College Basketball Report

1. No. 1 vs. No. 2

Memphis and Tennessee deserve the rankings going into their battle tonight in Memphis, and the winner obviously has the inside track to the overall No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.

2. La Salle was picked to finish 13th ...

In the preseason Atlantic Ten coaches' and media poll, among 14 teams. Going into the league season, reporter Matt Vautour, who covers UMass for the Daily Hampshire Gazette of Northampton, Mass., asked members of the conference media to vote again. That time, the Explorers were picked 14th. The Explorers are now 6-5 after the best week of the John Giannini era, in which they defeated St. Joseph's and Dayton.

3. If you take out Xavier at the top and St. Bonaventure at the bottom ...

The rest of the A-10 standings could be determined by dart board. Temple was picked ninth in the preseason and 10th going into January, and is tied for second. Richmond, coached by Archbishop Ryan graduate Chris Mooney, is an even bigger surprise - up there with La Salle - having been picked 12th and now being tied for second.

The flip side: Rhode Island, Dayton and Massachusetts were picked second, third and fourth going into January. The three schools are a combined 17-19 in league play with none above .500.

4. The bottom line

The A-10 still could get four NCAA tournament invitations, but if upsets continue to be the norm going into Atlantic City, the league could get as few as one, since nobody other than Xavier has locked up a bid. It's fair to say that the over-under on A-10 bids has dropped from 31/2 to 21/2.

The league's unbalanced schedule, which causes the schools picked to finish higher in the league to have stronger RPI rankings, is having the opposite effect on the standings.

5. But forget the standings

What La Salle accomplished in the last week is more important than that. For the last few years, the Explorers have been largely ignored in this town - certainly in this space. To see them play so aggressively on a big stage against St. Joe's was huge. Within the conference, La Salle is tied with St. Joe's for third in scoring, averaging 77.7 points. The Explorers are first in rebounding margin, first in three-pointers made, tied with Temple for second in assists, and fifth in steals. All that is crucial because the Explorers are last in the league in opponents' field-goal percentage. Opponents have scored 48.7 percent of the time.

6. The Big East standings are just as scrambled

The difference is that the four teams at the top of the standings, each with three league losses, are a combined 41-8 in nonleague games. Georgetown, Louisville, Connecticut and Notre Dame are playing for seedings, both in New York and in March Madness. (The top four A-10 teams are 35-20 in nonleague games.)

7. Will Luke Harangody's haircut cost him all-American votes?

Assuming not, Harangody should get a lot of them. Against currently ranked teams and even teams that get votes in the AP poll, the Notre Dame sophomore is averaging 21.5 points and 11.8 rebounds, slightly higher than his 20.5 and 10.4 overall averages. We compared him with Kansas State freshman Michael Beasley, a popular choice for national player of the year. Beasley is averaging 25.4 points and leading Division I with 12.5 rebounds a game, but those numbers fall to 17.3 and 8.8 against the best teams.

8. Expatriate of the week.

Philadelphia native Stefon Jackson led UTEP with 28 points and eight rebounds Wednesday in a 79-76 victory at Marshall. The Martin Luther King High School and Lutheran Christian graduate is averaging 23.6 points a game, ranking seventh in Division I. (Roman Catholic High graduate Charron Fisher still leads with 27.9 points a game.)

9. Where in the world is ...?

Former Villanova player Brian Lynch plays in Belgium, averaging 9.3 points and five rebounds a game for second-place Bree. One of his teammates is D'Or Fischer, from Upper Darby High and West Virginia. Lynch is married to Kim Clijsters, the former No. 1-ranked women's tennis player in the world, who retired from tennis last year and was expecting their first child this weekend. Lynch apparently met Clijsters walking down the street in Bree.

10. The real top 10

1, Memphis. 2, Tennessee. 3, Kansas. 4, North Carolina. 5, UCLA. 6, Texas. 7, Duke. 8, Butler. 9, Xavier. 10, Stanford.