Gonzaga won the Old Spice Classic by beating Tennessee 83-74 on Sunday. (AP)

What We Learned, in a Larger Sense

1. Gonzaga ain't the old Gonzaga anymore. (And this is a very good thing.)

When the Zags' national popularity was at its peak, in 2005-06, their flawed motto was, essentially: Why play D when you can score? The team lived and died with Adam Morrison, an offensive virtuoso who made for fantastic television but guarded no one. By examining Gonzaga's efficiency stats from its first five games of that season (which included an epic Maui Invitational), we can see just how much the Zags were living on the edge, by giving up nearly one point per possession to every team other than Idaho. Even in wins, their efficiency margin was small:

Now, look at the same data from Gonzaga's first five games of '08-09, which also include two cupcakes and one solid early-season tournament -- the Old Spice Classic, which the Bulldogs just won on Sunday:

The New Zags score just as well as the Old Zags, but are playing D to go along with it. The perimeter duo of Jeremy Pargo and Micah Downs are infinitely better defenders than Derek Raivio and Morrison were, and as a result, the New Zags' efficiency margins have jumped to astronomical levels, such as plus-34 against Maryland and plus-22 against Tennessee. This is a viable recipe for reaching the Final Four.

2. Michigan State is not yet ready for prime time.

This fact saddens me, because the Spartans face No. 1 North Carolina on Wednesday in what was supposed to be the marquee game of the early season. Now I'd be pleasantly surprised if that duel stays within single digits. Not only did Michigan State lose to an average Maryland team in the first round of the Old Spice Classic, shooting just 44.4 percent from the charity stripe in the process, the Spartans also trailed Wichita State 26-22 at halftime on Sunday. (This is the same Shockers team that lost at home to UMKC 11 days earlier.) MSU was missing senior big man Goran Suton, but that's hardly an excuse -- Carolina still finds ways to slaughter tournament-level opponents without Tyler Hansbrough.

The prevailing wisdom among pundits (and more than a few Spartans fans who e-mailed in the preseason) was that Tom Izzo's club would turn into an offensive power once Drew Neitzel was out of the picture, rather than be hurt by the loss of their longtime scoring star. But who has taken over in Neitzel's place? Junior forward Raymar Morgan is only an on-again, off-again force on offense; in the Old Spice Classic, he scored four points against Maryland, then 29 against Oklahoma State, then nine against Wichita State. Izzo hinted (to mlive.com) that this may be a passion problem, saying, "Ray has got to figure out that every day he's got to get more and more passionate about basketball. Because when he is, he's a very, very, very good player and when he isn't, he's an average player." Which makes Michigan State an average team. And that makes me feel more confident about 1) saying I'd be shocked if Purdue didn't win the Big Ten and 2) my bet with Seth Davis (for a steak dinner) that the Boilers will finish ahead of the Spartans.

3. The Great Alaska Shootout has gone the way of Sarah Palin -- from national prominence to near irrelevancy.

Remember 1998, when Cincinnati -- with Kenyon Martin dishing to Melvin Levett for a last-minute dunk -- upset No. 1 Duke in Anchorage on ESPN? My, how the tournament has fallen since then: This year's model featured a final between San Diego State and Hampton -- and mercifully, it wasn't available on TV. The culprit here is ESPN rather than the Shootout: The network discontinued its TV contract with the tournament, choosing instead to promote the three early-season events it now owns, the Old Spice Classic, 76 Classic and Puerto Rico Tip-Off. Once Alaska dropped off of ESPN, big-name teams wouldn't commit, and it dropped off the map.

SI.com's Starting Five

(Wearing Western Kentucky jerseys, and being cheered on by that silly amorphous red mascot, in honor of the Upset of the Year Thus Far -- the Hilltoppers' 68-54 win over No. 3 Louisville on Sunday.)

1. Steffphon Pettigrew, PF, Western Kentucky. The Hilltoppers' undersized four-man went up against the nation's best front line on Sunday ... and went for 17 points and 12 boards while holding super-frosh Samardo Samuels to just 11 points. Pettigrew was just a three-star recruit back in 2007 ... while Samuels was a five-star hamburger All-American.

2. Blake Griffin, PF, Oklahoma. Big Blake was slightly impressive in the NIT Season Tip-Off, spinning his way to 32 points and 15 boards against UAB, and then -- in what OU coach Jeff Capel described as a "tough" game for Griffin -- going for 18 points and 21 boards against Purdue in the final. He's established himself as the frontrunner for the Wooden and Naismith Awards.

3. James Harden, SG, Arizona State. His team hasn't exactly looked top-15-worthy, but Harden looked like an All-America last week, dropping 32 points on Baylor in a loss and 40 on UTEP in the consolation game of the 76 Classic. That established a new 76 Classic scoring record -- one of the college game's most coveted statistical titles.

4. Kyle McAlarney, SG, Notre Dame. The Launchin' Leprechaun is shooting like mad -- he hoisted 35 threes in the Irish's last two games -- but making them at more than a 50 percent clip. He went for 39 points (on 10-of-18 threes) against UNC in the Maui Invitational final, and then scored 32 (on 9-of-17 threes) against Furman on Sunday.

5. Ty Lawson, PG, North Carolina. He shot 70 percent and scored 22 points in each of the Heels' last two games, wins over Notre Dame (in Maui) and UNC-Asheville. In the Maui final, Lawson was just two rebounds shy of a triple-double.

The Week Ahead

The One Game You Should Care About: Is not Michigan State-UNC, which could get ugly. It's Duke-Purdue at Mackey Arena on Tuesday. It's nice of the Big Ten-ACC Challenge to force the Blue Devils into a true road game -- last year all of their non-conference games were either on neutral courts or at home -- and especially one against a fellow small-ball team on the rise. The Boilers might have won the NIT Season Tip-Off with a few more breaks from a rusty officiating crew at Madison Square Garden. Had Duke, and not Oklahoma, been Purdue's opponent in that whistle-happy Garden game, the conspiracy theorists would still be howling.

My One Wish For This Week: That Jimmy Patsos isn't done for the season. He's already pulled a Byrdsong and engineered the absurd Stop Steph Curry Experiment -- and that was just in November! Hoops scholars will not be studying Patsos' defensive schemes ... but bloggers love him.

The Style Archive: Is making its much awaited '08-09 debut on Tuesday. While we're aware other blogs have started taking pictures of hoop hair -- imitation is the sincerest form of flattery! -- the Archive aims to be the most in-depth source of trivial aesthetic matters.

Your Monday Moment of Zen ...

... is Chris Wright, in flight. This dunk, from Dayton's rout of No. 15 Marquette on Saturday, is going to haunt Maurice Acker for the rest of his life.