It’s quiet at the top. We’re sticking by the Jayhawks as the leaders of the pack, but there is a ton of turnover down below: Jamont Gordon’s one-handed no-look dish to Charles Rhodes was enough to move Mississippi State up our rankings. Plus, we’re introducing UConn into the fold for the first time all season, and welcoming Arizona back because of two sensational guards…

1. Kansas (20-0) - Jayhawk Nation might not have admitted it, but they were concerned about facing Nebraska’s 6-11 Aleks Maric, who posts nearly 16 points per night. But Darnell Jackson and Darrell Arthur chewed him up inside, as he finished 0-6 from the floor for 0 points! It seems as though every cloud has a silver lining in Lawrence these days: on that night, Mario Chalmers went 1-6 from the field for 3 points and 2 measly rebounds, but he doled out seven assists and did not commit a single turnover as KU went on to win 84-49.

2. Memphis (19-0) - While the Tigers handled the ‘Zags 81-73 in the spotlight of a Saturday afternoon matinee, Coach Cal is guarding his team against the pressure of perfection. “I think we’ll lose two league games,” noted Cal.

3. North Carolina (19-1) - After Tyler Hansbrough missed a twenty-footer at the buzzer against Maryland, you knew that he was going to have something special in store for the Tar Heels’ next opponent. Enter Miami. “He just completely dominated our post guys,” Miami coach Frank Haith said. Oh yes he did Frank. While Hansbrough notched 35 points, 27 of which came in the second half, the Canes big man, Anthony King tallied four points. Plus, some more good news for Tar Heels junkies: UNC is opening a museum dedicated to the school’s storied hoop history. And of course, you’ll be able to find Psycho T’s mask from last March within these walls.

4. Duke (17-1) - Some Dukies might cry that their fourth ranking is an injustice after beating the Terps, the team that UNC couldn’t top. Perhaps. But the Blue Devils win over Maryland was about more than doing something UNC didn’t. They were beaten up by two oxes in the paint - James Gist and Bambale Osby combined for 46 points and 20 boards. However, the Duke guards outplayed Maryland’s backcourt so badly it compensated for the Terps’ biggies: DeMarcus Nelson and Gerald Henderson tallied 50 points.

5. UCLA (18-2) - Kevin Love and Darren Collison were laughing together on the bench as the clock ticked down on the Bruins’ 85-62 win at Oregon State. Why shouldn’t they be giggling? Collison scored a career-high 33 points, and Love had one of the best weekends (Thursday through Saturday) in his basketball career: he had 26 points and 18 boards in a win at Oregon, which he followed with 16 points and 21 boards against the Beavers.

6. Georgetown (16-2) - We’re not conspiracy theorists or anything, but the Hoyas’ last two wins by a total of three points (over Syracuse and West Virginia) came down to some very close calls at the end. The Patrick Ewing, Jr. non-goaltending call was probably the right one, but it nearly caused Bob Huggins to rip the referees’ arms off in the tunnel. Memo to the rest of the Big East: when the game in on the line late against G-Town, double team Jessie Sapp! He hit the game-tying triple against ‘Cuse and then did it against to win the game against WVU.

7. Tennessee (17-2) - Chris Lofton stop messing with my emotions. At home against Georgia, he had his best shooting performance of the season, stroking seven triples on 13 tries for 27 points. Previously, he had hit more than five triples only once this season, and he needed 20 attempts from downtown to do so.

8. Texas (16-3) - Speaking of shooting slumps, A.J. Abrams looks like he’s on his way out of one too. Before knocking down 3-7 for 17 points in a 73-47 win over Texas Tech, Abrams had made 8-39 triples over a four game stretch. Yikes. The Longhorns will need him when they take on Texas A&M, fresh off of their own three-game slump.

9. Washington State (17-2) - The Cougs got their toughest win yet, 56-55 at Arizona State, where some players were “peppered” in the head with water bottles from rowdy fans, according to Tony Bennett. Sun Devil’s frosh James Harden tried to win the game on a driving lay-up, but was denied by Wazzu’s stopper Kyle Weaver. “He wanted it at the end to try to win the game,” Weaver said. “I just tried to stay in front of him and try to make him shoot a tough shot. He got it up. I didn’t even see it go up. I think I got a piece of it. I heard a horn and that was it.”

10. Michigan State (18-2) - During their 77-62 win over Michigan, Tom Izzo’s defense collapsed on the Wolverines top scorer, Manny Harris, keeping the freshman to 11 points on 4-14 shooting. But turnovers have been a problem for MSU all season, and they continue to plague the Spartans as they committed 15 more against Michigan.

11. Florida (18-3) - Why not?! Billy Donovan’s crew cracked Vanderbilt 86-64. And that wasn’t an aberration. As we’ve learned to expect, this team shares the ball incredibly well - they had 26 assists on 29 field goals against the Commodores. It’s a real plus playing with two point guards, Jai Lucas and Nick Calathes. In their 81-70 win over Kentucky, the Gators had 18 dimes on 26 makes.

12. Indiana (17-2) - The most important stat line of Indiana’s 68-63 loss to UConn on Saturday was that of 6-6 235 lbs. F Mike White. While D.J. White was preoccupied with Hasheem Thabeet, White had his hands full with Jeff Adrien and Stanley Robinson in the frontcourt. UConn’s three-man frontline combined for 34 points and 27 rebounds. While D.J. had 13 and 10 boards, Mike totaled 0 points and 3 rebounds.

13. Butler (19-2) - The Bulldogs notched two convincing wins last week, 63-50 over Loyola (Ill.) and 73-57 against UIC, both of which were especially strong given the controversy before the Loyola game. Seniors Mike Green, Pete Campbell and Julian Betko were cited by the NCAA for appearing behind the Iowa bench Wednesday night against Indiana. The seniors were invited by former Butler coach Todd Lickliter, and were ultimately allowed to play and push the Bulldogs to victory in both games last week.

14. Stanford (16-3) - If I’m an NBA GM, I’d take Brook Lopez over Roy Hibbert, no question. Lopez’s offensive output wasn’t affected at all by Cal’s twin towers Ryan Anderson and DeVon Hardin as he scored 23 points on 7-11 shooting in the Cardinal’s 82-77 win.

15. Xavier (17-4) - The Musketeers are tops in the A-10 again after trouncing both Dayton and UMass this past week. Stanley Burrell is emerging as one of the nation’s preeminent shutdown defenders after holding Dayton’s sharp-shooting Brian Roberts to 5 points (2-5 FG) and then locking up UMass’ Ricky Harris for 7 points on 2-8 shooting after he had posted 25.3 points over his previous four.

16. Wisconsin (16-3) - ESPN’s Doug Gottlieb openly dislikes this Badgers’ teams chances - after losing 60-56 to Purdue, he deserves some credit for preaching this philosophy on Gameday. Marcus Landry and Michael Flowers, two supposedly reliable scorers, went 4-18 from the floor for 10 points as two Boilermaker freshmen E’Twaun Moore and Robbie Hummel thoroughly outplayed them, combining for 26 points on 9-18 shooting. “I didn’t see them come down, I just got mobbed,” Hummel said. “It was awesome. It was one of the greatest experiences I’ve ever had on a basketball court. It was crazy.”

17. Notre Dame (14-4) - When this Irish team plays in the Tourney, they will make heads spin. Staten Island’s own Kyle McAlarney abused Villanova’s backcourt for 30 points on 10-15 shooting (5-8 3FG) while the one-man train wreck Luke Harangody ate up the paint for 25 points and 10 boards. Oh-so-quietly, Mike Brey’s squad is second in the Big East.

18. Drake (18-1) - By the skin of their nose, the Drakies are still one of the only one-loss teams in the nation. Once that second loss drops, expect the Bulldogs to fall hard and fast. But in the mean time, they can enjoy a 58-54 win over Northern Iowa. Klayton Korver only averages 10.3 points per game, but since Drake has emerged on the national scene, he’s scored 15, 14 and 23 in his last three games.

19. Kansas State (14-4) - KState got their losses out of the way at the right time of the year. Very few squads can say that they’ve rattled off five straight wins in the heart of conference play. While Beasley has been smoking as of late, averaging 28.0 points over his last five games, the train will come to a screeching halt when they host the Jayhawks in the Little Apple tomorrow.

20. Mississippi State (14-5) - Ole Miss’ Dwayne Curtis hadn’t been worked over like this in a while. In the hoops version of the Egg Bowl, Charles Rhodes rallied the Staties to victory on a 12-14 night from the floor for 26 points. But in Curtis’ defense, what is he supposed to do when Jamont Gordon makes those incredible passes over his head and behind his back? P.S. The best thing about that dish was how Gordon started dribbling the ball upcourt - it looked like he was doing the robot while bouncing the rock.

21. Arizona (14-6) - Put the Wildcats’ six losses aside for a moment and focus on their last two wins: Jerryd Bayless and Chase Budinger have combined for, get this, 96 points. And they’ve done so while playing top-shelf defense against Washington State’s Derrick Low and Washington’s Ryan Appleby.

22. Vanderbilt (17-3) - The Commodores have lost three of their last four. However, those are there only three losses of the season. It started with the narrow double-OT loss to Kentucky, but has since spiraled into a problem. Vandy’s got a chance to recoup their momentum when they travel to Ole Miss tomorrow.

23. Connecticut (15-5) - Welcome Jimmy, after winning four straight in the Big East, you’ve earned the right to be ranked even though the AP and ESPN/USA Today disagree. The key for Calhoun has been the improvement of Hasheem Thabeet, who is developing before our eyes into a defensive stalwart. He has 15 blocks over UConn’s last 5 games, but even more importantly, he is beginning to demand serious attention on offense. He’s converted 20 of 26 attempts during a four-games span for 14.5 points per game.

24. Pittsburgh (16-4) - The Panthers have dropped two of their last three games (losses to Cincinnati and Rutgers). Unfortunately for Jamie Dixon, he can’t peg the losses on a shooting slump or something that simply fixes itself. For the first time since their December loss to Dayton, Pittsburgh allowed more than 76 points in a single game. Without Mike Cook or Levance Fields, the wear and tear of Big East play is taking its toll on Panthers guards, who in turn aren’t getting out to defend the perimeter well enough. Rutgers shot over 64% from beyond the arc.

25. Marquette (14-4) - Sorry Tom Crean, but your team is wildly overrated. In today’s age where teams can get by without any real presence in the middle (Tennessee, Duke), your bunch doesn’t even really cut it on the perimeter. The Golden Eagles shoot 36% from three-point range as a team.

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