2. Virginia Tech got blasted 92-53 by North Carolina on Saturday. Check out these lines from Tech’s box score: 14-54 shooting (25.9%) and 4-18 from 3-point land (22.2%). Tech head coach Seth Greenberg summed it up best. "I don't have a chart in my office ranking my embarrassing losses," Greenberg said. "You can take these and flush them down the toilet.”

3. Shaq’s nickname list grew once again after getting traded to the Suns. “The Big Cactus” was added to Shaq’s lengthy aka list after he dubbed himself the new moniker when introduced to the Suns. Other Shaq aka’s include: “The Diesel,” aka “The Big Aristotle,” aka “The Big Daddy,” aka “Wilt Chamberneezy,” aka “The Real Deal.” Not playing in this year’s All-Star game broke a 14-year streak of playing in the glorified scrimmage for Shaq.

4. Did you know you’d be cashing a lot of tickets if you played Keno this year? Keno Davis took over on the Drake sideline after his legendary father Dr. Tom Davis retired. The Bulldogs are currently ranked # 8 in the country and # 2 in the polls we care about as they are 16-4-1 against the spread. That’s 80% winners…who said Keno is the worst bet in a casino?

5. Defense = spread winners in the NBA. At the break, 3 of the top 5 defensive teams are also 3 of the top 5 at covering the spread. Boston has the # 1 defense and check in at # 1 at 31-17-2 (64.5%) against the spread. Detroit is # 2 in defense and # 5 against the spread at 30-21-1 (58.8%). New Orleans is # 5 in defense and # 4 in the spread polls at 31-19-1 (62%).

6. Baylor’s Aaron Bruce did his best Chris Webber impersonation vs. Texas on Saturday night. Down by a point, 77-76, with 28 seconds left, Bruce could not inbound the ball and attempted to call a timeout. Ala Webber, Bruce failed to remember that Baylor had no timeouts left. Texas won 82-77 to extend their consecutive winning streak over Baylor to 22 games.

7. Ray Allen got robbed of the MVP award in the All-Star game. There’s no question about it. He had 28 points on 10 of 14 shooting including 5 of 9 from 3-point land and hit three consecutive 3’s with just 3:15 left and the game on the line. Outstanding numbers considering Allen only played 19 minutes. LeBron got the MVP with 27 points on 12 of 22 shooting after playing over 30 minutes. Chalk this trophy up on the name factor, Bron Bron.

8. Wake Forest was a 9-point home underdog to Duke on Sunday night, but pounded the Blue Devils 86-73. The biggest surprise in the stat line saw Wake win the free throw battle with 38 trips to the line compared to Duke’s 25 attempts. When was the last time that happened? Duke not getting all the calls? All 5 of Duke’s starters also fouled-out. It’s about damn time.

9. Dwight Howard stole the Slam Dunk show, and deservedly so. But Gerald Green’s “Blowout the Cupcake” dunk was sweet. Green really should be working on his basketball skills instead of his dunk tricks though. He averages only 12 minutes per game and 5 points per game on 33% shooting for the 10-41 Timberwolves.

10. Prepare yourself for a full week of hype from the ESPN family. # 1 Memphis will host # 2 Tennessee in an in-state showdown this coming Saturday night. Tickets are going for a reported $10,000 a pop. ESPN is good for something after all.