Has parity arrived in college hoops?

If you're still looking for a dominant college basketball team similar to last year's Kentucky group that fell two wins short of the sport's first undefeated season since Indiana in 1975-76, you may be out of luck.

The parity in college basketball this season is as rampant as it's ever been. Five teams have held down the No. 1 position in the Associated Press poll - preseason and in the 12 polls conducted since competition began in mid-November. In addition, 13 teams have occupied a spot in the top five for at least one week.

Michigan State spent four weeks as the nation's top team, the most of any team thus far. Oklahoma is the current No. 1 team, in the third week of its run. North Carolina, Kentucky and Kansas have been atop the poll for two weeks each.

As for teams in the top five, Kansas was ranked there in the first 12 polls before falling to No. 7 this week. The Jayhawks are followed by Maryland (nine weeks), Oklahoma and Michigan State (eight each), North Carolina (seven) and Kentucky (six).

If you take each week's top five, and you award five points to the No. 1 team on a scale ending with one point for the fifth-ranked team, the tally results as follows:

1. Kansas (38 points); 2. Oklahoma (34), 3. Michigan State (29), 4. (tie) North Carolina and Maryland (26 each); 6. Kentucky (21); 7. Iowa State (six); 8. Villanova (five); 9. (tie) Virginia and Iowa (four each); 11. Duke (two); 12 (tie) Xavier and Texas A&M (one each).

How this figures to shake out once the NCAA tournament begins is anyone's guess. Certainly, a lot has to do with momentum. Oklahoma has quite a bit right now, Kansas not so much, Duke none at all.

Still, a national champion could come from a team seeded third or fourth or lower, maybe even an eight seed like the 1985 Villanova Wildcats. Certainly, the chance of a double-digit seed in the Final Four is feasible. Hey, why not? It seems like anything is possible.

The close-knit basketball family at Butler is grieving for the second time in less than a month.

First, it was Andrew Smith, a solid inside presence on the Bulldogs' two Final Four teams who died of cancer a little more than three weeks ago. Then last Monday, Emerson "Little Em" Kampen IV, the six-month-old son of Butler assistant coach Emerson Kampen, passed away from a rare genetic condition called Leigh's disease, which affects the central nervous system and is terminal.

"I've cried more in the last month, month and a half, than I have in the last five years," head coach Chris Holtmann said. "I have seen some really sad and awful stuff happen to some really good people."

The Big 12 finds five of its 10 teams ranked in the top 15 and owns the top RPI of any conference. Now it begins the second half of a season during which no team is safe on any given night.

Kansas, which has won or shared the last 11 Big 12 titles, has been sputtering for a while. The Jayhawks lost three of their previous five conference games - all on the road - before defeating Kentucky last week. Of the win, coach Bill Self said, "Hopefully it's a springboard for more energy, more activity, just a newness going into February."

But the Jayhawks have plenty of teams ready to spoil their run, such as Oklahoma. The top-ranked Sooners get their rematch next Saturday against Kansas at home, with memories of last month's triple-overtime epic, won by the Jayhawks, still fresh.

First, however, Oklahoma has to get by Texas on Monday night. Going into the weekend, the Longhorns had won six of their last seven games under first-year head coach Shaka Smart, formerly of VCU.

For a while, it looked as if Rutgers had a good chance to end its 23-game regular-season Big Ten losing streak, especially after guard Corey Sanders followed up his miss of a three-point try, got the rebound, ran back to the three-point line and swished the shot before the buzzer to force a second overtime at home against Illinois.

But it was not to be. The Scarlet Knights lost in three overtimes, 110-101, despite 39 points, 12 assists, eight rebounds and just two turnovers from Sanders.

"A lot of good things happened, and we're proud of our guys," Rutgers coach Eddie Jordan said. "Some individual performances were magnificent. But we need everyone to play at a high level, and we didn't get that again."

Sophomore Ja'Quan Newton, who starred locally at Neumann-Goretti High, has been effective as the backup point guard at Miami. The 6-foot-2 Newton, who has come off the bench in all but one of the Hurricanes' 21 games, is averaging 11.9 points and 2.7 assists, and has made almost half of his attempts from the field. His 12 points earlier this week against Notre Dame marked his 17th game of 10 or more points this season.