Darius Theus (US Presswire)

Shaka Smart has collected more than 100 pages of motivational quotes to share with his players, so it's no surprise the VCU coach had one ready to support his position that the CAA's top teams merit at-large consideration.

Asked whether co-leaders Drexel, George Mason and VCU having RPIs in the 80s and 90s suggested the league would only receive one NCAA tournament bid this year, Smart began his rebuttal by citing a well-known quote from one of America's most celebrated authors.

"You can go by the numbers," Smart said "but Mark Twain says there are three types of lies: 'Lies, damn lies and statistics.'

"The reality is the RPI and strength of schedule, most of that is based on what happens in November and December, and I don't think anyone would argue that a vast majority of teams in our league are extremely different than they were in December. A lot of teams have made major improvements and added guys back from injury or suspension. If you went back and played those games again, it might go differently."

Smart's argument sums up why this weekend's BracketBusters games will be an especially vital litmus test for the CAA's top teams. Drexel, George Mason and VCU don't have at-large worthy resumes at this point after struggling out of conference, yet each receive one final chance to prove to the selection committee that they've improved enough to be worthy of a closer look.

• Drexel's leading returning scorer Chris Fouch missed the Dragons' opening two losses as a result of offseason knee surgery and played sparingly in their next two, but they've now won 19 of 20 since that 2-4 start.

• VCU needed a month to figure out how to replace the four starters it lost from last year's Final Four team, but the Rams (22-5, 13-2) have won 11 straight since a six-point loss at Drexel on Jan. 8.

• George Mason (21-6, 13-2) lost to the likes of Florida Atlantic and Florida International in November, but the Patriots have surged since point guard Andre Cornelius returned from a season-opening 10-game suspension and reentered the starting lineup. 

(via Matt Weitzel)Having endured some backlash as a result of coach Fran McCaffery's now infamous chair-throwing tirade against Michigan State last month, Iowa has now found a clever way for the incident to benefit the school.

Iowa auctioned the bench chair at a baseball fundraiser Sunday night for $2,100.

Hawkeyes baseball coach Jack Dahm came up with the idea to auction off the chair, so he called his counterpart at Michigan State and asked who might be able to help him obtain the chair. Michigan State readily agreed to mail a bench chair from the Breslin Center to Dahm, asking only that Iowa pay the $50 shipping fee.

The only catch to the arrangement was that Iowa cannot be sure the chair auctioned on Sunday was the actual one McCaffery hurled to the ground in an attempt to get their attention late in a blowout loss to Michigan State. Nonetheless, McCaffery's autograph and "Coach with Passion!" message on the chairback makes it a unique, fun memorabilia item.

Iowa basketball and baseball communications director Matt Weitzel said Monday that the bench chair was one of the most talked-about auction items the previous night. Proceeds from the sale of the chair and other autographed memorabilia auctioned on Sunday will help pay for equipment and travel costs for the Iowa baseball program.

Credit McCaffery for having enough of a sense of humor about the incident to sign off on the idea and autograph the chair. And credit Dahm for coming up with a clever idea to turn a memorable incident into a positive for his program.

Flavor Flav (Sam Morris/Las Vegas Sun)

Whether it's Ashley Judd cooking homemade meals for Kentucky, Ashton Kutcher sitting courtside at Iowa games or Matthew McConaughey jet-setting around the country to see Texas play, many celebrities have become synonymous with the schools they support.

Seldom if ever, however, do those celebs ditch their luxury boxes or plum seats in favor of a spot in the student section.

Rapper and reality TV star Flavor Flav is apparently the exception to that rule, as anyone who watched UNLV's 65-63 victory over San Diego State discovered. Flav accepted an invitation to sit amongst members of UNLV's student section known as "The Rebellion," donning one of their red T-shirts in addition to his trademark sideways cap, goofy shades and oversized clock around his neck.

Saturday's student section appearance was a first from Flav, but the Las Vegas resident has been a UNLV fan for a while.

School spokesman Andy Grossman said Flav received an invitation to a game and he loved the atmosphere so much he has shown up on a regular basis ever since. Flav even attended the public open house for the Mendenhall Center, UNLV's $11.7 million state-of-the-art practice facility that opened last month.

With a revved up offense featuring double-double threat Mike Moser, slashing guard Anthony Marshall and sweet-shooting forward Chace Stanback, UNLV has emerged as a team capable of making a deep NCAA tournament run. If that happens, hopefully we can expect a few more appearances from Flav along the way.

Bruce Weber (Getty Images)

1. Based on what Illinois athletic director Mike Thomas told the Chicago Tribune even before the Illini's loss to Michigan on Sunday, it appears coach Bruce Weber may not keep his job much longer. "It's our goal to be relevant through Big Ten play," Thomas said. "It's not a question of being in the tournament. That should be a given. It should be what seed." Illinois, now 16-9, 5-7, is in danger of missing the NCAA tournament for the second time in three years.

[Video: College basketball coaches on the hot seat]

2. How did Memphis gain entry into the Big East last week after years of failed overtures? The Memphis Commercial Appeal's Kyle Veazey takes readers behind the scenes to provide the answer. Though Memphis had lobbied for more than a decade for inclusion in the league, the advanced talks that led to last week's announcement only took place over the course of three weeks.

3. Unhappy with sitting on the bench for a key second-half stretch in Maryland's loss to Duke on Saturday, guard Terrell Stoglin vented his frustration on Twitter afterward. "Loved sitting that bench today. Smfh wow," Stoglin wrote. It's understandable for Stoglin to be upset, but the leading scorer on a team already reeling from Pe'Shon Howard's season-ending knee injury needs to show more restraint and maturity than that.

4. Criticizing Gus Johnson is practically blasphemy in college basketball circles, but New York Magazine's Will Leitch makes some valid points. Leitch writes that viewer's anticipation of Johnson's signature excitable game-ending calls often overshadows the fact that he's a mediocre play-by-play man for the majority of the game. I'll admit Leitch is probably right about that, but there's no one I'd rather have behind the microphone for the final minute of a closely contested game.

[Related: Week's important games for league races, NCAA positioning]

5. Baylor's fourth loss in four games against fellow Big 12 powers Missouri and Kansas this season inspired SI.com's Andy Glockner to examine what exactly is wrong with the super talented yet seemingly underachieving Bears. Although Perry Jones III's vanishing act and the team's lack of a distributing point guard are factors, Glockner points to Scott Drew's tissue-soft two-three zone as the primary factor. 

Each day before practice, Wabash College's Aaron Zinnerman messes around with an array of trick shots, from half-court heaves, to bounce shots, to behind-the-backboard jumpers.

On Saturday, the senior guard's trick shot prowess finally paid off in a game.

With the shot clock ticking down on a second-half possession during Wabash's 79-51 win over Kenyon College, Zinnerman recovered a loose ball that had been poked away from him as he drove to the rim. He had no choice but to shoot it even though he was facing away from the basket, so he threw up a no-look over-the-shoulder 15-footer from the free-throw line and somehow, someway it rolled in.

"When I was shooting it, I didn't realize how crazy it looked, but once I saw the video, it was a pretty wild shot," Zinnerman said.

"I practice doing a million different trick shots, but I hadn't done that one lately. I guess when you get good at hitting a couple trick shots, other ones just come naturally."

Wichita State leaves the floor after beating Creighton (US Presswire)

In a year in which we've celebrated Murray State's unbeaten record, Harvard's high-major talent and Creighton's baby-faced star, none of those three teams may be the nation's best mid-major.

That honor may belong to Wichita State.

At the very least, the Shockers deserve to be in the conversation along with Saint Mary's after blasting now-reeling Creighton 89-68 on Saturday night in front of 18,000 stunned Bluejays fans in Omaha. Wichita State (22-4, 11-2) should enter the Top 25 on Monday and is complete control of the Missouri Valley race, holding a two-game lead on Creighton with just three conference games remaining.

[Pat Forde: Tom Izzo's genius in full effect against Ohio State]

It's difficult to explain why Wichita State hasn't received more attention in recent weeks considering the Shockers have been neck-and-neck with the Bluejays in the conference standings all season.

Perhaps it's because they lost to the Bluejays at home in January. Perhaps it's because a throttling of UNLV was their lone standout non-league win. Perhaps it's because they boast a balanced attack featuring six players averaging 8.8 or more points per game instead of a high-scoring All-American candidate like Doug McDermott.

Regardless, Wichita State isn't a team that should be discounted in March. The Shockers are flat-out good — no big revelation considering they average 1.14 points per possession (14th-best in the nation) and yield just 0.92 points per possession (29th-best in the nation). 

Baylor walks off the court after its 72-57 loss to Missouri (US Presswire)

Here's a look at some of the players and teams whose stock has risen and fallen on a busy Saturday in college hoops. Check back because this file will be updated again tonight:

Stock up: Louisville

Having already won five straight entering Saturday's game at West Virginia, Louisville received a boost from the debut of arguably its most talented player. Freshman Wayne Blackshear, a top 30 recruit who suffered a torn labrum in October, had 13 points and four rebounds against the Mountaineers, helping the Cardinals rally from a 10-point deficit to secure a 77-74 victory. It wasn't that long ago that injury-riddled Louisville was off to a 2-4 start in the Big East and appeared to be in the midst of a midseason collapse. Now the Cardinals are a game out of second place in the league and will have a crack at second-ranked Syracuse on Monday.

Stock down: Perry Jones III

One of the biggest reasons the Big 12 now appears to be a two-team race between Kansas and Missouri is because Perry Jones III vanished in Baylor's two biggest games of the season. Jones scored a total of nine points on 3-for-20 shooting in losses to both the Tigers and Jayhawks this week, dropping the Bears two games behind in the Big 12 standings. When Jones returned to school instead of entering the NBA draft last spring, it was viewed as a risky move since he likely would have gone in the top five. He's probably too talented to drop out of the lottery altogether this June, but his stock certainly has been hurt by erratic play, a lack of aggressiveness and an inability to dominate against a smaller team like Missouri.

Stock up: Michigan State

Instead of Ohio State extending its home win streak and creating two games of separation in the Big Ten race, Michigan State made sure there will be plenty of drama in the league in the weeks to come. The Spartans (20-5, 9-3) created a first-place tie with the Buckeyes by parlaying ferocious, physical defense into a 58-48 victory. They harassed Jared Sullinger into 5 of 15 shooting and 10 turnovers. They limited William Buford and DeShaun Thomas to matching 2-for-12 shooting lines. And they got an inspired 15-point performance from 6-foot-10 Adreian Payne to win the first of two meetings with the Buckeyes.

Stock down: Creighton

Lost amid the well-deserved coronation of Wichita State as the Missouri Valley's best team is that the team it has upstaged is suddenly reeling. Creighton, a fixture in the Top 25 for two months, will likely fall out of the polls Monday after suffering its third straight loss. While the Bluejays' defense in Wichita State's 89-68 rout left a lot to be desired, the biggest reason for the losses to the Shockers, Northern Iowa and Evansville is that their typically efficient offense has sputtered. They've shot 22.9 percent from three-point range during the losing streak, leaving them with a bit of work to do in the next two weeks to shore up a once-certain NCAA bid.

(Via Ryan Greene)

Early-arriving fans for Saturday's UNLV-San Diego State showdown may have noticed a banner underneath the section of the Thomas & Mack Center where the opposing team's crowd sits.

It featured the logo of the San Diego State student known as "The Show" and read, "THIS IS ARE HOUSE!"

Whereas the banner initially seemed to be a grammar fail of epic proportions by the Aztecs students, it soon became clear that wasn't the case.

First came this from The Show's twitter feed: "Just a disclaimer: We placed no banner inside the Thomas and Mac. We are still partying in parking lot. A lot." Then UNLV students admitted to planting the banner.

The pregame prank is merely the start of what promises to be a lively atmosphere for the matchup between the two best teams in the Mountain West and perhaps the West Coast as a whole. San Diego State won the first game between the two teams on a last-second Jamaal Franklin layup, setting up a rematch that UNLV needs to win to avoid falling two games behind the Aztecs in the conference standings.

A large group of San Diego State students made the drive to Las Vegas for the weekend, but UNLV should have most of a sellout crowd on its side. Students also are well prepared for the Aztecs, creating a cheer sheet with everything from a "Mountain West Rejects" belittling San Diego State's imminent move to the Big West to a "Check our Rafters" chant referring to UNLV's national championship.