Talk about bitter sweet.

In the latest coaches' poll the Connecticut Huskies dropped out of the top 25 for the first time since 2003. A pretty impressive streak of 69 straight polls snapped with our third loss in the past 4 games. With losses at West Virginia, LSU and Marquette and then you take in to count that we have no seniors or juniors starting(or even decent bench players) I see why were not even putting up a fight against higher ranked teams.

Don't get me wrong though, by March I think we'll be in great shape to make a run. Putting my biased nature aside, I don't think this team is quite ready for a national championship. Were missing alot of parts at this point, such as down low presence, pure shooter that can hit a big three(like Rashad Anderson last year) and I would like to see A.J. Price develop a little more into a solid point guard. With all these things coming together, we could be cutting down the nets maybe as soon as next year.

Big Men:

Obviously when you have a 7'2" guy on your team he's going to be your big man, but Hasheem Thasbeet hasn't been that good offensively. Jeff Adrien plays forward but he's only 6'6", although he isn't really the height to play PF, he is one of the most athletic players that I have seen in a Huskie jersey in quite awhile. I think he would better be suited to play small forward, but right now, the only other guy that I think could play PF is Stanley Robinson.

Shooter:

We don't really have too many shooters. We have alot of guys that have good mid-range shots, and can create shots down low. The best shooter right now is Craig Austrie. Currently he is shooting 44% behind the arc. So he might be the answer for us. Another alternative would be Jerome Dyson. But he's only shooting 33% right now.

Point Guard:

Although A.J. Price is coming along very nicely as a leader on this extremely young team, I think he can improve even still. Right now he's averaging nearly 5 assists a game, which is good, don't get me wrong, but i'm just being greedy and would like that to be, oh I don't know, around 6.5 or 7.

Now for the good, the Virginia Tech Hokies have cracked the top 25 for the first time since 1996. After major upsets over at the time #5 Duke and now at the time #1 North Carolina. With the help of Zabian Dowdell's 23 points and Jamon Gordon's 17 points the Hokies were able to out last the Tar Heels in Blacksburg.

So my favorite college basketball team loses and they drop out of the top 25 and my favorite overall team gets two huge upsets and they crack the top 25. I guess this is where I take the bad with the good.

Top 25 (NCAAB)

1. UCLA 8-0
2. Pittsburgh 10-0
3. North Carolina 7-1
4. Ohio State 8-1
5. Florida 8-2
6. Duke 9-1
7. Wisconsin 9-1
8. Connecticut 8-0
9. Alabama 8-1
10. Witchita State 7-0
11. Arizona 7-1
12. Kansas 8-2
13. Texas A&M 7-2
14. Washington 7-1
15. LSU 5-2
16. Gonzaga 9-2
17. Oklahoma State 11-0
18. Butler 10-1
19. Memphis 7-2
20. Air Force 10-1
21. Nevada 7-1
22. Marquette 9-2
23. Michigan State 9-2
24. Oregon 7-0
25. Clemson 10-0

I'm going to talk a little about my Huskies, the Connecticut version. When I first saw what the starting roster was going to look like this season, I was a little worried. I never lost faith, I just thought they would come in 3rd or 4th in the Big East. We only have 1 senior on the UConn roster and he doesn't even play, we have 1 junior, much like our lone senior, he doesn't play either. But we do have alot of talent, we have tons of great atheletes that have alot of potential. We lost our whole starting line-up and even the best bench player in the nation last year. Rudy Gay, Josh Boone, Hilton Armstrong and Marcus Williams all were selected in the NBA draft and Denham Brown and Rashad Anderson also graduated. But like I said earlier we have alot of talent and it has propelled us to a great start.

#12 A.J. Price PG - A.J. is our starting point guard. Some of you may remember last year when Marcus Williams was suspended for the first 15 games or so by Jim Calhoun for stealing laptops with the intent to sell them. Well there was another Huskie involved in that and that was Price. He was suspended the whole year though. He has came back and he is proving that he can run this team.

A.J.'s numbers.... 13.9 ppg, 5.1 apg, 2.5 rpg

#11 Jerome Dyson SG - Jerome is the first of our many outstanding freshman. He is a highflyer with good range. He lacks the size of a 2 guard but he makes it up with solid defense and the ability to penetrate and cut to the basket extremely well.

Jerome's numbers.... 13.6 ppg, 2.6 apg, 3.4 rpg

#1 Marcus Johnson G/F - Marcus is the first of 3 returning players that had playing time last year. Out of the three Marcus had the least amount of playing time. He isn't really a great scorer but he can come out and get you 10 points or so and he plays hard and he makes it on the highlight reel with some of his dunks. I think he is going to improve though, he has decent range, he just doesn't shoot that much.

Marcus' numbers.... 9.3 ppg, 1.6 apg, 4.4 rpg

#4 Jeff Adrien F - Now it's time to talk about my favorite player on this team. He got the most playing time out of the returning players last year, because of his vesitility. He is only 6'6" but he plays power forward. That means he plays against guys that average around 6'9". That should explain why he is so versitile. He is the type of player that if needed he could play 4 out of the 5 positions. He is a very good passer, but he just doesn't get alot of assists. He plays bigger than he is, he is a tremendous athlete with great scoring ability, an outstanding rebounder and an excellent shot blocker. Add all those together and what do you get? My favorite player.

Jeff's numbers.... 13.3 ppg, .4 apg, 10.6 rpg, 1.9 blk

#34 Hasheem Thabeet - Hasheem is one of prized freshman. He is absoulutley huge, he stands at 7'3" and about 270 lbs. I can't remember having someone that tall in quite awhile. He has struggled a little bit though. Both scoring and rebounding aren't quite there yet, but trust me, he will come along. One of the most amazing stats from Hasheem so far is his blocks per game. He averages 5.1 blocks a game. I know, you're impressed, well so am I. Anyway, give him some time and the points and rebounds will improve.

Hasheem's numbers.... 6.5 ppg, .5 apg, 7.0 rpg, 5.1 blk

Best bench players...

#3 Doug Wiggins(freshman) PG - 6.8 ppg, 2.3 apg, 1.9 rpg
#24 Craig Austrie G - 5.5 ppg, 1.3 apg, .9 rpg
#21 Stanley Robinson(freshman) F - 5.5 ppg, .8 apg, 4.8 rpg

Top 25 (Week 14)

1. Ohio State 12-0 (Big 10 Champs)
2. Florida 12-1 (SEC Champs)
3. Michigan 11-1
4. LSU 10-1
5. Louisville 11-1 (Big East Champs)
6. Wisconsin 11-1
7. Boise State 12-0 (WAC Champs)
8. Oklahoma 11-2 (Big 12 Champs)
9. USC 10-2 (PAC 10 Champs)
10. Auburn 10-2
11. West Virginia 10-2
12. Arkansas 10-3
13. Virginia Tech 10-2
14. Notre Dame 10-2
15. Wake Forest 10-3 (ACC Champs)
16. Texas 9-3
17. Rutgers 10-2
18. Tennessee 9-3
19. BYU 10-2 (MWC Champs)
20. California 9-3
21. Texas A&M 9-3
22. TCU 9-2
23. Nebraska 9-4
24. Boston College 9-3
25. Houston 10-3 (C-USA Champs)


Other Conference Champs:

MAC- Central Michigan 9-4
Sun Belt- Troy 7-5