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

All Big Ten and ACC this morning. Let's go to the tape.

North Carolina 89, Michigan State 82: Welp, so much for payback. Michigan State's big chance at title-game-related revenge over North Carolina looked much like the title game itself: North Carolina scored a insanely efficient number of points in the first half, built a big early lead, and never looked back. There was one difference, which is that Michigan State made the game close near the end; the lead was as little as six with a few minutes to play, and an ill-timed Kalin Lucas-Raymar Morgan collision robbed the Spartans of a chance to make it a four point game. But the message was clear. Michigan State might have the more experienced team, but North Carolina is just plain better. Again. With the exception of a very limited few, sub in "X team" for Michigan State, and the statement will likely still apply.

Purdue 69, Wake Forest 58: Hey, at least Purdue fans still have the spirit. The Boilermakers student section chanted "Big Ten basketball" as the seconds ran off the clock in last night's victory, but at least as it relates to pace, that's not entirely true; Purdue and Wake shared 76 possessions in last night's game, a little higher than each team's season average and likely a good bit higher than what Purdue will end up settling into once the conference season starts. But this is encouraging stuff for Purdue fans all the same. Their team can seemingly play any game, whether fast-paced and neurotic (the Tenneessee win in the Virgin Islands, for one) or slow and methodical (basically every other Purdue win, ever).

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The Cram Session is a semi-daily melange of last night's most important hoops action. And now, for one of the worst Mondays of the year -- the Monday after Thanksgiving! Who wants another Thanksgiving break to recover from Thanksgiving break?

Long Beach State 79, UCLA 68: UCLA had a horrible, horrible weekend, the kind of weekend that dooms a team's season before it even begins. Let us count the ways: UCLA had no sooner arrived at the 76 Classic than were beaten -- not just beaten but humiliated 74-47 -- by mid-major Portland. It was UCLA's largest margin of defeat since 2003; Ben Howland's UCLA teams do not lose like this, ever. Until last week. UCLA bounced back from that embarrassment by actually playing quite well in a close loss to No. 12 Butler, but it didn't do much good Sunday night, when UCLA closed out the tournament with a third-straight loss, an 11-point defeat at the hands of Long Beach State for the first time in the history of the Bruin basketball program. Three games, three losses, 40 points in the red: In the main course of Thanksgiving holiday tournament action, UCLA was the 20-pound turkey. (Sorry. Couldn't resist.)

Keep in mind, this is after UCLA's season-opening loss to Cal State-Fullerton. Which, given the obviously soft nature of the Pac-10, means the Bruins' tournament hopes are likely already dashed, and it's only Nov. 30. Ouch. For a legendary program with so much recent success and no major coaching change to speak of, this is truly shocking stuff.

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The Cram Session is a semi-daily melange of last night's most important hoops action. Feel free to skip the next 200 words or so. Long story short: Posting will be lighter than usual the next few days. Happy Thanksgiving.

Hey, it's the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. We all know what that means. You will sit around in your cubicle (or your desk in your window office; look at you, Mr. Master Of The Universe) and pretend to be doing things. The depths of this deception know no bounds. You have organized your fantasy league's lineups, including your own, into an Excel file. You'll pretend to be talking on the phone while you play Flash Contra. And when 2 o'clock rolls around, you will very carefully peek your head out to make sure the coast is clear, and you will rip out of that office as quickly and as anti-socially as possible.

Can you tell I used to work in a cubicle? Because I used to work in a cubicle.

The rules are not all that dissimilar for sports bloggers, but there is one difference: I'll be around. Posting will be somewhat light for the next few days as I reunite with friends and former friends I would have really preferred never to see again, but there will still be posting. So enjoy your holiday, don't leave the office too late tonight, and don't rush back too early on Monday morning. And feel free to stop by here in the interim. (I hear Moms love it if you bring your laptop to the Thanksgiving table. Try it sometime.)

Texas 78, Pittsburgh 62: Texas is scary. I don't mean, like, "culmination of their talent could be scary" scary. I mean physically scary. They're just all gigantic and athletic, from Dexter Pittman to Damion James (especially Damion James) on down. Pittsburgh isn't all that unathletic itself, as Bradley Wanamaker's persistent drives to the hoop showed, but they aren't in the same ballpark as Texas. The more you watch the Longhorns, the more you start to think Kansas is the only team that can hope to match up with them. Even that's no guarantee.

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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.

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The Cram Session is a semi-daily melange of last night's most important hoops action. It's so close to turkey it can smell it (the turkey).

Villanova 79, Ole Miss 67: Villanova was the best team in Puerto Rico, and for most of the tournament, they played like the best team in Puerto Rico. Still, winning this preseason tournament is good result for a team that expects to win the Big East in 2009-10; nothing about Villanova's performance over the past week insinuates the team will perform otherwise. Anyway, Scottie Reynolds had 21 for the Wildcats Sunday night, while Corey Stokes had 18 and Antonio Pena had 17 points and 16 rebounds. The Wildcats had 79 points on 83 possessions and rebounded 41 percent of their misses on the offensive end, which was the deciding factor in the game. Given how high-octane the Wildcats will be in 2009-10, rebounding at that rate offensively will make them incredibly dangerous. Let's see if they can keep it up.

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

Syracuse 95, California 73: A couple of weeks ago, Syracuse lost a game to Division II LeMoyne Dolphins. Yes, it was just an exhibition game, but the loss was emphatic -- how disorganized would the Cuse have to be to lose to such an inferior outfit? And what, if anything, did the loss mean for the Orangemen going forward? Turns out not much: Syracuse crushed No. 13 California at Madison Square Garden last night, and it was never close. The Cuse's offense was especially impressive, scoring 95 points in 80 possessions and firing off an effective field goal percentage of 64.3 percent. Wesley Johnson's game (17 points, 11 rebounds, six blocks, had a lot to do with that, but really Syracuse was dominant everywhere and on both ends -- pressing and stretching Cal on defense and making efficient and gorgeous use of possession on offense. If it wasn't safe before, now it is. LeMoyne was a fluke.

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

Tuesday and Thursday's college basketball schedules were like the two halves of a delicious, toasted everything bagel. Wednesday was like the nasty hazelnut cream cheese spread in the middle. (Sorry, I'm projecting. That happened to me this morning. I still haven't gotten over it. Who buys hazelnut cream cheese and tries to pass it off as regular?)

Anyway, today's sked features Georgia Tech-Dayton, North Carolina-Ohio State and Syracuse-California. Yesterday's had Butler-Northwestern. But, as always, The Dagger can always find the bright side of any dreary college basktball day:

Cornell 74, Massachusetts 61 -- Cornell. Ever heard of it? You better, because the Big Red are for real. Wins over Alabama and Massachusetts bode well for the team's bid to win a third straight Ivy League title and bring the conference its first NCAA tournament win since 1998. For UMass, Ricky Harris had a historic night, moving past both Julius Ervin and Marcus Camby on the Minutemen's alll-time scoring list (he's now 12th).

Cincinnati 92, Toledo 68-- Lance Stephenson was much better in his second game, dropping 16 points in an easy Bearcat win over Toledo.

Oral Roberts 83, Stanford 81 -- Since beginning his head coaching 10-0, former Duke star and Mike Krzyzewski disciple Johnny Dawkins has seen his Stanford squad go 11-16, including two early 2009 losses to San Diego and Oral Roberts. Dominique Morrison scored 31 for the Golden Eagles, while Landry Fields got 28 in defeat.

The Cram Session is a semi-daily melange of last night's most important hoops action. I just turned on my TV, and there are no college basketball games on. The marathon is over already? But it just started to get good!

Michigan State 75, Gonzaga 71: Gonzaga basketball will be just fine. Anyone worrying that the Zags were due for a down year -- and missing Josh Heytvelt, Jeremy Pargo and lottery pick Austin Daye means those fears were well-founded -- can relax. Gonzaga went in to Michigan State and played with the Spartans for 40 minutes, losing only because Michigan State has a very, very good point guard named Kalin Lucas. Perhaps you've heard of him. Lucas scored big basket after big basket down the stretch for the Spartans, and Durrell Summers had a career-high 21 points, as the Spartans escaped with a win in front of a typically insane Breslin Center crowd. But Gonzaga? Yeah, the Bulldogs will be OK.

Kansas 57, Memphis 54: Speaking of looking OK, how about Memphis? It's unusual to see a Memphis team with inferior talent take the court, but this Memphis team wasn't just inferior to Kansas. They will be inferior to plenty of teams this year, at least until they get into the gooey warmth of that C-USA schedule. But it works. Memphis works. They're still chaotically organized on offense, and they still rely on guard play -- Memphis has few bigs to speak of; at times, Cole Aldrich looked like he stepped on to the wrong court -- but it worked. Memphis's Achilles heel under John Calipari has always been outside shooting, but with the plethora of guards on the floor at any time, if Memphis makes deep shots like they did in the second half Tuesday night, they'll be just fine, too.

Meanwhile, Kansas didn't play all that well. Like, at all. They'll blow out teams better than Memphis this year; the whole was ugly, but there were plenty of flashes in the meantime.

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The Cram Session is a semi-daily melange of last night's most important hoops action. If this is a college hoops marathon, we're at the part where your chest begins to chafe. I always forget the tape! (Like I run marathons. Get real.)

Cal-State Fullerton 68, UCLA 65: It did not take long to get to our first big upset of this week's college hoops marathon; UCLA and CSU-Fullerton were more than happy to oblige. Really, UCLA did most of the work. Thanks UCLA! What do I mean? At Pauley Pavilion, the Bruins shot 26-of-84 from the field, including -- get this -- 5-of-29 from three, giving them a grand total of 31 percent from the field on the evening. The Bruins also missed nine of their 17 free throws. This is not how you win games, not against anybody, and Fullerton made Ben Howland's squad pay (despite chucking up a 40 percent shooting night of its own) with a double-overtime loss on national television. Aaron Thompson was the Fullerton star, scoring 22 points on 7-of-9 shooting -- apparently UCLA was not taking notes -- while also grabbing nine rebounds. Bust out the The Gun, kids. It's time to do some pre-practice chucking.

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The Cram Session is a semi-daily melange of last night's most important hoops action. Some mornings are harder than others, but Mondays are the hardest of them all.

Monmouth 99, FIU 70; Tulsa 81, FIU 49: The most notable early season storyline -- which is not a very high bar, given that most noteworthy teams have been filling up on cupcakes for a week or so now -- has been the struggles of Isiah Thomas. Thomas had his players ready for his first game, a respectable loss to North Carolina in the Dean Dome. What Thomas likely wasn't ready for was his team's game at Monmouth Friday night. Monmouth is in New Jersey, and the Knicks fans in the building made sure Thomas knew it.

They chanted derogatory things about Thomas's sleeping pill overdose; they chanted about Anucha Brown Sanders; they chanted about Magic Johnson. ("Magic hates you!") Monmouth's students even rushed the court when the game was over ... after a 30-point win over FIU. Mean-spirited? Yes. Awesome? Also yes. And Isiah was OK with it, saying the students were in "good spirit," so I don't feel as bad about thinking it's funny.

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