Duke, Duke, Duke. See? Perseverance does pay off. Not too much of a shake up in most of the polls this week, except for at the top and wait until you see who I have dropping out and stepping in.

One change this week. It was requested that I include Pac 10 teams that I have in the Top 25 and where I'd rank them, so I will gladly comply. Ok, let's get to it:

NATIONAL POWER TEN

1. Duke (18-1)
Knowing that they need only win both games this week to sit on top of the ACC, after the loss by Wake Forest, they go out and beat North Carolina State, but then hammered Maryland worse than they have been beaten in 60 years. Any questions?

2. Pittsburgh (18-1)
So, Pitt loses to Louisville, but I can't have Louisville sitting in this spot because of their early season performance, so Pitt had the opportunity to creep back nearly to the top if they win this week. They hammer a good Syracuse team and a solid West Virginia team. No question that Pitt, at least for now, is the second best team in the country.

3. Connecticut (18-1)
Wins against Villanova and Notre Dame. Both convincing performances.

4. Louisville (15-3)
Louisville is rolling and might be the only team that can pose a serious challenge to Duke and Pitt right now. They blew out both Rutgers and then went TO the Carrier Dome and took down Syracuse. Nice job as these guys went from nowhere on my list to #4 in just two weeks.

5. Oklahoma (19-1)
Even though these guys have had limited difficulty with their schedule, it's hard to argue against a 19-1 record.

6. Wake Forest (16-1)
I hope you all don't think I was too hard on Wake Forest, but the way they played against West Virginia was very marginal, and after West Virginia laid an egg against Pitt, my mind was made up... these guys are over rated.

7. North Carolina (17-2)
North Carolina is certainly playing back to form after their impressive blow out win over another over-rated team, Clemson. Still, it is way too difficult to argue them over the six teams ahead of them right now... beginning with Wake Forest who knocked them off just last week.

8. Butler (18-1)
What can I say. I'm not a small division guy, but so many teams had bad losses this week, I thought I'd give 18-1 a shot.

9. Xavier (17-2)
Ditto with Xavier. these guys can brag about an eight game winning streak and are beginning to look like the team that the experts though could be very, very tough.

10. Texas (14-4)
After a couple week absence, Texas is back in my Top Ten after beating up on two in-state rivals. If they plan on staying there, they had better not lay anymore eggs against decent competition.
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My take on the Pac 10 in the polls is simple... tomorrow, the Pac 10 teams are likely to be ranked with ASU, UCLA, and Washington all in the Top 25, but this is MY power Ranking, and when considering who is the BEST, this isn't even close, so here's mine...

14. Washington (15-4)
I don't know if any team in the nation can beat UCLA and USC on back to back nights. These guys should be ranked much higher than they are... very Louisville-Esq.

19. Arizona State (16-3)
One game this week, but it was a solid win against their in state rivals. ASU keeps rolling and must be ahead of UCLA since they beat UCLA head-to-head.

22. UCLA (15-4)
UCLA is going through those growing pains I warned you all about, but they're still around and they are likely to put it all together just in time for another solid March run.

Teams out of the Power Ten : Michigan State, Syracuse, Clemson.
Teams to watch: Washington, Arizona State, Michigan State.


PAC 10 POWER RANKINGS

1. Washington 15-4 (6-1)
UW stays on top for the second week in a row.

2. Arizona State 16-3 (5-2)
ASU took it to UA so they certainly didn't hurt themselves, despite their pitiful offensive performance.

3. UCLA 15-4 (5-2)
Losing to THIS UW team at Hec Ed is no shame.

4. Southern Cal 13-6 (4-3)
Ditto for USC.

5. Oregon State 8-10 (3-5)
This weeks big mover, how can we not get excited about OSU. Knocking off Cal and Stanford on the road is huge, especially for a young team like OSU. President Barack must be proud.

6. California 16-4 (5-2)
hard to gauge whether Cal is marginal or OSU is better than we all thought... 1-1 against the Oregon schools THIS SEASON is no way to get an invitation to the dance.

7. Washington State 11-8 (3-4)
I still think Wazzu is going to be heard from this season. These guys almost completed an amazing come back against UCLA and then barely missed against USC. They'll get it together.

8. Stanford 13-4 (3-4)
Stanford beat Oregon but then got hammered by OSU. This opened the door for wazzu to move ahead of them. Stanford is in a bit of an identity crisis right now. They can't figure out if they are going to run and gun or focus on defense. They'll need to get that figured out if they plan on winning a lot of games.

9. Arizona 12-8 (3-5)
UA is the most volatile team on my board. these guys jump all over the board from week to week. The truth be told, I can't figure out where to put them. UA has all the talent in the world, but i think that their new coach is doing a terrible job of showcasing it in a way that translates into wins. I guess we'll see if I'm wrong by season end.

10. Oregon 6-14 (0-8)
What can I say... the record says it all.

Happy Hunting!

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