basketball, briefly

Not that briefly actually.

NCAA rankings first
1) Arizona 9-0

2) Louisville 3-3 Back up here fast. Most of the B10 schools have been losing.
3) Creighton. 10-3 Yes. Creighton is very high. Their offence exploded after that blowout over Villanova, in Villanova. Villanova had a pretty highly ranked defence. And yes, Creighton was not ranked coming into the week in the AP.
4) Iowa          6-3
5) Michigan St 11-1
6) Oklahoma St  7-3
7) Pittsburgh     8-2
8) Kansas 10-4

9) Duke        5-4
10) Syracuse 9-0
11) Ohio St    7-4
12) Villanova   10-2
13) Wisconsin  9-2-1
14) Wichita St  5-0
15) Kentucky   7-4
16) Michigan    6-3-1
17) Iowa St    7-3
18) Virginia     7-4-1

19) Florida      5-2
20) Cincinnati  5-2
21) UCLA       3-4
22) Gonzaga   5-3
23) Florida St

24) Xavier  8-3-1
25) SMU    2-4

In general, I think the two "new" conferences, the Big East and the American Athletic are somewhat underrated, along with the Pac-12. It looks like the Mountain West (as usual) and the Big 12 are the overrated conferences right now (outside of Oklahoma St and Kansas).

Ranked
30) San Diego St 6-1
31) Massachusetts 8-1-1
26) Saint Louis 2-2
37) Kansas St  6-3
41) Memphis    3-4
49) Baylor      3-5
40) Oklahoma  6-4

In other sporting news. The NBA announced its all-star voting for the starters.

West.
G Kobe
G Curry
F Griffin
F Durant
F Love
I guess Kobe's some sort of farewell vote, because otherwise I'm not sure I follow. He's played in 6 games. The one problem there in the West is that the most obvious omission as a starting guard is Chris Paul, and he's hurt right now too. Even with the time missed, he's still the second or third best player in the conference after Durant and maybe Kevin Love. Westbrook would have also made the team if he hadn't been hurt too.

The other four starters are quite good.
This would be my set of reserves
G Harden - Houston
G Conley - Memphis (note: I don't think he'll make it).
F Dirk - Dallas
F Aldridge - Portland
C Howard - Houston
F Davis - New Orleans
C Duncan - San Antonio

A case can be made for Ty Lawson and most likely Damion Lilliard over Conley, but Conley's been very, very good. Problem is Memphis has been mediocre overall. The best case for a snub other than him will probably be Dragic out in Phoenix. San Antonio seems to be doing the whole thing with a committee of very good players but other than Parker, nobody's that great statistically, and other than Leonard, nobody's been that lights out on the analytical stats. I would bet that means Duncan gets on the team.

East
G Wade
G Irving
F LeBron
F George
F Carmelo
I'm not sure about Irving getting voted in here. I guess he's more of a highlights scorer who fits well for an all-star game, but his team is terrible and he hasn't actually been that great himself (contrary to say, Carmelo in NY). The reason he gets in: the entire conference is terrible. Especially at the guards slot. He's still been good enough to make the team, but shouldn't be starting over Wall. Everybody else makes perfect sense.

Reserves.
G Wall - Washington
G Lowry - Toronto
C Hibbert - Indiana
G Stephenson - Indiana (not sure he'd make it, but Indiana should have three probably)
F Millsap - Atlanta
C Noah - Chicago
F Bosh - Miami

I don't think Bosh has actually played up as an all-star either, but again, the conference is terrible.