America's Most Hated Team is back on top of college basketball. It may only be a little while, but surely everyone's skin crawled a little bit when Wake Forest lost, leaving the door open for Duke to take over the top spot in the nation.
Wake's loss shows us one thing: Heavy lies the crown. And Duke will have to prove its worth right away -- the Blue Devils go to Wake on Wednesday for a 7 p.m. showdown. Don't worry, the ACC won't give us another marquee matchup for a few weeks to catch our breath ...
Meanwhile, visiting No. 9 Louisville beat No. 8 Syracuse on Sunday in Big East action. No. 4 Pitt took care of business at West Virginia. Seton Hall stunned No. 12 Georgetown. On Saturday, No. 20 Villanova edged out South Florida by nine points. No. 11 Marquette, the conference leaders with Louisville, had its hands full with the league's worst team, DePaul, before winning by nine.
Oh, and UConn snapped Notre Dame's 45-game home winning streak.
But that's just a weekend in the Big East. And the Duke-Wake Forest showdown is just a once-in-a-few-weeks kind of showdown in the ACC. Better call up Dicky V.
To the rankings ...
1. Duke (18-1; previous rank: 2) -- The Blue Devils maimed Maryland on Saturday. By 41. They beat North Carolina State by 17 on Inauguration Day. They beat Georgia Tech by 14. Meanwhile, previously winless-in-conference Seton Hall just beat Georgetown, probably the fourth or fifth team in the Big East. You're right: The ACC isn't top-heavy, but the Big East is. But I digress. Duke has won 10 in a row since losing its only game of the season.
2. UConn (18-1; 3) -- The Huskies, like I said, went into the toughest arena in the Big East and won. They held Notre Dame to 33-percent shooting. That's one of the best offenses in the nation -- 33 percent. That, my friends, is good defense, with a capital picket fence. UConn's "week off" in conference play is this week, when the Huskies go to DePaul, the team that just pushed the Big East's top team right now, then host the Providence Friars, who have asserted themselves as possibly the ninth-best team in the conference.
3. Pitt (18-1; 4) -- So, Pitt, one of our Heavy Lies the Crown victims who lost early in their top ranking, is right back into form. The Panthers annihilated Syracuse on Monday and then traveled to an extremely tough gym, WVU Coliseum, and crushed West Virginia, the team that had just beaten Georgetown by 17 ... in Washington. A pair of convincing wins for Pitt had me tempted to jump them past Duke and UConn, but the Panthers are just fine at 3. And you'll probably notice a theme here, but Pitt now plays at Villanova on Wednesday before hosting Notre Dame on Saturday. Just another week in the Big East. It's exactly like the NCAA Tournament some (most?) weeks.
4. Wake Forest (16-1; 1) -- Wake lost a tough game at home, but there's no time to relax. The Deacs get Duke on Wednesday. And they may want to rectify the whole 1:2 assist-to-turnover ratio they had against Virginia Tech. Oh, and they might not want to let Duke shoot 50 percent. But Wake is at home, and probably pretty mad that it lost to an NIT team, so I think we might see another No. 1 go down on Wednesday.
5. Oklahoma (19-1; 5) -- Baylor is pretty good, and Oklahoma swatted them on Saturday. The Sooners have won seven in a row since losing at Arkansas. Now they have a big rivalry game at Oklahoma State on Wednesday. I don't really see anybody tripping up Oklahoma in the Big 12 if the Sooners play their best, so we'll just be on upset alert the rest of the season, erring on the side of the Sooners.
6. UNC (17-2; 6) -- Hey, it's a good game in the ACC that doesn't just include Duke, UNC and Wake. The Tar Heels go to Tallahassee for a tough game at Florida State on Wednesday. They should win, but FSU is looking for a nice marquee win. Is this one it?
7. Louisville (15-3; 10) -- A few teams lost, and the Cards kept moving, beating Syracuse by 10 on the road. Louisville hit its stride after losing to UNLV, and it hasn't looked back. South Florida and West Virginia are on tap this week, all before UConn on Feb. 2. Mark your calendars.
8. Marquette (17-2; 9) -- Louisville leap-frogged the Golden Eagles because Marquette has really feasted on the mid-table Big East schools. The Cardinals' wins at Syracuse and at home against Pitt and Notre Dame were impressive. Now, Marquette has a shot to make a splash with a game against Georgetown. But the Golden Eagles are lucky: They really should be OK until they go to Georgetown, host UConn, travel to Louisville then Pitt and then return home to play Syracuse to round out the season. Marquette might be 12-1 in the Big East by then.
9. Michigan State (17-3; 7) -- Oops. The Spartans lost a weird game to Northwestern on Wednesday. That's a pretty bad loss. But they responded with a resounding defeat of Ohio State. We'll call the Northwestern game a blip.
10. Syracuse (17-4; 8) -- I'm not going to drop Syracuse too much because Orange lost two in a row to Final Four teams. Not exactly a terrible week. Plus, I still like 'Cuse's win against Notre Dame. The Orange need to rebound, though, and get at least one marquee win against a good Big East team. They go to UConn on Feb. 11. Mark that date, too.
11. Clemson (17-2; 11) -- The Tigers don't belong with Duke, Wake and UNC. But they don't belong with Miami, Florida State and Virginia Tech, either. They really belong with the 6-9 best Big East teams. Are you picking up what I'm putting down?
12. Arizona State (16-3; 12) -- Doesn't Arizona State remind you of the 3 seed that loses by like 20 to a 6 or 11 seed in the second round? Write that previous sentence down somewhere.
13. Xavier (17-2; 17) -- The Musketeers are zooming up my power rankings after I saw them in action against LSU. I know LSU isn't very tough -- although it might just be the best team in the SEC West -- but Xavier closed out well. Very well. And if you can hit your foul shots, get some stops and make big shots in tough games, you are well suited for the Tournament.
14. Texas (14-4; 16) -- The Longhorns go to Baylor tomorrow night. They'll need to lock down the very good Baylor offense and try to control tempo. If Texas gets that win, it's in good shape. Baylor is a tough team, despite its crumbling at the hands of Oklahoma. This game will be a good indicator of who, along with Kansas, will be the main challenger to the Sooners.
15. Butler (18-1; 15) -- I can't move the Bulldogs higher because the Horizon League schedule isn't very daunting. But we know Butler can compete with anyone, anywhere. That's why we give 'em respect. They've earned it.
16. Washington (15-4; NR) -- The Huskies are 6-1 in the Pac-10, and they've won four in a row, including an 11-point win against UCLA on Sunday. A five-point win against USC was nice, too. I'm not sure Washington will stay this high in the power rankings, but the Huskies have a legitimate argument for a Tournament berth right now, and I think they'll get one come March.
17. UCLA (15-4; 13) -- The Bruins struggled at Washington State and escaped with a win. I liked that win, though. I saw that game, and it's never easy to score against Wazzou, a team I've seen play live twice and on TV many, many times. They defend you very well. For UCLA to get that win, it took a lot. So, we'll keep them in the power rankings despite Washington's big win on Sunday.
18. Kentucky (15-4; NR) -- The Wildcats deserve to be in here. They've won five straight since losing a tough one to Louisville. I really think this is the team to beat in the SEC. Jodie Meeks (duh) is pretty hard to cover.
19. Illinois (17-3; 20) -- The Illini play Minnesota on Thursday. That game has Big Ten title implications and tournament seeding implications. Expect a gritty, low-scoring, really boring game. But it's a big one, and these teams will be tough outs in the NCAAs.
20. St. Mary's (18-1; 19) -- The Gaels didn't do anything wrong that caused them to drop, I just needed to get UK and Washington into the rankings, and those teams might be better than Saint Mary's. But there's a huge showdown that you really should watch this week: Gonzaga hosts St. Mary's on Thursday at 11. It's good TV before bed. Enjoy.
And a new addition ...
Teams on the brink: Villanova, Minnesota, Georgetown, Purdue, Notre Dame, Gonzaga, Memphis, Florida, Utah State, West Virginia, Providence, Florida State, Kansas
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