Pittsburgh

AP Top 25 - January 2nd, 2011 - Syracuse remains #1 for the fourth straight week, although Kentucky still has 5 first-place votes. Creighton (who lost at home to Missouri St) and Pittsburgh (free-falling) dropped out of the Top 25, replaced by Kansas St and Gonzaga. Louisville, who lost twice, only drop to 11th, while Georgetown moves into the Top 10 at 9th.

1 Syracuse (60) 15-0 1,618
2 Kentucky (5) 13-1 1,554
3 North Carolina 13-2 1,451
4 Baylor 13-0 1,389
5 Duke 12-1 1,354
6 Ohio State 13-2 1,277
7 Missouri 13-0 1,255

 

CINCINNATI (9-3) AT NO. 22 PITTSBURGH (11-3)

 

Time/TV: 7 p.m./FSN

Outside of Xavier it's difficult to think of many two-game losing streaks this season that have sparked as much concern nationally as the one Pittsburgh is currently going through. A team that looked preoccupied with their Christmas break plans on Friday in a 59-54 home loss to Wagner dropped another game on Tuesday, 72-59 at Notre Dame. The second half was a serious departure from what the Panthers do on both ends of the court, with Notre Dame being able to accomplish just about whatever they wanted to offensively.

After a day off college basketball is back with a small albeit important slate to keep an eye on. Why? The start of conference play in both the Big East and Big Ten, with more leagues due to join in on the fun later in the week. Tuesday's game of interest matches #24 Illinois (11-2), who is undefeated at home and looking to bounce back from their loss to rival Missouri, and a Minnesota (12-1) team that's managed to win six straight games.

Plenty of teams have pre-Christmas letdowns, when they allow their minds to wander a bit against teams they're expected to beat. But in a lot of those cases the favored team is able to bounce back and do enough to eventually win the game. But that wasn't the case for #15 Pittsburgh, who turned the ball over 18 times against a team in Wagner that was talented enough to make them pay for those errors.

Bradley Beal - Florida

William Buford - Ohio St

Marcus Denmon - Missouri

Ashton Gibbs - Pittsburgh

John Jenkins - Vanderbilt

Darius Johnson-Odom

Doron Lamb - Kentucky

Jeremy Lamb - UCONN

Damian Lillard - Weber St

Terrence Ross - Washington

Terrell Stoglin - Maryland

Junior Cadougan (Marquette)

Aaron Craft (Ohio St)

Tu Holloway (Xavier)

Scott Machado (Iona)

Kendall Marshall (North Carolina)

Shabazz Napier (UCONN)

Austin Rivers (Duke)

Peyton Siva (Louisville)

Jordan Taylor (Wisconsin)

Tyshawn Taylor (Kansas)

Marquis Teague (Kentucky)

Erving Walker (Florida)

Maalik Wayns (Villanova)

Travon Woodall (Pittsburgh)

To this point in the season Dion Waiters was playing more minutes per game than senior starter Scoop Jardine, as the Syracuse sophomore was playing good basketball. But Jardine displayed his value in the second half of Friday's game against Florida, scoring eight of Syracuse' nine points during a critical stretch that put the Orange in control of a game they went on to win 72-68. Jardine finished with 16 points and seven assists while Brandon Triche (20 points) and Kris Joseph (14) also finished in double figures.

The final night of the Big Ten/ACC Challenge will also boast a matchup of Top 10 teams as #7 Wisconsin (6-0) takes on #5 North Carolina (5-1) in Chapel Hill. Roy Williams' Tar Heels are coming off of a disappointing second half in Las Vegas on Saturday as they fell decisively to UNLV. With a trip to Kentucky next on the schedule it might be a good thing for North Carolina that the in-between game isn't one of the standard "avoid the letdown" variety, so they should be ready to go.

The title game of the Old Spice Classic may not be the kind of matchup that leads off SportsCenter like say, North Carolina/Kentucky next week, but it is a contest that we could look back on in March when discussing tournament resumes. Dayton (4-1) and Minnesota (6-0) meet in the title game, with both surviving a pair of close games to reach this point.