Florida is My No. 1; UConn Clings on at No. 23

SMU has now defeated UConn twice this season, in Dallas and in Storrs. The Mustangs didn't really have a marquee road win until Sunday's 64-55 defeat of the Huskies. Whether it's Larry Brown or Nic Moore or the 'Stangs' suffocating defense, it appears SMU is simply a bad match-up for the Huskies. And it's a match-up that could happen again in a few weeks at the AAC tournament. In fact, Sunday's loss makes it increasingly likely that UConn will play in the 4-5 game in Memphis, either against SMU or the hometown team.

So SMU re-enters my AP Top 25 this week, obviously ahead of UConn. Gotta rank a team ahead of an opponent its beaten twice, right? Well ... not exactly. For instance, I've got Memphis at No. 22 and UConn clinging on at No. 23 this week. Why? Because I had the Tigers at No. 22 last week and they won twice, so I can't really justify dropping them down (even if their wins were unimpressive efforts over Rutgers and Temple, in OT). I have a thing about not dropping a team after two wins (see Syracuse, last week).

As for Syracuse, I drop them all the way down to No. 6. I mean, Boston College? At home? Sorry. And since I had Florida and Wichita State at No.'s 2 and 3 last week, they both move up a spot. I just think Florida's the better team than the Shockers, though if the Gators had been popped by Auburn or Ole Miss this past week, I would have had Wichita State at No. 1 with absolutely no regrets.

1.       Florida                                                 

2.       Wichita State                                    

3.       Arizona                                                

4.       Louisville                                             

5.       Kansas                                                 

6.       Syracuse                                             

7.       San Diego State                                               

8.       Cincinnati                                           

9.       Saint Louis                                          

10.   Duke                                                    

11.   Villanova                                             

12.   Virginia                                                

13.   Creighton                                           

14.   Kentucky                                            

15.   Iowa State                                         

16.   Wisconsin

17.   Iowa                                     

18.   North Carolina                                                  

19.   Michigan                                             

20.   Michigan State

21.   SMU     

22.   Memphis

23.   UConn

24.   Texas

25. New Mexico