NCAA Basketball Power Rankings Rank LW Team 11 7 Gonzaga Bulldogs (9-3) Memphis now has both the J.J. Stopper™ (Carney, who held Duke's Redick scoreless in the second half of the NIT Season Tip-Off final) and the Morrison Stopper™ (Shawne Williams, who didn't allow a point from the Zags' icon for the final 9:32 in Tuesday's win). The fact that the J.J. Stopper™ could not stop Morrison -- Carney was guarding Morrison for portions of the 34 points he racked up in the game's first 30:28 -- is something to consider in the Player of the Year race. "How good is Morrison? That guy is so good," Memphis coach John Calipari told the Washington Post. "What happened was [Morrison] knew he could score on Rodney in the post. So I asked Shawne if he wanted to guard him, which was dangerous because he had three fouls. But I said, 'Look, man. If we don't stop him right now, we are not going to win this game because he will go nuts.'" Williams ensured there was no nuts-going from Morrison. Next three: 12/31 vs. St. Joe's, 1/7 at St. Mary's, 1/9 at Santa Clara. 12 14 George Washington (8-0) GW coach Karl Hobbs: Not a fan of the RPI. "I want wins," he told the Washington Times. "I have never really believed in the RPI. After last year I became even more disenchanted with it. The 'experts' said we wouldn't have made the NCAA tournament if we had not won the [Atlantic 10] championship." So he's opted for a schedule that, thus far, ranks 317th in the nation in terms of difficulty: Basically, a win over Maryland (on which we base our opinion of the Colonials) and a big cakewalk. "We played against a difficult nonconference schedule [last season], and what did it get us?" Hobbs said. "We would have been in the NIT." Next three: 12/31 at N.C. State, 1/4 at Temple. 1/7 at Marshall. 13 - Maryland Terrapins (9-2) Is it now the Fightin' Terps? American coach Jeff Jones, after a Dec. 23 loss in which his team trailed Maryland 43-17 at the half, told the Washington Post, "We use the analogy of Mike Tyson; when Mike Tyson fights, you have to weather that early barrage. We weren't able to. They overwhelmed us with their defense." So how far will this Iron Mike analogy go for Gary Williams' boys this season? Will we find them holding an ACC title belt? Or will they make threats to eat J.J. Redick's children? Or will they just be dead-broke by March, with nothing better to do than appear on Jimmy Kimmel as the unknowing butt of the show's jokes? Next three: 12/31 vs. VMI, 1/4 vs. Texas A&M Corpus-Christi, 1/7 at Miami (Fla.). 14 - Ohio State Buckeyes (9-0) Senior guard Je'Kel Foster was dubbed a perfect "jigsaw piece" by SI.com Jigsaw Man Seth Davis, who in his whimsical column pinpointed Foster back on Dec. 18 as an (albeit impossible) answer for Arizona's shooting woes. Foster was shooting above 60 percent from 3 at that point, and is presently hitting at a 59.6 percent clip; and while Arizona is still hurting, the 'Cats should be getting Jawann McClellan back in January. So we will take the liberty of re-gifting Foster to LSU, which is the team that perhaps needs him most: The Tigers are getting just 15.2 percent of their points on 3s (the second-worst percentage in the nation, after UIC). Or maybe we should just forget this re-gifting business, and focus on OSU. Next three: 12/31 vs. LSU, 1/5 vs. Penn State, 1/7 at Indiana. 15 - Cincinnati Bearcats (10-2) Most of the teams in the 16 I don't have to justify; their resumes do enough talking that there's leeway to Google country music tandems or community-service-time facilities. But I already know it, Cincy's gonna be the one the "excluded" fans -- particularly those of the Bluegrass state rivals -- get riled up about. So I gotta justify. Here goes: The Bearcats are the most underrated team the nation. I included them in the "efficiency sleepers" section of my stat-heavy holiday column, and as of Thursday UC had the eighth-most efficient offense in the nation and the 31st-most efficient D, a rare combination, and yet remained unranked in both polls. The Bearcats have won seven straight, avenged their early-season loss to Dayton (by beating the Flyers in a Dec. 22 rematch) and their only other loss is to Memphis -- the No. 2 team in these rankings. So you see, there's no way I can leave Cincy out. Next three: 12/30 vs. N.C. A&T, 1/4 vs. DePaul, 1/7 at Marquette. 16 - Nevada Wolf Pack (10-1) Time to hand out one end-of-year award, and it's Wolf Pack-related: Most-Viewed Web Video Clip -- KU assistant Joe Dooley's eff-you to Nevada star Nick Fazekas following the Pack's 72-70 win at Allen Fieldhouse on Dec. 1. It's no Chronic-what-les-of-Narnia, but it's the best the hoops world has to offer. To Dooley and KU's credit, a thorough apology was issued -- both in public and private -- to Fazekas and Nevada later that evening. Ah, but in the information age, even a day-of apology can't squelch the Internet demand for a profanity-laced exchange caught on tape in the handshake line. Next three: 12/31 at St. Mary's, 1/5 at Hawaii, 1/7 at San Jose State.

Dropped out: Oklahoma, Texas, Boston College, North Carolina, Wake Forest, Louisville.

On the cusp: All of the drop-outs, Wisconsin (still waiting for a substantial win, that's all), Kentucky, N.C. State, West Virginia, USC, UNC, Indiana State.

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