College basketball gets crazier by the week

The tying half-court heave at Wisconsin went in, of course. Then Kansas lost again. And in case you were asleep late Saturday night, Notre Dame took five overtimes to beat Louisville.

March Madness is weeks away, but February Frenzy is already in full swing.

Six more Top 25 college basketball teams went down Saturday, including two of the top five. When the next Associated Press poll comes out today, it likely will have a new No. 1 for the sixth straight week - that would be the second-longest such streak since the first rankings in 1949.

For top schools, it's been a rocky run. According to STATS, Top 25 teams lost to unranked teams 36 times from Jan. 17 to Feb. 6, the most in at least 17 years.

No. 1 Indiana, No. 2 Florida and No. 3 Michigan each dropped a game since the poll came out last Monday. The Hoosiers fell 74-72 at Illinois on Thursday and the Gators trailed by as many as 27 during the second half of an 80-69 loss at Arkansas last Tuesday night.

Michigan was leading Wisconsin 60-57 on Saturday when Ben Brust got a perfect inbounds pass from Mike Bruesewitz, took one dribble across halfcourt and connected for the tying 3-pointer as time expired in regulation. Brust added another big 3-pointer in overtime to lead the Badgers to a 65-62 victory.

"It was awesome, something I'll remember forever, and I'm sure a lot of people will," Brust said.

The Wolverines will need to forget this one in a hurry. They face rival Michigan State on Tuesday night in East Lansing.

The fifth-ranked Jayhawks also are looking at a quick turnaround after a 72-66 loss at Oklahoma on Saturday made it a three-game slide for the storied program for the first time in eight years. They host No. 13 Kansas State tonight.

"It hasn't been a good week for us by any stretch, but let's be real," Kansas coach Bill Self said. "We were ranked No. 2 in the country seven days ago, and you don't go from being a good team to a bad team overnight.

"We've had a couple of bad outings, but we're still a good team."

It turns out the losses by the Wolverines and Jayhawks were just a precursor to the thriller in South Bend, Ind., where No. 25 Notre Dame erased an eight-point deficit in the final 51 seconds of regulation and went on to a 104-101 victory against the 11th-ranked Cardinals in five overtimes.

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