What at one point looked like it could be a catastrophic day for the favorites has calmed down.

I am so impressed with what Houston did. They were down 11 points. Sasser has been hurt, and still scored 22 points before foul trouble caused him to miss a good chunk of the second half. Jamal Shead also had to sit for a while with 4 fouls.

So, the Houston bench played some key extra minutes down the stretch, Tramon Mark scored 26 pointe, and the Cougars outscores the Tigers 50-23 to come back and win comfortably.

The final three games saw Big 10 schools trying to pull off an upset. Penn State came back to take a 3 minute lead with about 5 minutes left. But they had no answer for Dylan Disu, who led Texas with 28 points on 14-20 shooting. Texas won by 5, survived and advanced.

UCLA found their double digit lead disappear with about 10 minutes. But Jaime Jaquez Jr scored 24, Tyger Campbell went 12-12 from the line, and the Bruins escaped with a 5 point victory.

So that leaves us with one last game. Alabama was up on Maryland by 5 at halftime – only time will tell if the Big 10 upset bids all fall short.