The Texas Longhorns are the number 1 team in the land this week after all. The football team came up short, but thanks to a [tag]Kansas[/tag] upset loss the men’s basketball team is now the top ranked team in both the AP Top 25 and the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll. This is the first time in Texas history to hold the number 1 ranking.
Head coach [tag]Rick Barnes[/tag] felt the ranking was a compliment to the program and all the effort each of the players puts in every week. Of course, unlike football college basketball has a playoff and as Barnes put it, “I can’t honestly tell you who the No. 1 team was in the country on the second week of January last year, but I do know who won the national championship.”
Here’s this week’s top 5 college basketball teams:
AP Poll | Coaches Poll | ||
---|---|---|---|
1 | Texas (56) | Texas (30) | |
2 | Kentucky (9) | Kentucky (1) | |
3 | Kansas | Kansas | |
4 | Villanova | Villanova | |
5 | Syracuse | Syracuse |
Rick Barnes has been tearing up the recruiting trail and the people placing bets in Las Vegas have taken noticed. Sportsbook.com has Barnes’ Longhorns at 10-1 odds to take home the 2009-10 college basketball national championship next March.
The Horns are right behind the two big favorites [tag]Kansas[/tag] and [tag]Kentucky[/tag] and will have as much experience and talent as any team in the country. Joining Damion James and big man Dexter Pittman are two of the most talented freshmen in the entire country in Avery Bradley and Jordan Hamilton. If Pittman continues to improve and the young guys hit the ground running this team could certainly be one of the last teams standing at the end of the season.
(via The Dagger)