Don't Get Ahead Yourself, SEC

OK, No. 16 Tennessee beat No. 24 Marquette -- in Tennessee -- and Vanderbilt crunched South Florida. Big deal. Why don't you pick on someone your own size?

So the SEC's best team beat the Big East's eighth-best club. And a 4 seed in last year's Tournament beat the worst team in Big East history. Congratulations.

And on Thursday, we get Ole Miss at Louisville and Mississippi State at Cincinnati. Wow. Thrilling showdowns in the Big East/SEC Challenge.

Why can't we have UConn-Tennessee, Pitt-Florida, Louisville-LSU and Notre Dame-Kentucky? It's not a challenge if we don't get to see the top teams play. Big Ten/ACC brought us Duke vs. Purdue and UNC vs. Michigan State.

And second of all, why can't it be the Big East/[Insert halfway decent conference here] Challenge? Maybe the A-10 would be a better opponent ...

Nonetheless, there are still some good hoops games tonight:

-- Texas Tech goes to UTEP for an in-state showdown. The Red Raiders are 7-2 with Pat Knight at the helm, and can score in bunches. UTEP is working hard to be a major challenger to Memphis's dominance of Conference USA. Beating a decent Texas Tech team will help UTEP's resume in March, too.

-- Siena at No. 3 Pitt would be a bigger game if Siena had held up its end of the bargain. You know, the whole "being good" thing. Remember when I mentioned Vanderbilt as a 4 seed in last year's Tournament? Well, Siena beat Vandy by 21 in the first round. And the Saints returned all five starters from that lineup. But now they're 5-3 and shooting 29 percent from 3 as a team. Not quite the same. This one's on ESPN 2 at 9:30.

-- Saint Mary's at Oregon should provide some quality entertainment. The Gaels are quietly one of the best teams on the West Coast and Oregon is desperately trying to find its stride.