Ucla

Bill Self is being modest. He's in his office, surrounded by pictures and mementos from a national championship and a mess of other happy moments at Kansas when you point out that there just isn't anything else like this going on in college basketball. "We're not doing anything different," he says. "We've just been real fortunate. " Except he's wrong. Kansas is doing something different than every other major conference basketball program in the country, something that has never been more obvious.

No losses in sight David Teel Daily Press Connecticut's road to history and another perfect season has more potholes than the Pennsylvania Turnpike. The Huskies' remaining schedule includes 11 games against teams in this week's Top 25, including No. 3 Stanford, No. 6 Duke and No. 7 Ohio State. But after erasing a late eight-point deficit against No. 2 Baylor on Tuesday — thank freshman Bria Hartley's two cold-blooded 3-pointers — UConn appears destined to break UCLA's record on Dec. 21 against No. 16 Florida State.

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John Wooden was remembered Saturday for being "one in a billion as a coach, mentor and friend" by former player Jamaal Wilkes during a memorial service uniting the decades of "boys" who helped him win a record 10 national men's basketball championships at UCLA. A sepia-toned photo of the man who answered to the simple moniker of "Coach" rested on one end of a stage inside Los Angeles' Pauley Pavilion. • Trevor Bauer limited TCU to four hits in eight innings and Blair Dunlap hit a three-run homer, leading UCLA to a 10-3 victory at Omaha, Neb., that sent the Bruins to the College World Series finals, where they will meet South Carolina.

Attention to detail David Wharton Los Angeles Times Socks and shoelaces — that's what John Wooden should be remembered for. At the start of each season, Wooden put his UCLA players through a refresher course on smoothing their socks and carefully lacing their shoes to avoid blisters. He was all about the basics, notions that lasted beyond a game or two. These precepts, dating back through his Midwestern childhood and his time as a high school English teacher, became the building blocks for his "Pyramid of Success."

UCLA coach Ben Howland said sophomore forward Drew Gordon is no longer on the team. Howland said Tuesday he came to a mutual agreement to part ways with Gordon, who intends to transfer. The 6-foot-9 Gordon is the Bruins' third-leading scorer, averaging 11.2 points and 5.3 rebounds while starting all six games. The former San Jose high school star apparently clashed a few times in recent months with Howland, who didn't give a specific reason for Gordon's departure.

Jon Scheyer was falling out of bounds when he made a heady play to keep one loose ball alive. David McClure tipped another one to a teammate to deny Texas a last chance. Because Duke is doing all the little things right, some of the biggest things remain very real possibilities. The second-seeded Blue Devils made every clutch play in their 74-69 victory over the seventh-seed Longhorns last night in the East Regional in Greensboro, N.C., propelling them into the second weekend of the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2006.

Dwayne Anderson and Dante Cunningham each scored 25 points, and Villanova rallied from a 14-point second-half deficit to beat upset-minded American, 80-67, in the first round of the NCAA tournament last night in Philadelphia. The third-seeded Wildcats (27-7) needed a late 19-2 run to fend off the Patriot League champions. The 14th-seeded Eagles (24-8) sizzled from three-point range early and pushed Villanova to the brink. The loss ended the Eagles' 13-game winning streak. "It wasn't that we took them lightly at all," Villanova coach Jay Wright said.

Arizona is streaking and UCLA is teetering in the Pacific-10. Nic Wise scored 26 points, and Jordan Hill had 22 points and 13 rebounds to lead Arizona (18-8, 8-5) to an 84-72 victory over the 11th-ranked Bruins (19-6, 8-4) in Tucson yesterday, the Wildcats' seventh win in a row. "We are just fighting and getting better," Wise said. "We still feel we are not at our peak yet. We are still learning things and getting things done on the fly." Arizona broke an eight-game losing streak against UCLA, which was swept in the desert for the first time since 2005.