DePaul finally out of their deep hole

Marquette, what have you done??

You had a double-digit lead against a team that had lost 24 consecutive Big East games. You let most of that lead slip away, but still led by one with 8.4 seconds left, and had two free throws coming.

But you missed them both.

And then you allowed Mike Stovall to hit the game-winner with less than a second left. DePaul, a team that fired their coach less than two weeks ago and hadn't won a conference game since March 6, 2008, beat you! Wha' happened?

Marquette is in rebuilding mode, no doubt. But this is a team that beat Michigan by 14, lost to West Virginia on a last-second basket, lost to Villanova by just two points on two separate occasions, and beat Georgetown. So yes, they're rebuilding, but we're not talking about NBC's nighttime programming schedule here; they've got some solid pieces in place.

But they're now at 2-4 in the Big East, down there with Seton Hall, South Florida, Rutgers, and the rest of the Big East's least.

And how about the CCA? Oops, I mean ACC. The conference is so upside-down I mixed up the name. Granted, it's early, but you've got Virginia (3-0) and Maryland (2-1) leading the way, while North Carolina--ranked #6 in the nation preseason--is 1-3 after three straight losses, and Duke is just 3-2 after a loss to NC State.

In summary, it's time to get into college basketball. After all, the regular season is more than half over (it's true), just three NFL games remain, and spring training baseball is over a month away.