The Cram Session is a semi-daily melange of last night's most important hoops action.

Purdue 73, Tennessee 72: Monday night's U.S. Virgin Islands Paradise Jam action gave us several things. Among them? Commercial after commercial of why I should visit the Virgin Islands, to the point where talking the dog for a walk in otherwise-pleasant 45 degree Chicago weather suddenly made me feel like a chump. Oh, and it also gave us the best basketball game of the year so far. That game was No. 7 Purdue's one-point win over No. 10 Tennessee, and it wasn't just that the game was close that made it great; both teams are already playing pretty great basketball, especially on the defensive end. It was thrilling to watch.

The game flow chart here ought to give you some idea of how close the game was. Neither team ever opened a significant lead. Both teams pressured the ball all game -- Tennessee's flying full court pressure is going to give plenty of teams fits -- and despite a whistle-happy referee, the physicality never waned. I hope you watched it. It was just that good.

Texas 85, Iowa 60: Sure, the final result looks bad. But Iowa played admirably in the first half, making a run to close the lead to five points before eventually scoring on a nifty baseline layup and -- get this -- an 80-foot three point heave by guard Cully Payne (who I mistakenly called Tony, whoops) at the buzzer. That shot tied the game at 38 at the half. And then, as was to be expected, the wheels came off; Iowa is just not nearly a big enough or strong enough or skilled enough basketball team to be expected to hang with the likes of Texas for an entire 40 minutes. Iowa looks like an undersized mid-major squad, and even that might be generous. It's going to be a long season.

Gonzaga 76, Colorado 72: This outcome was always in doubt, as it took the Zags up until the 4th minute in the second half to gain their first lead since the opening minutes. Colorado swarmed Gonzaga early, hitting 7-of-11 from three in the first half; meanwhile, the Buffaloes forced the ball away from Matt Bouldin, who has to run the Gonzaga show for the Bulldogs to have any chance. Once he did, they did, and Bouldin ended with 21 points, five rebounds, five assists, and three steals in the close Gonzaga win.

Elsewhere: Cincinnati managed to hold off a solid Vanderbilt team in Maui, which bodes well for Lance Stephenson and company's progression this season ... There were a pair of what The Mid-Majority's Kyle Whelliston calls Red Line Upsets: Northern Iowa topped Boston College 81-69, while Montana got a pretty impressive win over a not-very-good Oregon team in Eugene ... DePaul continued its streak of borderline shocking defensive performances, holding St. Joe's to 51 points on 57 possessions ... and Wisconsin won a late game over Arizona that I fell asleep during, though not because the basketball wasn't very good. It was past my bedtime, kids.

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