[The Poet]

As any fool could foresee - which means I qualify - there was a lot of movement in the Top 25 rankings due to all those "upsets" over the last few days. Oklahoma's out, Notre Dame's out, Illinois' out, Minnesota's out, Michigan's out, and others moved up or down or in. Meaningful games Saturday include:

Bradley 72 - Illinois 68 = The Illini go from # 20 to out.
# 9 Michigan State 106 - U.Mass 68 = This spanking didn't keep the Spartans from dropping from # 2, badly.
# 3 Villanova 81 - La Salle 63 = Nice Philly win, but beyond that so what?
# 24 UNLV 76 = # 20 Louisville 71 = Pitino's boys drop four spots, and Rebels run into ranks.

On Sunday:

# 2 Texas 77 - Rice 59 = Another "meh" win for the 'Horns.
# 7 West Virginia 84 - # 25 Portland 66 = Despite this whipping, Portland gets ranked. Enjoy it - it won't last long.
# 10 UNC 80 - Nevada 73 = The Heels shake of pesky Wolf Pack late to get Roy his 600th.
# 12 Washington 63 - Montana 59 = And this is the 12th-best team in the nation? Pleeze.
Alabama 68 - Michigan 66 = This loss alone didn't knock those Logans from # 15 to out, but it didn't help.
# 18 Clemson 70 - # 23 Butler 69 = Had Butler pulled this out, they would not have dropped as far from 12th.
# 19 Texas A&M 66 - Minnesota 65 = A good weekend for the Aggies, yet maybe not that good.

Bottom line: Although rankings don't mean jack yet, the previous 5 days makes it seem the Big Ten may be in for a loooooong season. Maybe not, but they ain't shown much so far.

Tonight's pretty light on top-notch action, with only:

# 5 Kentucky vs. N.C. Asheville
# 10 Syracuse vs. Colgate
# 16 Georgetown vs. Mount St. Mary's

Yawn.