In these mixed up, topsy-turvy times of ours, it's very hard to know where you stand. I would have sworn that Duke was The Team To Beat (TTTB) for the rest of the season. Not because they had the most talented players (though they have a few) but because of their overall effort on both ends of the court and the caliber of coach that insures they'll never relax. I mean, right up until he started letting them relax. I'll give them Wake, at the time (a whole week ago) I thought they were pretty serious contenders for the ACC crown. Hell, the only times Vitale wasn't saying "Hansbrough" was when he was saying "Teague." But then a couple of quick trips to Raleigh and Miami and suddenly the Deaks are tied for the prestigious 5th spot in the ACC and Duke's loss to them looks a lot sketchier. But Duke can take a loss to a top 5 team and still be pretty comfy in their own ranking, until they go into Clemson and and get pummelled on national TV.

Where does that leave the Cards come Monday? I mean Oklahoma had to rely on a phantom foul on A&M's big man Elonu to come back and get the W at home against a suspect squad. They won't drop a spot, but they should. UNC'll stay put and Clemson certainly moves up. Pitt's big win against Robert Morris menas they're not falling anywhere, but can you actually move up in a poll by beating Robert Morris? I'll believe it when I see it. Marquette got some quality W's in there, so I guess we are looking at: 1-Uconn, 2-OKLA, 3-UNC, 4- Marquette, 5-Pitt, 6-Clemson, 7-Duke, 8-Perdue, 9-UofL, 10-Michigan St. I think you have to make UConn TTTB until further notice. Hopefully Pitt will get them once, maybe Marquette, then we ought to be standing in pretty good shape in the BE as long as we can beat Marquette and those other teams that we really ought to. I guess while it's very hard to say where we stand amidst the trees, it's easy to say where we really want to be: Right at the top of the BE so we can claim the all-important 1 seed that will keep us at arms length from UConn & UNC. Because of all the things we don't know, one thing we DO know is that they are both really, really, ridiculously, good.