Some articles and video from the Bahamas, where UConn is set to begin play in the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament Wednesday night against Michigan. Gotta say I'm impressed by the amount of UConn fans here at Atlantis. Husky fans haven't always traveled well to early-season tournaments or even the NCAA tourney, but I think they're only outnumbered by Syracuse fans here. Of course, Syracuse fans tend to stick out a little more (because they wear orange ... that wasn't meant to be a joke!).

And it's always good to see R.J. Evans, who's here as a grad assistant for Shaka Smart at Texas.



Shaka Smart had some good things to say about Terry Larrier (who is here with the team. Transfers sitting out a year are traveling these days. Apparently, Duke started the trend):



Kevin Ollie on Michigan:



And John Beilein on UConn:

The big winners in my AP Top 25 this week are Michigan, Texas and Creighton.

The Wolverines jump 12 spots, from 16 to 4, after a tremendous week in which they beat No. 3 Michigan State (on the road) and No. 10 Iowa. Couple that with another road win last week at (then) No. 3 Wisconsin, and that's a brilliant three-game stretch for the Wolverines, who are 7-0 in the Big Ten. John Beilein can coach a little, eh?

I also welcome back Creighton and, for the first time, welcome Rick Barnes' Texas Longhorns. I knocked the Blue Jays out last week after they got blitzed at Providence, but welcome them right back after they destroyed No. 4 Villanova on the road on Monday, 96-68. (By the way, that loss to PC isn't so bad. The Friars are, as of right now, an NCAA tournament team, even without Brandon Austin and Kris Dunn).

Texas, meanwhile, gets the nod after winning at No. 24 Baylor and at home against No. 22 Kansas State this week. This after beating No. 16 Iowa State last week, giving it three straight wins over ranked teams. The Longhorns will look to make it four straight when they host No. 8 Kansas on Saturday.

So, with two new teams, I had to knock two out. Kansas State was easy, after a two-loss week. The other was trickier (keep in mind, I didn't have Baylor ranked). I wound up booting Ohio State, whom I had ranked No. 17 last week. The Buckeyes lost at Nebraska on Monday, their fourth straight loss. And while they bounced back with a perfunctory home win over Illinois on Thursday, I have a tough time ranking any team that's lost four of its last five games.

Elsewhere, I kept UConn at No. 23 after wins over Temple and Rutgers. I'm starting to like my SMU at No. 25 all the more, though I was one of only two voters to vote for the Mustangs last week. And I righted a wrong by moving San Diego State up a few notches and moving Kansas over Oklahoma State, whom the Jayhawks beat two weeks ago.

1.       Arizona

2.       Syracuse

3.       Florida

4.       Michigan

5.       Wichita State

6.       San Diego State

7.       Michigan State

8.       Kansas

9.       Oklahoma State

10.   Villanova

11.   Cincinnati

12.   Louisville

13.   Kentucky

14.   Wisconsin

15.   Saint Louis

16.   Iowa

17.   Pittsburgh

18.   Duke

19.   Iowa State

20.   Creighton

21.   Texas

22.   UMass

23.   UConn

24.   Memphis

25.   SMU