Ohio State Finishes Regular Season Ranked Atop AP Top 25

The men's college basketball regular season concluded this weekend. The Final AP Top 25 rankings for the regular season were released today. Ohio State finished the regular season by retaking the No. 1 ranking. The Buckeyes now head into this week's Big Ten tournament with a figurative target on their backs. Somehow however, we don't expect that to be a problem for Coach Thad Matta's team. We'd be surprised if they don't take home the Big Ten tournament title.

Kansas is ranked No. 2. Pittsburgh, Notre Dame and Duke round out the top five.

Drive and Dish doesn't expect to see many huge upsets involving top 10 teams in the conference tournaments this week, but we wouldn't be terribly surprised if a highly-seeded team or two gets upset in the Big East Tournament. Pitt and Notre Dame are the obvious favorites, but teams like Louisville, Connecticut, St. John's and West Virginia could be dangerous.

Ohio State is easily the class of the Big Ten. Purdue might be able to give them a scare in the Big Ten tournament, but OSU is the clear favorite.

Kansas is the obvious favorite in the Big 12 tournament. But Texas and Kansas State have the horses to deny Coach Bill Self's Jayhawks access to their presumed throne. It should be noted, however, that Drive and Dish always advises against picking Texas in the post season. We've said it again and again over the years, but Coach Rick Barnes' teams just aren't put together to win championships, despite their ever-impressive scores on the proverbial "eye test."

Finally, we expect North Carolina to beat Duke in the ACC tournament final. North Carolina is a young team that's surging at the right time. They enter the conference tournament with perhaps more momentum than any other team in the country. Although they struggled quite a bit early in the season, Coach Roy Williams' Tar Heels should be seen as a strong Final Four contender again this year.

AP Top 25
RK	TEAM	RECORD	PTS
1	Ohio State (52)	29-2	1,612
2	Kansas (13)	29-2	1,569
3	Pittsburgh	27-4	1,493
4	Notre Dame	25-5	1,416
5	Duke	27-4	1,265
6	North Carolina	24-6	1,209
7	San Diego State	29-2	1,197
8	Brigham Young	28-3	1,187
9	Purdue	25-6	1,108
10	Texas	25-6	1,081
11	Syracuse	25-6	984
12	Florida	24-6	931
13	Wisconsin	23-7	870
14	Louisville	23-8	794
15	Kentucky	22-8	639
16	Arizona	25-6	562
17	St. John's	20-10	462
18	Xavier	24-6	437
19	Kansas State	22-9	345
20	West Virginia	20-10	294
21	Connecticut	21-9	281
22	Georgetown	21-9	244
23	Utah State	28-3	234
24	Temple	24-6	209
25	Cincinnati	24-7	202

• Others receiving votes: Texas A&M 177, Vanderbilt 101, Villanova 64, UCLA 40, UNLV 29, Missouri 22, George Mason 12, Old Dominion 11, Alabama 10, Belmont 9, Butler 9, Gonzaga 6, Saint Mary's 4, Virginia Commonwealth 3, UAB 2, Harvard 1

• Dropped from rankings: Villanova 19, Vanderbilt 21, Missouri 22, Texas A&M 24

Basketball Season Nears; Tidbits Returns

The leaves are falling from the trees, nightfall is coming earlier every day, college basketball teams began practicing last Friday and NBA training camps have been grinding it out for two weeks. Drive and Dish has been slumming for the last few months, but with Fall in full session and basketball season on the horizon, the Drive and Dish editorial board has elected to resurrect the ever popular Drive and Dish "Tidbits" series:

1.) Tuesday night, rookie point guard Derrick Rose scored 30 points as his Chicago squad beat Dallas 109-105 in NBA preseason action.

Drive and Dish readers may ask "who the hell cares about the results of NBA preseason games?" And normally, they'd be absolutely correct to pose such a question. But last night, Derrick Rose (a 19 year old rookie point guard) served notice to the rest of the NBA that he has the (rare) ability to take games over.

Rose will likely have ups and downs over the course of his rookie campaign, but anyone who's caught as much as a glimpse of his play during the preseason should understand that the kid is the real deal. And one would suspect that opposing NBA guards will understand that in short order as well.

2.) Shawn Siegel, of CollegeHoops.net, talks to New Mexico men's head basketball coach Steve Alford:

"Our goal is to win the Mountain West Conference and get into the NCAA Tournament. After that, we want to be in a position to advance as far as we can in post season play."

3.) Big East coaches have picked UConn to win the conference and have named Notre Dame's Luke Harangody Big East preseason Player of the Year.

4.) UNC Asheville's 7'7" center Kenny George, the tallest player in college basketball, will be sidelined for the 2008/09 season -- and likely for good -- amid reports part of his right foot was amputated.

5.) Georgia Tech senior D'Andre Bell is out for the year too, due to the discovery that he suffers from the congenital condition spinal stenosis. Bell plans to undergo surgery to correct the disorder.

6.) Santa Clara center John Bryant has returned to the court after having been stabbed three times at the beginning of the school year (Bryant was stabbed three times during one altercation, not stabbed in three separate altercations).

Bryant figures to be an NBA prospect, but, nonetheless, one wonders if Bryant has ever considered pursuing a career as a hip hop artist. After all, 50 Cent's hip hop career took off largely because he had the street cred of having been shot nine times (it certainly didn't take off because of his superior lyrical flow). I don't know if Bryant can rap, but now that he's been stabbed, he's definitely got his street bona fides.