Hot 'Horns jump to No. 1 over Memphis, UNC, UCLA

The AP poll's old No. 1 lost on Saturday. Its new No. 1 lost on Tuesday. There's chaos at the top of the college basketball world, but in chaos can be found opportunity.

Rather than adhering to standard poll logic and re-anointing Memphis as No. 1, we have a chance to rearrange the seven elite teams into a more sensible pecking order. Taking into account momentum (more than an overall win-loss record) and high-impact wins (more than run-of-the-mill ones), which team makes most sense as the next No. 1? Here's a case-by-case breakdown:

Tennessee: The Vols lost at Vanderbilt two days ago. They no longer have claim to the top spot.

Memphis: Putting the Tigers back ahead of Tennessee at No. 1 -- even though they have the best record of anyone -- would feel like a hollow gesture.

UCLA: The Bruins are atop the toughest conference in the country, which gives them a reasonable case.

Kansas: The Jayhawks lost to Oklahoma State last Saturday. No chance.

North Carolina: The Heels lead the ACC, but their best RPI win is over BYU in November. How strange is that?

Duke: The Devils have beaten Marquette, Wisconsin and Carolina ... but slumped of late.

Texas: The 'Horns lead the Big 12, have knocked off three other teams on this list (Tennessee, UCLA and Kansas), and haven't lost since January. Seven of UT's wins this month have come against teams in SI.com's last Bubble Watch. That's quite a bit of momentum -- and the strongest case for No. 1.

NCAA Basketball Power Rankings Rank LW School 1 7 Texas Longhorns (24-4) If Kelvin Sampson hadn't jumped to Indiana in March 2006, Texas might not be in position for a No. 1 seed in '08. The reason: Forward Damion James, who's having a breakout sophomore season, would be playing for a fantastic Oklahoma team instead -- one with current Villanova star Scottie Reynolds at point, and a killer trio of James, Blake Griffin and Longar Longar in the frontcourt. After Sampson's departure for Bloomington, James de-committed from OU and signed with the 'Horns. There isn't a perfect name for his role at UT; point guard D.J. Augustin is the team's star, A.J. Abrams is his scoring sidekick, and swingman Justin Mason is the glue guy. James is just a stellar power forward who likes Teen Titans and chicken strips ... and happens to be averaging a double-double (12.9 points and 10.5 boards). Next three: 3/1 at Texas Tech, 3/4 vs. Nebraska, 3/9 vs. Oklahoma State 2 2 Tennessee Volunteers (25-3) After watching Tennessee's loss at Vanderbilt's crazy benches-on-the-endlines court on Tuesday -- a game in which the Vols didn't exactly flourish on offense, shooting 32.8 percent from the field -- I went back and pulled a quote off my tape recorder from after Saturday's 1-vs.-2 game. In response to a question about why Tennessee executed so much better in the second half against Memphis, this is what Bruce Pearl said: I'm coaching the offense in front of my bench [in the second half at FedEx Forum], and that's one of the things that kills us at Vanderbilt [where he can't yell from the sideline]. We run three offenses: A fast break, where the kids have full autonomy; a secondary break where [they're told] just don't turn it over and try to do too much -- and they were [against Memphis]. And then at the end we run playcalls. Well, I have to get the playcall in and if it's down at the other end, I don't get it in as quick or as well, and they're turning their head over and that's not a good thing. Kind of crazy to consider how much the success of the Vols' halfcourt offense relies on verbal cues from Pearl, isn't it? Next three: 3/2 vs. Kentucky, 3/5 at Florida, 3/9 vs. South Carolina 3 1 Memphis Tigers (27-1) Retro Memphis State gear Resolutions galore: 1. We successfully found quite a few people in "Memphis State" gear at FedEx Forum, one of them being the fellow at right, who was hanging out near the court before the Tennessee game. He and Anfernee Hardaway had been wearing similar retro warmup gear for last Saturday's main event. Another guy who had some classic Tigers apparel was Tennessee forward J.P. Prince, who actually had a pair of old Champion-brand Tigers shorts in the locker room with him -- after sleeping in them the night before he got his revenge (with 13 second-half points) on his hometown school. 2. After mentioning William "Worldwide Wes" Wesley's on-court celebration with a few Tennessee players in Saturday's column, we were kindly passed word that Wes -- who some consider to be a strictly Memphis and Oregon supporter -- is also pals with some Vols, the foremost being Detroit product Ramar Smith. Wes is a man for all teams, not just the Tigers and Ducks. 3. As for the Tigers, they appear to be moving on nicely, with an 82-67 win over Tulsa on Wednesday. But where have you gone, Joey Dorsey? Memphis' big man had zero points in 18 minutes after a just one point in 28 minutes against Tennessee. Next three: 3/1 at Southern Miss, 3/5 vs. SMU, 3/8 vs. UAB 4 5 UCLA Bruins (24-3) Among the revelations in Grant Wahl's story on fan abuse in this week's Sports Illustrated: UCLA's Kevin Love -- an Oregon kid who spurned the Ducks to go to L.A. -- says that, prior to the ugly scene in his visit to McArthur Court on Jan. 23, he got actual death threats on his cell phone, including "We'll find your hotel room and blow your f------ head off with a shotgun." Love's father, Stan, a former Oregon star, thought the scene at Mac Court was just as bad, telling SI, "It was the grossest display of humanity I've ever been involved with. To think I'm sitting at the school where I played ball, and just because my kid didn't pick Oregon he gets abused like that? I'll never go back there." Next three: 2/28 at Arizona State, 3/2 at Arizona, 3/6 vs. Stanford 5 3 North Carolina Tar Heels (26-2) A Raleigh News & Observer blog offered an interesting hypothesis this week: that UNC is a better team with Quentin Thomas at the point than Tywon Lawson. The supporting evidence they use is that Tyler Hansbrough's numbers are way up while Lawson has been hurt; Psycho T has, effectively, earned himself the Wooden Award with a monster February. Having a pass-first point guard like Thomas feed Hansbrough, who, with a phenomenal offensive rating of 127.5, is the Heels' most-efficient scorer, is not a bad formula. But Lawson, with rating of 124.8, happens to be UNC's second-most efficient scorer; the team is better off having him in the lineup as a No. 3 scoring option rather than Danny Green or Deon Thompson. Once Lawson does return, though, it wouldn't hurt for him to keep feeding Hansbrough as often as Thomas does. Next three: 3/1 at Boston College, 3/4 vs. Florida State, 3/8 at Duke

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