Luke Winn has more cojones than most, as he already put together a pre-season Top 10 for yesterday morning’s blog entry. He assumes that D.J. Augustin will be going pro, and that stud ‘08 recruit Tyreke Evans will be landing with Villanova or Memphis once the late signing period begins next Wednesday.

I’m not even going to attempt to sort through the teams until the insanity of early entries and draft withdrawals end in mid-June. But it’s certainly fun to check out all of these early rankings and start to get jazzed about the next season. Winn slotted the Horns 6th, while Dick Vitale had them 4th — although his rankings are located so far from reality that they don’t deserve a link — so it’s safe to say that the Longhorns will be back. But where exactly they’ll end up depends heavily on the Augustin and Evans decisions this month.

In other early-entry news, sources in L.A. say Kevin Love and Darren Collison are going pro, while Collison himself is telling reporters that he’s yet to make a decision. It seems telling that he did not flatly decline the report, instead just relying on the word yet.

Perhaps most troubling for Bruins fans, though, is the source in that article which claims Russell Westbrook could throw his hat into the ring, too. Freshman combo guard Jrue Holiday will definitely make an immediate impact for UCLA next season, but I wouldn’t expect him to be able to single-handedly carry the backcourt if Coach Howland loses both Collison and Westbrook to the pros.

More early-entry news to come as the MSM reports it.

Lots and lots of news for the Horns now that the regular season has come to a close. And that starts with the Big 12 conference awards, where Rick Barnes took home Coach of the Year in a season where his Longhorns set a school record for regular season victories. D.J. Augustin was a unanimous selection to the All-Big 12 First Team, while A.J. Abrams and Damion James were named to the second team. The king of hustle, Justin Mason, was named to the All-Defensive Team.

In the latest Bracketology from Joe Lunardi, the Horns are still a 2-seed playing in the Phoenix regional with UCLA as the 1-seed. God forbid this projection actually holds, as good ol’ Joe has a potential second-round match-up for Texas with Arkansas…in Little Rock. Hardcore amateur bracketologists will be happy to know that Joe is now going daily with his picks from until Selection Sunday.

Andy Glockner’s Bubble Watch — now also a daily feature — has the Big 12 with three “locks” in Texas, Kansas, and OU. He feels that Baylor and K-State are solidly in, and barring a Bear implosion against Colorado on Thursday, I would have to agree. That leaves A&M in the “work left to do” category, which could be something of a misnomer. As long as the bubble doesn’t contract further with cinderella auto-bids, the Aggies should be fine. But while they don’t actually need another win, they certainly can’t afford to somehow lose to Iowa State.

While everybody is focused on seeds and bubbles, there is still that weekly tradition of the polls, which saw Texas climb to 6th in the AP and 8th in the ESPN/USA Today.

Although there’s no Big Monday, there’s more tournament action from Championship Week tonight. Auto-bids will be handed out in the Southern Conference (8 PM CST, ESPN2), where bubble team fans will be pulling hard for Davidson. At the same time, those nervous folks will be hoping that Gonzaga can stave off San Diego in the WCC Championship (8 PM CST, ESPN). And just underway in Albany, Rider and Siena are battling for the MAAC title on ESPN2.

We’re just hours from the last Big Monday of the year, which means that conference tournaments are right around the corner. Cornell already punched their NCAA ticket in the tournament-less Ivy League, while the Big South, Ohio Valley, and Horizon all kick off their conference knockouts tomorrow.

The road loss to Tech didn’t hurt the Horns too much, as Texas slid four spots to #9 in both rankings. North Carolina was the benefactor of Tennessee’s loss in Nashville, with the Heels taking over first in both polls. Kansas was the only other Big 12 team to be ranked (5th by the AP and 6th by the coaches), while Baylor received votes in both polls and A&M earned three points in the AP despite losing four of their last five.

The loss also knocked Texas to a 2-seed in Lunardi’s latest projection, although it put the Horns back in Houston for the second weekend. Kansas also earned a 2-seed in this projection, with Kansas State (8), Baylor (9), Oklahoma (9), and Texas A&M (10) also making the field.

There’s somebody laughing at me over in the Big 12 offices, as having two road games in a week played in far-off locales is really doing a number on my hours of sleep and amount of writing on the website. Trying to cram 40 hours of work into a week that also includes trips to and from Manhattan, Kansas and Lubbock, Texas leaves me with little time to get caught up around here. So, apologies for the lack of content beyond Fast Breaks this week, and a promise to hit you guys with this week’s blogpoll and some notes from the K-State game tonight and/or tomorrow night. For now, on to the news from around the interwebs.

The losses by Memphis and then Tennessee left the power rankings in disarray this week, and Luke Winn took the opportunity to revisit his top seven teams. When all was said and done, he shot Texas all the way to the #1 slot. Hope there’s not an SI.com curse, too…

Texas climbed to fifth in ESPN’s Power 16 this week, grabbing first-place votes from Hubert Davis and Doug Gottlieb. Dick Vitale continued his irrational voting, slotting the Longhorns in 11th behind the likes of Stanford, who has the same number of losses as Texas. Of course, the Cardinal has faced the 97th-toughest schedule in the country, while Texas has played the 3rd-toughest. Sure, polls are meaningless. But the fact that this guy actually has a vote in the AP poll is re-god-damned-diculous.

Grant Wahl has an article today exposing some truly despicable fan behavior, including death threats towards Kevin Love and bottles of water thrown at the family of Eric Gordon. I’ve heard some bad things yelled in the O-Zone at the Frank Erwin Center, but nothing like this. I suppose I’m fortunate that I haven’t run into any truly dicey situations on the road, but I’m also not related to a big-time recruit who “betrayed” a fan base. I have no problem with the student sections yelling things at the players on the court, because that’s a part of the game — but assault and homophobia need to be left in the backwoods.

There’s not enough time to do a full TV listing post tonight, but you definitely want to fire up the Tivo for a lot of great match-ups. Notre Dame and Louisville kick things off (6 PM CST, ESPN) followed by a key battle between Michigan State and Wisconsin in the Big 10 (8 PM CST, ESPN2). Thursday night also means Pac-10, so fans can check out USC/Arizona (8 PM CST, ESPN) or Washington State/Cal (10 PM CST, FSN).

After a long drive through the night, we have arrived in Manhattan and are ready for a huge match-up this evening with a dangerous Kansas State team. A game preview will be on the way late this afternoon — the Little Apple Brewery is calling our name in the meantime — but first let’s take a look at the newest polls and bracket projections before looking at some of the biggest things we saw against OU.

Texas climbed to #5 in both polls this week, leapfrogging Kansas and Duke, who both suffered embarrassing losses on the road. The Jayhawks are checking in at 6th with the media and 7th with the coaches this week, leaving the Big 12 with only two teams in the Top 25, albeit both in the top ten slots. Kansas State dropped from the rankings after losing back-to-back road games to Nebraska and Baylor, but are still sitting in the “receiving votes” category along with Texas A&M, who has dropped three straight.

Joe Lunardi is also moving the Horns up, sliding Texas on to the 1-seed line out in Phoenix. Although we mentioned last week that the home-court advantage in Houston would be bigger than a 1-seed elsewhere, this is probably the best-case scenario for a non-Houston regional. Phoenix is the closest of the other sites, and as long as UCLA isn’t the 2-seed — which unfortunately is what Lunardi is projecting — there shouldn’t be the danger of a rabid crowd for a lower seeded team.

It’s almost Friday, which means it’s one last chance to catch some good hoops before the weekend, and it’s also time to check out the newest power rankings. Luke Winn moves the Horns up 3 spots to 7th, and brings up what Texas fans have been saying for weeks — D.J.’s tired legs are a problem. You could definitely see it in the final minutes of the Baylor game, and it was pretty noticeable as he struggled versus ISU and Kansas, as well. Not that we’re complaining about Augustin here at LRT, but let’s get the kid some rest down the stretch.

ESPN analysts put Texas one slot higher, just ahead of Duke after their loss last night. Andy Katz and Doug Gottlieb were the high-water marks, with the Longhorns 5th in each ballot, while Dick Vitale continues to use illicit substances and vote Texas 12th. This level of stupidity is what makes us love the subdomain name for the folks at Super, Scintillating, and Sarcastic.

Heather Dinich of ESPN.com has a really great article on the Tony Durant, Kevin’s older brother. Dinich provides an interesting look at the winding path the man took to reach D-1 basketball, and I must say it’s refreshing to see a guy continue to work hard when he could just as easily become a leeching member of his brother’s entourage.

I know that TB and the folks over at Bring on the Cats are still steaming over the loss to Nebraska last night, but the hilarious videos they found of Michael Beasley could make any Cat fan laugh through the pain. Check out these three short clips of Beasley’s confusion, infatuation, and obsession with a reporter’s iPod.

Thursday’s new ESPN Power Rankings saw the Horns moving up the ladder after the impressive win over Kansas on Monday. Texas rose from 12th to 8th, with three of the twelve voters slotting the Horns at their high-water mark of 7th. The ballot most worthy of an eyebrow-raise came from Dick Vitale, who still has the Indiana Hoosiers sitting at 12th, one spot ahead of Texas. These being the same Hoosiers who are 0-4 vs. the RPI Top 20 while Texas is 3-2 against the same pool and holds a victory over St. Mary’s, who is currently 21st in the RPI. I know you just had surgery, Dicky V, but lay off the drugs.

Luke Winn’s power rankings aren’t out yet for this week, but he did promise in last week’s edition that Texas would leap from the pool of the “just unranked” into the top ten with a win over the Jayhawks. And if he’s impressed with the Texas defense, you know things are looking good for the Horns.

While things are certainly getting dicey in Bloomington for Coach Sampson and the Hoosiers, they’ve still got a tough stretch of Big 10 play coming up. So while President Michael McRobbie orders a new investigation, IU has to look ahead to a pair of home tests against Michigan State and Purdue on Saturday and Tuesday. And lest we forget the stat I just mentioned two paragraphs back, the Hoosiers have plumped up on a cupcake schedule all season and have yet to beat a quality opponent. Now, with their backs against the wall both on and off the court, this could be the time for them to man up and prove that they are a legitimate team.

And while FSU was busy with some self-policing of its own, Seminole forward Ryan Reid was throwing Wake Forest players to the court. Some may call it a punch or a forearm shiver, but no matter how you slice it, the refs decided it was flagrant. Check it out below, and then you can forget about these two teams again until football season.

A lot of losses for the top teams in the country last week, giving blogpollers the unenviable task of deciding which defeats were most damaging. What is the value of a road loss when compared to a home loss against another ranked opponent? Do you favor the overall profile when you vote, or do you give more weight to recent results? The balloting process was certainly much more interesting at the top this time around, with the different voting philosophies evident in the individual rankings. Here’s this week’s poll with my comments, and as always you can review everyone’s ballot here.

As a reminder, all ballots were cast following Monday night’s action, meaning that Purdue’s win over Michigan State did not factor into the rankings.

This week’s blogpoll consisted of votes from March to Madness, March Madness All Season, Rush the Court, A Sea of Blue, Tar Heel Mania, Storming the Floor, Vegas Watch, Super, Scintillating, and Sarcastic, George Mason Basketball, College Hoops Journal, Gopher Nation, Bryce’s Brackets and Observations, Making the Dance, Bizzaro Joe Lunardi, and yours truly. Six bloggers absented from this week’s vote.

There weren’t many outliers on my ballot this week, with the biggest variance between my rankings and the consensus coming with Washington State, K-State, and Purdue. In retrospect, I have the Cougs too high as a result of trying not to penalize them for “good” losses. But in reality, their résumé is rather lacking in the quality win department, so they’ve really got to prove things down the stretch against Zona and the Cardinal.

And while K-State has solid wins over A&M and Kansas on their home floor, the overall body of work is a bit sketchy. The main problem, though, is that this description could fit a ton of teams between 15 and 35. Of course, the Wildcats are in the middle of laying a huge egg in Lubbock as I write this, so it looks like their up-and-down year may continue.

Purdue also has some really questionable losses early in the year, but their win over Sparty last night will certainly propel them up the ranks in next week’s vote. While the talk has been about MSU, ‘Scon, and Indiana all year, the Big 10 could very easily be won by the Boilermakers. It ought to be quite the interesting stretch run.

Getting a little later start this morning than I’d anticipated, but I guess I needed to stock up on the sleep before the long drive. If I’m not completely exhausted when I get to Des Moines late tonight, I’ll try to wrap up the OU win. But even if I pass out before I get to that, check back Saturday morning for the Cyclone preview.

Checking in on this week’s new power rankings, Texas climbed five spots in ESPN’s poll, moving from narrowly unranked last week to the 12 slot this week. Meanwhile, Luke Winn found the Horns unworthy of a poll position. He’s got the Horns sitting at “17th,” claiming that a win over Kansas on Monday would move them into the top 10. You think?

I wanted to link this article for the UNC/Duke game, but the whole trip-to-Norman thing got in the way. As much as I loved the V-Tech students chanting “Eat shit, Paulus” a few weeks back, the folks over at Super, Scintillating, and Sarcastic have a pretty good take on why even Duke haters should snap for Paulus. And, you know…as long as the Blue Devils aren’t the 1-seed in a Texas bracket, perhaps I won’t root so fervently against them this year.

Anybody familiar with Ames or Des Moines? Got any places around there I should check out tomorrow while I’m in town? Bonus points for recommendations on the ISU campus, and points off for any suggestions involving corn.

Negligible movement in the polls this week, with the Horns sliding two spots to #12 in both rankings. The Jayhawk loss on Wednesday in Manhattan sent Kansas down a few rungs, slotting them 4th in the AP poll and 5th in the USA Today/ESPN ranking. Texas A&M and Kansas State were the other two Big 12 teams earning spots, with the Aggies sitting at 18th in both polls and the Wildcats checking in at 20th (AP) and 24th (Coaches). Baylor received votes from both the media and the coaches.

The big story this morning is, of course, the sudden departure of Bob Knight. His sudden retirement forces son Pat to hold the reins for the rest of Tech’s season, starting with a road game against Baylor on Wednesday. The odd timing has caused speculation that Knight was perhaps involved in another altercation, or that his wife’s medical problems have become too serious to allow the General to remain on the sidelines. I know I’m not alone in hoping that neither of these things are true, and wish Coach Knight the best of luck in his further endeavors. For two more (differing) views on the story, check in with William S. Reid at CNNSI.com or Pat Forde at ESPN.

Tuesday morning means another round of Bracketology to mull over. This time, Lunardi has the Longhorns as a 4-seed, one of six Big 12 teams in his field. Only the Big East has more in the hypothetical Big Dance, placing a full half of their 16-team conference in the mix. Other B-12 squads who were deemed worthy by Lunardi include Kansas (1-seed), K-State (3), Baylor (6), Texas A&M (7), and Oklahoma (10).