The lingering question in the wake of Michigan State's 76-64 loss to Purdue tonight is one we probably won't be able to answer with any certainty for a few weeks. 

Has this three-game slide exposed flaws in the Spartans that will eventually cost them in the NCAA tournament or is it merely a product of an injury to their best player coinciding with the toughest stretch of their schedule?

Before guard Kalin Lucas went down with an ankle injury in the second half of a loss to Wisconsin a week ago, Michigan State had a top-five ranking, an flawless 9-0 record in conference play and a three-game edge on its closest Big Ten challenger. Seven days and three losses later, surging Illinois has caught the Spartans at 9-3, with Purdue and Ohio State at 8-3 and Wisconsin at 8-4.

Though Lucas clearly lacked his typical burst on Tuesday night, he gamely gave it a go, grimacing his way to a 12-point night in 29 gritty minutes. But without Lucas at full strength to take it to the rim, Michigan State struggled to create good looks in its half-court offense, shooting just 32.1 percent from the field as a result of settling for so many contested jumpers.

Still, not all of Michigan State's problems could be traced back to Lucas not being at full strength. The Spartans surrendered 47 first-half points, allowed Purdue to shoot 57 percent from the field and failed to find any answer for Boilermakers guard  E'Twaun Moore down the strech.

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The worst shot selection a college basketball player has displayed this year occurred not on the court but on the side of a road in the middle of a blizzard in Harrisonburg, Va.

That's where James Madison walk-on guard Ryan Knight was arrested on Saturday evening after allegedly throwing snowballs at a city snowplow and, you guessed it, an unmarked police car.

Knight and fellow James Madison student Charles Gill, both 21, were charged with throwing "missiles" at occupied vehicles, a felony that amazingly could send them both to prison for up to five years. (Even in a world where spork-wielding 6-year-olds can be suspended from school, a tad excessive, no?)

At about 5 p.m. on Saturday, police responded to a report that two men were throwing snow at the windshield of a city plow truck. When police arrived at the scene to search for the assailants, their unmarked squad car was also bombarded with icy projectiles.

Knight, a sophomore, has appeared in just one game this season for James Madison. Tip of the cap to the The Smoking Gun for the mugshot.

Pull up a chair and sit down at the breakfast buffet, a daily assortment of all the freshest newsworthy college hoops stories on the net. To make a submission, contact me via email or twitter.

• Less than a month after a 2-3 start to league play put Purdue hopelessly behind Michigan State in the race for the Big Ten title, the Boilermakers suddenly have a chance to catch the Spartans with a win at home tonight. One piece of bad news for Purdue: It sounds like reigning Big Ten player of the year Kalin Lucas will be back for Michigan State, though nobody's sure how effective he'll be. 

• Already shorthanded as a result of transfers and the loss of much of its recruiting class to John Calipari and Kentucky, Memphis lost another player on Monday night when one-time starter Pierre Henderson-Niles left the team. The timing of this is certainly strange, but it sounds as if this was a case of apathy and attitude issues – not one where there's a smoking gun. Henderson-Niles did post "Wanna give dis (stuff) up" on his facebook page the day after the Tigers lost to SMU last week. 

• With its TV deal set to expire after the 2011-12 season, the Pac-10 sounds more serious about expansion then it has been in the past. “We’re looking at it very seriously," new Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott said. "It wasn’t something identified for me by the presidents when I took the job. But it’s very natural as you look at the value of the conference from a media standpoint. If we were ever going to look at expansion, this would be the logical time."

• I've given you my take a couple times on what's wrong with Texas. Here's ESPN's Andy Katz addressing that issue and giving a rambling Rick Barnes a forum to address it as well. Says Barnes: "We’re going to fix this. We’ll be where we need to be." Great news, coach, but your fan base probably wouldn't mind some specifics on how you plan to accomplish that.

• The timing of Saturday night's shoplifting arrest of Oklahoma's Andrew Fitzgerald and Steven Pledger is the most disturbing part of this story. Seriously, guys, the best way you could think of celebrating a victory over Texas was to go pilfer a couple shirts from Dillard's? I know Norman isn't exactly teeming with entertainment options, but c'mon.

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For those who couldn't sit through the final four minutes of the Kansas-Texas game on Monday night, it did deliver at least one memorable moment: A missed free throw for the ages.

Maybe Kansas' Brady Morningstar was a little off balance. Maybe he stumbled over an elevated floorboard. Either way his double-clutch foul shot while tripping forward into the paint was the basketball equivalent to a bad toss on a tennis serve.

"The ball was wet," Morningstar told the Lawrence Journal-World. "It slipped on the way up. I was so confused. I could have caught it and came down with it, but I'd have stepped on the line. I tried to shoot a little jump shot so I didn't cross the line."

"I looked pretty stupid there," he added. "We laughed about it in the locker room just now."

The free throw shooter was supposed to be Cole Aldrich, but the Kansas big man also picked up a technical for his fifth foul, forcing coach Bill Self to select someone else to take the foul shot. Self chose Morningstar, a 75 percent free throw shooter this season. 

"My sub was smart. That'll be an ESPN top 10 for the next six months," Self said with a laugh. "He said the ball was wet, and it slipped out of his hands."

All the talk going into the game was about Texas' 62 percent free throw shooting, but at least the Longhorns have never botched one that badly, right?

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When Sherron Collins, Cole Aldrich and Damion James each announced they would return to school last spring, tonight's matchup between Kansas and Texas quickly became the most hotly anticipated game of college basketball's regular season. 

Isn't it ironic then after the Jayhawks' 80-68 victory over the Longhorns that we can all probably think of at least two or three teams we'd rather see face Kansas in the Big 12 alone?

Kansas confirmed why it has been a season-long national title favorite, burying the Longhorns with a 22-0 first-half run and then never letting them get any closer than eight during a tedious second half.  Sure, the Jayhawks' focus drifts against lesser competition like Colorado on occasion, but they were up for this game and it showed. 

Marcus Morris continued his transformation from big body to force, scoring 18 points and grabbing 8 boards. Xavier Henry showed flashes of his potential with 15 points. And while stars Collins and Aldrich shot just a combined 5 for 23, the rest of the Kansas supporting cast had more than enough firepower to make up for it.

And Texas? Well, let's just say their new spiffy jerseys couldn't hide the flaws that have emerge during this stretch of five losses in seven games after ascending to the top of the rankings last month.

They have no identity or set rotation, they look lost offensively, they're not getting the production out of center Dexter Pittman they were in the non-conference season and they have no idea what to expect from their young guards from night to night.

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If you pay any attention to mock NBA drafts, you've probably heard that Villanova's Scottie Reynolds lacks the size, athleticism and shot selection to be a premier pro prospect.

Maybe that's true, maybe it isn't, but one thing is certain: There's no better scoring guard than Reynolds in college basketball today.

Held in check in the first half at West Virginia on Monday night, Reynolds erupted after halftime to help Villanova hold off the Mountaineers for an impressive 82-75 victory. Reynolds scored 19 of his 21 points in the final 13 minutes, making sure the Wildcats atoned for their woeful loss at Georgetown two days earlier with exactly the sort of marquee victory they needed to legitimize their top-five ranking.

What was most impressive about Villanova's performance was its resilience in the face of adversity, and Reynolds was consistently at the heart of that. 

When backcourt co-star Corey Fisher picked up his fourth foul with 14 minutes left, Reynolds picked up the slack with a pull-up three and a 3-point play to extend the margin to 10.

When a blown goal-tending call and a West Virginia four-point play again gave the Mountaineers momentum a few minutes later, Reynolds again had the 3-point play that pushed the lead back to 11.

And when Reynolds' own turnover led to a fastbreak slam from Devin Ebanks to pull West Virginia within three with eight minutes remaining, the Villanova senior had a steal, a step-back jumper and two free throws during an 8-3 run that all but sealed the win.

About the only positive for West Virginia was that no projectiles, coins or audible profanity flew from its infamous student section the whole night. Heck, the Mountaineers crowd never really had a chance to get in the game the way the Wildcats built a double-figure first-half lead, carving up West Virginia's man-to-man and 1-3-1 zone for 63 percent shooting at halftime. 

Before the game, a graphic flashed on the TV screen revealing that this was the season's first matchup of top five teams.

Not good, obviously, but if we had to wait more than three months for it, at least Reynolds made it memorable.

Apparently out of other ideas to reverse the recent fortune of its suddenly struggling basketball program, Texas will try to usher in some better karma tonight by unveiling new jerseys against top-ranked Kansas.

The Nike HyperElite jerseys thankfully are still burnt orange and white, but they're also 70 percent lighter than traditional basketball uniforms and feature a design so intricate on the back that it might be better suited for a mural.

Among the graphics that appear on the new jerseys are the Longhorn logo, the school motto, the state of Texas, a basketball and the school's most prominent campus landmark, the UT tower.

And, hey, if the lighter jerseys improve Texas' woeful free throw shooting, feature a device designed to get Jordan Hamilton to look for his teammates more often or keep center Dexter Pittman from getting gassed after two possessions, those would be great perks too!   

Several of you have pointed out that a handful of teams have worn this style of jersey in the past year or two. Duke, apparently, is among those, but I'll admit I've never noticed the extra detail on the back on TV so it must be very subtle. 

There's no doubt who our eight bloggers believe the nation's two strongest conferences are heading into mid-February.

Just like last Monday's inaugural edition of our weekly blogger power poll, the Big East and Big Ten dominated the second installment this week with four teams apiece ranked in the top 12.

Kansas maintained its grip on the No. 1 spot, receiving six of eight possible first-place votes. No. 2 Syracuse and No. 3 Kentucky split the remaining first-place votes, while Villanova slipped only to fourth despite a blowout loss at Georgetown on Saturday.

Dropping the furthest in the poll was Texas, which fell from 8th to 14th after its fourth loss in six games on Saturday against Oklahoma. Michigan State lost twice this week but did not drop out of the top 10, voters perhaps taking into account that injured star Kalin Lucas did not play against Illinois. 

Only previously No. 14 Temple fell out of the poll entirely this week after a lopsided loss to Atlantic 10 foe Richmond on Saturday. Gonzaga replaced the Owls at No. 15 on the strength of a convincing victory over Portland and a narrow road win at Memphis.   

1. Kansas (126)

Comment: Survived upset bids from Big 12 bottom feeders Colorado and Nebraska to enter Monday night's showdown with Texas undefeated in conference play. 

2. Syracuse (120)

Comment: A 28-5 game-ending run at Cincinnati helped the Orange overcome a six-point deficit on Saturday and avoid the upset. 

3. Kentucky (114)

Comment: Yes, John Wall is great, but fellow freshman DeMarcus Cousins is averaging 19.5 points and 12.2 rebounds in his last six games.

4. Villanova (104)

Comment: Jay Wright, ever the master of understatment, on surrendering 103 points to Georgetown on Saturday: "That was not one of our better performances."

5. West Virginia (90)

Comment: Lost amid the hubbub over West Virginia's misbehaving fans is that the basketball team has quietly emerged as a Final Four contender. 

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Pull up a chair and sit down at the breakfast buffet, a daily assortment of all the freshest newsworthy college hoops stories on the net. To make a submission, contact me via email or twitter.

• Tonight's matchup between Kansas and Texas was supposed to be a showcase of two of the nation's premier teams, but the free-falling Longhorns haven't held up their end in recent weeks. Either Texas rebounds from its four losses in six games and serves notice that it's worthy of its midseason hype, or the Longhorns tumble toward this prediction that they'll be a No. 4 seed in the NCAA tournament. 

• Kansas big man Cole Aldrich is starting to show why he may be a lottery pick in this year's NBA draft, an uptick he attributes to the relief and release he felt after his cancer-stricken grandmother passed away peacefully last month. In his past four games, Aldrich has averaged 16.3 points, 13 rebounds and 4.5 blocks a game.

• Good news for Jay Wright's Villanova Wildcats: They only have to wait a few more hours to get back on the court and atone for a brutal performance against Georgetown on Saturday. Bad news: Their opponent is surging West Virginia, whose infamous home crowd will surely be ready to welcome the Wildcats in what's likely to be the second ever matchup between a top-five Mountaineers team and a top-five opponent. 

• North Carolina coach Roy Williams opened up to Yahoo's Jason King about his disappointment with his team's midseason crash, admitting, "I haven't done a good job with this team." Frustrated that he can't seem to get the Tar Heels to play with the effort level of his previous teams, Williams added, "This year has shaken my confidence a little. You start questioning your own worth to a team. You start wondering about your ability."

• Notre Dame took another step toward an NCAA tournament berth by holding off South Florida on Sunday, but here's a glass-half-full outlook for the Bulls. Leading scorer Dominique Jones shot just 3 of 17, second-leading scorer Gus Gilchrist sat out with an injury and still South Florida had a look at a game-tying three at the buzzer on the road against a upper-half Big East team.

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Instead of playing in front of a mostly empty arena as a result of the blizzard that has rocked the Beltway region this weekend, Maryland invited all of its on-campus students to Sunday's victory over North Carolina.

Almost 3,000 ticketless students took advantage, creating a sea of red so loud and boisterous that it begs two questions: One, exactly how much liquor did they consume on the way to the arena, and two, would the Terps be better off with this crowd every week?

They roared at every slick pass or highlight slam Maryland made. They serenaded North Carolina with chants of "NIT" in the second half. They even did the wave during a timeout late in the game.  

"If they had to take a dog sled, they were coming to the game," Terps coach Gary Williams told Maryland's student paper, The Diamondback. "That's a great feeling."

The atmosphere was a pleasant surprise to Williams because he expected the worst after Maryland sent out multiple notices to its season-ticket holders warning them to use extreme caution braving the snowy roads to come to the game. 

Any hardy fans who did make the journey to the game were rewarded with a victory that sent Maryland closer to the top of the ACC standings and North Carolina closer to the bottom. 

The Terps (16-6, 6-2) failed to achieve a single marquee victory in non-conference play, but they've now won six of seven to pull within a half game of Duke for the ACC lead.

The cavernous Comcast Center felt like intimate Cole Fieldhouse did in the early 2000s on Sunday, from the level of play from the Terps to the level of noise from the stands.

"Loudest I've ever seen it since I was here," senior Greivis Vasquez told the Baltimore Sun after the game.