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Collegehoops.net's Top 50 Power Ranking is your weekly dive into the national college basketball scene.  The CHN Top 50 is brought to you before all the other polls late Sunday night. Arrows represent notable moves. (Also: Check out the weekly Non-BCS Top 25 Ranking.)

 

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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.

For a while on Tuesday night it looked as if a Southern Conference team would hand another undefeated team its first defeat of the season. But an important suggestion by Louisville assistant coach Richard Pitino set things in motion for the fourth-ranked Cardinals, sparking a rally that resulted in a 69-62 victory. The idea: instead of relying on the frontcourt tandem of Gorgui Dieng and Chane Behanan to occupy the foul line area against the Charleston zone, use the versatile Kyle Kuric at the four.

Despite the amount of attention being given to ESPN's 24-hour college basketball marathon that tips off at midnight (Miami at Memphis) there are some good games on the docket Monday night. In the early window there are a two under the radar games that lack television coverage but won't lack for quality. Oakland (0-1), the preseason favorite in the Summit League, makes the trek south to take on one of the favorites in the Mid-American in Ohio (1-0). Two of the better players not in BCS conferences will be on display in Athens: Oakland center Keith Benson and Ohio guard D.J. Cooper.

Overall Rank: #55

In one of the wildest opening days in the history of the NCAA Tournament it took a lot to shock the college basketball world. And 97 points may qualify as "a lot", as in the number of points the MAC champion Ohio Bobcats scored in their 97-83 win over third-seeded Georgetown in a Midwest Region first round game in Providence. One-time Indiana Hoosier Armon Bassett scored 32 points while point guard D.J. Cooper added 23 points and eight assists in a dominant performance for John Groce's squad.

Ohio Bobcats

Mid-American Conference (21-14,
7-9)

 

hese championship weeks of college basketball teach us yearly that anything is possible, but more than that, they illustrate the fact that those things that do happen can happen fast.  In the five second blur that was OU point guard DJ Cooper racing down the court like Tyus Edney to beat the halftime buzzer, is as quickly as his ninth seeded Bobcat team would go to the locker room leading 36-34.  And as rapidly as it later looked the regulation clock would tick away on Akron’s chances at their second MAC title in as many years, is as fast as big shot maker Steve McNee

An Akron – Ohio Final…should be a good one

A week ago, any team in the Mid American Conference would have been well within their rights to stroll down the glass slipper aisle at their local Foot Locker just to see if 2010 edition possibly came in their size.  As of tonight though, only two teams find themselves in a position to be fitted.  And while similar in their opportunities to represent their conference in the field of 65, those two teams couldn’t be more different. 

Brendan Bowers will be in Cleveland all week covering the MAC Tournament for CollegeHoops.net.

Upset of the Day:  Ohio Bobcats beat Kent State 81 – 64