division, but that's no lock to get them in. Back to back losses at Mississippi and Florida (a butt whooping), along with a poor out of conference schedule that included no real quality wins, Bama is now bubbling. Coach Anthony Grant and his perfectly tailored button down shirts need to win against Georgia on Saturday, and then win at least two games in the conference tournament to have a chance to get in to the Big Dance.

-Illinois: The Fighting Illini have a fighter's chance to get into the NCAA tournament. A tough schedule down the stretch hasn't done any favors for Bruce Weber's team. They are 4-7 over their last 11, including loses in 3 of their last 4 (Purdue, OSU, MSU). There is a possibility that Illinois could play Penn State in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament, which would basically be an elimination game for the loser, with the winner still needing help. Whether Illinois is able to get into the tournament or not, this season has been a bit of a disappointment. With a team full of guys like McCamey, Davis, Tisdale, etc, there is no reason they shouldn't have been just behind OSU and Purdue battling for a Big Ten title.

Coming up in our next post, we'll go the other way around, and look at some of the teams that are starting to peak at the right time.

The Weekend that Was

Things have been a bit light in college basketball the past week or two, thanks to finals...ya know, for classes, since these players are "student"-athletes (that's a rant for another time). A quick look at some of the happenings in the college basketball world from this past weekend.

Self probably told Selby to nail a '3' to win the game (KansasCity.com)

-Early Onions Award goes to Josh Selby, the freshman guard from Kansas. After sitting out the first 9 games of the season due to an NCAA violation suspension, Selby nailed a 3 pointer with 26 seconds left to give the Jayhawks the lead in their 2 point win over USC on Saturday. In his first collegiate game Selby also dropped 21 points. Raftery was in Columbus for the Ohio State - South Carolina game, but I'm sure he dropped an "Onions" call when he saw the highlight.

-There were three upsets this weekend....the biggest which happened in the backyard of Daily Onions.  UIC (that's University of Illinois-Chicago) took down the 14th ranked University of Illinois at the United Center. The Illini shot 32% percent from the field, and 23% from 3 pt, and committed 15 turnovers, against a team that came into the game on a four game losing streak.  Illinois has a lot of experience with McCamey, Davis, Tisdale, etc, but they sure did lay an egg in this "neighborhood" rivalry game.

-Gonzaga finally got a quality non-conference win this weekend, as they went to Dallas and beat the 9th ranked Baylor Bears. Good for the Zags, who had one of the toughest early season schedules (along with Butler and Michigan State) in the country.

-Florida (#24) got a nice win at home against 6th ranked Kansas State on Saturday as well. Frank Martin's Wildcats will struggle all season if they shoot 21% in the second half of games like they did against the Gators.  K-State has a ton of athleticism and talent, but have struggled the last two games (a close victory over Loyola and the loss against Florida).  No time to think about it though, as they play UNLV tomorrow night.

-Daily Onions Curse Update: Since I wrote about the Knicks on Wednesday, they've lost 3 straight (Boston, Miami and at Cleveland). Since I wrote about Tennessee last Monday, they've lost two in a row (Oakland and at Charlotte). We gave Oakland some props, and they lost to Michigan. We'll keep making our predictions and hopefully one day our curse will be as popular as Sports Illustrated's.