Hello again, everybody.  It’s been too long, I know.  My #1, lead-pipe lock team got smacked a couple weeks ago, and it has taken me this long to recover.  Oh, a sad day for the Bruins indeed.

Since it’s been so long, there will be no further stalling; we have too much ground to cover.  Onto the rankings:

1)      Texas – Look, you might think I’m nuts, but beating two top ten teams in the first month of the season, including the then-number one team on the road, is more than enough evidence for me to declare a team the best in the nation.  Throw in this kind of start in the immediate aftermath of losing one of the best college basketball players of all time, and there you have it.  The case is made.

2)      Kansas – Arizona at home and USC on the road are high-quality wins, and five guys averaging double figures inspires a lot of confidence that this team is going to run away with the Big 12 North.  What was shaping up to be a down year for the conference all the sudden looks like boom times.  So it goes with preseason conjecture.  Kansas is for real.

3)      North Carolina – I’m not high on them yet because they haven’t beaten anyone all that good.  Yes, they went on the road for three straight wins against BYU, Ohio State, and Kentucky.  However, UK sucks, Ohio State isn’t anything special, and BYU loses to the good teams they play.  Forgive me for not sharing everyone else’s enthusiasm for the Tar Heels.

4)      Memphis – A four-point win over USC at home in overtime is not very comforting.  Neither is Calipari’s scheduling exactly one game between November 27 and December 15.  Every team has to take the second week of December off so their players can act like they’re taking final exams, but this is ridiculous.  An insane stretch of tough games ahead sort of makes up for it, with that Georgetown game December 22 shaping up to be the highlight of the young season.  Speaking of which…

5)      Georgetown – Now here is a team who hasn’t played anybody.  No, Alabama doesn’t count.  We all know how nasty this team is, how many players they return from last year’s Final Four and all that crap.  But until they play the team just above them on this list, it’s very hard to take them seriously.

6)      Duke – Every time I do these rankings and am forced to move Duke steadily higher, my facial tic goes wild.  They beat the hell out of a decent Wisconsin team, rightfully eviscerated Michigan, and won a tough game in Maui against Marquette.  It hurts to admit this, but Duke is very good this year.  Maybe Coach K, sponsored by American Express, will grace us with another commercial in response.

7)      Washington State – That four-point win over Baylor isn’t convincing anyone these guys should be taken seriously as title contenders, but that four-point win at Gonzaga might have convinced a few.  Maybe not title contenders, but the Fizer/Tinsley-era Iowa State type of major conference team: historically bad programs that catch the right mix of coach, players, and chemistry to make a few seasons worth of noise.

8)      UCLA – Shame, shame, for shame.  Texas is great this year, but there is no good reason UCLA should have lost.  As a corollary, there is no way Kevin Love should have sat on the bench for the final four minutes of that game while Lorenzo Mata-Real played defense, boxed-out, stood in the corner on offense, and ultimately did nothing of note to stop Texas.  Kevin Love is awesome, Howland; in fact, the frosh is your top scorer and rebounder so far.  Use him in crunch time.

9)      Marquette – After ending Wisconsin’s 28-game home winning streak and out-rebounding the much larger and supposedly more disciplined Badgers 41-34, my boys showed they belong.  Their next four games are jokes before the Big East gets going, but aside from the close Duke L they have won each game and looked good doing it.  You better believe the Golden Eagles will be a tough out in the Big East this year.

10)  Pittsburgh – Why put a remaining major conference unbeaten below two teams with one loss?  The officials had to bail them out against a bad Washington team with one good player, and they have simply not proven themselves to be better than anyone above them on this list.  They get Duke December 20 and then open the Big East against Villanova, so we will see in due time.

11)  Michigan State – What is Big Ten basketball?  Slow, grinding, painful at times to watch, well-executed and low-scoring with plenty of good jump shooters.  In other words, Michigan State.  A road win at BYU tested their mettle and they passed.  Wonderful.  I hope I don’t watch a single Big Ten conference game this year…

12)  Indiana – Unless it’s starring the Indiana Hoosiers and Eric Gordon!  Whew, that guy’s amazing.  But here’s the secret: D.J. White’s leadership will determine how far the Hoosiers go this year.  Along with his fifteen points and nine rebounds a game.  That will help as well.  Love watching these guys.

13)  Oregon – A big win at Kansas State replaced the tough loss to St. Mary’s in the collective consciousness, and you’re not going to convince me there is a team significantly better than these Oregon Ducks right now.  The next couple squads on the list have a lot questions regarding their character, and it seems Oregon shored up some of theirs with the K-State win.

14)  Tennessee – They’ve won their last three games by a total of 68 points, but you couldn’t name the mascot of one of the teams they played in that stretch without some research.  Their final two non-conference games in late-December, at Xavier and home vs. Gonzaga, will give us a better picture of what we’re dealing with here.  Until then, I see a bunch of gunners who don’t play defense.  That should be plenty good enough to run away with the SEC this year.

15)  Arizona – So the Lute Olson situation has been settled for the time being and Kevin O’Neill can now take the reins and command everyone’s full attention.  Despite his psychosis, he’s won pretty much everywhere he’s been (except the NBA); in response to the news of Olson’s season-long leave of absence, O’Neill rallied his troops to huge, come-from-behind wins over Texas A&M and Illinois, that second one a road game in which star Chase Budinger scored eight points.

16)  Xavier – No one deserves this ranking more than the Musketeers.  That impressive win over Indiana is the main reason, but after a strange two-point loss to Miami (OH) in their second game, Xavier has looked like the mid-major of note this year.  They still have games against Tennessee and Kansas State to boot, so X has every opportunity to better their position before the A-10 gets going.

17)  Texas A&M – Crushing loss to Arizona.  Guess these guys aren’t quite as tough as everyone thought.  After jumping out to a twenty-point first half lead and a twelve-point halftime lead, they allowed themselves to be outscored in the second half 50-27, scoring only one basket in the last 4:10.  Responding to the loss with a thirty-seven point thrashing of Texas State doesn’t mean much, either.

18)  Clemson – I have no good reason to put the Tigers here.  Their next game is against a team from Puerto Rico, for God’s sake.  They certainly don’t deserve the #15 ranking they hold in both national polls, as they haven’t beaten anyone that’s any good.  They are undefeated, though, and I used to go to Oliver Purnell’s basketball camps as a kid in Dayton, OH, so what the hell, here you go, Clemson.  Christmas is a time for giving.

19)  Vanderbilt –The Commodores remain undefeated and might make some noise in the SEC this year.  They also didn’t schedule a single ranked team in their non-conference season.  The decent teams they’ve played (Georgia Tech and Wake Forest), they have beaten.  Andrew Ogilvy, a huge Australian freshman, has a lot of Bogut to him.  Plus, I live literally a block from Vandy.  Go ‘Dores.

20)  USC – They have three losses, but we’re throwing that loss to Mercer out the window.  The other two were to Kansas and Memphis in consecutive games, both by four, the Memphis L on the road in overtime.  This team is coming together, and though there were some hiccups along the way (as you’ll have with precocious youngsters, even if one of them is O.J. Mayo) USC has some easy sailing ahead of it before it hits that Pac-10 schedule. 

Outside looking in: Gonzaga, Villanova, Saint Mary’s, Miami (FL), Arkansas, West Virginia, Stanford, Rhode Island, Dayton

Decent teams whose tough losses knocked them out of the rankings until further notice:

-         Kansas State: I’ll never forgive Huggy Bear for bringing Beasley and Walker to Manhattan, KS, before skipping town to coach his alma mater.  This could have been huge, Bob. 

-         Louisville: Apparently David Padgett was more important to them than I thought.  Dayton is good and all, but there’s no way Louisville loses that game at home if they are as good as everyone thought they’d be.  Going to be a long year in Louisville once the Big East starts.

-         Butler: Failing to break fifty in a loss to Wright State (big weekend for Dayton-based colleges) is not what a top twenty team does.  See you later, Butler.

-         Wisconsin: It doesn’t matter how tall you are if you don’t fight for those rebounds.  Losing the rebounding battle to Marquette’s merry band of midgets does not bode well for the Badgers heading into a conference where pretty much the only thing that matters is overall toughness.

Finally, I could not possibly be more excited to see what happens December 22, aka Armageddon, between Memphis and Georgetown.  Going to be HUGE.  I’ll be back in a couple weeks with the final rankings of the non-conference season.  Once conference play begins, we’re going to try to do this once a week.  Again, going to be HUGE.

With that, until next time, may you always make it rain.