After weeks of repetition atop the NCAA poll, an ACC upset shook up the top five, leaving Kansas as king of the land. The third ranked Maryland Terps, led by Juan Dixon and Chris Wilcox, had few problems defending their home court, easily upending Duke 87-73. With the loss, Duke dropped to number three overall, while Maryland moved up to number two. Cincinnati, which defeated St. Louis and Southern Mississippi easily, moved up to number four, while Oklahoma, which lost to in-state rival Oklahoma State, dropped to number five.
The Duke/Maryland rivalry has intensified in the past few years, especially after Duke erased a ten-point lead with a minute left in regulation last season. The Blue Devils went on to win that battle at Maryland's Cole Field House in overtime, in one of the wackiest endings in college basketball history.
This year, however, the Blue Devils never found their offensive rhythm. Mike Dunleavy and Jason Williams, Duke's two best players, combined to shoot a mere 11-36 from the floor. Chris Duhon was 3-12, and Dahntay Jones was 1-8. Williams appeared confused all game by the harassing defense of Maryland junior Steve Blake.
The Terps led by nine at the half, and never allowed Duke to get back in the game with one of its patented scoring outbreaks. However, this meeting will most likely be the regular season's penultimate between the two powerhouses, which are destined to meet in the ACC tournament, and perhaps again in the final four.
The finest game of the week took place in Los Angeles, were UCLA upset Arizona 77-76. The Bruins' Jason Kapono, one of the nation's best shooters, drained a trey with 19 seconds remaining. Arizona's Channing Frye missed a ten foot bank shot, and UCLA sealed the victory. Six teams with four conference losses make PAC-Ten the nation's most wide-open conference.
Major upsets also occurred in the static SEC, where number eight Florida avenged a loss by beating number 22 Georgia, but then lost to unranked Mississippi by almost 20 points. Georgia went on to upset Kentucky, who defeated Vanderbilt earlier in the week. The Bulldogs have proven to be a puzzling team, capable of beating any team in the country on a given night, but also quite susceptible to upsets.
The Pitt Panthers were the week's big winners, moving up to number ten from number 16 after defeating West Virginia. One of the nation's biggest surprises, the Panthers stand at 22-4 overall, and this week take on Rutgers in what should be a fierce, physical Big-East game. Also making great strides last week was Ohio's Xavier, which entered the poll at number 24. Led by 6-8 forward David West, who averages 18.5 points and 10.4 boards per game, Xavier cracked the top 25 for the first time this season after defeating George Washington and St. Joseph's.
The week's big loser was the University of Arizona, which dropped hotly contested games to UCLA and USC. The Wildcats, who entered the week as the nation's tenth ranked squad, dropped to number 16, and look to rebound this week against mediocre rival Arizona State.
The conference battles continue this week, as number four Cincinatti takes on number nine Marquette, while number 21 Wake Forest takes on both Duke and Maryland. In the SEC, number six Alabama plays number eight Florida, and in the PAC-10, number 22 USC looks to upset number 11 Stanford. With the NCAA tournament only two weeks away, all teams will look for a final push to cement spots.
