Time to get serious:

With February beginning, Selection Sunday is officially on the horizon, and the top teams all took care of business.

In likely most relevant to bracket result tonight, Southern Illinois dropped a headstratcher at home tonight to Ihndiana State. The Salukis are one team atop MVC standing who don't have margin for error after a herendous start to the season in Alaska. With tonight's loss, winning regular season title and then a couple of games in MVC tourney is a must if they want to get an at large bid.

Duke survived at BC, Texas won handily at Iowa, and Memphis won big at Tulsa, and West Virginia won at ND, as the Irish lose another heartbreaker, 71-70.

In potential trap games, Michigan won at Penn State, and Iowa won at Purdue, as two of three co-Big Ten leaders meet Saturday in Ames.

Syracuse, despite losing starting point guard Gerry McNamara, overcame Quincy Douby's unconscious effort in an overtime win over Rutgers. It was a must win for Orange, now 4-4 in powerful Big East.

Wichita State used a strong second half in avoiding a potentially disasterous loss to Evansville at Shockers home arena.

Kentucky keeps rolling, winning at Mississippi State. The Cats are now 5-2, all in SEC play, after the return of Randolph Morris.

Speaking of returns, Marquette got freshman guard Wesley Matthews back in 81-61 win over St. John's. Now at 6-3 in Big East, they continue to surprise with an exciting upcoming showdown with powerful Villanova.

LSU defeating Auburn and Bucknell continuing their perfect Patriot League at Army round out tonight's action, in a day where teams did a great job of staying on track towards hearing their name called March 12th.