Ranking the rankings criticizes the critics when the polls come out.
Headlining: Pittsburgh took over first in the country after beating Connecticut two weeks ago. All it had to do was beat Providence and the Panthers would get to sit pretty at No. 1 overall, possibly cruising to a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. Yet, they somehow lost. It's a testament to this year's college basketball season, not only in terms of parity and a lack of elite teams, but general confusion as well. Don't bother telling me you saw that coming.
What you might have seen coming was UConn returning to the top spot. Because North Carolina was still below the Huskies following the Heels' loss to Maryland Feb. 21, and because Jim Calhoun's crew took out Marquette and Notre Dame, this was pretty obvious.
Free-Fallin': Arizona State (21-7). Say what you want about Herb Sendek's team, but at least they're consistent -- in a very weird way. Just a few weeks after their ascent up the polls was halted at No. 14 by back-to-back home losses to Washington State and Washington, the Sun Devils apparently felt like last week's ranking of No. 11 was just high enough. So naturally, they coughed up back-to-back overtime losses to -- you guessed it -- Washington State and Washington. Washington is the class of the Pac-10 now, but no one from this conference is cutting down nets in April anyway.
You Gotta Rise Up: Kansas (24-5). Bill Self is apparently "falling in love with this team." While that's awkward on any number of levels, it's kind of hard to blame him. The Jayhawks are streaking right now, having lost just twice in the 2009 calendar year, and those against two teams currently in the top 15. You may recall me mentioning this last week. It's worth repeating because the Jayhawks were labeled as "bunked" (i.e. underrated) before taking out the Blake Griffin-less Oklahoma Sooners and then throttling Missouri 90-65 at Allen Fieldhouse. They're good and it's not totally implausible that the defending champs win the the Big 12 tournament and bag a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.
Hyped: Wake Forest (22-5). The Demon Deacons have lost just five games, but they're highly inconsistent. And more than that, do they get up for lesser opponents? I know that seems like a silly, anti-statistical notion, but Wake has lost games to Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, Miami and N.C. State. If Wake ends up landing a two or three seed against an uppity 14th or 15th seed (although no one outside of Morgan State in Lundardi's sets are really terrifying right now) is it that inconceivable that the Deacons don't show up? At this point, I don't think so.
Bunked: Missouri (24-5). This might seem counter-intuitive, but I'm willing to chalk up Missouri's blowout loss to Kansas as a tremendous showing by the Jayhawks in a rivalry game tinted with revenge. Mizzou shot 20.5 percent from the floor in the first half and only scored 19 points. I think you will see a much, much different team Wednesday night against Oklahoma, and, despite the return of the Sooners' Blake Griffin, I'm going to go out on a limb and predict an upset. If that comes off, I look very smart for slotting them here. If not, just forget this column ever existed.
WTF? Did you know that Bob Huggins was capable of shedding tears? Because I did not. Huggy Bear just seems like the kind of guy who, while certainly compassionate, would end up rubbing his eyes and asking what this salty discharge was as he watched Cincy honor him. But maybe I'm just too cynical. I always assumed that anyone who would rock out this suit (caption possibly NSFW) wouldn't know what crying was.
People Who Vote Are Smart (Brought to You by Pollspeak.com): This choice was easy this week, as Ron Morris of The State in South Carolina apparently mailed in his vote from inside Shady Acres. For starters (in numerical order), he has Wake Forest, Marquette and Villanova ranked seventh, eighth and ninth, respectively. That would be fine, if Memphis wasn't 10th. But let's not dwell there too long. Duke is at 11. But wait, it gets worse! Florida State clocks in at 15th overall. Aside from sweeping Clemson, I'm struggling to find a quality win for the Seminoles. And, no, Florida doesn't count. Of course, sticking the 'Noles there wouldn't be an issue if Washington and Kansas didn't occupy the 21st and 22nd spots sandwiched between UCLA and Arizona State. Dios mio.
