Two things that stand out about SLU's 68-41 win over Duquesne on Saturday:

1) There was no after 4-minute TV timeout. In all my years of covering college basketball, I've never seen that. Jim Powers, the commercial timeout coordinator for most TV games here, had never seen it. When I mentioned it to Kyle Cassity after the game, he was surprised. Duquesne called timeout with 4:24 to play and there were no stoppages the rest of the game. The ball did not go out of bounds. There were no fouls. There were no violations. (The clock did stop after baskets in the final minute, but those aren't deadballs.) The last 4 minutes went by in just a little over 4 minutes, which was really a pain if you're writing on deadline. Those timeouts are precious opportunities.

The closest I'd ever come before was when the stoppage didn't come until there were 0.4 seconds left in the first half of a USC game. The referees wanted to wave it off, and just restart the play and go to halftime, but USC coach George Raveling, whose team had the ball, insisted on the timeout to draw up something. (If memory serves, it didn't work.)

2) Dwayne Evans was +38. That is, when Evans was on the court, SLU scored Duquesne by 38 points. The next best player on the team was Kwamain Mitchell at +21. Evans' +38 is the best number for SLU in the past five seasons, which is as far back as my records go. There have been some one-sided nonconference games that have never produced a number that high, but to do that in league play (and not against Fordham) and to be that much ahead of anyone else is pretty impressive. Evans' big number was because he was on the bench when Duquesne made its one run of the game. He got a rest with SLU up 19-11 and then came back after Duquesne had taken the lead with a 9-0 spurt. (FYI, that run came with Mitchell, Kyle Cassity, Mike McCall, Cody Ellis and Brian Conklin on the court. Ellis and Conklin never were on the court at the same time the rest of the game.)

SLU coach Rick Majerus had been battling the flu all week, which is why he coached sitting down and didn't come into the interview room after the game. He missed practice on Monday, the team didn't practice on Tuesday, and he was back on Wednesday, though he said Monday's practice went well without him while Wednesday's was one of the worst of the season.

SLU's points per possession was 1.13. SLU's defensive PPP was .68, their best in A-10 play.

This was SLU's eighth win this season by 20 or more points. The team had nine 20+ wins in 1994-95. The 1993-94 team had just six; I haven't looked at every season, but 94-95 is probably the school record. I'll have to get back to you on that.

Among the most telling stats in the game was that SLU shot 21 free throws while Duquesne shot just 5. That's the fewest free throws by a SLU opponent since Jan. 14, 2009 vs UMass, a 69-64 SLU win. The foul total wasn't quite as vast - 20 on Duquesne, 11 on SLU, but the Dukes never got into the bonus. Duquesne coach Ron Everhart was on the refs all night about the discrepancy; I don't think he ever got satisfaction. It was funny to hear SLU fans getting on a Duquesne player for faking contact at one point. After Conklin's performance at Charlotte, SLU fans have no argument to make on this one.

SLU's 11 fouls were its second fewest of the season (10 vs. Boston College). SLU's nine turnovers were its fewest since the New Mexico game.

SLU had 30 points in the paint, 21 on 3's and 13 at the line. That leaves two other baskets for the game that were longer than layups, shorter than 3's. SLU made just two of its first seven layups, then made seven of its last nine after the game turned into a wide-open, end-to-end game.

And though I've carped on it before, I'll do it again: Boy do a lot of players come down on fast breaks nowadays after a steal and blow the shot when they're pressured by the guy trailing the play. It happens a couple times a game, and not just at SLU games. I see it on TV. It drives me nuts.

Had the game been any closer, SLU's brutal free throw shooting would have been a topic. SLU shot 61.9 percent from the line, and they were 2 for 5 in the second half. Everybody on the team who took one missed at least one. Rob Loe went to the line and went 0 for 2.

SLU blocked seven shots. Duquesne blocked five.

Mitchell had 10 points, made two 3's. In the past three games, his assist-turnover ratio has been pretty even at 9-8. He played just 25 minutes, just 11 in the first half. He was +21.

Kyle Cassity, proving he can shoot, had 10 points, his most since Dec. 3 and he made his first 3-pointers since Dec. 7. Cassity said it's the same as it's always been for him: If he thinks he can shoot, he'll shoot. This was a case he thought he could shoot. He'd missed 14 straight 3's prior to Saturday. He was +13 in 19 minutes.

Evans had a big plus-minus number, but he was 5 of 12 from the field and missed a couple layups.

Conklin could have had a double-double if he'd gotten his normal minutes, but he played just 25 because of the situation and finished with 11 points and six rebounds. He played just 10 minutes in the second half. He was +14.

Prior to the game, I set the over-under on Rob Loe's minutes at 8 because this game was such a bad matchup for him. He got three in the first half, which made the under look good. But then there were hardly any whistles at the start of the half but the pace was slow enough and Loe played well enough that he didn't come off until there were 13:16 to play. That 6:34 could be the longest stint of the season for Loe, and he ended up playing 14 minutes. Four rebounds, three blocked shots added up to a pretty good game for Loe. He was +15 in 14 minutes.

In 112 minutes in the past five games, Jordair Jett has committed just three fouls. He was +13 in 20 minutes.

Mike McCall had four steals (though three turnovers) and was +12 in 28 minutes. He played 15 minutes in the first half, 13 in the second.

Cody Ellis played just 12 minutes -- and only 2 in the second half -- as he too fell victim to the bad matchups. He also made just 1 of 5 shots. He was +1.

Jake Barnett got some rare early minutes in place of Ellis in the second half. Offensively, he didn't take a shot in six minutes and had two rebounds. He was -2.

After two uninspiring efforts, Cory Remekun did very well in a game in which he was called on to be an agile big men. He had two fouls in the first half but Majerus stuck with him and he didn't get any more in seven minutes in the second half. Two blocks, a steal, an assist and a +10.

None of the other guys got in. Maybe if there had been some stoppages at the end Manning and Glaze could have gotten a shot.

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review called on my former P-D colleague Keith Schildroth to cover the game. Here's the Duquesne story.

As for the rest of the league, home teams largely ruled on Saturday, with only one visitor, UMass, winning. The Minutemen won at Richmond. If you look at the A-10 standings by whose won on the road and lost at home, which is a good way to tell early in the season who's doing well, Xavier, Dayton and UMass are all +1 (with a road win and no home losses), Fordham is -1 and Rhode Island -2. Everyone else is even. (A few teams, like SLU and Duquesne, have a road win, but its cancelled out by a home loss.) SLU is in a four-way tie for fourth in the league at 3-2, but the other three, La Salle, St. Bonaventure and George Washington, have yet to win on the road.