Verb's Sweet Sixteen - 1/22

College basketball is great!

We have another year where we are going to play musical chairs at the top of the polls. North Carolina, Pitt and now Wake Forest have all lost as the top team in the country. Who is next?

Duke

They play Maryland this Saturday in a huge game. I know Maryland is unranked but they always play Duke well and Maryland could be a good team if they are on top of there game.

Ask Wake what its like to play a hot unranked ACC team.

Some of the hot teams in the country right now are Connecticut, Louisville and Marquette.

Surprise, surprise, they are all Big East teams.

That's a great conference and is right up there with the ACC in my mind right now.

Let's get on with the seeding.

East (Boston)

1. Connecticut - I am not huge on this team but they are playing really well in a tough conference and they move into a number 1 spot this week.

2. North Carolina - They housed Clemson last night. The 3 league losses keeps this team from being a top seed but they are playing like the best team in the country.

3. Texas - This team has only played one game since last week and that was Texas Tech.

4. Memphis - I don't really have anything new for this team. They are going to keep winning and winning and will stay in the top 4 of some region the rest of the season.

South (Memphis)

1. Duke - They are now the number 1 team in the land. They have a showdown with Wake next week. Let's see what they've got.

2. Louisville - Probably the hottest team in the country. They had 3 straight wins over top 20 teams and are just playing really well right now.

3. Michigan State - Would've been a number 2 if they didn't lost to Northwestern at home last night. What was that? Northwestern? Really?

4. Arizona State - They beat UCLA and are probably the best team in the PAC-10. That gets them in here and this team could definitely move up.

Midwest (Indianapolis)

1. Pittsburgh - I know they lost to Louisville but I already talked about that and then they came back and beat Syracuse pretty good. They stay at number 1 here.

2. Wake Forest - Losing at home to an unranked team. I wasn't sure how good this team was and I don't think that game told the whole story but it definitely told some of it.

3. Syracuse - What a stretch. Georgetown, Notre Dame, Pitt and next up: Louisville. That's killer. So far they are 1-2 and that's enough to knock them down a spot.

4. Xavier - A 20 point win over St. Bonaventure really doesn't impress me. Number 4 may be as high as this team gets.

West (Arizona but not necessarily Phoenix)

1. Oklahoma - This just in: Blake Griffin is really good. Ok, you already knew that. But really, this just in: they rest of the team is pretty good too!

2. Marquette - Another hot Big East team. This sweet 16 is loaded with BCS conference teams but this year it seems to be the trend and Marquette is keeping with it.

3. Georgetown - This team is solid and gets the benefit of the Big East. This team is on my radar as a team that could fall. Let's see what happens. The loss to Duke really didn't hurt here.

4. Clemson - I told you. They lost to Wake by 10 and Carolina by 24. I knew they weren't that good. I may be being a little rough here but those two losses aren't very good.

Check back next week in hopes that some teams get hot or cold and I can change it up a bit. The BCS conference are ruling here and potentially could for the rest of the season!