Like a number of teams, Northeastern needs more than their star players to win games and ultimately a conference championship. It’s no accident that in a number of recent wins and really throughout conference play, the Huskies have had players besides Matt Janning come through for them. Saturday’s 77-65 win over UNC-Wilmington provided the latest example of it.

The league as a whole is more competitive, and more talented top to bottom than it has been since the “CAA 4” (Delaware, Drexel, Hofstra, and Townson) bolted the America East for the Colonial Athletic Association. The America East is currently ranked 17th in RPI, up 10 spots from last season, and AE teams have come up with big wins (on the road no less) against the likes of Rutgers, Nebraska, Northeastern, and Air Force, and nearly pulled off the shocker of the year as Vermont lost on the road in overtime to Maryland.

Just about every team in the Big East has a star player or two. In Wednesday night’s matchup with Villanova visiting Providence, each team had an inside-outside combo, and while one can debate whether one duo is more talented than the other, let’s just say it’s a wash for the sake of argument. The Wildcats bring two McDonald’s All-Americans off the bench, which gives them an edge, but what made all the difference was what they got from two complementary players, two players that Providence doesn’t have anyone quite like. And Wednesday night was not an aberration in that regard.

Cruising through Jeff Adrien’s bloodstream is an overabundance of adrenaline. That’s a big reason he has evolved into UConn’s leading scorer, and all the while the Huskies have become the leading team in the national polls.

A quick rundown of this weekend’s action from around the nation, a call to break-up the streaking Northwestern Wildcats, and Gonzaga taking care of conference business.

It was three simple words, buried in the middle of a few comments, but they speak volumes. “Penn teams win.” That came from Penn freshman guard Zack Rosen, who has quickly made an impact on the Quakers. It was certainly evident on Friday night, when Rosen helped lead them to a 66-60 win at Harvard to start off Ivy League play with a win.

Wolff swished a 50-footer against as the buzzer sounded at the end of the first half. At the time it seemed like more of an anomaly than an impact play, as the Terriers entered the half leading the University of Maryland-Baltimore County by 17 points (39-22). Two overtimes later, Wolff’s heave stood out, as BU needed every single point in their 80-77 win.

Once again, Virginia Tech comes away from a game looking like a team on the verge, but not breaking through to pull off a win. Their 67-66 loss at Boston College is just the latest close loss for a team that’s been a little snake-bitten. Virginia Tech has lost seven games this season. Six of those losses have been by four points or less, with the aberration being their 25-point loss at Duke nearly four weeks ago.