Mateen Cleaves' foot injury knocks Michigan State from
its would-be Preseason No. 1 spot. In step the Auburn Tigers
(with the best player in the nation, Chris Porter).
Connecticut is nearly as good as a year ago. The
suspensions of guards Ed Cota and Terence Newby keep
North Carolina artificially low to start the season. Watch
out for the Florida Gators. They've got the most talented
team in the country and the sky's the limit if they put it all together.
UConn and Duke lost 4
times all year last season. They've already lost 3 times this year after one week.
Stanford moves up after taking the COACHES V CANCER
CLASSIC. UNC moves up on paper after Ed Cota and Terence
Newby were reinstated to the team.
Arizona takes over the top spot with an impressive run to the
PRESEASON NIT title. Texas (PUERTO RICO),
North Carolina (MAUI) and
Kansas (GREAT ALASKA) all won Thanksgiving tournaments.
And Stanford beat Auburn
straight up in the JOHN WOODEN CLASSIC.
Wake Forest whipped up on Temple just like they've been
doing to all of their other no-name opponents. Morris Peterson turned in the first Player of
the Year-calibre performance for Michigan State in their
win in Chapel Hill against North Carolina.
Arizona scored another impressive win at
Texas in the season's best matchup so far.
UConn takes over the top spot with their neutral-site
win over Arizona in the GREAT EIGHT, but the 'Cats don't drop
far with their home win over Michigan State.
Xavier makes a splash with their 2-point home win over
crosstown rival Cincinnati. The bigger long-term news is
that Illinois' win over
Kansas is their first Top-25 win.
Indiana's wins over
Temple, Kentucky and now
North Carolina far outweigh their narrow grudge match loss to
Indiana State. Hanno Mottola's back at Utah, so the sky's
the limit in Salt Lake City. Welcome Tulsa to the Top 25
after their rout of Tennessee, but don't expect a long stay.
LSU's legitimized its undefeated record with a rousing home
win over (previously undefeated) Oklahoma State.
Oregon squeaks into the Top-25 after beating both
Wake Forest and Gonzaga in the RAINBOW CLASSIC (despite
losing to host Hawaii in the final).
Arizona may have sewn up the
Pac-10 in one fell swoop with their win at
Stanford. Notre Dame
breaks into the rankings with their road win at
Connecticut. Tennessee
just might be serious this time around -- witness their road win at (previously undefeated)
LSU. Louisville and
Wisconsin can handle anybody at home. Cleaves is back at
Michigan State and Sanchez is back at
Temple.
Tennessee came away with a huge road win in one of the most
entertaining games of the year. Ohio State is clicking
now, close to peak performance. Purdue always thrives in
conference play. This year's no different.
With their home blowout over Connecticut,
Syracuse legitimized their still-undefeated record.
Tennessee looked mighty good in their payback rout of
Auburn. The overall strength of the conferences are the best
reasons to rank Vanderbilt,
Oklahoma and
Iowa State.
Michigan State's rout of
Connecticut shows that Mateen Cleaves is now fully
re-integrated into the Spartan's lineup. They showed the form that would have made them the
prohibitive preseason No. 1 before Cleaves was injured.
Ohio State's frontcourt is coming up to speed to match
the backcourt. That could mean another Final Four run is possible.
Kentucky, Oklahoma,
Gonzaga and Maryland each
had big conference wins that were important in their league standings.
Temple storms into the Top 10 with the biggest win of the
season, on the road at Cincinnati.
Michigan State paid back its earlier road loss to
Ohio State, but don't weep for the Buckeyes: they went
out and won at Indiana as a consolation prize. Meanwhile,
Stanford is quietly on pace to set an NCAA record for field
goal percentage defense.
Iowa State swept
Texas and Oklahoma State
at home to take sole possession of first place in the
Big 12 with a week to go.
Ohio State continues to surge and is a half-game off the
lead in the Big 10.
St. John's repeated last year's clutch win over
Duke (but this time it was in Cameron). Elsewhere, there
weren't 25 teams playing rankable ball this week. The last 4 are filler.
Kenyon Martin secured the nod as National Player of the Year with his magnificent 33-point
effort, single-handedly bringing the Bearcats from 17 points down on the road at
DePaul. Oregon's home
win over depleted Arizona probably cost them the element of
surprise come tourney time (but Pepperdine still has it).
Connecticut's home win over
Syracuse saved the Huskies the embarrassment of finishing
out of the rankings the year after winning the national championship.