Gary Parrish

Butler destroyed Wright State.

UConn destroyed its NCAA tournament hopes.

Here's Wednesday morning's Gettin' In ...

Teams that punched tickets Tuesday: North Texas, Butler and Oakland each earned an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament on Tuesday. That means 12 of the 65 spots in the field are claimed.

Best game: Any title game that's tied with less than 30 seconds left is a good title game, so this is a perfect spot to mention North Texas' win over Troy in Tuesday's finals of the Sun Belt tournament. Game tied, like I said, with less than 30 seconds remaining. Josh White drove left, stopped at the free throw line and buried a jumper that proved to be the game-winner. UNT won 66-63. So the Mean Green are headed to the NCAA tournament, and Troy is trying to figure out why it let Josh White drive to the free throw line.

Team whose dream remained alive: South Florida's Dominique Jones got 20 points and nine rebounds in Tuesday's 58-49 win over DePaul that advanced the Bulls to the second round of the Big East tournament and kept their NCAA tournaments hopes intact. USF is now 20-11 with wins over Pittsburgh, Georgetown and Seton Hall (and just one loss outside of the top 100), which puts them right on the bubble heading into Wednesday's game with Georgetown. And raise your hand if you thought we'd ever have a season when UCLA, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Cincinnati, Michigan and LSU would all be off the bubble while USF was on it.

Team whose dream was crushed: We can stop talking about Connecticut and asking whether the Huskies will be the first 15-loss team to earn an at-large bid because they clearly won't be thanks to an embarrassing performance in their Big East tournament opener. "It was definitely embarrassing," UConn's Kemba Walker said after Tuesday's 73-51 loss to St. John's. So we agree! And now the only important question about the Huskies revolves around whether Jim Calhoun will return to coach them next season, and that question will likely remain unanswered for a while regardless of anything that was said in Tuesday's press conference.

Performance I hope you witnessed: Oakland's Derick Nelson averages less than 12 points a game. He'd only scored more than 20 three times all season before Tuesday, and I bet you know where this is going. Yep, dude went all Kyle Kuric on IUPUI. Nelson took 23 shots, made 15 and finished with 36 points in Oakland's 76-64 win that gave the Golden Grizzlies the Summit tournament title and an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Not bad for a guy with a broken nose.

Performance I hope you missed: This spot is usually reserved for a player, but the entire Wright State team will work after Tuesday's 70-45 loss to Butler in the Horizon tournament final. The Raiders shot 34.6 percent for the game, just 10 percent from 3-point range. They never had a chance to turn the Horizon into a two-bid league, but they probably helped Butler improve its seed.

Three random notes

1. Troy might've lost to North Texas, but Yamene Coleman got the highlight of the night. The former Alabama player who spent his senior season at Troy absolutely crunched one on Collin Mangrum. I mean crunched . Find the highlight and watch it, then thank your god that you're not  the guy who tried to draw a charge on Coleman in the Sun Belt title game.

2. UMass busted Charlotte's bubble Tuesday night with a 59-56 win over the 49ers. Bobby Lutz's team is now 19-12 overall. That's not going to be nearly enough, even in this terrible season.

3. Cincinnati's 69-68 win over Rutgers in the first round of the Big East tournament could mark the end of the Fred Hill era. The fourth-year coach started the season on the hot seat and did nothing to remove himself from it. Rutgers finished 15-17 overall, 5-13 in the Big East.

Final thought: I'm not sure Notre Dame-Seton Hall is an elimination game because this stuff doesn't really work like that. But I do know that Wednesday night's winner should be safely in the field, which is why this is must-see TV for diehard college basketball fans.

It's like a play-in game between Big East schools.

It's days like today that make me wish I got paid to watch games.

Oh wait ...