1. The New York Times' Pete Thamel on Jim, Cindy, and Jimmy Baron. "When Jimmy graduated from Hendricken, his only scholarship offer came from Division II Assumption College. He... has become one of the best shooters in Atlantic 10 history. He is averaging a team-high 16.7 points a game and, entering Sunday, his 45.6 percentage from 3-point range ranked him No. 7 in Division I." LINK. (Six consecutive wins have Rhode Island on the NCAA Tournament bubble. But an RPI of 60, only five quality wins over RPI Top 100 opponents, and a bad loss to Richmond leave the Rams little margin for error in the Atlantic 10 Tournament).

2. The Topeka Capital-Journal's Austin Meek on Darren Kent's heroics. "One minute, Kent was writhing on the court and the crowd was holding its breath, hoping Kent's college career hadn't ended. The next minute, Kent was knocking down a baseline jumper that helped Kansas State seal a win against Nebraska." LINK.

3. The Fayetteville Observer's Dan Wiederer on North Carolina's junior varsity squad. "UNC may just be the last major college basketball program still dabbling in the JV trade." LINK. (And/but: The Tar Heels' suited up against Hargrave Military Academy, which might raise the NCAA's eyebrows, "Rudy [Gay] Rule" and all).

4. The Lawrence Journal-World's Tom Keegan on Kansas' rapid improvement. "Markieff and Marcus Morris, lazy and lazier when the curtain opened on their college careers, now bust it up and down the court, consistently hit the boards hard and defend with passion. Tyshawn Taylor, who used to send out a press release to the opposing defenses to let them know when to set up under the hoop to take the charge, now more often picks his spots wisely and knows how to contort his body in a way to avoid knocking over a defender when finishing." LINK.

5. The Newark Star-Ledger's Tom Luicci's many hoop thoughts. For example: "Here's the problem with the whole LSU success story: Almost all of it has happened in the confines of the SEC. But outside the league, LSU has looked ordinary at best." LINK.

Quotes of the day

1. "It's a long season. You get nicked up a lot no matter what. A lot of us are playing 40 minutes a game and we're still fighting through it." -- Arizona guard Nic Wise. LINK.

2. "I should have never shot it. I apologize. But I was into the game, and I made it. It was kind of disrespectful to the fans." -- Maryland guard Greivis Vasquez . LINK.

3. "We needed that victory, and we didn't get it, so it's disappointing." -- Michigan guard C.J. Lee. LINK.

4. "Banging against [Jon Brockman] every day is real tough. Right now, to me he's like a living legend." -- Washington forward Matthew Bryan-Amaning. LINK.

5. "The cure for a loss is playing right away. Monday will be perfect." -- Notre Dame guard Tory Jackson. LINK.

Story of the day

The Syracuse Daily Orange's Kyle Austin and Jared Diamond: LINK.

Maybe Paul Harris didn't eat a big enough breakfast before Sunday afternoon's game. Because with about five minutes remaining in the first half, after point guard Jonny Flynn missed a free throw, Harris took a handful of popcorn from a fan in the front row and started munching on his way back to play defense.