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.

While Kansas, K-State, and Texas are fighting it out atop the conference standings, there’s another interesting battle brewing for that fourth and final first-round bye in the post-season tournament. While Baylor’s early play made it seem they could be the frontrunners for the 4-seed, losses in six of their last seven games have made the picture a little more murky for Scott Drew’s bunch.

Now, a look ahead at the next games for the top teams in the league…

Kansas Jayhawks, 9-2
This week: at Oklahoma State (Sat)
The Jayhawks get a long week to rest and a cupcake of an opponent to feast on this weekend. Only one team from the Big 12 South has ever won in Allen Fieldhouse, and I wouldn’t put money on Sean Sutton to win a second-consecutive road game. Kansas essentially gets a full-speed practice in preparation for a battle the following weekend with K-State.

Texas Longhorns, 9-2
This week: vs. Oklahoma (Sat)
Texas took care of business against the Sooners in Norman and are playing some incredibly impressive basketball at the moment. Without Longar Longar, OU could find itself in some trouble come Saturday afternoon.

Kansas State Wildcats, 9-2
This week: at Nebraska (Wed), at Baylor (Sat)
The roadie with Baylor this weekend could be a trap game, with the Wildcats potentially looking ahead to its next two with Texas and Kansas. Add to that the fact that the Bears desperately need some résumé-building upsets to offset their recent slide, and the Ferrell Center could be a very dangerous place for Beasley’s Bunch.

Texas A&M Aggies, 6-5
This week: vs. Nebraska (Sat)
After dropping two straight games, the Aggies have a chance to get well against Big Red at home. The tussle with the Cornhuskers is the most winnable contest that A&M has left, so they’ve got to get things clicking early in front of the Reed fans, who are becoming restless as of late.

Oklahoma Sooners, 6-5
This week: at Texas (Sat)
The last two Sooner wins came on insane three-pointers (and a foul), but they’ll have to work extremely hard to keep the momentum going in Austin on Saturday. As mentioned earlier, the loss of Longar to a stress fracture makes an already-thin Sooner frontcourt look like Kate Moss, so they can’t afford foul trouble on the road.

Baylor Bears, 5-6
This week: vs. Kansas State (Sat)
If Baylor is going to stop the bleeding, they’ve got to do it against the ‘Cats. A loss drops them even further out of contention for the first-round bye, and is one of only two remaining chances for a marquee win. (The other comes against A&M in the last week of the season.) If Baylor loses this one, fans might want to start printing up those green-and-gold NIT shirts.

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.

It’s a new week, which means new polls debut this afternoon. And after the rash of upsets this past week, there is sure to be a ton of movement through the rankings. Twelve of the ESPN/USA Today Top 25 lost, including the unlucky folks at Texas A&M, Marquette, and Miami who all lost both of their games this week. A lot of the carnage happened just in front of the Longhorns, who will probably move up six slots to #13 this week. Of course, if voters decide to punish Vandy for their loss (despite the fact it came to the hottest one-loss team in the country) that could edge the Horns up even as far as 12th in this week’s ranking.

Bad news this weekend for K-State senior David Hoskins. The AP reports that his injury will now force him to miss the whole season, although he might apply for another year of eligibility according to Coach Frank Martin. I hope that Hoskins goes forward with the medical redshirt and gets his fifth year, but I also hope that Michael Beast-ly and Bill Walker are long gone by then, because I’m tired of losing to the ‘Cats at home.

I never linked up Luke Winn’s newest power rankings on Friday morning, so take a gander. Texas slipped out of the Top 16, although I have a feeling they’ll be crawling their way back in on Thursday. Butler finally cracked the Top 10, although they lost to Cleveland State the night that this was published. Oops.

My own blogpoll vote is due tonight, and the crazy weekend has certainly muddied the picture. I’m sticking with Kansas at #1 with Memphis a close second, and at the moment I like the red-hot Volunteers in third followed by Carolina, Duke, and UCLA. I’ve got fourteen hours in a car today to think about it all, and of course the Big Monday contests could make things even more confusing if Georgetown or Texas goes down. I’ll be posting my full ballot tomorrow and will try to justify any head-scratching selections, so be sure to come back and rip me to shreds if I Prothro the vote.