Stanford

The PAC-10 Tournament starts on Wednesday with the winner getting the automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament. I’ll preview each team’s chances as well as potential matchups throughout.

#3 USC TROJANS
Record: Conference (11-7) Overall (21-10)
VS
#6 STANFORD CARDINAL
Record: Conference (10-8) Overall (18-11)

Here it is.. the list you've all been waiting for, the Top 20 stars of Saturday's college basketball action. You'll notice there's only 18 listings, because 2 pairs of teammates are stuck together on the list..

1. Shan Foster/Derrick Byars - Vanderbilt - 24 points each in he huge win over #1 Florida. Byars also added 8 assists for good measure.

2. Carl Elliott - George Washington - The senior guard had the first triple-double in GW's history. He scored 17, had 12 boards, and added 11 assists in a league win over Temple.

3. Brook Lopez - Stanford - The Cardinals beat up on tumbling Oregon behind 26 and 10 boards from Lopez. It was the heralded twin's best career game, and he also added a couple of blocks.

The Lopez twins and Jon Scheyer make the Freshman 10 for the first time.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.. have the top 6 teams in the country ever lost on the same day? With the exception of #2 Florida who rocked South Carolina.. the other top teams were in serious danger of losing on Saturday. #1 UNC obviously ended up losing by 6, #3 UCLA won by a point, #4 Wisconsin won by 6 in a poorly played game at Northwestern, #5 OSU won by 2, and #6 Kansas won in overtime. UCLA, Wisconsin, and Kansas all were down at half before pulling out close victories.

But what separates a team like UCLA from a Washington is the ability to win close games on the road. The #24 Huskies by the way are in a tailspin, having lost 5 of 6 games.. the last two which have come down to the wire. Even UCONN can now claim to have accomplished something Washington hasn't.. winning a game away from home. The #22 version of the Huskies beat St John's in the Garden, while the #24 version lost in overtime at California.

#24 Georgia Tech.. not anymore. #19 Maryland.. good try. #4 Florida.. thanks for playing. A season of wild upsets, surprise, and intrigue, continued on what was expected to be a somewhat quiet Sunday.

Don't feel bad for Gator fans though. Florida will play Ohio State in the National Championship game in football so today's 70-66 loss at Florida State will be forgotten. For FSU, Al Thornton was basically one man team. They needed everyone of his 28 points and 9 rebounds. The last 2 minutes of the game was all Thornton.. a nice post move in the paint, a 15 foot jumper, and a pair of free throws to lock the game up. The Gators were without Corey Brewer.. but his replacement Walter Hodge added 17 points so you can't blame it on that.

Stanford loses their big three, but starts anew with ready young talent.