A reader got this terrific screen grab of a shady character at the Mavericks game in the front row wearing gold shoes. Do not be confused by the mixture of college and NBA games below.

Phoenix 97, Dallas 112: The return of Nash and Shaq wasn’t enough to prevent the Suns from dropping their fourth in a row. Dirk tied his season-best scoring effort with 39. Despite a slow start, the Mavs have won eight of nine games.

San Antonio 108, Denver 91: That’s an odd result – the Spurs come off a home loss to Detroit, go on the road and beat one of the hottest teams in the league? Weird. Just like old times for Duncan, Parker and Manu, as the trio combined for 64 points.

Connecticut 68, Buffalo 64: Two years in a row, two near-upsets for Bulls. Last year they lost to Pittsburgh by three and this year they had a chance to beat the Huskies with a three in the final seconds, but instead turned the ball over. Thabeet had 21-18, and if you want discipline from a freshman, Kemba Walker played 30 minutes and didn’t attempt a shot.

Oklahoma 73, USC 72: The Trojans really went after Blake Griffin – one guy was ejected for a blatant cheap shot to the lower abdomen/groin area, and later, the best player in the country was clobbered by a flagrant foul on the fast break. He still finished with 25. His brother, Taylor, blocked four shots. Dwight Lewis led the athletic but out-of-control Trojans with 25.

Texas 68, UCLA 64: AJ Abrams torched the Bruins for 31. How can anyone be high on this UCLA team? Yes, it was close (Darren Collison had a brilliant first half; Josh Shipp performed well in the second half), but UCLA has nothing inside, and its supposedly-fab freshman, Jru Holiday, seemed really unsure all night (1-for-6, three points). Maybe it was playing in a hostile road game, who knows. Texas is probably in that huge bundle of very good teams after UNC and Connecticut. Don’t think UCLA is. We’d say it’s UNC and Connecticut at the top, and then the next tier might have 10 teams: Gonzaga, Pittsburgh, Texas, Oklahoma, Notre Dame, Wake Forest, Duke, Louisville and Oklahoma. The third tier would be UCLA, Tennesse, Syracuse, Memphis, and teams of that ilk.