Josh from SBN's Kentucky blog A Sea of Blue has taken the initiative to start and organize a weekly SBN college basketball top 25. Here's what the first installment looks like:
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W-L
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Week
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 Florida
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17-2 |
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 Wisconsin
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19-1 |
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 UCLA
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17-1 |
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 North Carolina
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17-2 |
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 Oregon
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18-1 |
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 Texas A&M
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16-2 |
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 Ohio State
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16-3 |
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 Pitt
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17-3 |
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 Kansas
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16-3 |
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 Alabama
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15-3 |
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 Oklahoma State
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16-3 |
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 Duke
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16-3 |
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 Air Force
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18-2 |
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 Butler
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17-2 |
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 Clemson
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18-2 |
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 Memphis
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15-3 |
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 Nevada
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17-2 |
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 Washington State
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16-3 |
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 Marquette
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16-4 |
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 Arizona
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13-5 |
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 Notre Dame
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15-3 |
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 Southern Cal
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15-5 |
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 LSU
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13-5 |
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 Virginia Tech
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13-5 |
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 Indiana
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14-4 |
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CC's mid-major friendly ballot went as follows:
1. Wisconsin 2. Florida 3. UCLA 4. North Carolina 5. Oregon 6. Texas A&M 7. Ohio State 8. Pitt 9. Kansas 10. Oklahoma State 11. Duke 12. Memphis 13. Air Force 14. Washington State 15. Butler 16. Clemson 17. Nevada 18. Marquette 19. Alabama 20. Notre Dame 21. Virginia Tech 22. Arizona 23. Virginia Commonwealth 24. LSU 25. Winthrop
Many thanks to Josh for putting this thing together.
Staying on the topic of polls, the Big East Basketball Report released its weekly power poll yesterday, and for the third straight week Louisville made a move in the right direction. The Cards jumped a spot from #9 to #8, and are a single point behind West Virginia.
Despite falling to Marquette at home, Pitt stayed atop the poll, snatching 13 of 16 first-place votes. Second-place Marquette grabbed the other three. Notre Dame, Georgetown, Villanova and Syracuse rounded out the top six.
The Golden Eagles' Dominic James nabbed player of the week honors, just edging out Villanova's Scottie Reynolds who was the choice for freshman of the week. James and Reynolds both got our votes for the categories they prevailed in.
Our power poll ballot looked like this:
1. Pitt 2. Marquette 3. Notre Dame 4. Georgetown 5. Syracuse 6. West Virginia 7. Villanova 8. Louisville 9. Connecticut 10. Providence 11. Depaul 12. Seton Hall 13. St. John's 14. Cincinnati 15. Rutgers 16. South Florida
So basically we kept Louisville out of the seven spot. Do sumpin' about it.
Former Louisville defensive lineman Amobi Okoye is getting ready to play in this Saturday's Senior Bowl, and is already turning some serious heads due to his performance in practice.
NFL.com's Pat Kirwan says of the 19-year-old:
The first thing that jumped out at me during his pass-rush drills and the 9 on 7 live running game drill was his explosive quickness and excellent technique. It's hard to comprehend that a kid just 19 years old is graduating from college and looks like the next Warren Sapp.
Okoye is 6-foot-2 and 312 pounds with the legs of a running back. Tampa defensive line coach Larry Coyer could hardly contain his emotions coaching the teenager that no one could block.
Speaking of Okoye, our friends over at Niners Nation were so interested in the man child that they asked me to do a write-up to drop some knowledge on 49er fans who hadn't had the privilege of seeing #91 as much as we have. You can check out what I had to say here.
Warren St. John, who runs the 'Bama blog Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer, has penned an outstanding piece for The New York Times about a soccer team of refugees in Clarkston, Ga. If you have the time I'd highly recommend checking it out.
You remember that whole deal about the enormous discrepancy between fouls called in the first half and fouls called in the second half of Monday night's game? Chas points out that this really isn't anything new, and that the common theme in all of this may be Tim Higgins.
Higgins, Huggins, Hitler; they're all assholes.
Seeing how Nebraska is the college baseball captial of the world, Corn Nation's enthusiasm regarding the upcoming season should come as no surprise. As far as U of L goes, I'll be getting some stuff up on the Cardinal nine before their season opener at home against Murray State (Perhaps a sign of things to come?) on Feb. 13.
Peace, love, Cards.