To the five of you who weren’t scouring the Lost message boards for tidbits following the season premiere last night … how about those Arizona Wildcats? Very impressive win last night at USC. Not impressive: Washington State, a team we were talking up recently, got upset at home by lowly Cal, a team with a rec-league caliber backcourt. Oregon and Cal refuse to be counted out of the NCAA tournament. Both still need help to get on the bubble, but they’ll have their chances to go dancing.

As for the vaunted Bayless-Mayo freshman matchup, we actually thought Bayless got the better of it, even though he scored fewer points (10 to Mayo’s 23) and took fewer shots (9 to Mayo’s 23). USC tried a triangle-and-two gimmick defense early on, with Angelo Johnson, a tiny but quicksilver freshman, glued to Bayless. Then Bayless shook him for a sick alley-oop and Mayo guarded him the rest of the night.

At this moment, for whatever reason, it seemed as if Mayo took this assignment as personal duel. Mayo got a bit selfish, often forcing perimeter shots (3-for-10 from three) to ‘get the better’ of Bayless. But the thing he didn’t do was attack the basket. It took him 38 minutes to get to the foul line. Bayless played within the offense, didn’t force nearly as much – though at times he appeared frustrated – and let Chase Budinger’s hot hand (29 points) guide the team to victory.

This sets up Arizona at UCLA Saturday night. That’s another must-watch game for college hoops junkies.

(We’re waiting out this damn Johan Santana deal. The deadline is rapidly approaching and it’s hard to believe they won’t get a deal done, but we’ll stay here till six and provide an update.)