Monday Look Back: Gators' 24-hour swing makes lasting impression

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Darryl Bryant had the ball when the buzzer sounded late Sunday, big smile on his face. Three wins in four days, Devin Ebanks back in the lineup and ownership of a trophy representing first place in the 76 Classic will do that to a man, I guess.

Darryl Bryant and the Mountaineers are able to fend off the Pilots to win title No. 1 this season. (Getty Images)

"We got one," Bryant said to nobody in particular. "We got one."

One championship is what he meant.

Could the Big East championship be next for West Virginia?

Followed by the Big East tournament championship?

Then capped off by the NCAA tournament championship?

It's too early to tell or make such guarantees. But Sunday's 84-66 victory over Portland -- combined with Friday's 73-66 win over Texas A&M -- is evidence that the Mountaineers have the makings of a Final Four team, as I detailed last week. They're talented, strong and physical, good enough to achieve any and all goals they might've set.

That's what I learned in California.

Now let's do the Monday Look Back ...

Best game of the weekend: Though Portland was the feel-good story of the holiday weekend, the most notable win belonged to Florida, which took the lead on Erving Walker's 3-pointer with less than two minutes remaining Friday and held on for a 77-74 victory over Michigan State. Twenty-four hours later, the Gators got past Rutgers without incident. And now they're ranked 10th in the Top 25 (and one), making everybody who picked them fifth in the SEC Eastern Division look silly (as well as those of us who picked them fourth).

Worst game of the weekend: "Worst" game is another way of saying "most lopsided" game, and I don't even need to give you the score of Ohio State's win over St. Francis for you to know it was lopsided. Just check the quote from St. Francis coach Don Friday. "We got shellacked," he said. "I feel like I went through a 15-round street fight with an 18-wheeler." In case you're curious, the final score was 110-47. Evan "18-wheeler" Turner had 16 points, eight rebounds and five assists in 27 minutes.

Win to brag about: Duke shot 29.6 percent from the field, 33.3 percent from 3-point range. So Friday's 68-59 victory over Connecticut was pretty by nobody's standards. Still, it was a convincing victory over UConn, one in which the Blue Devils grabbed 25 offensive rebounds, and that's a nice way to end a trip to New York. "You can't beat anybody if they get 25 offensive rebounds," said UConn coach Jim Calhoun, and I think he's probably correct.

Loss(es) to hide from: With three losses in four days, the holiday weekend was unkind to UCLA. But the reality is that we had a pretty good idea the Bruins were bad before the 76 Classic started, meaning losses at the Anaheim convention Center were not a surprise (even if the margins might've been). Michigan's struggles, on the other hand, were a surprise. The Wolverines entered the weekend ranked 15th in the AP poll, then lost 79-65 to unranked Marquette on Friday and 68-66 to unranked Alabama on Sunday. If you're looking for somebody to blame, start with Darius Morris, who was a combined 2-of-10 from the field with six turnovers in the two losses. Me? I'd blame Rich Rodriguez, just because.

Klay Thompson has a good trip to Alaska, including a 43-point game in the championship. (AP)

Player who deserves improper benefits: The last time I remember a player from a school in the state of Washington going bananas in a November tournament, it was Gonzaga's Adam Morrison in the 2005 Maui Invitational. He got 43 in a win over Michigan State, went on to average a national-best 28.4 points per game for the season. Fast-forward to Saturday, and Washington State's Klay Thompson got 43 in a 93-56 win over San Diego in the Great Alaska Shootout, and now he's averaging a national-best 28.3 points per game. I'm not saying, I'm just saying.

Player who should lose his scholarship: Jerime Anderson was once a top 35 recruit committed to UCLA, projected to become the next Jordan Farmar, Darren Collison, etc. Instead, he's a sophomore averaging 6.2 points, 3.0 assists and 3.4 turnovers in 29.0 minutes per game. Anderson had four assists and six turnovers in Friday's 69-67 loss to Butler. Even worse, he was destroyed off the dribble by Casper Ware in Sunday's loss to Long Beach State, so much so that Ben Howland was forced to switch Malcolm Lee onto the 49ers' point guard. Afterward, Howland said he's going to start playing some zone for the first time since 2004 in an attempt to hide his guards' weaknesses, this despite Howland's Wikipedia page pointing out that "aggressive man-to-man defense is the trademark of Ben Howland-coached teams." Um, not this season it isn't.

Why I'm smarter than you think: Neither the AP poll nor the Coaches poll had Gonzaga ranked in the preseason, but I did because I believed Mark Few's reserves-turned-starters were better than most realized. Guess what? They are. And now the Zags are set to move into the AP and Coaches polls when the rankings are updated Monday. Better late than never, I suppose.

Why I'm dumber than I think: I told Jason Horowitz of CBSSports.com last week in a video that -- because I wasn't sure Ebanks would play for West Virginia -- I was picking Butler and Clemson to meet in the championship game of the 76 Classic. Naturally, both lost in the first round. They met in the fifth-place game, though. So like half of what I predicted was right, I think.

Three things you should know before you go

1. Roy Williams got his 600th career win Sunday thanks to North Carolina's 80-73 victory over Nevada, after which Deon Thompson, a senior, provided the following quote. "We went in the locker room and I was thinking, 'I was just here,' and it was for his 500th win," Thompson said. "Now I'm here for his 600th. It feels like I've been here forever."

2. Marquette dropped Sunday's Old Spice Classic title game to Florida State, but the Golden Eagles are still off to a terrific/surprising start. Remember, Buzz Williams lost his three best guards from last season (Jerel McNeal, Dominic James and Wesley Matthews) to graduation, plus the incoming freshman who was supposed to be his starting point guard (Junior Cadougan) to a preseason Achilles injury. No way was Williams supposed to overcome all that. But somehow, someway, the second-year coach has Marquette off to a 6-1 start with wins over Xavier and Michigan. If there were a "Coach of the Month" award, Williams would be a strong contender. 3. Oklahoma snapped its three-game losing streak Saturday with an 81-60 win over Nichols State in which All-America candidate Willie Warren did not play. OU coach Jeff Capel called it a "coach's decision." Some have speculated that Warren was sick. But my experiences with this stuff have taught me that when somebody is sick, they are labeled sick. No reason to be vague when somebody is sick.

On tap: On Monday, the Big Ten-ACC Challenge gets underway with Penn State at Virginia. On Tuesday, it continues with Michigan State at North Carolina. On Wednesday, the Maui Invitational champions (Gonzaga) play the Great Alaska Shootout champions (Washington State). On Thursday, a couple of early-season surprises -- Baylor and Arizona State -- meet in the Big 12/Pac-10 Hardwood Series.

Final thought: Far as November games go, Minnesota had a big one Sunday. The Gophers met Texas A&M in the third-place game of the 76 Classic. It was on national television, the outcome could affect how they're seeded in the NCAA tournament, and Tubby Smith understood all this. Still, he sat two key players -- Lawrence Westbrook and Al Nolen -- the first half for what amounted to some sort of undisclosed violation of team rules, and Smith never thought twice about it.

Texas A&M beat Minnesota 66-65.

The Aggies were up 38-29 at halftime.

So it's reasonable to believe the Gophers might've won had Smith played his full roster the entire game. But he didn't despite the fact Minnesota is already down three players who have also been suspended, despite the fact that countless other coaches have no problem compromising their core beliefs when a win is at stake.

"I have even more respect for Tubby now," Texas A&M coach Mark Turgeon said.

Afterward, I asked Smith why -- or better yet, how -- does he continue to take such a no-nonsense approach to off-the-court issues when so many in his profession don't hold themselves to the same standards?

"Security," Smith said. "I'm secure with who I am, what my program is all about, what we're going to do and how we're going to do things. For young coaches, it's just hard -- the pressure to win. But I'm at the stage in my career -- I've been doing this 36 years -- where there's nothing that's going to faze me, and the players understand that.

"They didn't do anything seriously wrong," Smith concluded. "I just want to see them take responsibility."