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Breakfast Buffet: Undefeated Charlotte proves it should be taken seriously

1. Charlotte served notice Wednesday night that its undefeated record may not merely be a product of a tissue-soft early schedule. Guard Pierria Henry scored Charlotte's final six points including two game-clinching free throws with 10.5 seconds left as the 49ers upset Davidson 73-69 to improve to 8-0 for the first time in school history. Does this mean Charlotte is an Atlantic 10 contender? Probably not. But it also means the 49ers aren't this year's Tulane, which started 9-0 last season and finished 15-16.

2. It may be time to pump the breaks just a bit on Boise State's early-season resurgence. The same Broncos team that smoked Creighton in Omaha and pushed Michigan State to the buzzer in East Lansing didn't fare so well in Salt Lake City on Wednesday night. Senior guard Jarred DuBois scored a game-high 18 points and Jason Washburn added 13 points and six rebounds as Utah smothered Boise State early en route to a surprisingly one-sided 76-55 win.

3. If Tennessee fans were hoping basketball would be a good distraction from a poorly run football coaching search, they've probably scrapped that idea after Wednesday night's loss at Virginia. The good news is the Vols managed more points than they did in a humbling 37-36 loss to Georgetown last Friday. The bad news is they scored only two more points. Virginia beat Tennessee 46-38 in a game in which the Vols shot 15 of 52 from the field.

4. Dayton hadn't done much to suggest it could finish in the upper echelon of the Atlantic 10 this season, but the Flyers' 81-76 road upset of Alabama was definitely an eye-opening result. Point guard Kevin Dillard scored 17 of his 25 points in the first half and forward Josh Benson had 21 points and six rebounds against a taller Alabama frontline, enabling the Flyers to become the first team to score more than 67 points on the Tide this season.

5. There seems to be a fair amount of surprise at how bad Villanova is again this season, but I can't figure out why. The Wildcats were awful last year, they had two of their better players make ill-advised decisions to leave school early and the recruiting class they brought in was good but not program-changing. That adds up to a 4-4 early-December record and home losses like Wednesday night's 76-61 setback against a Temple team that looks like an Atlantic 10 contender yet again.

Jumping over a rack of balls and dunking is definitely the sort of thing that can win you a dunk contest. Unfortunately if you can't clear it, it makes for hilarious blooper footage. I wish I knew what school this video was shot at and what the context is, but regardless it's a good reminder to all of us to know our limitations.

"My instinct was to just go be aggressive — try to get fouled, try to get a layup and put pressure on the defense, not really settle for a bad shot. That's all I really tried to do and I hit a shot. Finally." -- Gonzaga guard Kevin Pangos on his Tyus Edney-esque length-of-the-floor layup with 2.2 seconds to go that gave the unbeaten Zags a 71-69 win at rival Washington State. Pangos had been 1 of 11 from the field prior to that shot. (Spokane Spokesman Review)

• Rhode Island at Providence, 7 p.m. EST

• Vanderbilt at Xavier, 7:30 p.m. EST

• Long Beach State at Syracuse, 8 p.m. EST

• Creighton at Nebraska, 8 p.m. EST