Epic Saturday Will Lead to Rankings Shakeup

Less people doubt Ricardo Ratliffe
and the Missouri Tigers by the day.

Saturday was just another chapter in what has shaped up to be a very exciting regular season in college basketball.

For starters the 3rd and 5th ranked teams were squaring off in Waco, Texas.  Ricardo Ratliffe's 27 point 8 rebound performance lifted the #5 Missouri Tigers to an 89-88 victory at host Baylor.  The Tigers are in action in Stillwater on the 25th against Oklahoma State.  Baylor squares off with Oklahoma in Norman on the 24th.

That wasn't the extent of the excitement in the Big 12.  In Austin, the Texas Longhorns had trailed #7 Kansas by as many as 14 before coming back to take the lead 59-58 with just over 5 minutes to play.  Kansas scrapped a win out 69-66 after J'Covan Brown missed a three pointer to tie the game with 2 seconds to play.  The Jayhawks are now 6-0 in Big 12 play.  They travel to Columbia to take on Mizzou on February 4th and to Waco to play Baylor on February 8th.

Duke came into today with a 44 game home winning streak.  That winning streak is now over.  Florida State has owned the last two saturdays in college basketball.  A week ago, Deividas Dulkys beat North Carolina by himself in Tallahassee.  This week, Michael Snear buried #4 Duke at the buzzer with a 3 as time expired at Cameron Indoor.  The Seminoles have defeated Duke, Maryland and North Carolina in the last eight days.  At 4-1 in ACC play, the Seminoles have a very real chance at an ACC crown.  Not bad for a team that lost to Princeton and Harvard.

#2 Kentucky pulled out a 77-71 win against 'Bama in Lexington.  They will most likely be the #1 team in the country tomorrow.  #11 UConn got knocked off by sub-.500 Tennessee in Knoxville.  #19 Michigan fell to Arkansas in Fayetteville.

As for the current #1 team in the nation, the Syracuse Orange was knocked off by Notre Dame in South Bend by a score of 67-58.  This is the Orange's first loss of the season.  In other words, here comes the start of a lot of rankings shakeup.

My prediction for next weeks rankings is as followed
#1 Kentucky
#2 Missouri
#3 Kansas
#4 Syracuse
#5 Ohio State
#6 Baylor
#7 Duke
#8 North Carolina
#9 Murray State
#10 Michigan State
#11 Georgetown
#12 Indiana
#13 Florida
#14 UConn
#15 Misssissippi State
#16 San Diego State
#17 Virginia
#18 Creighton
#19 UNLV
#20 Marquette
#21 Illinois
#22 Saint Mary's
#23 Kansas State
#24 Vanderbilt
#25 Wisconsin