The Daily Gus: January 29th

Would anybody in this great college basketball landscape like to be ranked number one? Duke is the fourth number one team this season (UNC, Pittsburgh, Wake Forest) and they are the fourth one to lose thier stranglehold in the polls. Last night Duke went TO Winston-Salem to play Wake and had the same result as Carolina. The Blue Devils could not handle the explosive size of the Demon Deacons and suffered a road loss to the team that may truly be the best in the country right now. Take away the little blip Wake has at home against Tech and they have been unstoppable. You had to figure they could not keep up the intensity of knocking off (at) BYU, UNC, (at) Clemson and (at) BC all consecutively. I'll forgive them for losing to a Tech team that is vastly improved since the non con if they can now continue their showcase of shear athleticism and talent. When you take a gander at the stat sheet for this game, nothing jumps out as to why Wake prevailed. In fact, they allowed Kyle Singler to go for 22 and 12 and Gerald Henderson to go for 20 and 8. On top of that, Jeff teague had only 11 points on a 4-14 night. They won the game with team defense; forcing 15 Duke turnovers and holding them to 4 of 22 from behind the arc. Duke shot poorly, a far cry from the show they put on Saturday against Maryland at Cameron Indoor.

Shoot-Around

- Note to the Big East: When you go on the road, don't even expect to win. Georgetown dropped its fourth straight at Cincinnati Big East contest to give them their SEVENTH loss of the year and fifth in the conference. Syracuse goes on the road, doesn't even bother to play defense, gives up 100 points and loses to Providence. It's okay though Jonny Flynn got his, he had 30plus. Last college basketball game ever played at the Philadelphia Spectrum. Villanova snags a huge win over Pittsburgh 67-57 to get themselves back into the Big East mix. The Spec closes after a long run of college basketball greatness. The site of Christian Laettner's shot against Kentucky in the Elite Eight, multiple Atlantic 10 tournaments and NCAA regionals. The Spec will certainly be missed.

- Around the CAA: Big win for Old Dominion to rebound from a couple bad losses to VCU and Northeastern. Winning at JMU has been tough this season, but now the Dukes have lost two straight at the Convo Center. Speaking of winning at JMU, Hofstra did it Saturday and then went down to UNC-Wilmington and got a win there. The Pride are getting better and better and don't be surprised if they are a-lurking and waiting for the second place VCU Rams to come into the nest in Staten Island Saturday.

- Florida is starting to gain more and more confidence as the season progresses. Although not truly tested, the Baby Gators won at Vanderbilt on Sunday by 30 and then go on the road and spank Georgia all night by 26. Now, Georgia is no juggernaut team by any stretch, but Nick Calathes went for a triple double, 20 points, 13 boards, 10 assists in 33 minutes on 7-11 shooting. Efficiency. Vanderbilt has tanked their season away. With AJ Ogilvy injured and sick and whatever the Commodores have lost four in a row and five of six. Ogilvy scored just three points on 0-3 shooting in 21 minutes. Problems in Nashville.

- Kansas rallies from a 13 point deficit and overcomes 21 TURNOVERS(!) to win at Nebraska. The Jayhwaks have yet to face any stern Big 12 challenges but all the while are 5-0 and trucking along nicely now capturing road wins at Iowa State, at Colorado and now at Nebraska. The Jayhawks have won eight of nine and could be 12-0 in the league heading into an undefeated showdown against Oklahoma on Big Monday at the end of February.