Tyler Haws (AP)Brigham Young sophomore Tyler Haws convinced anyone who needed convincing that he was back to form following his two-year Mormon mission with the way he played in his first six games this season.

Haws scored at least 20 points in each contest and had his best game against Cal State Northridge on Nov. 24 when he scored 32 and grabbed 12 rebounds.

But Haws raised his game another level Saturday in a decisive win in Salt Lake City over Virginia Tech with a Jimmer Fredette-like performance. Haws scored 42 points – a single-game high for any player in Division I this season – one-upping his father Marty Haws, who scored 40 points in a 1989 game when he played guard for the Cougars. Marty Haws played at BYU from 1986 to 1990.

Kevin Ollie (Getty Images)Not even halfway through his first season as a head coach at any level, Kevin Ollie has apparently impressed UConn administrators enough for them to put the longterm future of the school's basketball program in his hands.

UConn has called a press conference for before Saturday night's game against Washington to address the future of its program. According to multiple reports, athletic director Warde Manuel will announce he has rewarded Ollie for an impressive 9-2 start by giving him a five-year contract extension.

The new contract will surely ease some of the pressure on Ollie created by the unusual circumstances surrounding his hiring.

Since the legendary Jim Calhoun didn't announce his retirement until September and the start of practice was mere weeks away, Manuel didn't have time to conduct a national search for a successor. At Calhoun's advice, Manuel promoted Ollie to head coach, but he gave the former UConn guard a seven-month contract, opting to take his time evaluating Ollie rather than hitching the program to a man just two years removed from his playing days in the NBA.

That decision put Ollie in a difficult spot, needing to prove himself in a season in which UConn is ineligible for the postseason and lacks its usual talent. The Huskies have a strong backcourt, but the transfer of Roscoe Smith and Alex Oriakhi left Ollie with a depleted frontcourt.

Ollie gradually won over the UConn fan base and apparently Manuel by leading the Huskies to a 9-2 start that includes a season-opening win over Michigan State in Germany. He also has received glowing reviews from former UConn and NBA players and coaches as a result of the work ethic and leadership he showed throughout his playing career.

Larry Drew II and Norman Powell celebrate UCLA's overtime win over Missouri (Getty Images)

The jerseys still read UCLA on the front. The crowd still arrived dressed in blue and gold. And the students still celebrated big baskets with eight claps.

Aside from that, however, everything else about UCLA's 97-94 overtime victory over seventh-ranked Missouri on Friday was virtually unrecognizable from Ben Howland's heyday in Westwood just a few short years ago.

UCLA, which made three straight Final Fours from 2006 to 2008 with precise, structured offense and smothering man-to-man defense, now has a roster hardly capable of guarding five totem poles. Instead the Bruins are compensating for their many defensive deficiencies by unleashing a free-flowing, fast-paced offense that exploits every opportunity to attack in transition.

[Related: The top five college basketball stories of 2012]

That unfamiliar formula is the one UCLA (10-3) unleashed on Missouri (10-2) to notch a season-changing win that could vault the Bruins back into the AP Top 25 Poll next week.

Shabazz Muhammad scored a game-high 27 points and Travis and David Wear combined for 38 points and 15 rebounds as the Bruins rallied from a nine-point deficit with four minutes to go in regulation thanks to 50.6 percent shooting as a team. Phil Pressey's dazzling 19-point, 19-assist performance helped Missouri pile up 47 first-half points and 86 points with four minutes to go in regulation, but UCLA answered every spurt with one of its own and delivered a stronger finishing kick.

The Tigers had a chance to win in regulation after Jordan Adams tied the score at 88 with a layup, but coach Frank Haith instructed Pressey to inbound the ball with 4.8 seconds to go, eliminating any chance for his point guard to create off the dribble. Instead Jabari Brown missed a contested jumper and Keion Bell botched a difficult put-back attempt, enabling UCLA to force overtime and escape with a victory.

What UCLA's win unequivocally proved is Howland will have to divert from all that's comfortable for him this season if he's going to save his job.

(AP)

One of the questions often posed of mid-major powers such as Gonzaga is how they might do as members of power conferences. It looks like the Bulldogs would be a contender to win the Big 12 this season if they were a member of that league.

Sophomore guard Kevin Pangos erupted with 31 points, including seven 3-pointers to lead No. 13 Gonzaga to a 94-87 home win over Baylor. Gonzaga is off to its best start in 46 years tying the 1966-67 team at 12-1.Four of the Bulldogs' victories have come against Big 12 teams with a fifth Big 12 opponent looming in Oklahoma State on New Year's Eve.

Gonzaga has beaten Baylor, Kansas State, Oklahoma and West Virginia.

Rick Pitino (Getty Images)

With conference play fast approaching, we'll reassess our preseason projections over the next week. Here's a look back at the Dagger's preseason Big East forecast and some updated predictions for the league season:

Conference RPI: 3

Record against Top 25 teams: 3-8

Preseason predictions I'd like to have back: Selecting Steven Adams over Jakarr Sampson as preseason freshman of the year and  the wrong Louisville guard as preseason player of the year. Peyton Siva has been a solid distributor and defender once again for Louisville, but Russ Smith has emerged as the Cardinals' go-to scorer and top defensive weapon, averaging 19.7 points and 2.8 steals per game.

Preseason predictions I still feel good about: My top eight in the Big East from Nov. 2: 1. Louisville 2. Notre Dame 3. Syracuse 4. Cincinnati 5. Pittsburgh 6. Georgetown 7. Marquette 8. UConn. We'll have a better idea in a few weeks if Georgetown is too low and if my hunch on veteran-laden Notre Dame proves correct, but I'm not sure I'd change a thing about that order almost two months later.

Conference favorite: Five or six teams appear to be legitimate contenders, but at this point Louisville still enters league play as the favorite. Despite the absence of rim protector Gorgui Dieng for the past five weeks, the Cardinals' boast the nation's stingiest defense, limiting opponents to 0.8 points per possession and forcing 21.4 turnovers per game. And while Louisville's outside shooting is a weakness, the emergence of Russ Smith has given the Cardinals' offense unexpected pop. 

Louisville and Kentucky meet for the first time since last year's Final Four (Getty Images)

A quiet Christmas week in college basketball gives way to an action-packed weekend featuring a handful of noteworthy games.

Here's a look at what to watch this weekend highlighted by the rivalry game between Kentucky and Louisville and two crucial matchups with ranked teams for UCLA and North Carolina.

1. Kentucky (8-3) at Louisville (11-1), Saturday 4 p.m. EST

Storyline to watch: Has any team faced more of a must-win game in December than this one for the Cardinals? They've lost four in a row to Kentucky in the John Calipari era, they have the deeper, better, more experienced team for the first time in that period and they're playing at home. What will go a long way toward determining Kentucky's upset chances is how point guard Ryan Harrow fares against Louisville's vaunted pressure. Harrow has played better recently, but the Cardinals are a long way from the Marshalls and Lipscombs of the world. The Cardinals force the second most turnovers in the nation, they've been by far the country's stingiest defense and they get shot-blocking center Gorgui Dieng back from injury Saturday. Projected winner: Louisville

2. UNLV (11-1) at North Carolina (9-3), Saturday 2 p.m. EST

Storyline to watch: No longer is this all about revenge for last year's upset loss in Las Vegas for North Carolina. Right now, the Tar Heels are simply in dire need of a marquee win to demonstrate they're still a viable contender in the ACC. Although North Carolina's 9-3 record is respectable, the Tar Heels have lost by double figures to the three quality teams they've faced. They do get UNLV at home, but they'll need to hit the offensive glass, free up their 3-point shooters and find a way to hold Anthony Bennett in check to pull out a win. Bennett, the leading contender for national freshman of the year honors, has helped UNLV absorb the loss of Mike Moser to injury by averaging 19.5 points and 8.5 rebounds on 55.7 percent shooting. Projected winner: North Carolina

Alex Kirk (USA TODAY Sports)Since Tuesday night's Cincinnati-New Mexico game featured two of the most highly touted backcourts in the nation, it may come as a surprise who emerged as the best player on the floor by the end of the night

Believe it or not, it was a big man.

Seven-foot center Alex Kirk scored 15 points, grabbed seven rebounds and defended well in the low post to help New Mexico eke out an impressive 55-54 road win at previously unbeaten Cincinnati. It was a performance that suggested the redshirt sophomore may yet become the impact big man New Mexico needs despite missing all of last season with a back injury.

A long-range shooter as comfortable on the perimeter as in the low post on offense, Kirk has contributed for New Mexico in a number of ways this season. He scores 11.2 points per game, he grabs a team-high 7.4 rebounds and while his vertical leap may not clear a single sheet of paper, his 1.4 blocks per game are proof he has done a serviceable job protecting the rim defensively.

If Kirk can build on his solid early play during the Mountain West season, it will solidify New Mexico (13-1) as a threat to win one of the nation's most loaded leagues. The presence of guards Kendall Williams, Tony Snell and Hugh Greenwood ensured the Lobos would again be NCAA tournament contenders entering the season, but most questioned whether New Mexico had enough interior play to hang with the likes of UNLV and San Diego State.

Gorgui Dieng (US Presswire)

Just before he left for the airport Christmas Eve morning to welcome his mom and dad to the United States, Louisville center Gorgui Dieng sent a text to the woman who arranged for his parents to visit.

"I can never repay you or thank you enough for making this happen," the Senegal native wrote.

That giddy, gracious text was all the thanks Proctorville, Ohio, resident Lesley Thomas needed for her efforts to enable Dieng's parents to watch him play on U.S. soil for the first time. Thomas and her husband Scott, Dieng's host family while he played high school ball at Huntington Prep, spent the past five months working on the logistics of getting Momar Dieng and Seynabou Diagne to Louisville in time to spend Christmas with their son and attend Saturday's game against rival Kentucky.

Since obtaining passports and visas can often be problematic in Senegal, Thomas worked with Dieng's English-speaking family friend Assane Badji to complete the necessary steps and arranged for Louisville officials to send letters to the Senegalese embassy verifying Dieng's good academic standing. Thomas and her husband also purchased round-trip plane tickets for Dieng's parents enabling them to come to Louisville for two weeks.

[Related: Louisville facing best opportunity to beat Kentucky]

Even after that arduous process was done, there was still another complication. The fractured wrist Dieng suffered in late-November threatened to sideline him into January, but the 6-foot-11 junior recovered quicker than expected and received clearance from doctors this week to return for Saturday's Final Four rematch.

"We're elated to be able to do something like this for Gorgui," Lesley Thomas said. "I think it's a thrill just to see my kids play in youth leagues, and Gorgui's playing for a Division I school and his parents have never gotten to watch him. It has made our Christmas to see Gorgui so happy because our kids have gotten to experience something you can't wrap up in paper."