The Boubacar 12/5/2007 (Purple Edition)

Holy Cross. The Crusaders pulled off a wire-to-wire win at Saint Joe's, in a mini-"Holy War" rematch of one of the better NIT games of recent memory (everything before 2005 is hazy). Holy Cross jumped out to a 18-2 lead and proceeded to outrebound the Hawks, outshoot them, outclass them. But if you want to feel like you were there at Alumni Fieldhouse, Dr. Hoop Time was. You can smell the athletic tape in that liveblog.

If you aren't keeping close track, that's seven wins against a single loss (versus a very good Dayton team last week) for the purply ones, and the victim list includes three potential tournament teams in Ohio, Hampton and Saint Joseph's. As expected, this is a team with a frontcourt that can bang with the best of them, with a solid rotation of four forwards who are all hitting high-percentage shots and averaging over four boards per contest. The guards don't and can't shoot, but who cares? They're playing the kind of pain-inducing defense that stretches margins for shooting error. Opponents are only shooting 38 percent against them.

So, yeah, the Crusaders are good. Their formidable defense and toughness will help ensure that the rest of the Patriot League will spend the season gazing skyward in the standings, looking up at Tim Clifford's big, beautiful ass.

Harvard. Every time something magical happens in the Ivy League to a team that doesn't rhyme with "in," everybody jumps up and thinks it's a sign that Penn isn't going to win the league. (Especially after, ummm, this. But, ummm, didn't the Palestra look lovely on TV last night?)

After Harvard beat Michigan over the weekend, there was some anti-P exuberance bordering on the irrational. That's ebbed now, for the most part, after a loss to Boston University in which the Terriers played the Crimson's perimeter defense like one of those big gold harps they have in the lobby of a fancy Ivy League party. Twelve made threes, 52 percent long-distance shooting overall. They do give up a lot of 3's, and the rebounding is awful. I still say that Michigan isn't very good, and my cold-dead-hands pick stands intact: Penn wins the Ivy with a 9-5 record.

Chattanooga. A valiant effort for the Moccasins Mockingbirds Mock-necks Mocs last night in their big home shot against Big Orange. Tennessee shot just 36 percent and took a 14-rebound deficit, but they slipped the noose with a 76-70 escape act. Mentioning UTC gives us the chance to say hello to one of our favorite projects, Qavotstaraj Waddell, a 6-11 stringbean who had some great games for UMES, but somehow slipped from the Hawks' grip. Five minutes of foul-sponge duty for "Q."

Buster's Revenge. No, this isn't the long-awaited sequel to this forgotten classic, we're still patiently waiting for that one. It's worth noting that in the return games of the 2007 BracketBusters, the teams that lost on TV are serving out some cold, cold dishes.

BracketBusted losers are 5-1 so far against the teams that beat them back in February. Old Dominion doubled up on Toledo, but the rest of the games went the other way. Holy Cross avenged a close loss to Hofstra, and Ohio beat New Mexico State 80-72 in the season's first week to settle the score for the midnight game. Missouri State came from behind last week to beat Winthrop 73-69 in a revenge match of the Friday night battle that gave the Eagles all that at-large buzz. App-State had a big 60-58 win at Wichita a season ago, but the Shockers returned the favor when they went to Boone, 62-53. Last weekend, Creighton destroyed Drexel 72-48 in a rematch of the game that forced the Bluejays to win the Valley to get in.

And if you're of a certain age and have had that horrible "Two Hearts" song stuck in your head since the first paragraph of this section, know that it's probably because it won the BMI Award for Most Performed Song In A Film back in 1989. She knows, she knows, she knows!

Do you have a nomination for tomorrow's Boubacar?