For awhile, it looked like Minnesota might join Tennessee and Louisville as a ranked team falling to a lesser opponent during the doldrums of finals. Fortunately for the Gophers, Akron is no Drexel, and they're certainly no Oakland. Still, the Zips had a lead over Minnesota with under 12 minutes remaining, which then disappeared for good with a barrage of Gopher layups and dunks. Minnesota would hold on for a 66-58 win.

The issue in this game wasn't the Gopher defense--they held Akron to 0.82 points per possession. It was the Minnesota offense that sputtered, as they posted their lowest efficiency of the season (0.94 PPP) by pairing their worst shooting game with a high turnover rate. This is a time of year when student-athletes are understandably distracted, so maybe we needn't read too much into the sloppiness.

Trevor Mbakwe posted his customary double-double (13 points, 13 rebounds), and he was joined in the fun by Rodney Williams (12 points, 10 rebounds). Williams was aggressive in driving to the hoop, resulting in 5 dunks among his 6 made field goals. The amount of resistance offered up by Akron is evident in Williams' zero free throw attempts. Blake Hoffarber continued his great senior season with 13 points, 7 assists, and 2 turnovers.

Ohio State had no such trouble with Florida Gulf Coast in an 83-55 win. The Buckeyes ran out to an 18-3 lead and never looked back, although the Eagles were able to stop the bleeding with a hot-shooting second half. Jon Diebler hit a school-record-tying nine three-pointers on his way to 29 points. Noteworthy is the fact that Diebler hit those nine treys all in a row--he missed his first two attempts from deep, and he missed three late attempts that would have broken the school record. Needless to say, Diebler was in a groove.

Thad Matta actually used his bench a little in this one... but he didn't get too crazy. The customary top six still went an average of 26 minutes apiece, so just 42 minutes were distributed to the rest of the roster. David Lighty's shot wasn't falling (7 points on 9 hoists), but he distributed to the tune of 7 assists and no turnovers. Aaron Craft also had a nice game: 8 points (3 shots), 6 rebounds, 7 assists, and 3 turnovers.

Tonight, Northwestern goes at it again, this time hosting American University (7pm CT, BTN). American relies disproportionately on 6-9 Romanian senior Vlad Moldoveanu, who thus far has taken one of the nation's heaviest shot diets (38 percent). Northwestern shouldn't have any trouble, but stranger things have happened.

- Posted by Mike Portscheller