No matter what the final score actually turned out to be, UCLA won. The Bruins came back and Texas A&M wilted under the pressure. Donald Sloan, the Aggies leading scorer had the ball and was driving to tie the game and send it to overtime. The UCLA defense blocked his attempt and stripped the ball to send it the other way. Well, blocked might not be the correct word as these photos indicate.

These aren't photos FanHouse has permission to post. So, we can only link to them. They do suggest that UCLA continues to lead a charmed life when it comes to late calls -- made or not. Last I checked Josh Shipp getting all wrist, is not the usual way to get a clean block.

Actually, maybe not in this case. Making the free throws -- no lock itself, as Sloan is only a 67% FT shooter and the Aggies were 3-7 at the line that night -- would have only sent the game into overtime. Texas A&M hardly looked like the team it had been for the first 30-35 minutes. Neither did UCLA. The Bruins would have been the team heading into the OT with the momentum and energy.

Still, you never know. I also know I don't want to be anywhere near UCLA fans when the late calls start swinging the other way.

Many people were a bit puzzled that the final dunk at the end of last night's UCLA-Texas A&M game counted. The final score was listed as 53-49 even though the dunk clearly came after the buzzer. If you don't know about it, go to the 1:31 mark of the video above.

Today, it has been changed to 51-49:

"Amidst the activity courtside, there was a misinterpretation of the signal," Hank Nichols, national coordinator of men's basketball officiating, said in a release Sunday. "But the ruling on the court was that the basket should not have counted, making the final score 51-49, not 53-49."

Sure, it doesn't mean anything in the long run -- UCLA won the game. The line as UCLA by 10, so betters aren't affected by the outcome. Still, it is quite disturbing that signals between the officials and the official scorer were misinterpreted like that.

No. 1 seed UCLA managed to survive a tough onslaught from No. 9 Texas A&M tonight in Anaheim, holding on to win 53-49 in by far the toughest challenge a 1 seed has had so far in this year's NCAA Tournament.

Most of the UCLA players turned in lousy performances, but Kevin Love and Darren Collison carried the Bruins on their backs, making two crucial shots apiece down the stretch. Collison and Love combined for 40 points on 14-of-25 shooting; their teammates combined for 13 points on 6-of-20 shooting, including a dunk by Russell Westbrook at the buzzer that looked, to these eyes, like it was actually after the buzzer.

"We made big plays by big-time players down the stretch," UCLA coach Ben Howland said of Love and Collison.

Donald Sloan led A&M with 12 points.

For the first time in this year's NCAA Tournament, a No. 1 seed is in trouble. It's halftime in Anaheim, and UCLA, the 1 seed in the West region, trails 9 seed Texas A&M 29-26.

UCLA has gotten a big game from Darren Collison, who has 14 points and is 4-for-4 from the field, with all four shots coming from beyond the arc. Kevin Love has eight points and five rebounds. But UCLA's other three starters -- Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, Josh Shipp and Russell Westbrook -- have combined for zero points on 0-for-11 shooting.

A&M has eight points apiece Bryan Davis and Donald Sloan, and DeAndre Jordan has come off the bench to score six. Jordan, a 7-foot freshman who was one of the top recruits in A&M history, will need to have a big second half against Love, the more celebrated 7-foot freshman, for A&M to pull this one out.

UPDATE: Kevin Love, Darren Collison Lead UCLA Past Texas A&M

10 points.

That's how many points the Aggies scored in the the first half at Oklahoma. Texas A&M shot a pathetic 5-27 in the first half, including 0-11 on 3s. As if that wasn't enough, the Aggies committed 11 fouls and DeAndre Johnson had 3 fouls -- he was also their leading scorer with a whopping 4 points.

Oklahoma has hardly been that impressive, but the shear incompetence of A&M makes them look like a top-teir team. At the half they were up 28-10.

It seems impossible for almost any D-1 team, let alone one in a major conference fighting for an NCAA berth, but Texas A&M went from 12:51 in the first half to 16:40 in the second between scores for the Aggies. 16 minutes and 9 seconds between points.

Texas A&M is down 21 points 4 minutes into the second half. They look like they have already packed it in for the season.

Throughout the season we'll look at bubble teams and assess whether they have a better chance of ending up in the NIT or NCAA Tournament.

Team: Texas A&M Aggies

Record: 21-7 (7-6 Big 12)

Good Wins: Ohio St. (neutral court), Texas

Bad Losses: At Texas Tech, Oklahoma State

Comments: The Aggies have spent most of the season ranked in the top-25. They have fallen out recently on the heels of their second 3-game losing streak in the conference. It hasn't been an easy transition from Billy Gillespie to Mark Turgeon coaching the team.

Their non-con, which looked good in January hardly impresses at the end of February. The wins over Alabama and LSU looked nice but both are 4-9 in a weak SEC. Washington has been only 15-13. The Aggies got beaten by Arizona in their one true non-con road game -- and the Wildcats are a bubble team themselves.

Other Views: They are 43d in RPI, 28th on Basketball State, 28th by the Sagarin Ratings.

Verdict: Hard to believe this team is putting itself on the bubble with more than 20 wins, but A&M's struggles in the Big 12 do just that. None of their remaining 3 games are gimmees -- at Oklahoma, at Baylor and Kansas -- meaning they could finish only .500 or worse.

The Aggies are probably in right now but they need to finish above .500 in the Big 12 to avoid sweating it.

Unlike most of the other games in Texas' 6 game winning streak, this was not close early. The Longhorns came out from the start of the game and put the beating on the Aggies on their way to a 77-50 rout.

D.J. Augustin came out on fire. He scored 17 of his 27 points in the first half. Texas A&M scored all of 19 points in the first half, and were down by 21 at the half. It was never close. In the first five minutes of the game, the Longhorns were up 16-4.

As vibrant the Texas offense was, their defense was even more impressive. Their frontcourt completely dominated the Aggies. They had 12 blocked shots and just had control of the lanes. The Longhorn defense held the Aggies to just over 30% shooting. They contested the shots in the perimeter and were more physical inside.

Texas A&M, which had appeared to turn a corner after a rough start to the conference play with 5 straight wins, now rides a 2 game losing streak. The questions about this team return as the Aggies are really struggling to score points.

It had to happen some time. No team could really go a second full season without winning a road game, could they? The last time Oklahoma State had won a road game was in early February 2006. Oklahoma St. Coach Sean Sutton gets his first road win as the Cowboy head coach with a huge 59-54 upset win over Texas A&M. The relief on the entire Oklahoma State team and Sutton was so visible and palpable.

The Aggies had been rolling with a 4 game winning streak including wins over Texas and beating Oklahoma State in Stillwater. A&M had been doing it with excellent defense and forcing turnovers. Oklahoma State had found numerous ways to lose games. The big factors had been that the Cowboys kept turning the ball over and poor free throw shooting.

This time, Oklahoma State took care of the ball with only 10 turnovers and made nearly 73% of their free throws. The Cowboys just scrapped the entire game. The Aggies led early, but could not draw away. The second half saw Oklahoma State take the lead and only lost it once the rest of the way. Until the closing seconds, neither team led by more than 4 points in the second half.

There was a moment of surprising self-pity from Coach Mark Turgeon a couple weeks ago.

"I know no matter what I do, Gillispie is getting the credit if we win," said Turgeon, referring to former A&M coach Billy Gillispie, who guided the Aggies on a successful three-year run before leaving last spring for Kentucky. "If we lose, it's my fault. I'm in a no-flipping-win situation this year, and that puts me in a bad mood.

"I've got no chance this year. If we win, it's because of Gillispie. If we lose, it's because of Mark Turgeon. So I can't win."

Texas A&M has since responded, and Turgeon has recovered. They lost a 5 OT game to Baylor but have now won 3 straight and moved back into the upper-half of the Big 12 standings. Not coincidentally, they have allowed opposing teams to sub-60 points.

Both Oklahoma and Texas A&M feature former All-American High School players, who as freshmen have done nothing to repudiate their honors. In this game, however, Oklahoma's Blake Griffin and Texas A&M's DeAndre Jordan deferred to a couple seniors who carried their teams. Joseph Jones and Texas A&M were able to scrap out a win over David Godbold and Oklahoma, 60-52.

Yes, Kansas still is dominant in the conference. That is probably the one constant in the Big 12 this season. That and Oklahoma State still can't win a road game. Everything else is up for debate.

Last week, I noted that the Big 12 is a difficult conference to notch road wins. Naturally the road teams went 5-7 this past week to make things a little less skewed. Considering the road teams had won 5 games all season until last week, that was a huge swing.

Having a bad week: Missouri and Oklahoma State. Suspensions and extended losing streaks taking the hope out of the fans.

Having a good week: Oklahoma and K-State. Blake Griffin back much earlier than expected to help the Sooners win two big games, and the Wildcats are undefeated in the conference to make tonight's meeting with Kansas that much more dramatic.