College Hoops Breakdown (01-21-08)

This season has seen its fair share of upsets early and often.  The top 10 have changed positioning 4 of the last 5 weeks.  The hand of fate swaying in no teams favor as this season is set to heat up even more heading into February.

In just the past three days we have seen (1)N. Carolina goes down to Maryland, (4)UCLA was put to rest by USC, and (9)Texas A&M loss to Kansas State.  These are just in the top 10 rank teams.  The level of play on the part of all teams both ranked and not, has increased in the recent week or two as seen by the fluctuating positions of the top 25 teams.

After the recent loss by N. Carolina, there are now only two remaining undefeated teams in Memphis and Kansas.  In the recent Coaches Poll, Memphis received 21 of the 31 votes for the overall #1 spot.  The remaining votes went to Kansas, giving them the #2 overall spot.  N. Carolina dropped two spots to #4, as Duke moved up two spots from #5 to #3.  UCLA dropped to the seventh spot as Tennessee moved up to fifth.

The Tigers became the first team from outside a non-BCS-affiliated conference to be ranked No. 1 since Saint Joseph's one-week run in March 2004, according to the Memphis Commercial Appeal.  After Saturday night's win, Memphis coach John Calipari made the case for his Tigers to be No. 1.  " ... We played the No. 1 non-conference schedule in the country with Gonzaga and Tennessee still to come. We've taken care of business, done what we're supposed to do," Calipari said.  His arguments fell on enough ears to be granted the top seed he was looking for.

If there was ever a time for the fans of the underdog to be heard, it’s right now.  The next two weeks has many conference rivalry games to be played.  However, out of the top 10, only Indiana and Washington State have a game in the next two weeks against a rated opponent.  (8)Indiana plays (11)Wisconsin and (6)Washington State will host (21)Stanford.  So get out those rally caps, shake those terrible towels, and play those instruments... its time for some more upsets on the horizon.

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ESPN/USA Today Poll

 1. Memphis (21) 17-0 765

 2. Kansas (10) 18-0 754

 3. Duke 15-1 682

 4. North Carolina 18-1 666

 5. Tennessee 16-1 653

 6. Washington State 16-1 620

 7. UCLA 16-2 581

 8. Indiana 16-1 565

 9. Georgetown 14-2 543

10. Michigan State 16-2 517

11. Wisconsin 15-2 443

12. Texas 14-3 381

13. Vanderbilt 17-2 336

14. Butler 17-2 316

15. Mississippi 15-2 284

16. Texas A&M 15-3 280

17. Pittsburgh 15-3 267

18. Villanova 13-3 257

19. Dayton 14-2 203

20. Marquette 13-4 158

21. Stanford 15-3 151

22. Xavier 15-4 112

23. Drake 16-1 92

24. Saint Mary's 15-2 89

25. Clemson 14-4 84