Dre_7
01-12-2007, 06:06 AM
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/luke_winn/01/11/power.rankings/index.html
Kohl-hearted
Nearly unbeatable at home, Wisconsin is new No. 1
Posted: Thursday January 11, 2007 12:00PM; Updated: Thursday January 11, 2007 2:41PM
Disclaimer: This is not the same as the AP Poll. I say that every week, but feel it particularly necessary this time around, considering my choice for the new No. 1 ...
NCAA Basketball Power Rankings
Rank LW Team
1 4 Wisconsin Badgers (16-1)
There's an old Department of Tourism slogan in the Badger State that goes, "Wisconsin: You're Among Friends." I've been trying to think of a new one for UW basketball, which, after beating Ohio State on Tuesday, is 40-2 at home in the Big Ten under coach Bo Ryan. Maybe, "Wisconsin: You're Among Friends (Except If You Visit The Kohl Center)." Or, on an entirely different track, "Wisconsin: We're So Good We Can Beat You Despite Always Playing One Big White Guy (Jason Chappell, Joe Krabbenhoft or Greg Stiemsma) Who Has Little-To-No Intention Of Creating His Own Offense." That'll never fit on a T-shirt, but it's the truth: Bucky let the Buckeyes guard them five-on-four, with Greg Oden almost permanently lurking in the lane, and still won. It's a testament to the offensive skill of Alando Tucker and the highly underrated backcourt of Kammron Taylor (who had 25 points) and Michael Flowers.
Next three: 1/13 at Northwestern, 1/17 vs. Purdue, 1/20 at Illinois.
2 2 North Carolina Tar Heels (15-1)
No way I can have the Tar Heels at No. 2 without a rational explanation why they're not No. 1. So here goes. Obviously the natural thing would be to listen to Leonard Hamilton, follow the AP Poll's "bumping" theory and merely move UNC up after UCLA lost. These are Power Rankings, though. The goal is not to blindly "bump." Nor is it to evaluate teams on how good they might be, or if they would win a hypothetical head-to-head matchup. The idea is to rank teams based on what they've done thus far. And while UNC's resume is stellar, with wins over Ohio State, Tennessee, Kentucky, Florida State and Virginia ... Wisconsin's is slightly better. The Badgers' best five wins -- Florida State, Marquette, Pittsburgh, Georgia and Ohio State -- are about equal to UNC's, but they get the edge for two reasons:
• UW won one big game (Marquette) and one decent game (Georgia) on the road, while UNC's only road win -- and road game, for that matter -- is over Saint Louis.
• Both teams have beaten the Buckeyes at home, but UW did it against Oden. It's not the Heels' fault Oden wasn't healthy for their matchup, but the Badgers should get credit for shutting him down.
UNC "looks" more like a top-ranked team, but the truth is, on paper, Wisconsin deserves to be No. 1. Until it goes out and blows a Big Ten road game, at least.
Next three: 1/13 at Virginia Tech, 1/17 at Clemson, 1/20 vs. Georgia Tech.
3 9 Kansas Jayhawks (14-2)
On looks rather than resume (who can ignore those stupefying losses to Oral Roberts, DePaul and Florida State?), Kansas and Florida are Nos. 1 and 2 in the country. On Wednesday, the Jayhawks turned it on, delivering a 30-point knockout blow to Oklahoma State (and giving Eddie Suttona rocking chair). It was perhaps even more of a statement win than the Gators' slaughter of Ohio State on Dec. 23. Thank Brandon Rush's Mom, in part, for the blowout. She called her son and ordered him to be aggressive -- and he scored 10 of KU's first 25 points in the 87-57 victory. "All [my mom] does is call me up on game day," Rush told the Lawrence Journal-World. "[She says,] 'Attack the rim, attack the rim.' I proved tonight I can do it."
Next three: 1/13 at Iowa State, 1/15 vs. Missouri, 1/20 at Texas Tech.
4 1 UCLA Bruins (14-1)
Someone pulled a fire alarm on UCLA's undefeated run. Literally. In the final two minutes of the Bruins' 68-66 loss at Oregon's Mac Court on Saturday, the alarm sounded -- and no one in 80-year-old Mac Court (including Joey Harrington, who was sitting on the sideline) even considered evacuating. L.A. Times columnist Bill Plaschke said the defeat showed that UCLA's No. 1 ranking was premature, but I still think these Bruins are better than last year's edition. They play better D, can win slow- and fast-paced games, and have more polished scorers at the top of their rotation (Arron Afflalo, Josh Shipp, Darren Collison and Michael Roll) than they did in '05-06. With the Pac-10 as strong as it is this year, a two-point defeat at the league's scariest road venue isn't all that damning.
Next three: 1/13 at USC, 1/18 vs. Arizona State, 1/20 vs. Arizona.
5 10 Florida Gators (15-2)
The Gators are the rulers of the college sports universe. A football national title sandwiched by two basketball championships is now looking very possible, with the way the balanced Florida hoopsters are playing of late. The movement to assign major inspirational value to minor statements made by Joakim Noah is really taking off as well. An AP story (which Deadspin smartly mocked) from Dec. 31 credited Noah's saying "Let's go" as the turning point in a win over UAB. I'd also like to credit Noah (and maybe this story) for the football team's triumph. In Arizona last week, wideout Dallas Baker said that Noah, his neighbor in Gainesville, told him, "Go get that national championship. If you don't win, don't come back." And you know what happened after that.
Next three: 1/13 at South Carolina, 1/20 vs. Mississippi, 1/24 at Mississippi State.
6 12 Oregon Ducks (14-1)
Maybe this really is the Year of Maarty Leunen. The former Oregon prep hero, who was buried on the pine in his first two years in Eugene, is now averaging 12.5 points and 10.3 boards for the Ducks. He scored 18 against UCLA last Saturday, was the one hounding Shipp on the final shot, and was the subject of these choice lines from Ryan White's game-blog on oregonlive.com:
12:19 p.m. Maarty Leunen ... saves the ball off a Bruin, and after the inbounds pass he drives baseline, dunks, is fouled, makes the free throw and took a few minutes to teach some kids how to read. He's amazing.
12:30 p.m. Leunen just stopped an out of control semi truck with his bare hands and held on to the ball while two UCLA players were scrapping for it.
1 p.m. The fire alarm is going off ... Leunen just got a huge rebound ... If there's a fire, I'm sure he'll put that out, too.
Next three: 1/11 at Arizona State, 1/14 at Arizona, 1/18 vs. Stanford.
7 3 Arizona Wildcats (12-2)
Of the six big dogs -- Arizona, North Carolina, Kansas, Florida, UCLA and Wisconsin -- in Grant Wahl's Magic Eight, the Wildcats are the team I would have omitted in favor of either Ohio State, Texas A&M or even Notre Dame. Arizona might be my favorite team to watch on TV right now, but I worry that these three things will doom Lute Olson's boys in March:
• They have no defensive presence in the post to deal with guys such as Oden, Noah, Al Horford or Tyler Hansbrough.
• They have five players logging at least 70 percent of the available minutes -- and no one else above 30 percent. On a slower-paced team this might be fine, but Arizona does not play slow.
• They may be the Pac-10's best offensive team, but they're seventh in defensive efficiency. It's not a promising stat.
Next three: 1/11 vs. Oregon State, 1/14 vs. Oregon, 1/18 at USC.
8 16 Clemson Tigers (17-0)
Power Rankings Trivia Question Of The Week: Who's the only college starter, minimum 20 games or more, to have never lost a game over the past two seasons? (The location of the question should give you a decent hint.) A: It's Clemson's James Mays, who's 28-0. It's not a streak he should be entirely proud of, though: Mays helped the Tigers go 11-0 to start last season but was then ruled academically ineligible. Now he's helped his squad make a stunning, 17-0 run as their second-leading scorer (12.9 points per game) and leading rebounder (7.3). "We're just fearless right now," Mays told The (Raleigh) News & Observer. "We can take on any challenge & and we end up pulling games off." Next three: 1/13 at Maryland, 1/17 vs. North Carolina, 1/20 vs. Boston College.
9 13 Air Force (16-1)
My biggest Falcons question has been answered. They can win a crucial game in which Dan Nwaelele doesn't make a three-pointer. Nwaelele went 0-for-6 against New Mexico on Tuesday, and long-range-happy Air Force only made four threes as a team, but it still managed to pull off a furious rally to beat the Lobos. (The Falcons were down 21 in the first half, but went on a 21-2 run in the second to win 65-57.) Nwaelele has only been shut out two other times this season: a throwaway game against Arkansas-Pine Bluff in which he played 19 minutes; and Air Force's lone loss, against Duke on Nov. 20. He's shooting a superb 51.3 percent from beyond the arc, if you care.
Next three: 1/13 at Wyoming, 1/16 at Utah, 1/20 vs. San Diego State.
10 7 Notre Dame Fighting Irish (14-2)
Irish super-freshman Luke Harangody has been writing a bi-weekly diary for The Times of Northwest Indiana. It's pretty vanilla stuff, mostly, like, "Without school, basketball is the only thing that we have to worry about now until we start classes again on Jan. 16." A fake Luke Harangody also wrote a (fake) letter to Ken Pomeroy's blog, stating, "I am currently the most efficient high-usage player in the country and sitting on the bench half the game. Just thought I'd let you know how things are going." The fake Luke is right: Through Jan. 6 he was an even more efficient player than Nick Fazekas or Kevin Durant.
Next three: 1/14 vs. Seton Hall, 1/17 at Villanova, 1/21 vs. South Florida.
11 14 Alabama Crimson Tide (14-2)
More than a few readers pointed out that our comment last week about the Tide's low attendance (3,081 under capacity against Oklahoma on Jan. 1) was based on a game that occurred during winter break. Which is a legitimate point. So we'll mention this week that Tuesday's game against LSU -- on the night before spring-semester classes began -- sold out. And also add what was reported in The Birmingham News: The game was close to sold out in advance, but only after the news dropped that football JesusNick Saban would be appearing at halftime, did the rest of the ducats get gobbled up. The Tide's impressive victory over LSU was, we've heard, completely inspired by Saban's presence.
Next three: 1/17 at Vanderbilt, 1/20 vs. Georgia, 1/23 at Auburn.
12 - Washington State Cougars (14-2)
I think we're going to see Tony Bennett's boys in the NCAA tournament this year -- and Wahl took it a huge step further and put the Cougs in his Magic Eight on Wednesday. The last time Wazzu made the big dance was 1994, when it suffered a first-round loss to Boston College. That was the same year Tony's pops, Dick (who was also the Cougars' previous coach), led Wisconsin-Green Bay to a major NCAA upset. His Phoenix knocked off Jason Kidd's Cal Bears in Ogden, Utah, with yours truly in the stands as a 13-year-old fan. It was my first NCAA tournament, and I was hooked.
Next three: 1/11 at Cal, 1/13 at Stanford, 1/20 vs. Washington.
13 6 Butler Bulldogs (14-2)
I assume most AP pollsters are going to be burying the Bulldogs next week -- on the basis of their loss at Illinois-Chicago on Wednesday -- but I can't do it yet. Too many quality wins on their resume. What I can do is devote their Power Rankings blurb to a different subject: the postgame scene after Virginia Tech's upset of Duke on Saturday. The Hokies' Zabian Dowdell jersey-popped in the direction of the Cameron Crazies, and Coach K saw fit to pull him aside and tell him (according to Dowdell), "You're too classy a guy to be carrying on like that." The YouTube of Dowdell is here, and at most it's mildly unsportsmanlike. K obviously didn't like it. What about the scene last year in the same game, though? If you've forgotten, here's the YouTube. Sean Dockery hit a half-court shot to win it, and the Crazies rushed their own floor when they were ranked No. 1 and Tech was unranked, mobbed everyone, monkey-piled on Dockery, and danced with the mascot. It was a crazy moment, and a justified celebration considering the shot. But it also set a standard -- meaning the Hokies could pretty much do what ever they wanted after getting revenge. Including a harmless jersey-pop.
Next three: 1/13 vs. South Dakota State, 1/17 vs. Youngstown State, 1/20 vs. Wisconsin-Green Bay.
14 8 Tennessee Volunteers (13-3)
Our Blog Q&A with Vols star Chris Lofton didn't jinx him -- he hit 6-of-7 from long distance on Wednesday -- but Vanderbilt still pulled off an 82-81 upset in Nashville. One thing I regret not asking Chris about is the budding controversy over how he's being treated -- basically, Dwyane Wade-like -- by SEC refs. After guarding Lofton, Mississippi State star Jamont Gordon told The Tennesseean, "They isolated him, and if you laid a fingertip on him, they called a foul." Bulldogs coach Rick Stansbury, after being asked about Lofton and the refs, said, "You want me to answer that honestly or answer that politically? I can't [answer it honestly], because I'll have a reprimand and you'll print that."
Next three: 1/13 at Ohio State, 1/17 at Auburn, 1/20 vs. South Carolina.
15 11 Oklahoma State (15-2)
About that gift for Eddie Sutton: KU did, really, give the former Cowboys coach a rocking chair at halftime on Wednesday, and he looks pretty happy about it here. Sutton had a 1-12 record all-time at Allen Fieldhouse. One wonders if that (as well as the fact that KU coach Bill Self is an Oklahoma State guy) made Kansas a lot more willing to give him a present. "I probably had the worst record of any coach who's come in here," Sutton told the crowd. I'm resorting to writing about Sutton here because my midseason All-America pick at power forward, Mario Boggan, flopped hard: 4-of-16 from the field, five turnovers, no assists. Where did the efficiency go, Mario?
Next three: 1/13 at Nebraska, 1/16 vs. Texas, 1/20 at Texas A&M.
16 - Pittsburgh Panthers (15-2)
Welcome back to the rankings, Pitt. For the record, it wasn't all of your fans' hate mail that got you reinstated -- it was the road wins at Syracuse and DePaul, and the 3-0 start in the Big East. None of that is anything to get too excited about, but let's face it: You didn't really beat anyone before January. The resume matters here. The good thing is that kenpom.com's new feature -- "Game Plan" -- has diagnosed your problem: You're struggling in the games in which you get killed on the offensive glass. The three times you let an opponent grab at least 40 percent of the available offensive boards, you either lost (to Oklahoma State and Wisconsin) or nearly lost (to Buffalo). So beware the Big East's two best offensive rebounding teams, UConn and Providence, OK? Next three: 1/13 vs. Georgetown, 1/16 vs. UConn, 1/21 vs. Marquette.
ON THE CUSP: (Tennessee stayed in the rankings with three losses because, well, I didn't think anyone on this list had better wins than the Vols.) Texas A&M, Ohio State, Drexel, Nevada, Maryland, Marquette, Kentucky, Memphis, Arkansas, USC, Texas, Missouri State and Northern Iowa.
Send your Power Rankings mail to Luke Winn Here http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/writers/luke_winn/12/01/winn.mailbag/index.html
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Kohl-hearted
Nearly unbeatable at home, Wisconsin is new No. 1
Posted: Thursday January 11, 2007 12:00PM; Updated: Thursday January 11, 2007 2:41PM
Disclaimer: This is not the same as the AP Poll. I say that every week, but feel it particularly necessary this time around, considering my choice for the new No. 1 ...
NCAA Basketball Power Rankings
Rank LW Team
1 4 Wisconsin Badgers (16-1)
There's an old Department of Tourism slogan in the Badger State that goes, "Wisconsin: You're Among Friends." I've been trying to think of a new one for UW basketball, which, after beating Ohio State on Tuesday, is 40-2 at home in the Big Ten under coach Bo Ryan. Maybe, "Wisconsin: You're Among Friends (Except If You Visit The Kohl Center)." Or, on an entirely different track, "Wisconsin: We're So Good We Can Beat You Despite Always Playing One Big White Guy (Jason Chappell, Joe Krabbenhoft or Greg Stiemsma) Who Has Little-To-No Intention Of Creating His Own Offense." That'll never fit on a T-shirt, but it's the truth: Bucky let the Buckeyes guard them five-on-four, with Greg Oden almost permanently lurking in the lane, and still won. It's a testament to the offensive skill of Alando Tucker and the highly underrated backcourt of Kammron Taylor (who had 25 points) and Michael Flowers.
Next three: 1/13 at Northwestern, 1/17 vs. Purdue, 1/20 at Illinois.
2 2 North Carolina Tar Heels (15-1)
No way I can have the Tar Heels at No. 2 without a rational explanation why they're not No. 1. So here goes. Obviously the natural thing would be to listen to Leonard Hamilton, follow the AP Poll's "bumping" theory and merely move UNC up after UCLA lost. These are Power Rankings, though. The goal is not to blindly "bump." Nor is it to evaluate teams on how good they might be, or if they would win a hypothetical head-to-head matchup. The idea is to rank teams based on what they've done thus far. And while UNC's resume is stellar, with wins over Ohio State, Tennessee, Kentucky, Florida State and Virginia ... Wisconsin's is slightly better. The Badgers' best five wins -- Florida State, Marquette, Pittsburgh, Georgia and Ohio State -- are about equal to UNC's, but they get the edge for two reasons:
• UW won one big game (Marquette) and one decent game (Georgia) on the road, while UNC's only road win -- and road game, for that matter -- is over Saint Louis.
• Both teams have beaten the Buckeyes at home, but UW did it against Oden. It's not the Heels' fault Oden wasn't healthy for their matchup, but the Badgers should get credit for shutting him down.
UNC "looks" more like a top-ranked team, but the truth is, on paper, Wisconsin deserves to be No. 1. Until it goes out and blows a Big Ten road game, at least.
Next three: 1/13 at Virginia Tech, 1/17 at Clemson, 1/20 vs. Georgia Tech.
3 9 Kansas Jayhawks (14-2)
On looks rather than resume (who can ignore those stupefying losses to Oral Roberts, DePaul and Florida State?), Kansas and Florida are Nos. 1 and 2 in the country. On Wednesday, the Jayhawks turned it on, delivering a 30-point knockout blow to Oklahoma State (and giving Eddie Suttona rocking chair). It was perhaps even more of a statement win than the Gators' slaughter of Ohio State on Dec. 23. Thank Brandon Rush's Mom, in part, for the blowout. She called her son and ordered him to be aggressive -- and he scored 10 of KU's first 25 points in the 87-57 victory. "All [my mom] does is call me up on game day," Rush told the Lawrence Journal-World. "[She says,] 'Attack the rim, attack the rim.' I proved tonight I can do it."
Next three: 1/13 at Iowa State, 1/15 vs. Missouri, 1/20 at Texas Tech.
4 1 UCLA Bruins (14-1)
Someone pulled a fire alarm on UCLA's undefeated run. Literally. In the final two minutes of the Bruins' 68-66 loss at Oregon's Mac Court on Saturday, the alarm sounded -- and no one in 80-year-old Mac Court (including Joey Harrington, who was sitting on the sideline) even considered evacuating. L.A. Times columnist Bill Plaschke said the defeat showed that UCLA's No. 1 ranking was premature, but I still think these Bruins are better than last year's edition. They play better D, can win slow- and fast-paced games, and have more polished scorers at the top of their rotation (Arron Afflalo, Josh Shipp, Darren Collison and Michael Roll) than they did in '05-06. With the Pac-10 as strong as it is this year, a two-point defeat at the league's scariest road venue isn't all that damning.
Next three: 1/13 at USC, 1/18 vs. Arizona State, 1/20 vs. Arizona.
5 10 Florida Gators (15-2)
The Gators are the rulers of the college sports universe. A football national title sandwiched by two basketball championships is now looking very possible, with the way the balanced Florida hoopsters are playing of late. The movement to assign major inspirational value to minor statements made by Joakim Noah is really taking off as well. An AP story (which Deadspin smartly mocked) from Dec. 31 credited Noah's saying "Let's go" as the turning point in a win over UAB. I'd also like to credit Noah (and maybe this story) for the football team's triumph. In Arizona last week, wideout Dallas Baker said that Noah, his neighbor in Gainesville, told him, "Go get that national championship. If you don't win, don't come back." And you know what happened after that.
Next three: 1/13 at South Carolina, 1/20 vs. Mississippi, 1/24 at Mississippi State.
6 12 Oregon Ducks (14-1)
Maybe this really is the Year of Maarty Leunen. The former Oregon prep hero, who was buried on the pine in his first two years in Eugene, is now averaging 12.5 points and 10.3 boards for the Ducks. He scored 18 against UCLA last Saturday, was the one hounding Shipp on the final shot, and was the subject of these choice lines from Ryan White's game-blog on oregonlive.com:
12:19 p.m. Maarty Leunen ... saves the ball off a Bruin, and after the inbounds pass he drives baseline, dunks, is fouled, makes the free throw and took a few minutes to teach some kids how to read. He's amazing.
12:30 p.m. Leunen just stopped an out of control semi truck with his bare hands and held on to the ball while two UCLA players were scrapping for it.
1 p.m. The fire alarm is going off ... Leunen just got a huge rebound ... If there's a fire, I'm sure he'll put that out, too.
Next three: 1/11 at Arizona State, 1/14 at Arizona, 1/18 vs. Stanford.
7 3 Arizona Wildcats (12-2)
Of the six big dogs -- Arizona, North Carolina, Kansas, Florida, UCLA and Wisconsin -- in Grant Wahl's Magic Eight, the Wildcats are the team I would have omitted in favor of either Ohio State, Texas A&M or even Notre Dame. Arizona might be my favorite team to watch on TV right now, but I worry that these three things will doom Lute Olson's boys in March:
• They have no defensive presence in the post to deal with guys such as Oden, Noah, Al Horford or Tyler Hansbrough.
• They have five players logging at least 70 percent of the available minutes -- and no one else above 30 percent. On a slower-paced team this might be fine, but Arizona does not play slow.
• They may be the Pac-10's best offensive team, but they're seventh in defensive efficiency. It's not a promising stat.
Next three: 1/11 vs. Oregon State, 1/14 vs. Oregon, 1/18 at USC.
8 16 Clemson Tigers (17-0)
Power Rankings Trivia Question Of The Week: Who's the only college starter, minimum 20 games or more, to have never lost a game over the past two seasons? (The location of the question should give you a decent hint.) A: It's Clemson's James Mays, who's 28-0. It's not a streak he should be entirely proud of, though: Mays helped the Tigers go 11-0 to start last season but was then ruled academically ineligible. Now he's helped his squad make a stunning, 17-0 run as their second-leading scorer (12.9 points per game) and leading rebounder (7.3). "We're just fearless right now," Mays told The (Raleigh) News & Observer. "We can take on any challenge & and we end up pulling games off." Next three: 1/13 at Maryland, 1/17 vs. North Carolina, 1/20 vs. Boston College.
9 13 Air Force (16-1)
My biggest Falcons question has been answered. They can win a crucial game in which Dan Nwaelele doesn't make a three-pointer. Nwaelele went 0-for-6 against New Mexico on Tuesday, and long-range-happy Air Force only made four threes as a team, but it still managed to pull off a furious rally to beat the Lobos. (The Falcons were down 21 in the first half, but went on a 21-2 run in the second to win 65-57.) Nwaelele has only been shut out two other times this season: a throwaway game against Arkansas-Pine Bluff in which he played 19 minutes; and Air Force's lone loss, against Duke on Nov. 20. He's shooting a superb 51.3 percent from beyond the arc, if you care.
Next three: 1/13 at Wyoming, 1/16 at Utah, 1/20 vs. San Diego State.
10 7 Notre Dame Fighting Irish (14-2)
Irish super-freshman Luke Harangody has been writing a bi-weekly diary for The Times of Northwest Indiana. It's pretty vanilla stuff, mostly, like, "Without school, basketball is the only thing that we have to worry about now until we start classes again on Jan. 16." A fake Luke Harangody also wrote a (fake) letter to Ken Pomeroy's blog, stating, "I am currently the most efficient high-usage player in the country and sitting on the bench half the game. Just thought I'd let you know how things are going." The fake Luke is right: Through Jan. 6 he was an even more efficient player than Nick Fazekas or Kevin Durant.
Next three: 1/14 vs. Seton Hall, 1/17 at Villanova, 1/21 vs. South Florida.
11 14 Alabama Crimson Tide (14-2)
More than a few readers pointed out that our comment last week about the Tide's low attendance (3,081 under capacity against Oklahoma on Jan. 1) was based on a game that occurred during winter break. Which is a legitimate point. So we'll mention this week that Tuesday's game against LSU -- on the night before spring-semester classes began -- sold out. And also add what was reported in The Birmingham News: The game was close to sold out in advance, but only after the news dropped that football JesusNick Saban would be appearing at halftime, did the rest of the ducats get gobbled up. The Tide's impressive victory over LSU was, we've heard, completely inspired by Saban's presence.
Next three: 1/17 at Vanderbilt, 1/20 vs. Georgia, 1/23 at Auburn.
12 - Washington State Cougars (14-2)
I think we're going to see Tony Bennett's boys in the NCAA tournament this year -- and Wahl took it a huge step further and put the Cougs in his Magic Eight on Wednesday. The last time Wazzu made the big dance was 1994, when it suffered a first-round loss to Boston College. That was the same year Tony's pops, Dick (who was also the Cougars' previous coach), led Wisconsin-Green Bay to a major NCAA upset. His Phoenix knocked off Jason Kidd's Cal Bears in Ogden, Utah, with yours truly in the stands as a 13-year-old fan. It was my first NCAA tournament, and I was hooked.
Next three: 1/11 at Cal, 1/13 at Stanford, 1/20 vs. Washington.
13 6 Butler Bulldogs (14-2)
I assume most AP pollsters are going to be burying the Bulldogs next week -- on the basis of their loss at Illinois-Chicago on Wednesday -- but I can't do it yet. Too many quality wins on their resume. What I can do is devote their Power Rankings blurb to a different subject: the postgame scene after Virginia Tech's upset of Duke on Saturday. The Hokies' Zabian Dowdell jersey-popped in the direction of the Cameron Crazies, and Coach K saw fit to pull him aside and tell him (according to Dowdell), "You're too classy a guy to be carrying on like that." The YouTube of Dowdell is here, and at most it's mildly unsportsmanlike. K obviously didn't like it. What about the scene last year in the same game, though? If you've forgotten, here's the YouTube. Sean Dockery hit a half-court shot to win it, and the Crazies rushed their own floor when they were ranked No. 1 and Tech was unranked, mobbed everyone, monkey-piled on Dockery, and danced with the mascot. It was a crazy moment, and a justified celebration considering the shot. But it also set a standard -- meaning the Hokies could pretty much do what ever they wanted after getting revenge. Including a harmless jersey-pop.
Next three: 1/13 vs. South Dakota State, 1/17 vs. Youngstown State, 1/20 vs. Wisconsin-Green Bay.
14 8 Tennessee Volunteers (13-3)
Our Blog Q&A with Vols star Chris Lofton didn't jinx him -- he hit 6-of-7 from long distance on Wednesday -- but Vanderbilt still pulled off an 82-81 upset in Nashville. One thing I regret not asking Chris about is the budding controversy over how he's being treated -- basically, Dwyane Wade-like -- by SEC refs. After guarding Lofton, Mississippi State star Jamont Gordon told The Tennesseean, "They isolated him, and if you laid a fingertip on him, they called a foul." Bulldogs coach Rick Stansbury, after being asked about Lofton and the refs, said, "You want me to answer that honestly or answer that politically? I can't [answer it honestly], because I'll have a reprimand and you'll print that."
Next three: 1/13 at Ohio State, 1/17 at Auburn, 1/20 vs. South Carolina.
15 11 Oklahoma State (15-2)
About that gift for Eddie Sutton: KU did, really, give the former Cowboys coach a rocking chair at halftime on Wednesday, and he looks pretty happy about it here. Sutton had a 1-12 record all-time at Allen Fieldhouse. One wonders if that (as well as the fact that KU coach Bill Self is an Oklahoma State guy) made Kansas a lot more willing to give him a present. "I probably had the worst record of any coach who's come in here," Sutton told the crowd. I'm resorting to writing about Sutton here because my midseason All-America pick at power forward, Mario Boggan, flopped hard: 4-of-16 from the field, five turnovers, no assists. Where did the efficiency go, Mario?
Next three: 1/13 at Nebraska, 1/16 vs. Texas, 1/20 at Texas A&M.
16 - Pittsburgh Panthers (15-2)
Welcome back to the rankings, Pitt. For the record, it wasn't all of your fans' hate mail that got you reinstated -- it was the road wins at Syracuse and DePaul, and the 3-0 start in the Big East. None of that is anything to get too excited about, but let's face it: You didn't really beat anyone before January. The resume matters here. The good thing is that kenpom.com's new feature -- "Game Plan" -- has diagnosed your problem: You're struggling in the games in which you get killed on the offensive glass. The three times you let an opponent grab at least 40 percent of the available offensive boards, you either lost (to Oklahoma State and Wisconsin) or nearly lost (to Buffalo). So beware the Big East's two best offensive rebounding teams, UConn and Providence, OK? Next three: 1/13 vs. Georgetown, 1/16 vs. UConn, 1/21 vs. Marquette.
ON THE CUSP: (Tennessee stayed in the rankings with three losses because, well, I didn't think anyone on this list had better wins than the Vols.) Texas A&M, Ohio State, Drexel, Nevada, Maryland, Marquette, Kentucky, Memphis, Arkansas, USC, Texas, Missouri State and Northern Iowa.
Send your Power Rankings mail to Luke Winn Here http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/writers/luke_winn/12/01/winn.mailbag/index.html
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