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Happy Holidays From Bracketology 101!

Our first Bracketology picks for the 2004-2005 season will be posted in the coming weeks. Until then, keep checking back for updated polls, college basketball news, scores, etc.

Ho Ho Ho.
- Chris and Craig

AP Poll - Week of Dec. 20-26

Oklahoma State received its highest ranking in more than 12 years, moving up one spot Monday to No. 3 in The Associated Press college basketball poll while Illinois and Kansas were the top two teams for the third straight week.

AP Top 25

1	Illinois (50)	10-0	1,727	1
2	Kansas (15)	7-0	1,658	2
3	Oklahoma St. (5)	8-0	1,628	4
4	North Carolina	8-1	1,476	5
5	Wake Forest	9-1	1,427	6
6	Duke	8-0	1,388	7
7	Syracuse	9-1	1,307	8
8	Kentucky	7-1	1,220	9
9	Georgia Tech	7-1	1,219	3
10	Pittsburgh	8-0	1,115	10
11	Connecticut	5-1	964	11
12	Washington	8-1	758	18
13	Gonzaga	8-1	732	22
14	Arizona	7-2	720	15
15	Texas	7-2	703	14
16	NC State	8-1	689	12
17	Iowa	9-1	658	16
18	Louisville	6-2	618	13
19	Alabama	9-1	607	17
20	George Washington	7-1	475	19
21	Mississippi St.	9-2	411	20
22	Cincinnati	7-0	297	25
23	Michigan St.	6-2	279	21
24	Maryland	6-2	239	23
25	Virginia	7-1	200	24

AP Poll - Week of Nov. 29 - Dec. 5

Virginia moved into The Associated Press' men's college basketball Top 25 Monday, giving the Atlantic Coast Conference a record-tying seven teams in the poll. Wake Forest extended its lead at No. 1, the Cavaliers were No. 24, and there were five other conference schools in between, matching the feat accomplished twice by the Big Ten and once by the ACC. The other ranked ACC teams were No. 4 Georgia Tech, No. 9 North Carolina, No. 10 Duke, No. 12 Maryland and No. 16 North Carolina State.

AP Top 25
Rank	Team (First-place)	Record	Pts	Pvs
1.	Wake Forest (40)	5-0	1,737	1
2.	Kansas (18)	2-0	1,678	2
3.	Syracuse (4)	5-0	1,582	4
4.	Georgia Tech (7)	3-0	1,580	3
5.	Illinois (1)	4-0	1,540	5
6.	Oklahoma St. (2)	3-0	1,420	6
7.	Connecticut	1-0	1,329	7
8.	Kentucky	3-0	1,284	8
9.	North Carolina	4-1	1,134	11
10.	Duke	3-0	1,129	9
11.	Michigan St.	3-0	1,073	10
12.	Maryland	3-0	1,018	13
13.	Pittsburgh	3-0	782	16
14.	Washington	4-0	770	22
15.	Mississippi St.	5-1	743	14
16.	N.C. State	4-0	722	17
17.	Louisville	3-1	584	12
18.	Texas	3-1	507	15
19.	Florida	3-0	447	23
20.	Notre Dame	3-0	442	21
21.	Arizona	3-2	413	18
22.	Alabama	4-1	381	19
23.	Iowa	3-1	367	--
24.	Virginia	4-0	235	--
25.	Wisconsin	2-1	114	20

Maui Invitational & Preseason NIT Scoreboards

Here are Wednesday night's results from Maui and Madison Square Garden:

Gray, Wake Forest Best Gomes, Providence
Arizona Squeaks Past Michigan, Into NIT Final

Felton, McCants Lead Tar Heels To Maui Title
Lousville Tops Stanford In Maui Third Place Game

Maui Invitational Scoreboard

With wins Tuesday night, Iowa and North Carolina advanced to the finals of the Maui Invitational.

Hawkeyes Knock Off Second Straight Ranked Team
McCants Leads Tar Heels Past Tennessee
Louisville Wins In Consolation Game
Strong Second Half Leads Stanford Past BYU

AP Poll - Week Of November 22-29

Wake Forest (2-0) took the top spot from Kansas in the lastest AP poll, thanks to the Jayhawks' unimpressive 68-61 win over Vermont.

AP Top 25
(first place votes in parentheses)

1.	Wake (25)	2-0	1,658	2
2.	Kansas (26)	1-0	1,637	1
3.	Ga. Tech (11)	1-0	1,585	3
4.	Syracuse(4)	4-0	1,549	5
5.	Illinois (1)	2-0	1,450	6
6.	Oklahoma St. (2)	1-0	1,386	7
7.	Connecticut	1-0	1,302	8
8.	Kentucky (1)	1-0	1,236	9
9.	Duke	1-0	1,064	11
10.	Michigan St.	1-0	964	13
11.	North Carolina	0-1	934	4
12.	Louisville	1-0	918	14
13.	Maryland	1-0	833	15
14.	Mississippi St.	4-1	746	12
15.	Texas	1-0	707	16
16.	Pittsburgh	1-0	687	17
17.	N.C. State	3-0	576	19
18.	Arizona	2-1	565	10
19.	Alabama	2-0	556	18
20.	Wisconsin	1-0	399	21
21.	Notre Dame	1-0	386	20
22.	Washington	1-0	337	22
23.	Florida	1-0	317	23
24.	Gonzaga	2-0	218	25
25.	Memphis	3-1	213	24
Others receiving votes: Virginia 151, Stanford 73, Michigan 64, Providence 40, Charlotte 35, Oklahoma 25, S. Illinois 24, Cincinnati 22, Utah 17, Boston College 14, New Mexico 9, UTEP 7, ETSU 6, Santa Clara 5, UAB 5, Tennessee 4, Marquette 3, Rice 3, UNLV 3, Vermont 3, Air Force 2, George Washington 2, Indiana 2, LSU 2, Oregon 2, Davidson 1, DePaul 1, Iowa St. 1, Vanderbilt 1.

SI's 2004-2005 College Basketball Preview

This week's Sports Illustrated features the magazine's College Basketball Preview. North Carolina is their pick to win it all, and Rashad McCants graces the cover. Their Top 20 teams are previewed in-depth, along with some quick hits on the rest of their projected field of 65. Enjoy...

SI's College Basketball Preview - The Top 20
SI's College Basketball Preview - The Best of the Rest

The Bracketology 101 Rivals Make Their First Projections

Bracketology 101 Readers,

Joe Lunardi (ESPN.com) and Tony Mejia (cbs.sportsline.com) have just released their first tournament projections. Why they do them before 90% of D-I teams have even played a regular season game I have no idea, but here they are...

Lunardi's Projections
Mejia's Projections

Monday's News - Big East, 2-in-4 Lawsuit, New AP Rankings

A quick recap of Monday's college basketball news...

Big East: One 16-Team Division in 2005-2006
Court Ruling Upholds 2-in-4 Rule
'Cuse-Illinois Switch Only Change In New AP Poll

SI On Campus - Most Lovable & Hateable Programs

From Sports Illustrated On Campus - the easiest college programs to root for and the easist college programs to root against. Good stuff...

10 Most Rootable Teams
10 Least Rootable Teams

Scout.com's Top 25 Recruiting Classes

Next year's Top 25 recruiting classes, as ranked by Scout.com. Duke, with its five high-ranking incoming frosh, lead the list, followed by Kansas and Louisville.

Scout.com's Top 25 '05 Recruiting Classes

Friday Night's Scoreboard

Here are the highlights from Friday's night's college basketball schedule...

Zone Helps 'Cuse Get Past Princeton
Mississippi State Wins Again Without Roberts
St. Mary's Shocks Cal In Coaches vs. Cancer

UNC's Felton Suspended One Game By NCAA

New Season Kicks Off With Coaches vs. Cancer

Three Top 25 teams opened their seasons last night with first round games in the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic.

Warrick Leads 'Cuse In Rout Of Northern Colorado
Memphis Blows Past Savannah State
Mississippi State Survives Scare From Fairfield

Sports Illustrated College Basketball Predictions

SI.com's college hoops gang - Kelli Anderson, Seth Davis, Stewart Mandel, Grant Wahl and Luke Winn - offer their picks for the upcoming season.

Sports Illustrated College Basketball Predictions

Blue Ribbon College Yearbook Team Previews

Previews of Connecticut, last season's NCAA Champion, and Wake Forest, are available to all readers, but only ESPN Insiders get access to previews of every team.

NCAA Basketball Team Previews - Blue Ribbon

Preseason All-America Team

Released 11-9-04

The Associated Press' 2004-05 preseason All-America team, with school, year, height, votes from a 72-member national media panel and averages from last season:

Chris Paul, Wake Forest, so, 6-0, g, 55 votes, 14.8 pts, 5.9 asts.

Lawrence Roberts, Mississippi State, sr, 6-9, f, 50, 16.9 pts, 10.1 rebs.

Wayne Simien, Kansas, sr, 6-9, f, 50, 17.8 pts, 9.3 rebs.

Julius Hodge, North Carolina State, sr, 6-6, g-f, 41, 18.2 pts, 6.4 rebs.

Hakim Warrick, Syracuse, sr, 6-8, f, 33, 19.8 pts, 8.6 rebs.

Others receiving votes (in alphabetical order): Dee Brown, Illinois; Taylor Coppenrath, Vermont; Travis Diener, Marquette; Ike Diogu, Arizona State; B.J. Elder, Georgia Tech; Raymond Felton, North Carolina; Channing Frye, Arizona; Francisco Garcia, Louisville; J.R. Giddens, Kansas; John Gilchrist, Maryland; Ryan Gomes, Providence; Joey Graham, Oklahoma State; Jarrett Jack, Georgia Tech; John Lucas, Oklahoma State; Sean May, North Carolina; Rashad McCants, North Carolina; Gerry McNamara, Syracuse; J.J. Redick, Duke; Nate Robinson, Washington; Luke Schenscher, Georgia Tech; Craig Smith, Boston College; Chris Thomas, Notre Dame; Ronny Turiaf, Gonzaga; Charlie Villaneuva, Connecticut; Deron Williams, Illinois; Shelden Williams, Duke.

Athlon Sports College Basketball Preview

Check this out from Athlon Sports...season previews for 102 D-I college basketball teams.

College Basketball Preview

AP Preseason Top 25

AP Preseason Top 25 (with first-place votes in parentheses) Released 11-8-04
Rk.	Team	Rec.	Pts.	Prv.
1	Kansas (25)	24-9	1,697	16
2	Wake Forest (22)	21-10	1,680	17
3	Georgia Tech (10)	28-10	1,567	14
4	North Carolina (10)	19-11	1,558	18
5	Illinois (2)	26-7	1,457	13
6	Syracuse	23-8	1,452	20
7	Oklahoma St. (2)	31-4	1,342	4
8	Connecticut	33-6	1,281	7
9	Kentucky (1)	27-5	1,177	2
10	Arizona	20-10	1,061	22
11	Duke	31-6	981	5
12	Mississippi St.	26-4	913	8
13	Michigan St.	18-12	910	--
14	Louisville	20-10	876	--
15	Maryland	20-12	765	19
16	Texas	25-8	671	12
17	Pittsburgh	31-5	596	9
18	Alabama	20-13	510	--
19	N.C. State	21-10	490	15
20	Notre Dame	19-13	429	--
21	Wisconsin	25-7	378	10
22	Washington	19-12	355	--
23	Florida	20-11	337	--
24	Memphis	22-8	283	24
25	Gonzaga	28-3	215	3
Others receiving votes: Stanford 90, Michigan 74, Charlotte 37, Providence 32, S. Illinois 31, Utah 31, Cincinnati 30, Oklahoma 28, Boston College 7, UTEP 7, George Washington 6, UAB 6, Xavier 5, ETSU 4, LSU 4, Tennessee 4, Toledo 4, UCLA 4, UNLV 4, Iowa St. 2, Oregon 2, Rice 2, DePaul 1, Indiana 1, Va. Commonwealth 1, Vanderbilt 1, Vermont 1.

Welcome to Bracketology 101!

Hello and welcome to Bracketology 101, your new home this college basketball season for reliable, accurate and up-to-date NCAA Tournament projections. Starting in early January, as conference play heats up, myself and fellow bracketologist Craig Gately will keep you informed on who's in, who's out and who's on the bubble for the 2005 Men's NCAA Tournament - and unlike some other well-known Internet bracketologists (Joe Lunardi, etc.) - we'll get it right come Selection Sunday.

For all the predictions, conference breakdowns, bubble talk and in-depth analysis you need, enroll in Bracketology 101.

Bracketology 101: The bubble pops here.