Arizona joins UCLA in top 3; Florida, Kansas enter mix

All hail the Pac-10, which has more teams in the rankings than any other league -- not to mention two of this week's top three. And a warm welcome back to the maligned Kansas/Florida duo, who have assumed their rightful spots among the top 10. Occupying their former places in purgatory are two AP poll faves who have nary a "big" win between them: Ohio State and Pittsburgh.

NCAA Basketball Power Rankings Rank LW Team 1 1 UCLA Bruins (13-0) AP My end-of-'06 All-America team includes just one player from my preseason Wooden Award top five (Nick Fazekas), and is piloted by the Bruins' point man: PG: Darren Collison, Soph., UCLA Maui MVP has been Bruins' catalyst, averaging 13.5 points, 6.5 assists. SG: Chris Lofton, Jr., Tennessee Nation's top shooter had five 30-point games before Jan. 1. SF: Alando Tucker, Sr., Wisconsin New Wooden No. 1 saves biggest efforts for biggest stages (28 vs. Marquette, 32 vs. Pitt, 29 vs. Georgia). PF: Mario Boggan, Sr., Oklahoma State Master of efficiency at 21.7 ppg; has only had two sub-50-percent shooting games all year. C/F: Nick Fazekas, Sr., Nevada Among national leaders in points (20.9), rebounds (12.4); powered Pack into top 25. Next three: 1/4 at Oregon State, 1/6 at Oregon, 1/13 at USC. 2 4 North Carolina Tar Heels (13-1) North Carolina "honored" (translation: hanging a jersey in the rafters without retiring the number) its 2005 national-title trio of Sean May, Rashad McCants and Raymond Felton at halftime of a 81-51 rout of Dayton on Jan. 1. While assessing the current Heels for The (Raleigh) News & Observer, May indirectly summed up why it's tough to see them cutting down the nets in Atlanta. "They've got a quick point guard in Tywon [Lawson]; Brandan Wright, I think he's amazing; Tyler's having another good year; Wayne Ellington, I think, plays a little bit similar to Rashad," May said. "The only difference, really, is compared to our last year, they're really young. And it's going to take them some time." Next three: 1/7 vs. Florida State, 1/10 vs. Virginia, 1/13 at Virginia Tech. 3 3 Arizona Wildcats (11-1) Using the current mocks on NBADraft.net, here's how the Wildcats rank in order of pro-draft stock: 1. Chase Budinger. 2. Marcus Williams. 3. Mustafa Shakur. 4. Jawann McClellan. 5. Ivan Radenovic. I-Rad (can we start calling him that now?) is slotted as a late second-rounder for 2008, which is strange, seeing that he's outplaying everyone on the Arizona roster right now. The big Serbian is leading the 'Cats in points (17.8), rebounds (7.4), field-goal percentage (58.8), free-throw percentage (87.7) and three-point percentage (52.6). He's great at making "Lurch faces." He's the sixth-most efficient offensive player in kenpom.com's standings. I wonder, had he just stayed in Eastern Europe, and done some middling work on a club team, would he be first-round material? Next three: 1/4 at Washington, 1/6 at Washington State, 1/11 vs. Oregon State. 4 5 Wisconsin Badgers (14-1) Why was the Badgers' 64-54 win at Georgia on Dec. 31 such a positive sign -- beyond the fact that the Dawgs' are a sleeper team in the SEC? Because, as the Capital Times' Rob Schultz pointed out, it was exactly the kind of game Wisconsin, a team with a rep for dominating at the Kohl Center and wilting on the road, had historically always lost. For the past three years the Badgers dropped their biggest non-conference away game, counting back from Pitt in '05, to Pepperdine in '04, to Alabama in '03. In '06-07 UW has beaten Marquette at the Bradley Center and Georgia in Athens, and according to senior star Alando Tucker, "This is a totally different Wisconsin basketball program." Next three: 1/6 vs. Minnesota, 1/9 vs. Ohio State, 1/13 at Northwestern. 5 9 Duke Blue Devils (13-1) AP If you've been spending most of your time examining the curious facial expressions of Blue Devils freshman Jon Scheyer, then you've missed a couple of big statistical developments in the Duke camp: 1. The Blue Devils have surpassed Texas A&M to become the nation's No. 1 most efficient team on D (with a kenpom.com rating of 78.1). They're holding opponents to just 24 percent from beyond the arc -- a figure that also leads the country. 2. There is now hard evidence that Josh McRoberts is Duke's best assist man -- even better than Greg Paulus. McRoberts' assist rate (the percentage of teammates' field goals on which he records an assist) is 28.3, while Paulus' is 27.7. Even better, McRoberts' turnover rate is just 16.3, while Paulus' is 35.1. Much of that is because Paulus shoulders the bulk of the ballhandling, but still 35.1 is far too high. Next three: 1/6 vs. Virginia Tech, 1/10 at Georgia Tech, 1/14 at Miami (Fla.).

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