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The most surprising aspect of Coastal Carolina upsetting LSU and Elon College taking down South Carolina on Tuesday night wasn't just that a pair of programs from lightly regarded leagues defeated two SEC teams.

It was that neither the Chanticleers nor the Phoenix had to leave their own campus to do it.

Whereas power conference teams typically buy home games against mid-major and low-major opponents in return for financial guarantees worth anywhere from $40,000 to $100,000, LSU and South Carolina bucked the trend. Trent Johnson brought his LSU team to cramped, 1,039-seat Kimbel Arena and Darrin Horn signed off on South Carolina becoming the first-ever power-conference team to visit Elon's Alumni Gym.

Whether you think venturing on the road was a wise decision or not will likely depend on if you're a fan of one of college basketball's haves or have-nots.

Fans of mid-major programs who have long struggled to induce high-major teams to grant them a home-and-home series or even a 2-for-1

132915558The 24-hour tip-off marathon produced some intriguing games worthy of your energy drinks and 32-ounce cups of Mountain Dew. Here are a few players and teams whose stock rose or fell as a result of the event:

Stock Rising: Wesley Witherspoon

Remember last March when many suggested it would be addition by subtraction if Josh Pastner politely asked Witherspoon not to return this season? Well, the senior forward silenced that talk during the Tigers' thoroughly impressive 97-81 victory over Belmont. Witherspoon scored 22 points on 8-for-8 shooting and also chipped in five rebounds and two steals, a performance worthy of the immense hype he received when he arrived at Memphis.

Stock falling: Belmont's at-large hopes

Chances are that Belmont will eviscerate its Atlantic Sun competition again and earn an automatic NCAA tournament berth this March, but its margin for error decreased by opening the season 0-2. Although there's absolutely no shame in losing at Duke and at Memphis, those two

With his sputtering team trailing Colorado State by five and in jeopardy of failing to earn a trip to New York for the Preseason NIT semifinals, Stanford's Gabriel Harris delivered the spark the Cardinal needed.

Harris grabbed the rebound of an errant Colorado State shot, looked up at the game clock as he took a dribble up court and then launched a three-quarters court prayer as the halftime buzzer sounded. Improbably the reserve guard hit all net, completing an 11-2 Stanford spurt to end the half and propelling the Cardinal to a 64-52 victory over the Rams on Tuesday night in Palo Alto.

"That was definitely a pick-me-up," Stanford forward Josh Owens told the Palo Alto Daily News. "We were building some momentum and to close with that gave us all kinds of energy."

Stanford's comeback from a first-half deficit that ballooned as large as 11 points secured the Cardinal a date with either Oklahoma State or Texas-San Antonio at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday night. The low-post scoring

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Immediately after the final buzzer mercifully signaled the end of UCLA's embarrassing 86-66 home loss to lightly regarded Middle Tennessee State on Tuesday night, suspended forward Reeves Nelson offered his thoughts on what he'd just seen on TV.

Tweeted Nelson concisely: "WOW."

Indeed, UCLA's woeful 0-2 start is worthy of all-caps simply because the program had so much higher expectations. A Bruins team ranked in the preseason top 25 and projected to win the Pac-12 has endured double-digit losses to LMU and Middle Tennessee State sandwiched around the indefinite suspension of Nelson, their leading returning scorer and rebounder.

The worst part about the predicament for the Bruins is the glaring weaknesses that have been exposed don't appear easily fixable. UCLA lacks the outside shooters necessary to make opposing teams pay for collapsing on their big men in the paint, nor do the Bruins have the perimeter athleticism to keep opposing guards out of the lane as was once their hallmark

TyshawnTaylor

It's not even close to panic time in Lawrence. So don't go that far just yet.

But there is a reality that might be setting in early here in the 2011-12 season: This year, Kansas might not belong with the so-called 'elites' in the college basketball ranks.

It wasn't that Kentucky picked apart Kansas on Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden with a superior game plan or veteran savvy. Both teams were sloppy. But with that said, it was simply talent that won out in a 75-65 Wildcats victory.

The Jayhawks, right now, are good, but not great. In terms of the overall talent at Bill Self's disposal, it's likely the thinnest team KU has put on the floor since the 2000-01 campaign, which oddly enough had its season ended by a Self-led Illinois team in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

So, how did Kansas get to this point?

A lot of it is tied into recruiting, and to be more particular, it's been Self's bad luck in that department over the last few years.

Aside from getting beat at the

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On the eve of his first crack at breaking Bob Knight's record for career Division I victories as a men's basketball head coach, Duke's Mike Krzyzewski spoke briefly about whether he has a timetable for when he may step away from the Blue Devils bench.

Fullscreen capture 11152011 62746 PM-1"I don't really have a goal right now, number of seasons," the 64-year-old told reporters in New York on Monday. "My thing probably will not be as planned. I'll know. I'll just know."

[Coach K adapts to become the best]

That Krzyzewski isn't talking like a man pondering retirement suggests the record he set with Tuesday night's 74-69 victory over Michigan State may stand for a long time. The closest active Division I coaches to 903 career Division I victories are both older than him: Syracuse's Jim Boeheim has 859 wins at age 67 and Connecticut's Jim Calhoun has 857 at 69.

If the inevitability of Krzyzewski's push for 903 wins has muted some of the buildup to the record-breaking win, it shouldn't detract from the accomplishment. A coach

QuincyMillerWell, you could take two paths in deciding what you think of 11th-ranked Baylor after its 77-67 victory over San Diego State in Waco on Tuesday afternoon.

You either view them as the team you saw in the first half — An incredibly talented bunch that will likely underachieve and be maddeningly inconsistent, much like Scott Drew's club did last season.

In the second half, though, a focused Baylor bunch turned a close game into a runaway in the closing minutes, gave regular flashes of that limitless potential and, well, looked like it actually deserved its ranking.

Chances are, Baylor will likely show glimpses of both versions at times this season. They just need the latter to overshadow the former.

Just what was the difference, though, in that second half?

Frankly, it was defense.

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SDSU, though still legitimately a top-three team in the Mountain West, doesn't resemble Steve Fisher's loaded squad from a year ago, which won 31 games, won the program's first ever NCAA tournament

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Rob Senderoff has listened to more than his share of fiery halftime speeches in his 16 years as an assistant, so it's no surprise Kent State's new head coach didn't waste his opportunity to deliver his first one.

With his team trailing West Virginia by five points and getting bludgeoned 27-12 on the glass, Senderoff tore into his players, imploring them to box out, to get tougher and to launch a counterattack. ESPN cameras were there to capture the best snippets of the speech.

"They have six freshmen," Senderoff bellowed. "They will crumble under the pressure. They will crumble under the pressure. There's no question about it."

It's rare for a coach to be that candid about an opponent when he knows cameras are rolling, but Senderoff certainly looked prescient afterward. A mere 10 minutes into the second half, Kent State had not only erased its five-point deficit but built a 10-point lead on its way to a comfortable 70-60 road victory.

The Golden Flashes matched West Virginia on the