It’s always nice to see an injured player return to full strength, and Nick Chubb made a statement on Saturday that he’s back to terrorize college football defenses. Kirby Smart wasn’t shy about using him, as Chubb carried the ball 32 times for 222 yards as Georgia got past North Carolina in a pretty good football game.

Chubb instantly becomes a serious Heisman candidate with this performance, and it gives new head coach Smart a stabilizing force on offense.

The Wildcats held a slim lead for most of the game, but found themselves tied at 67-67 with 3:18 to play after Tyler Zeller hit a pair of free throws to cap a 10-2 run for the Tar Heels.

On the next trip down the court, Brandon Knight picked a great time to hit his fifth three-pointer of the game. Zeller’s tip-in cut the lead to one, but then DeAndre Liggins hit a three of his own to give the Wildcats a four-point lead with 0:35 to play.

Just like the VCU/Kansas game, three-point shooting was the difference in this one. Kentucky went 12-of-22 (55%), while the Tar Heels made just 3-of-16 (19%) from long range.

Kentucky joins VCU, UConn and Butler in the Final Four. They’ll play Kemba Walker and UConn on Saturday.

North Carolina outlasted Washington, 86-83, in Charlotte, but most of the talk after the game was how the officials determined the amount of time remaining on the last play of the game.

Washington’s Venoy Overton heaved a half-court shot (with his off hand, no less) and the ball hit John Henson’s hand before it went out of bounds. The replay clearly showed it hit the floor out of bounds with 1.2 seconds remaining, yet when Washington’s coaching staff asked the refs to check the time, they said it was fine and play proceeded with 0.5 seconds remaining. Washington didn’t have much time to get a good look and ended up taking a contested two-pointer that wouldn’t have changed the outcome of the game even if it had gone in.

The NCAA director of men’s officials, John Adams, told CBS after the game that the officials acted correctly since there’s a lag time between when the ball hits, when the official blows his whistle and when the scorekeeper stops the clock.

Fine. But there’s an elephant in the room — why didn’t the officials bother to go to the video? They don’t have to check the video, but if the Washington coaching staff did indeed ask about the time, then the officials should have double-checked. With the Sweet Sixteen on the line, why not take a minute and make sure you got it right?

Who knows, had Washington had an extra 0.7 seconds, maybe they would have had time to get a better shot.

Check out this lineup of college hoops today (all times ET):

12 PM: #2 Kansas @ #24 Missouri (CBS)
The Jayhawks need a victory in Columbia to win the Big 12 outright. They have a one-game lead over Texas with one game to play and are hoping to secure a #1 seed in the Big 12 Tournament as well. Meanwhile, Missouri is hoping to complete an unbeaten season at home.

2 PM: #7 Notre Dame @ #16 UConn (ESPN)
It’s senior night for the Huskies, who have beaten the Irish seven straight times at Gampel Pavilion. Notre Dame can earn the #1 seed in the Big East tournament with a win today and a Pittsburgh loss to Villanova.

4 PM: #19 Villanova @ #5 Pittsburgh (CBS)
Villanova has faded after a strong start to the season, but could still spoil the Panthers’ bid to be the top seed in the Big East Championship if they’re able to upset Pitt on their home floor. The Panthers need a win to solidify their bid to be a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

6 PM: #14 Florida @ #20 Vanderbilt (ESPN)
These two teams went into overtime the first time they met this season and the Gators can clinch the outright SEC title with a win against the Commodores in Nashville.

8 PM: #4 Duke @ #13 North Carolina (CBS)
The ACC regular season championship is on the line as the Blue Devils face the Tar Heels in Chapel Hill. In the first meeting at Cameron, UNC had a 16-point lead before Duke came back to win 79-73. Duke is hoping to be a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament and needs a win tonight to round out its resume.

It’s not often that there are five Top 25 matchups lined up every two hours like there are today. And don’t forget, #10 Wisconsin plays #1 Ohio State at 4 PM (on CBS) on Sunday.

Barnes is from Iowa and Marshall is from Virginia, while Bullock is from North Carolina — maybe that has something to do with it.

Orlando head coach Stan Van Gundy told the Orlando Sentinel that if he were to fall out of the NBA coaching ranks, he’d rather coach at a small college than at the major D1 level:

“As far as what it’s all about at the Division 1 level and what it’s all about here, it’s all the same thing. It’s all about winning and losing, putting people in the seats and money,” the Magic coach told the Sentinel after Wednesday’s shootaround.

“I mean, those people throw out that they are really into academics and all that … There may be four or five schools that’s true of.

“I don’t know of coaches getting fired winning 20-25 games a year and kids aren’t graduating. I don’t know people who are keeping their jobs that aren’t winning and are graduating. It’s about the same stuff.

“Here, [in the NBA], it’s just more honest. We all know what it’s all about. You don’t have to pay lip service to things. This is the best basketball in the world.”

He makes a good point, and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan wants to do something about it.

Duncan suggests that schools that cannot graduate at least 40 percent of their student-athletes be banned from postseason play. If the rule was applied to this year’s tournament, 12 of the 65 teams would be locked out of the tournament. Three of them are No. 6 seeds or better—the University of Tennessee, the University of Maryland, and the University of Kentucky. “If you can’t manage to graduate two out of five players, how serious are the institutions and the colleges about the players’ academic success?” Duncan asks. “How are they preparing student-athletes for life?”

The data is from 1999-2003, and it seems a little unfair to focus on players that played seven to 11 years ago. Also, programs that send a lot of players to the NBA shouldn’t be penalized because their players are good enough to make millions playing professional ball. If this rule were implemented, it should focus only on players that stayed in college for four years.

For years, The Bootleg has studied graduation rates for football, basketball and baseball. The data is more recent, from 2004-2007. I’m not at all surprised to see my former coach, Bo Ryan, and the Wisconsin program near the top of the Big Ten (78%). He tends to recruit smart players who will likely stay in school for four years. Duke is second in the ACC at 92%, while North Carolina is at 75%. Maryland brings up the rear at a measly 8%. That’s just pathetic.

Photo from fOTOGLIF

North Carolina put up a fight, but lost at home to #7 Duke, 64-54. The score was tied, 45-45 with eight minutes to play, but a pair of Jon Scheyer bombs — one with 5:35 to play to give Duke a four-point lead and another with 2:35 to play to push the lead to nine — effectively broke Carolina’s back.

The Tar Heels are a mess, especially offensively. It’s no surprise that they’re suffering from a lack of leadership, considering that just two of the team’s top seven players (in terms of minutes), Deon Thompson and Ed Davis, returned from last year’s championship team. And it’s tough for big men to be leaders because they don’t handle the ball as much as guards do and aren’t able to set a standard for taking care of the ball and making that extra pass for an open shot. Upperclassmen are so important in terms of leading the youngsters by example, and Roy Williams simply isn’t getting that kind of leadership from seniors Thompson and Marcus Ginyard, or junior Will Graves.

The Tar Heels also got killed on the defensive glass. Duke had 19 offensive rebounds, which allowed the Blue Devils to shoot 11 more shots than UNC.

North Carolina is now 2-7 and isn’t likely to get a bid to the NCAA tournament. Meanwhile, Duke is 8-2 and in sole possession of first place in the ACC.

Photo from fOTOGLIF