It's just after 4 p.m. on the east coast on the 12th day of the college basketball season and, so far, members of the Big East conference have yet to lose a game. Cincinnati, Connecticut, DePaul, Georgetown, Louisville, Marquette, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, Providence, Rutgers, Seton Hall, South Florida, St. John's, Syracuse and Villanova: They're all undefeated, a collective 36-0 so far in the young 2009-2010 season.

Yeah, a lot of those games have been played against the standard early season cupcakes like Marist and Prarie View A&M, but for an entire 16-team conference to play 36 games without a blemish is still an impressive feat. And it's not like every game was a guaranteed victory: Louisville beat Arkansas, Syracuse beat Cal, South Florida beat Virginia, Georgetown beat Temple, Villanova beat George Mason and, most impressively, DePaul (winless in the conference last year) stunned defending Missouri Valley champs Northern Iowa.

We wanted to post this now because given this evening's slate of games, there's a good chance the Big East won't make it to the weekend without a loss. Villanova just tipped off against No. 21 Dayton, while Syracuse plays tonight against the defending national champs, North Carolina.

The Cram Session is a semi-daily melange of last night's most important hoops action.

Syracuse 95, California 73: A couple of weeks ago, Syracuse lost a game to Division II LeMoyne Dolphins. Yes, it was just an exhibition game, but the loss was emphatic -- how disorganized would the Cuse have to be to lose to such an inferior outfit? And what, if anything, did the loss mean for the Orangemen going forward? Turns out not much: Syracuse crushed No. 13 California at Madison Square Garden last night, and it was never close. The Cuse's offense was especially impressive, scoring 95 points in 80 possessions and firing off an effective field goal percentage of 64.3 percent. Wesley Johnson's game (17 points, 11 rebounds, six blocks, had a lot to do with that, but really Syracuse was dominant everywhere and on both ends -- pressing and stretching Cal on defense and making efficient and gorgeous use of possession on offense. If it wasn't safe before, now it is. LeMoyne was a fluke.

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The Hunt for the Most Interesting Team in the World is the Dagger's 2009-10 countdown preview series. Check out the overriding principles here.

Last year's record: 30-7 (11-5, ACC)

2009-2010's toughest games: Arizona State, NIT final/consolation vs. Connecticut or LSU, at Wisconsin, vs. Gonzaga, at Georgetown

Primary attraction: Because no matter how much you can't stand them, you know you can't turn away.

Three items of undeniable interest:

1. It's Duke -- Before you comment about any perceived anti-Duke bias, remember this: The Hunt set out to find "the most interesting team in the world" and this Duke team isn't very interesting. They're going to be good, yes. But there's little to separate this version of the Blue Devils from the other editions from the past quarter-century. They'll be fundamentally sound. They'll play smart basketball. They'll win 25 games. They'll get more calls than they don't. Coach K will scowl. The Cameron Crazies will be alternately obnoxious and clever. Kyle Singler is going to be an All-American. Dick Vitale will talk about how much he loves Steve Wojciechowski and will then comment that it's a crime J.J. Redick doesn't get more PT in the NBA. Somebody will slap the floor. We've seen this movie before.

2. Holes? -- Listening to some of the people hyping Duke this year, you'd almost forget that the Blue Devils lost its best player (Gerald Henderson), an up-and-coming guard (Elliot Williams) and a senior starter-turned off the bench threat (Greg Paulus). But the departures of the latter two create some serious thinness at guard for Coach K. Jon Scheyer isn't a true point and Nolan Smith has been streaky, at best, during his two years in Durham. Things are a better in the frontcourt, where Singler will line-up with 7-foot-1 Brian Zoubek and freshman Mason Plumlee (when he returns from injury), but the forward-heavy lineup may force Krzyzewski to do the unthinkable and play some zone defense at Cameron.

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Dayton got their first real test of the season today. Guess what? They passed.

You probably didn't see the game. I know I didn't. For whatever reason, our friends at ESPN decided to go with Colin Cowherd on ESPNU, and none of the Full Court packages were carrying the game, either. Which means that No. 18 Dayton played No. 21 Georgia Tech in Puerto Rico, and nary a person saw it. Is this like the rule people make about cheating on their significant others when they're on vacation? If the game happens on an island, does it really count?

To the eventual NCAA selection committee, yes, and certainly to Flyers fans, whose team just topped a very talented Georgia Tech squad in rather impressive fashion. The Flyers lead for almost the entire game, and despite a second-half push from Tech mustered a 63-59 win. Sophomore guard Chris Johnson led the way with 19 points and seven rebounds.

Meanwhile, the Yellow Jackets' Derrick Favors was slightly disappointing, at least according to my handy box score; Favors had 10 points and seven rebounds, but only attempted six field goals and four free throws in 40 minutes of basketball. If Favors plans to be a star worthy of his hype -- and his top NBA draft status -- he'll need many more looks than that. And if Georgia Tech plans on saving Paul Hewitt's job this season, it'll need to do a better job getting Favors those looks. 

But the real hype-fulfillment scenario here is Dayton, who are ranked in the top 25 for the first time in ages. Today, the Flyers their first step toward justifying it.

The Cram Session is a semi-daily melange of last night's most important hoops action.

Tuesday and Thursday's college basketball schedules were like the two halves of a delicious, toasted everything bagel. Wednesday was like the nasty hazelnut cream cheese spread in the middle. (Sorry, I'm projecting. That happened to me this morning. I still haven't gotten over it. Who buys hazelnut cream cheese and tries to pass it off as regular?)

Anyway, today's sked features Georgia Tech-Dayton, North Carolina-Ohio State and Syracuse-California. Yesterday's had Butler-Northwestern. But, as always, The Dagger can always find the bright side of any dreary college basktball day:

Cornell 74, Massachusetts 61 -- Cornell. Ever heard of it? You better, because the Big Red are for real. Wins over Alabama and Massachusetts bode well for the team's bid to win a third straight Ivy League title and bring the conference its first NCAA tournament win since 1998. For UMass, Ricky Harris had a historic night, moving past both Julius Ervin and Marcus Camby on the Minutemen's alll-time scoring list (he's now 12th).

Cincinnati 92, Toledo 68-- Lance Stephenson was much better in his second game, dropping 16 points in an easy Bearcat win over Toledo.

Oral Roberts 83, Stanford 81 -- Since beginning his head coaching 10-0, former Duke star and Mike Krzyzewski disciple Johnny Dawkins has seen his Stanford squad go 11-16, including two early 2009 losses to San Diego and Oral Roberts. Dominique Morrison scored 31 for the Golden Eagles, while Landry Fields got 28 in defeat.

The Hunt for the Most Interesting Team in the World is the Dagger's 2009-10 countdown preview series. Check out the overriding principles here.

Last year's record: 23-11, 10-8 Big East

2009-10's toughest games: Purdue, Ohio State, Louisville, at Villanova

Primary attraction: Future lottery pick Devan Ebanks leads Bob Huggins back to the top.

Three items of undeniable interest:

1. The Huggins days of yore. It wasn't all that long ago that Bob Huggins was at the top of the college coaching profession. His Cincinnati teams were almost always national contenders, as Huggins pieced together junior college transfers and high-profile recruits to create one of the best programs in the country. But Huggy Bear's style has its fair share of deficiencies. For one, Huggins's players were never known for their academics, and his program's infamous zero percent graduation rate was a frequent story. Which is fine when you're winning, as long as you're staying out of trouble. But Huggins wasn't, and didn't. A 2004 DUI -- in which Huggins gave cops the classic "Do you know who I am?" while vomit lined his Lexus door -- was the beginning of the end of his career at Cincinnati.

Now Huggins has a whole new lease on coaching life. He's commandeered his alma mater in the wake of John Beilein's defection to Michigan, and he's done so in classic Huggins style: with talent. 2008-09 was the year that talent revealed itself in a crowded Big East. This year, West Virginia wants more.

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My mom has a Jack Russell Terrier. Contrary to popular belief, there is nothing mighty about them. That dog lays and sleeps for at least 80 percent of its day. The remaining 20 is spent eating, licking a human's face, and running around in a circle in the house, also known as "orbiting." This is all the dog does! See? Not mighty.

The Wofford Terriers are making a different case. Tuesday night, Wofford -- a tiny liberal arts college in Spartanburg, S.C. -- upset Georgia in Athens, 60-57. That would be case enough for a little Wofford love, but all right, I get it. You're skeptical. "Georgia's rebuilding," you say. "Anyone could have upset them at home," you say. I disagree.

But, for the sake of argument, I also present to you last Friday's 63-60 loss to Pittsburgh. The Terriers held a 13-point lead in the second half over Pitt before things began to unravel, but still, the point stands. In their two games thus far this season, Wofford has beaten one power-conference school and barely lost to another. If this is the time of the year that only college hoops die-hards really care about -- that pre-Thanksgiving outpost when, while the rest of your friends ignore college hoops, you scout from a distance in preparation for March -- file Wofford away. The Terriers just might have more for us in a few months' time.

Extra Onions is a roundup of college hoops stuff from around the 'Webs. As always, email or follow me on Twitter to send along links I should see.

• Everybody loves Josh. Josh Pastner's introduction to the public could have gone a lot worse: Pastner's coaching performance was reserved, competent, and had Stone Phillips-level gravitas. It was easy to forget Pastner is merely 31 and in his first head coaching role (that is, until a roommate walks in the room and says, "What is this guy, 14?"). In any case, the world is signing Josh Pastner's praises today, from old-school guys like Alexander Wolff to our bloggy friends at Deadspin, who deem Pastner "last night's winner." Look at Josh. All grown up!

• Meet Scottie Reynolds. Again. Scottie Reynolds is awesome on the basketball court. His family story -- which is new to me -- is pretty awesome, too.

• "Possibly never -- Digger Phelps." Yet Another Basketball Blog's Dan Hanner has the must-read recap of yesterday's marathon.

• Evan Turner: Good at basketball. This is an obvious statement, but Seth Davis's breakdown of exactly what Turner is doing to the positional nature of college hoops is interesting stuff all the same. Before the season's over, Evan Turner could lead a revolution.

Briefly: Storming the Floor posts last night's chat; Searching For Billy Edelin takes note of what has thus far been a disappointing start for the SEC; Gary Parrish notes that tonight Rhode Island will be the 347th of 347 teams to play a 2009-10 basketball game this season; UM Hoops is happy to see Manny Harris get some love; and Casual Hoya hands out a set of very sardonic awards for the Hoyas after last night's near-disaster against Temple.

The Isiah Thomas show is going to lose steam as the year goes on. It has to, right? There are only so many things to write about Thomas; most of them have been written already; and whatever new developments arise (barring catastrophe) are bound to be of the "yep, FIU still sucks" sort. What's the fun in that?

But if we do tire of Isiah Thomas, college coach, it won't be Zeke's fault. Exhibit A: The following quote, taken after last night's game, an 88-82 FIU win over NAIA team Florida Memorial:

“It feels great,” Thomas said. “Every coach, when he or she starts, especially after you’ve lost three games, you start wondering if you’re ever going to win a game. I told the guys at halftime, ‘I don’t care how we win. I just want to win the game, go home, rub my dog, wake up in the morning and see the sun.”’

Here comes the sun ... do do do dooo ... here comes the sun ... and I sayyyy ... it's all right ... do do do do do. I feel you, Zeke. Isiah feels like George Harrison, just before and after the Beatles broke up. With considerably fewer hallucinogens, probably.

Tuesday afternoon, Fran Frischilla was calling the Tulsa-Arkansas Little-Rock game when he made a bold but not at all unbelievable claim. Frischilla said that if Kansas splintered off their second five into another team, that team would be among the 25 best in the country. Like I said: not all that far-fetched. That this statement isn't met with grave incredulity is a testament to how talented and experienced and deep Kansas really is this year. It's the Jayhawks, and then it's everyone else.

Here's another example. Tuesday night, star freshman forward Thomas Robinson -- whom Rivals called one of the elite rebounders in his class -- played a mere two minutes. Why? Because the man in front of him, Cole Aldrich, is too good to take out of the game. Per Bill Self:

"Thomas didn’t get a chance to play because if he played, then Cole can’t, because he (Robinson) can’t chase a guard around," KU coach Bill Self said. Cole Aldrich, who earned MVP honors, scored 18 points with 11 rebounds and five blocks in 30 minutes.

OK, so there is obviously strategy involved here. Robinson is a bit more of a lumberer than is Aldrich, and Memphis was throwing four and sometimes five guards at the Jayhawks, because Memphis's team is primarily made up of guards. Adding Robinson would have been a liability. I get that.

Still. Robinson would be a starter at almost any other school in the country. Heck, most of Kansas's bench would, and that includes fellow top recruit Elijah Johnson and bench forward Markieff Morris. These are really good players, and the fact that Bill Self can take them off the bench to sub in for guys like Sherron Collins, Cole Aldrich, and Xavier Henry is a luxury few college basketball teams have. Not just in 2009. Like, ever.

Now they just have to play like it. Easy, right?