Monday Look Back: Karma? No, Friars' loss to Northeastern just bad

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- One week of college basketball is officially in the books.

Number of ranked teams with a loss: Zero.

So things are pretty much going as planned ... except for at places like Alabama, Washington and Providence. Holy smokes, those schools sure got off to rough starts -- particularly Providence, where Keno Davis must've left the magic he used last season to lead Drake to a Missouri Valley Conference title back in Iowa or something. How else to explain a season-opening loss to a Northeastern team that already had a 76-56 loss to Michigan to its credit?

So how bad was the loss to Northeastern?

For that answer, let's go to the Providence Journal and its online poll -- where (at last update) 76.4 percent of readers deemed Davis' first game as either a "bad sign" or a "really bad sign." So that's clearly not good. And all those PC fans who wanted the school to hire First Brother-in-Law-elect Craig Robinson are growing louder by the minute ... although not nearly as loud as the Kentucky fans wondering how their Wildcats allowed VMI to score 111 points.

Anyway, here's the Monday Look Back:.

Best game of the weekend: The team picked ninth in the Atlantic 10 came into Cameron Indoor Stadium and gave Duke a scare Sunday, thanks mostly to an unforgettable performance from Jimmy Baron. The sharp-shooting son of the Rhode Island coach hit 8-of-10 3-point attempts and cemented his status as one of the nation's elite gunners. The only problem was that Duke is still Duke, and Duke doesn't lose at home to nonleague opponents. And when Kyle Singler remembered this rule of life he hit four free throws in the final minute, then disrupted Baron's step-back jumper that would've given the Rams a lead with less than five seconds remaining to help Duke escape with an 82-79 win.

Northeastern rejected Providence's attempt at a 1-0 start. (AP)

Worst game of the weekend: That offense Michigan State showed in its exhibitions was the same offense it showed in Sunday's opener against Idaho, leading Don Verlin to show his appreciation in his postgame press conference: "I'd like to thank Michigan State for inviting us here and kicking our tails," he said. The score of that tail-kicking: 100-62. So the Spartans are averaging 110 points per outing through two exhibitions and one regular-season game, and they're looking like they might be a serious threat to top-ranked North Carolina next month in Detroit.

Win to brag about: Oliver Purnell lost Cliff Hammonds, James Mays and assistant Shaka Smart, but he seems to be adjusting well. The Clemson coach has his Tigers off to a 3-0 start following Sunday's 76-72 victory over Temple, which was significant because it was the weekend's only matchup between projected NCAA tournament teams. So the Tigers already have a résumé-building win just like the one they picked up early last year at Mississippi State, and that's a splendid thing to attain in the first week of any season.

Loss to hide from: Mark Gottfried is off to a rough start in a make-or-break season. Alabama lost its opener Sunday to Mercer, a team picked sixth in the Atlantic Sun. The final score was 72-69, and it should be noted that the Bears outrebounded Alabama 56-38 while proving that, yes, it appears the Crimson Tide will indeed be missing Richard Hendrix, contrary to what some might've believed.

Player who deserves improper benefits: Looks like Stephen Curry is just as awesome as we all remember. The Davidson junior and star of last March's NCAA tournament got 29 points, 10 assists and nine steals in Friday's 107-83 win over Guilford. Up next is a trip to Oklahoma, where a possible showdown with Willie Warren looms.

Quincy Pondexter is shut down by Portland in UW's loss. (AP)

Player who should lose his scholarship: One of the shocks of the weekend was Portland's 80-74 win over Washington. The worst stat line belonged to Quincy Pondexter, who has managed to go from a possible one-and-done prospect to a make-you-scratch-your-head junior in a matter of two years. Consider that Pondexter scored 21 points in the first game of his freshman season and zero in the first game of his junior season, which is one of the reasons Washington is 0-1 heading into a dangerous matchup with Cleveland State.

Why I'm smarter than you think: I named Jodie Meeks the "Breakthrough player" in the SEC preview and he responded by scoring 39 points in Friday's season opener. Sure, Kentucky still lost 111-103 to VMI. But Meeks got 39 his first time out after averaging 8.8 points last season, and if that's not a breakthrough I don't know what is.

Why I'm dumber than I think: You know how I mentioned those people who believed Alabama might not miss Hendrix too badly? I was one of those people, which makes me stupid, stupid, stupid. Seriously, what was I thinking? The Crimson Tide sans Hendrix just lost to freaking Mercer.

Three things you should know before you go

1. If you saw the Washington State score you know the Cougars beat Mississippi Valley State 76-25. But did you know the Cougars actually scored the first 28 points of the game and held MVSU to 16.7 percent shooting for the contest? That's pretty unbelievable, even against a SWAC team.

2. Curry wasn't the only CBSSports.com First-team All-American to play well this weekend. Luke Harangody got 30 points and 14 rebounds in Notre Dame's 94-58 victory over South Carolina-Upstate while Blake Griffin finished with 24 points and 19 rebounds in Oklahoma's 83-54 win over American. The other two First-team All-Americans -- UCLA's Darren Collison and North Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough -- did not play this weekend.

3. The much-anticipated debuts of some of the nation's best freshmen mostly went well. DeMar DeRozan scored 17 points to help Southern California to a 78-55 victory over UC-Irvine; Tyreke Evans scored 19 points to help Memphis to a 90-63 win over Fairfield; Al-Farouq Aminu scored 21 points to help Wake Forest to a 94-48 win over North Carolina Central; and Scotty Hopson scored 17 points to help Tennessee to a 114-75 win over Chattanooga.

On tap: On Monday, John Calipari will match wits with his former assistant and school when Derek Kellogg and UMass visit Memphis. On Tuesday, Kentucky will try to avoid an 0-2 start when it travels to North Carolina. On Wednesday, Mercer will try to notch another win over an SEC school when it plays at Auburn. On Thursday, John Beilein will attempt to give Ben Howland his usual tough game when Michigan and UCLA meet in New York's Madison Square Garden.

Final thought: I got a few e-mails from Drake fans suggesting Davis' loss in his opener at Providence was karma for leaving the school that gave him a chance after just one season, but I think that's crazy.

It's not that I don't believe in karma; I watch My Name is Earl and all that. But anybody who criticizes a man for quadrupling his salary must be somebody who has never had a chance to quadruple a salary. That's a pretty easy decision to make when presented with the opportunity, particularly in a profession where the career expectancy isn't all that great.

As one coach once told me, you should get as much as you can while you can.

And that's a great motto, I think.

Another great motto?

Don't lose your opener to Northeastern.

And I'm sure Davis will learn that one too, as time goes by.