James Southerland will be in uniform for Syracuse today against St. John's (Getty Images)

A two-day wait for the results of James Southerland's appeal has apparently ended with the news Syracuse fans have been craving.

The senior forward has reportedly been reinstated.

Southerland, Syracuse's premier outside shooter, will be a welcome addition for Syracuse when it hosts St. John's on Sunday afternoon. The 6-foot-8 senior had missed the team's previous six games as a result of being declared ineligible on Jan. 12 due to an undisclosed academic issue.

Southerland was Syracuse’s second-leading scorer during the first half of the season, averaging 13.6 points and 5.2 rebounds and hitting 37.5 percent of his attempts from behind the arc. Without him in the lineup, the Orange still went 4-2 but they were just 29 of 90 from 3-point range during those six games

The return of Southerland will boost a frontcourt that had been shorthanded without him and center Dajuan Coleman, who underwent a surgical procedure on his left knee that will sideline him until the end of the month. Freshman Jerami Grant performed well with increased playing time, so Syracuse now should only have more depth once it returns to full strength.

St. Bonaventure players gather in a hotel room after the power went out Friday night (via @BonniesMBB)

The full brunt of this week's powerful winter storm had just begun to batter the state of Rhode Island at 10 p.m. Friday night when the lights at the Newport Marriott flickered a few times and went black.

The view out the window of St. Bonaventure's hotel Saturday morning (via @BonniesMBB)Ever the optimist, St. Bonaventure coach Mark Schmidt immediately found a silver lining to losing power at the team hotel the night before the Bonnies faced Rhode Island.

"I got to go to bed to earlier," Schmidt quipped. "I didn't have to watch anymore tape."

What was a slight nuisance Friday night became a greater hassle by the time Schmidt and his players awoke Saturday morning because the hotel's backup generator had also failed. All other guests at the hotel had to be evacuated because it had no power, lights, heat, hot water and hot food, not exactly ideal conditions for the Bonnies to prepare for a road game.

Showers had to be brief because the water was frigid. The team's pregame meal consisted of cold cuts and bread. And after digging the team bus out of the snow for two hours to go to shootaround at a nearby prep school, St. Bonaventure discovered that the generator there was also broken, forcing the staff to hold an afternoon walkthrough in an ice-cold ballroom at the team hotel instead.

"You try to make the best of a bad situation," Schmidt said. "It wasn't ideal, but there are people out there who are starving. That's how you have to look at it."

(USA Today Sports Images)It was dull for 39 minutes, 13 seconds. A real yawner. The kind of game that challenges even tireless ESPN analyst Dick Vitale to manufacture some energy.

Then something magical got into Notre Dame's Jerian Grant.

With 47 seconds remaining and No. 11 Louisville comfortably leading the Fighting Irish by eight, Grant pumped in his first 3-pointer from deep outside the arc. A few seconds later he charged up the floor and hit another, causing Vitale to ask no one in particular where Grant had been all night. The third 3-pointer came with 26 seconds left to bring the Irish within three.

Louisville center Gorgui Dieng missed two free throws on the other end and Grant brought the ball up the floor but elected to drive to the basket instead of launching another three. He was fouled making a layup and drained the and-one free throw with 16 seconds left, tying the game at 60.

Notre Dame won 104-101 more than an hour later.

[Related: Miracle shot propels Wisconsin to OT, win over Michigan]

Garrick Sherman contests a shot by Luke Hancock in the fifth overtime (USA Today Sports Images)Had Notre Dame not managed to force overtime against Louisville with an unfathomable last-minute comeback, Garrick Sherman's line in Saturday night's box score would have merely read DNP-Coach's Decision.

Instead the seldom-used big man became the most unlikely hero of the longest game in Notre Dame history and one of the most unforgettable games of this college basketball season.

Despite not shedding his warmups once during regulation, Sherman entered the game at the start of the first overtime after top big men Jack Cooley and Tom Knight fouled out at the end of the second half. Sherman played so well, he hardly left the court thereafter, scoring 17 points and grabbing six rebounds to propel the Irish to a 104-101 victory in five overtimes.

"I had to deliver. There wasn't any choice," Sherman told ESPN's Samantha Ponder after the game. "I'd been sitting a little bit, but I got out on the floor and I tried to step up for my team."

[Related: Grant's regulation heroics lead to OT classic]

Few would have believed Sherman would play such a pivotal role in an upset considering the limited minutes the Michigan State transfer had received recently.

Once Notre Dame's top interior reserve during November and December, Sherman lost his spot in the rotation to Knight after an 0-for-4 performance from the field in a Jan. 15 loss to St. John's. In four of the Irish's six games since then, Sherman never even got off the bench, surely a disappointment for a kid who left Michigan State after his sophomore year in 2011 in part because of inconsistent playing time.

The biggest surprise from the video of Wisconsin's locker room celebration after its victory over Michigan today is what song was playing in the background. If you had Ke$ha's "Die Young" as the Badgers' celebration soundtrack, you're a winner. Choosing that as a victory song certainly won't boost Wisconsin's street cred, but the Badgers fans will surely forgive them for their musical taste after the way they performed against the Wolverines. My only quibble is that Wisconsin didn't break out some Soulja Boy. Then maybe we could have gotten a repeat of this Bo Ryan dance.

(AP)

It seemed like a foregone conclusion just 10 days ago that No. 5 Kansas would win its ninth consecutive Big 12 Conference regular season championship. Suddenly the league is completely up for grabs with half the league in position to possibly dethrone the Jayhawks.

Kansas lost its third consecutive game Saturday at Oklahoma 72-66 just three days after being called out by coach Bill Self for a poor performance – a 13-point first half -- in a loss Wednesday at TCU. It is the first three-game losing streak for the Jayhawks in eight years and knocked them out of first-place in the conference.

Cal State Fullerton players observe a moment of silence before Saturday's game (via @VikkiNBCLA)

Less than a week after the Cal State Fullerton women's basketball team learned assistant coach Monica Quan had been shot to death in her car last weekend, the Titans played a game in her honor Saturday afternoon.

A look at the shirts worn by Cal State Fullerton players (via @BigWestWBB)They lost to UC Riverside 64-45, but the final score was secondary to paying tribute to the 28-year-old woman they knew as "Coach Mo."

Awaiting fans as they walked into Titan Gym was a memorial featuring photos of Quan and several bouquets of flowers. There was also a blank book and a handful of pens to allow fans to offer their condolences.

During pregame warmups, Cal State Fullerton players donned orange T-shirts that read "MOtivation" on one side and "... it is the courage to continue that counts" on the other. They also observed a moment of silence in Quan's honor before tipoff before the catharsis of the game itself finally arrived.

The game was no doubt the first bit of normalcy for Cal State Fullerton since they learned authorities found the bodies of Quan and her fiancé, 27-year-old Keith Lawrence, in their car at a parking structure in Irvine Sunday night. Quan and Lawrence met at Concordia University in Irvine, where both played basketball for the Division III school.

A few days after Miami served notice it was a legit ACC title contender with its demolition of top-ranked Duke last month, point guard Shane Larkin described how a notoriously tepid college hoops market was beginning to embrace the Hurricanes.

LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and James Jones watched Miami's victory (AP)"The buzz around campus and the Miami area is amazing," Larkin said. "Everywhere we go – restaurants, grocery stores, anywhere – people are recognizing me and my teammates and they show a lot of love."

Saturday's 87-61 home victory over North Carolina was another step in the transformation of Miami basketball from anonymity to prominence. Miami Heat stars LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and James Jones were part of a sellout crowd, and they each appeared to be especially impressed by one play in particular.

With just less than eight minutes to go in the second half and Miami already leading by 22, Larkin caught an outlet pass in transition and decided to get a little fancy. He laid the ball high off glass and a trailing Kenny Kadji slammed it home with two hands, an alley-oop that had even James, Wade and Jones on their feet courtside, grinning and applauding.

The Larkin-to-Kadji jam in the above video was the highlight of a thoroughly impressive performance from the Hurricanes.

Larkin had 18 points and a career-high nine assists and Kadji and Durand Scott added 17 points apiece as Miami (19-3, 10-0) led from tipoff until the final buzzer to improve to 11-o at home this season. The Hurricanes' 10 ACC wins are a school record -- and they still have eight games left to go.