BOSTON – Immediately after his team came up short in its comeback bid against Providence, Northeastern coach Bill Coen thanked Friars coach Keno Davis for coming to Matthews Arena in Boston.

"A lot of high-major programs wouldn't take the risk coming into a mid-major building," Coen said. "I appreciate it."

Davis later admitted that he had no choice.

"I didn't want to come here," Davis said. "But we had six or seven games to schedule when I got here, and we couldn't find teams that would play us."

So Davis and Coen signed an agreement in which Providence would play Northeastern twice at home and travel to Boston in-between.

A year ago, Northeastern spoiled Davis' debut with Providence, and the Huskies nearly got the Friars again if not for a perfectly executed out-of-bounds lob pass to Jamine "Greedy" Peterson with 15 seconds left and one second on the shot clock.

Sharaud Curry made some key shots for the Friars, but Providence has a chance to fight for an NCAA tournament bid next season despite losing Curry and fellow senior Brian McKenzie.

Marshon Brooks has NBA potential, Peterson is a junkyard dog and high-level athlete who gets more done than guys four or five inches taller and the backcourt of Vincent Council and future Friar Gerard Coleman will be fun to watch.

The one missing piece may be a big-time athletic center.

"We're a piece or two away from being a good team," Davis said of this year's club. "We'll miss Sharaud and McKenzie, but we've got pieces in place to be able to take over for them."

As for Northeastern, Coen understood that it would be difficult – no, make that virtually impossible – to run the table in the first five games and put the Huskies in a position to get an at-large bid come March.

"It's so hard to be an at-large team," Coen said. "It's almost crazy to talk about it because it's so difficult."

Coen's dilemma has been when to pick his spots and get his seven young freshmen into the game while playing a non-conference slate that's included games against Siena, Utah State, Boston University, Wright State and Providence.

"We're still trying to learn about ourselves," Coen admitted after the 76-72 loss. "Everyone is thinking this is the same team as last year, but it's not."

"We know we're going to be better come league play because we played all these guys," he added.

Coen boasts one of the league's top players in Matt Janning. The Huskies will need more from junior point guard Chaisson Allen than he provided against the Friars, but big man Nkem Ojougboh (12 points, 13 rebounds) made his presence felt against a young, inexperienced Providence frontline.

Freshmen Alwayne Bigby showed promise as he has already cracked the starting lineup and played 24 minutes in the loss.

"We're just hoping to become a good basketball team," Coen said. "We're not there yet. We know walking out of here tonight we're not there yet."

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STUD OF THE NIGHT: North Carolina's Larry Drew II has been questioned (not just by me), but Ty Lawson's former understudy performed well in the win against Kalin Lucas and Michigan State with 18 points, six assists and three turnovers.

DUD OF THE NIGHT: While fans in Chapel Hill were celebrating, those down the road in Raleigh were not quite so happy after N.C. State came out on the losing end against a Northwestern team that was without its best player, Kevin Coble. N.C. State was 2-for-18 from beyond the arc.

MID-MAJOR STUD: I'm giving the award to a pair of mid-major teams: Northern Colorado, which has started out 7-0 after a win against Colorado State last night, and Loyola (Md.), who knocked off Morgan State and improved to 4-2 with the victory.

STAT OF THE NIGHT: Two of the better shooters in the Big Ten - Purdue's Robbie Hummel and Michigan State's Chris Allen - combined to go 0-for-12 from 3-point land last night.

ON TAP: Plenty of action tonight with much of it having to do with the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. Here are 10 games worth keeping an eye on:

1. Siena at Georgia Tech, 7 p.m. ET: Paul Hewitt goes up against his former school for the first time; Both teams could use this one.

2. Illinois at Clemson, 7:15 p.m. ET: The Illini fell out of the Top 25 after losses to Utah and Bradley while Clemson rebounded from a loss to Texas A&M with a tight win against Butler.

3. Minnesota at Miami, 7:15 p.m. ET: Tubby Smith's club dropped a couple out in Anaheim and faces an undefeated Hurricanes team.

4. Boston College at Michigan, 7:30 p.m. ET: The Eagles have struggled without Rakim Sanders while Michigan needs to get things turned around after a couple of losses down in Orlando.

5. Arkansas at Oklahoma, 8 p.m. ET: Willie Warren is likely to return after a one-game absence while the Razorbacks need a win desperately.

6. UNLV at Arizona, 9 p.m. ET: The Runnin' Rebels finally leave home and get a road test in Tucson against Sean Miller's young team.

7. Washington State at Gonzaga, 9 p.m. ET: The Cougs and Klay Thompson may be better than people think. We'll see when they face the 'Zags.

8. Duke at Wisconsin, 9:15 p.m. ET: Can the Blue Devils go into a hostile environment and beat a quality team? We'll see. A win for Bo Ryan & Co. could put the Badgers in a spot to continue their impressive run of consecutive NCAA tournament appearances.

9. Florida State at Ohio State, 9:30 p.m. ET: This maybe my favorite matchup of the night. The 'Noles won the tournament down in Orlando while the Buckeyes have been impressive other than a loss to North Carolina.

10. Missouri at Vanderbilt, 9:30 p.m. ET: Two teams that will be fighting for a tournament bid come March, and this could be a résumé win for one of them.

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UCLA isn't just losing games.

The Bruins, who have lost four games to non-BCS schools already this season, have now lost starting forward Drew Gordon, who has decided to transfer out of the program.

"After several discussions with Drew, we both have decided that it is in the best interests of our program and Drew that he continues his career at another school," UCLA coach Ben Howland said in a statement released by the school. "He is no longer a member of our team and will transfer at the end of the quarter."

Howland and the Bruins were a national power and went to three consecutive Final Fours from 2006 to 2008.

However, the talent drop-off has been evident this season, despite the Bruins being inexperienced.

Gordon was one of the few bright spots this season, averaging 11.2 points and 5.3 rebounds per game.

"This is not a spur of the moment decision and ultimately, it's what’s best for all parties," Howland said.

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Talented Villanova freshman Mouphtaou Yarou has been diagnosed with the Hepatitis B virus and is expected to miss the entire season.

"We are disappointed for Mouph," Wildcats coach Jay Wright said in a statement. "We know that he is receiving great care from Dr. (Frank) Furman and some of the best specialists in the field. Mouph's health is our foremost concern."

While the release stated that Yarou is out indefinitely, sources told FOXSports.com that he will likely miss the entire season.

The 6-foot-10 Yarou, who was expected to make a significant contribution for a Wildcats team that was picked to contend for a second consecutive Final Four berth, was sent home from San Juan a little more than a week ago due to a viral infection and underwent several medical tests.

Yarou, a native of Benin, was considered a top 25 player coming out of high school at Montrose Christian (Md.) this past season.

Yarou played in two games and averaged 5.0 points and 4.0 rebounds per contest.

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You've got to feel for DePaul coach Jerry Wainwright.

Wainwright, who admittedly came into the season with some pressure to win, has watched his team get off to an impressive 4-1 start – with wins over Missouri Valley favorite Northern Iowa and Saint Joseph's and a close call against Tennessee in the Paradise Jam.

But now, according to a source, DePaul will be without its top inside threat as Mac Koshwal will be out 4-6 weeks with a cracked bone in his foot.

"We're still waiting on a final medical evaluation," Wainwright told FOXSports.com.

The 6-foot-10, 250-pound junior was averaging 15 points and 13 rebounds per contest but didn't play the past two games – wins against St. Joseph's and Detroit – after suffering the injury.

The source told FOXSports.com that Koshwal won't need surgery.

FEW RIDING BACKCOURT

The Gonzaga guard duo of Matt Bouldin and Steven Gray haven't come off the court much thus far.

Bouldin is averaging 36.5 minutes, and Gray is logging more than 35 minutes per game.

Thus far, most of the production has come from the Bouldin, Gray, big man Robert Sacre, freshman Elias Harris and point guard Demetri Goodson.

They have combined to average 66.2 of the team's 80 points per game.

"If those guys aren't getting tired, why take them out?" 'Zags coach Mark Few said of Bouldin and Gray. "They go forever and like to play. It's easy to point to our lack of bench, but for us, we need to win games. Eventually we'll get more out of them."

Few's team ended up celebrating its Maui Invitational victory by spending Thanksgiving on the Island.

He was pleased with how his players won three games – against Colorado, Wisconsin and Cincinnati - in three different ways while in Maui.

He also loves having a big man like Sacre who can score in the post – maybe the first in Spokane since J.P. Batista.

"He's such a good guy," Few said of Sacre. "He's a big, old goofy kid who just loves to bang."

But the 'Zags enter a stretch this week with Washington State and Wake Forest at home.

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