NCAA Basketball, Jan. 19 Rankings and Previews

Last week was an exciting one in college hoops. The Louisville Cardinals came back to life after defeating the Kentucky Wildcats on a last second three point shot and have gone 3-0 in Big East play to include upsetting undefeated Pitt 69-63. The Cardinals made the biggest jump in this week's poll going from #20 to #9. UCONN moved from #4 to #3 while the Duke Blue Devils also moved from #3 to #2. In SEC news, Kentucky Wildcats guard Jodi Meeks, set a school record by scoring 54 in a rout of then-ranked Tennessee, 90-72. Although the Wildcats dropped a close game to Louisville, 74-71, they have opened SEC play 3-0, and will be taking on SEC-rival Florida on 10 February. Notre Dame fell the furthest in this week's poll, dropping from 12th to 19th after losing to Louisville and to Syracuse 93-74.

NCAA Basketball Upcoming Games

Now that the Super Bowl teams are set and college football's BCS champion has been crowned, its time to get back into college basketball as conference play has hit full swing. Big games coming up this week are: #8 Syracuse versus #9 Louisville (at Syracuse), #12 Georgetown hosts West Virginia, #3 Connecticut at #19 Notre Dame, #10 Clemson at #5 North Carolina, and #22 Memphis plays at Tennessee. And of course, all college sports fans will be watching Kentucky's Jodi Meeks when the Cats host the Auburn Tigers on Wednesday to see what kind of performance he turns in after the 54 point effort last week against Tennessee. Meeks enters the game 5th in the nation in scoring, number one in the SEC at 25.7 points per game.

January 19th, 2009 AP Men's College Basketball Poll

Rank Team Record Points Previous Rank

1. Wake Forest (68) 16-0 1,793 2

2. Duke (4) 16-1 1,721 3

3.Connecticut 16-1 1,590 4

4. Pittsburgh 16-1 1,569 1

5. North Carolina 16-2 1,510 5

6. Oklahoma 17-1 1,498 6

7. Michigan State 15-2 1,394 7

8. Syracuse 17-2 1,146 8

9. Louisville 13-3 1,090 20

10. Clemson 16-1 1,043 10

11. Marquette 16-2 1,003 14

12. Georgetown 12-4 979 13

13. UCLA 14-3 897 9

14. Texas 13-4 858 11

15. Xavier 15-2 848 15

16. Butler 16-1 726 17

17. Arizona State 15-3 671 16

18. Purdue 14-4 553 19

19. Notre Dame 12-5 469 12

20. Villanova 14-3 353 23

21. Minnesota 16-2 298 18

22. Memphis 14-3 208 Not Ranked

23. Gonzaga 12-4 201 Not Ranked

24. Florida 16-2 175 Not Ranked

25. Illinois 15-3 159 Not Ranked