USC 80, Arizona 75: Nick Young and Lodrick Stewart both scored 26 points for USC, which pretty much sums up that they won. Some teams go without scoring 52 points in a college basketball game. This was Arizona’s fourth loss at home this year, and I can thankfully say I won’t be putting any of my eggs in their basket when it comes time to pick my Final Four. . . unlike every other year that Lute Olson deceives me with all the raw talent he has that never really pans out in March.

UCLA 67, Arizona State 61: It was on the road, which is no sure thing in college basketball, but UCLA should be winning by more than six points against a team that’s won as many games. Arron Affalo scored 24 points, and while UCLA is a sure thing to play defense every game, it’s not so certain they’ll have the offense every night.

Oregon 61, Cal 63: Looking at the scores today, you’d think it was Pac-10 night in college basketball. Cal upset the 17th ranked Ducks thanks to Ryan Anderson’s three point play (layup and a foul). Cal snapped a six game losing streak, and Oregon lost its second in a row.

Indiana 68, Purdue 81: David Teague scored 31 points for Purdue, who turned it on in the second half and beat the Hoosiers. Purdue is now 17-9, with some quality wins, which is a good thing for me: Georgia Tech, after all, beat them.

It’s nice to know that Georgia Tech isn’t the only team in the nation to get their asses handed to them by UNC. The Tar Heels smacked Arizona Saturday night, 92-64, ending the Wildcats’ 29 game winning streak at home. It was the worst loss at Arizona since Lute Olson has been coaching, which is a really, really long time. UNC was without second leading scorer and rebounder, Brandan Wright, but it didn’t prove to be much of a problem.

“I think it is a big statement about how deep our team is, that we have guys on the bench who can start and we can still win a game like this,” said forward Deon Thompson, who replaced Wright and scored 14 points.

I think the bigger statement is how poorly Arizona played. They shot 33% from the field, and went 1-22 from beyond the arch, which, if you don’t have a calculator handy, is 4%. Most games that you chuck up 22 three-pointers, it’s a bad sign, anyway. But when you make only one of them, it’s especially telling.

“I just told the guys, ‘This is a nightmare. Forget it,” Olson said. “We’re not even going to look at the tapes.”

That, my friends, is probably the best decision ol’ Lute’s had in his last 24 years of coaching.

Sorry. Happen to hold a vendetta against the guy. Every year — every year! — he completely messes up my Final Four picks, because I get faith in a guy like Jason Terry or Salim Stoudamire, and ride this team all the way to my bracket’s destruction. And it screws me, without fail, every March.