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Florida ends slump in impressive fashion, returns to poll

By Mark Button, CNNSI.com

Forget The Associated Press and the Coaches Top 25 polls. You want to know which are the best college teams right now? Look no further.

It's Week 8 for CNNSI.com's Super 16 Poll, which ranks the hottest 16 teams for the week of Feb. 5-11. We're tracking week-to-week momentum here, paying no attention to national rankings, RPI or projected NCAA seedings.

CNNSI.com Super 16 Rank LW Team 1 1 Duke Blue Devils (22-1) Business as usual. Avenged that loss to Florida State and beat up on Georgia Tech. Ho hum. Things will get interesting again on Sunday, when the Blue Devils visit Cole Fieldhouse and Maryland. 2 2 Kansas Jayhawks (22-2) Three wins over the last eight days, the most impressive of which was Monday night's 110-103 overtime victory against Texas in Austin. Will Drew Gooden (20.6 ppg., 11.3 rpg) get serious consideration for player of the year, or is J-Will's name already on that trophy? 3 3 Maryland Terrapins (20-3) Holding steady here. Impressive how Maryland and Duke are taking care of business heading into their rematch this Sunday. Point guard Steve Blake is averaging 2.2 assists for every turnover. 4 5 Cincinnati Bearcats (23-2) Nice victory against Wake Forest on Saturday moves Cincy back into the top four. Will the NCAA Selection Committee send the Bearcats out West to be the No. 1 seed? Or will that seed go to ... 5 7 Oklahoma Sooners (19-4) The Sooners, with a solid showing in the Big 12 tournament (read: at least reaching the finals), could end up being the No. 1 seed in the West. They'll have to bounce back from Wednesday night's loss at Oklahoma State, though. 6 4 Alabama Crimson Tide (21-4) Tough loss on the road Saturday against Mississippi State. We still think Bama is the SEC's best, but Florida has time to change our minds. So does Kentucky. 7 11 Indiana Hoosiers (16-8) In sole possession of first place in the Big Ten. Bounced back from the Feb. 2 loss at Minnesota with consecutive victories against Iowa and Louisville. As a team, Indiana is shooting 41 percent from 3-point range. 8 9 Marquette Golden Eagles (21-3) Marquette's winning streak is up to 10 games after handling East Carolina and Southern Mississippi with relative ease. The rematch with Cincinnati will be a must-see on Feb. 22. 9 - Florida Gators (19-4) Welcome back, Gators. After a three-game slide, Florida rebounded in style with blowout wins against Mississippi State and Vanderbilt and a solid road victory at South Carolina. Tuesday's win at Georgia was huge. 10 - Pittsburgh Panthers (21-4) The Associated Press voters finally gave Pittsburgh some love, but it sure took long enough. The Panthers have racked up consecutive victories against Villanova, Seton Hall and on the road at Syracuse. 11 6 Oregon Ducks (17-7) After back-to-back losses to Stanford and California, we still couldn't justify dropping the Ducks completely out of the Super 16. Why not? Both games were on the road, and both games were overtime losses. Oregon is still dangerous. 12 - Notre Dame Fighting Irish (17-6) We've had our eyes on the Irish for a while now. Five consecutive victories, including the 116-111 four-overtime thriller against Georgetown, were good enough for Notre Dame's first Super 16 appearance. 13 15 Arizona Wildcats (17-6) Victories against Washington and Washington State bump up the Wildcats a couple spots. Tough stretch upcoming: Thursday at UCLA, Saturday at USC. 14 14 Gonzaga Bulldogs (22-3) Gonzaga holds steady with consecutive road wins at Santa Clara and San Diego. But it's all just killing time before a rematch with Pepperdine on Saturday. 15 11 Kentucky Wildcats (17-6) Kentucky shouldn't drop this far after its 76-74 loss at Tennessee on Wednesday, right? Wrong. Tennessee played without star Ron Slay (ACL) and Slay's backup, Brandon Crump (illness). Big game Saturday at Georgia. 16 16 Pepperdine Waves (17-5) Pepperdine's 12-game winning streak -- now the nation's longest -- should improve to 13 before traveling to Gonzaga on Saturday. You don't want to miss that one.

Dropped out: Ohio State (17-5), Xavier (17-4), Miami (20-4).

Keeping our eye on: Minnesota (14-7), N.C. State (18-6), Stanford (15-6), Kent State (18-5).

As always, we know you have an opinion on this topic. Who did we miss? Who should we be watching more closely? Give us your thoughts by clicking here, and we'll post some of your responses next week.

 

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