Five Things: Five Overtimes In South Bend, A Half-Court Buzzer Beater And A Big Ten Battle

By Andrew Kahn

The fact that the Michigan-Wisconsin game was not the wildest of the weekend tells you something - in this case, that there was a five-overtime game. In a week full of upsets, this weekend was no different. In addition to some of the surprises mentioned below, California won at No. 7 Arizona on Sunday. No. 8 Miami was expected to beat North Carolina, but not by 26 points. The madness has come a month early.

Five-overtimes in South Bend

Anyone watching Saturday night's Notre Dame-Louisville game, which didn't end until Sunday on the East Coast, will likely never forget the details of their viewing experience. You're excused if you went a bit delirious watching. When Louisville's Chane Behanan hit a free throw to put No. 11 Louisville up 56-48 with 50 seconds left in regulation, well...hopefully you didn't change the channel. That's when Jerian Grant, who had been quiet most of the night, went on a tear, hitting three difficult three-pointers and converting an and-one on consecutive possessions to close regulation and tie the game at 60. Five overtimes later, No. 25 Notre Dame had an improbable 104-101 victory. Russ Smith had several chances to win it for Louisville but his shot selection was, to put it kindly, questionable. Garrick Sherman scored 17 points for the Irish despite not entering the game until overtime.

Half court buzzer beater

While Saturday ended in chaos in South Bend, it began with madness in Madison. Wisconsin's Ben Brust beat the buzzer from half court to send the game into overtime, where Trey Burke's three at the buzzer rimmed out, giving the Badgers a 65-62 victory. No. 3 Michigan figured it had the game won when Tim Hardaway, Jr. hit a difficult three with 2.4 seconds left in regulation. The Wolverines did not foul Wisconsin before the eventual buzzer beater, just as the Badgers didn't foul Michigan on the final possession of overtime.

Kansas loses third straight

Down two with 1:30 left, Kansas dared Oklahoma to shoot from the outside. Freshman Je'lon Hornbeak pulled the trigger, hitting his only field of the game, a three-pointer that propelled the Sooners to a 72-66 upset of the No. 5 Jayhawks on Saturday. After losing to Oklahoma State and TCU (yes, TCU), Kansas has now lost three in a row for the first time since February 2005. There's no telling how far they might fall in this week's poll. They host Big 12 leader Kansas State in a must-win game tonight.

Big Ten battle

In what many tabbed as the best match-up of the weekend, No. 1 Indiana earned by far its best road win of the season, beating No. 10 Ohio State 81-68 on Sunday. Victor Oladipo shot 8 of 10 from the field and 9 of 10 from the foul line for a career-high 26 points. He was one of three Hoosiers who scored at least 20.

Eagles soar over Duke, sort of

It looked like no top-5 team would escape the week without a loss, as the No. 4 Blue Devils had to sweat out a final shot attempt against ACC basement dweller Boston College on Sunday. The shot was nowhere close, and Duke won 62-61. Despite the loss, Boston College delivered the play of the game, turning an in-bounds pass into a spectacular alley-oop. Joe Rahon, taking the ball out from under the Duke basket, lobbed it for Eddie Odio, who had curled around a screen into the paint. Odio slammed it home as a Duke defender contested to cut the deficit to one.