Well, now that it's basketball season, many of you wanted me to continue giving my meager opinion with power rankings into Basketball season, but since many of you follow national basketball more than Pac 10 basketball, I thought I would do TWO power rankings every week... a National Top ten and a Pac 10 Power ranking as well.

In my rankings, I am doing my best NOT to look at polls, rather using the same rationale I used during football season; Who is playing the best in the nation, and in what order. of course, to some degree, who is flat out the better team will factor in, but it is more of a secondary consideration at this point.

Without further hesitation, here's what I came up with.

DM14's National Top 10

1. Pittsburgh (14-0)

I decided to give Pitt my top spot in the first week, both because they are undefeated, but also because they gave Georgetown a royal beat down, just a couple of days after Georgetown gave Connecticut a beat down of their own. Right now, there is no better balanced team than Pitt, in that nation.

2. Duke (11-1)

Well, Duke is Duke. They haven't played many tough teams yet, but they beat a stingy Xavier pretty handily and they didn't believe their own hype (like North Carolina obviously did) in their ACC opener, hammering Virginia Tech. That was good enough for the #2 spot for me.

3. North Carolina (13-1)

North Carolina... everybody's #1 team. Someone forgot to tell Boston College, which is why North Carolina isn't my #1 team. Now, the ACC is going to be up for grabs, with Duke, Wake Forest, Boston College, and a host of other talented teams.

4. Wake Forest (13-0)

I gave Wake Forest a courtesy ranking. Here's a team that is not only 13-0 thus far, but the only game they have played of any difficulty, against BYU (who had a 53 game home winning streak), Wake Forest outscored them in a wild affair. Likely, they will not stay as high as number 4, but for now, this is where I rank them.

5. Connecticut (12-1)

Most pundits have UConn as the second best team in the land, but UConn's only tough contest before this week was an overtime victory against Gonzaga. This week, they lose at home against Georgetown IN Connecticut. The only reason I have them still ahead of Georgetown is because Georgetown has what I consider a bad loss against Tennessee.

6. Michigan State (11-2)

I have Michigan State quite a bit higher than many of the experts have them, but when you consider that they had a couple of losses early in the season, including getting hammered by UNC, but have now won seven straight games, including a strong start in conference play. They are just hot enough to sit at #6. matter of fact, of all the teams with at least one loss in the Top 25, there is only one team with a longer winning streak.

7. UCLA (12-2)

UCLA currently has an EIGHT game winning streak, including an impressive win at Mac court. This team is gelling at just the right time, and could be very dangerous for the rest of the season.

8. Georgetown (10-2)

As I mentioned in the UConn post, I would have had Georgetown much higher, if it weren't for the loss to Tennessee, who is currently ranked but is not as tough as their lopsided victory over Georgetown a few weeks back. Add to that, Pitt crushed them just a couple days ago, which will not be good for their overall morale as a team.

9. Syracuse (14-1)

Syracuse is 14-1 and with a five game winning streak they really should be higher than #9 on my list. I just can't get over their loss to Cleveland State. Cleveland State? and at HOME?

10. Texas (11-2)

Texas is a very good team and is likely to move up quickly. This team has #1 written all over their face. The only reasons they are sitting at number 10 today, is because despite the fact that they have only lost twice, once was to Notre Dame ( I don't consider Notre Dame to be a good team, despite what the experts... a Phili52 have to say about it), and they lost recently to Michigan state, so there are several teams with longer winning streaks. I look for Texas to move up this list quickly.

Five Teams to watch... Oklahoma, Villanova, California, Louisville, and Clemson.

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Pac 10 Power Rankings

1. UCLA (12-2, 2-0)

I addressed UCLA in the national ranking. They're really coming together.

2. California (13-2, 2-0)

Mr. Montgomery has done a phenomenal job with this group. They are young ( no seniors) and are going to challenge for the Pac 10 championship... you can count on it. Just ask Arizona and ASU how good they are.

3. Washington (10-3, 1-0)

Being the only other team in the Pac 10 that didn't lose in conference, coupled with the fact that UW ended the seven game losing streak against Washington State, it should give them a lot of momentum going into this weeks games against Stanford and California. By the way... talk about winning streaks, UW's streak is sitting at eight, just like UCLA.

4. Arizona State (12-2, 1-1)

I gave ASU the nod at #2 because, despite their loss to Cal, they absolutely hammered Stanford BY 30 in Maples Pavilion.

5. Stanford (11-1, 1-1)

Stanford did a good job coming back after their embarrassing loss to ASU but handling Arizona. They showed that they can certainly take over a game if you don't play good defense.

6. Oregon State (6-6, 1-1)

I couldn't resist putting OSU at #6. After being embarrassed on their home court by UCLA, these guys could have/should have mailed it in against a tough Southern cal team, but despite getting way down early, they came all the way back and surprise, surprise, OSU is 1-1 going into next weeks games against the Arizona schools.

7. Southern Cal (10-4, 1-1)

Everything looked good after USC hammered Oregon at mac court in the opener, but something happened on the way up I5 to Corvallis...

8. Oregon (6-8, 0-2)

Well, this is what happened if you lose handily in the opener against USC and then get to look forward to hosting UCLA. Still, they came back strong and made it a good ball game against UCLA so I gave them a little vote of confidence, ranking Oregon as the best of the winless conference teams.

9. Washington State (8-5, 0-1)

Washington State is can't be in a good mood after losing their winning streak against UW, and at home no less. I still believe that defense never sleeps so I look for WSU to continue to improve throughout the season. This week will be tough, however, as they host the bay area schools.

10. Arizona (9-5, 0-2)

The troubling thing I see with UA is that this is a team without an identity. Talent-wise, there are very few teams with more of it, but UA, as of now, hasn't learned how to play as a team. Whether it be Hill, Wise, or Buddinger, they seem to all want to "get theirs" and that spells losses. Unless they fix it real quickly, Arizona is in deep trouble, despite their phenomenal talent level.

This weeks games...

UCLA vs. USC

Washington / Washington State vs. California / Stanford

Oregon / Oregon State vs. Arizona / Arizona State

Cheers,

DM14

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