AUSTIN, Texas -- As college basketball teams go these days, the top-ranked Kansas Jayhawks are about as dominant as they come.
They defend well, rebound and can get scoring from all five positions on the floor.
Flawless, they aren't. But the Jayhawks aren't preoccupied with achieving perfection when even on their not-so-best-night they can still manage an 80-68 road win against a respectable team as they did during Monday night's dismantling of the 14th-ranked Texas Longhorns.
"I don't think there are any dominant teams," said KU forward Marcus Morris, who led his team with 18 points. "We have a lot of faults in our team as far as rebounding and guarding. But I think we came out real aggressive against them guys. We took the first punch and never let up."
You were looking at two of the top teams not just in the Big 12, but in the nation, squaring off for likely the regular season conference title. The No. 1 seed implications for next month's NCAA tournament were there, as well.
But with the anticipated matchup between the Jayhawks and Longhorns looming Monday night at the Erwin Center, only No. 1 Kansas has held up its end of the bargain. Texas, the consensus No. 1 team in the country just a few weeks ago, limps into this matchup having lost four of its last six games and seeming just a shell of the team it was just a month ago.
The Longhorns are coming off a disappointing wire-to-wire 80-71 loss at Oklahoma on Saturday that left them searching for answers with their biggest game of the year coming up in 48 hours.
Gary Williams figured it would take 10 Atlantic Coast Conference games before a league favorite emerged.
Williams, part-time soothsayer and full-time head coach, and his Maryland Terrapins solidified their grip on second place in the ACC with Sunday's 92-71 home victory over toothless North Carolina. The Terps play host to fourth-place Virginia Wednesday before heading to first-place Duke Saturday.
Go ahead and count 'em: That will be 10 conference games for Maryland by week's end.
"Our team is interesting," Williams said following the UNC victory.
"We were just in the locker room with the players. [Winning] was a great feeling obviously, but we weren't getting carried away. We know what is ahead of us. We'll enjoy this and just go from there."
The ACC continues to be a jumbled, entertaining mess.
There is a lesson (or two, or more) to learn from Maryland's 92-71 dismantling of the program that, technically speaking, is the defending NCAA champion.
* Don't bet against the home team when a record-breaking blizzard hits town. As thoroughly as Georgetown handled Villanova the day before in Washington, Maryland handled North Carolina even easier Sunday afternoon -- and anecdotal evidence suggests that the D.C. suburbs, including the College Park area surrounding the on-campus Comcast Center, were in worse shape from the snowstorm than the city was.
* North Carolina resembles last year's national titlists less than it does the rock-bottom teams at the end of the Matt Doherty era.
* Every indication is that the post-championship malaise Maryland's program underwent, the one that got many loudly calling for Gary Williams' job, is over; the Terps are seriously in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship hunt.
* The unconscionable racism displayed at Florida State last week aside, it's not hard to understand why Maryland opponents would want Greivis Vasquez to go away.
The Terrapin men's basketball team returned to the Comcast Center on Friday afternoon, following a road win against Florida State. Gary Williams still hasn't left.
The Terps' coach slept in his office to avoid being snowed out of the arena for Sunday's game against North Carolina. Given the white doom that befell the Washington metro area, it was a smart choice.
So much snow fell that Maryland encouraged fans to stay home if they live beyond walking distance. The athletic department also eschewed the standard student ticket system, instead admitting any person with a valid student ID.
AUSTIN, 
Gary Williams figured it would take 10 Atlantic Coast Conference games before a league favorite emerged.
There is a lesson (or two, or more) to learn from 
The Terrapin men's basketball team returned to the Comcast Center on Friday afternoon, following a road win against Florida State. 
