A great part of being associated with the SB Nation network of blogs is the amount of collaboration we get to do with the rest of our vast community of over 200 sites. As such, the big wigs at SB contacted their college basketball bloggers to work together to create our own set of power rankings. We're asked to wait until the conclusion of Wednesday's action but with New Mexico up late on UNLV, I think we're safe. Here's how things shake out:
| Rank | Team |
| 1 | Kansas |
| 2 | Syracuse |
| 3 | Kentucky |
| 4 | Villanova |
| 5 | Purdue |
| 6 | West Virginia |
| 7 | Kansas State |
| 8 | Georgetown |
| 9 | Duke |
| 10 | Gonzaga |
| 11 | Wisconsin |
| 12 | Vanderbilt |
| 13 | Michigan State |
| 14 | Ohio State |
| 15 | Texas |
| 16 | New Mexico |
The past few days have seen a number of rivals match up in huge, ESPN-branded affairs. For the most part, the product has been pretty dull unless you are enjoying what is going on in the Big 10. Even though it is a distant third to the Big East and Big 12, the Big 10 gave us a week full of upsets, great wins, and bad losses. Illinois has recently risen to the occasion and was right on the verge of making it into this week's power 16. Ohio State continues to quietly plug away and gather wins and they've got a top five talent in Evan Turner.
Texas and Michigan State are both in free fall mode it seems. The Longhorns are especially going through an identity crisis as they've just got way too many one-on-one players that have failed to grasp the team concept. The Spartans are a bit better off but, to be totally honest, their talent outside Kalin Lucas doesn't really impress me.
Please feel free to share your thoughts, calls me crazy, make fun of BYU, or whatever else you please.