Ness Notes (Jan 17)

In a week in which 11 of the nation's ranked teams lost, including Arizona and Cincinnati losing twice, the nation's three unbeaten teams remained unscathed. No. 1 Duke and No. 2 Florida both upped their records to a perfect 16-0, while Pittsburgh improved to 14-0 and moved into the nation's top-10 (at No. 9), for the first time this season. The Big East and Big-10 each have SIX teams among the AP top-25, with the ACC contributing five teams. The most teams any conference has had in any weekly top-25 ranking is SEVEN. Both the ACC and Big-10 have done it twice, most recently by the ACC last year. Tonight on ESPN, Illinois visits Indiana at 7:00 ET. Illinois, which lost to North Carolina in last year's national title game, is a surprising 16-1. Indiana is off to a 10-3 start, which has to make Mike Davis feel better after he won just 14 and 15 games the last two years in Bloomington. However, the Hoosiers have lost five straight to Illinois, the longest losing streak since the Illini beat them eight straight times from 1912 through 1923 (that's a LONG time ago!). Indiana is favored by 2 1/2 points and the total is 135. At 9:00 ET, Kentucky visits Georgia. The Wildcats have lost three straight games, including the last two at home. Those back-to-back losses at Rupp are the Wildcats' first consecutive home losses since 1989. If that's not bad enough, Kentucky gets beat NIGHTLY these days in movie theaters across the nation, by Texas Western! Georgia is a one-point favorite with a total of 135 1/2. On ESPN2, Charlotte plays at St Joe's (7:00 ET) where the Hawks are favored by six points with a total of 140 1/2 and Louisville meets St John's in Madison Square Garden at 9:00 ET, with the Cards a 2 1/2-point favorite (total is 122 1/2). In case anyone missed it last Saturday, the nation's three winningest Division I programs, Kentucky (1914 wins), North Carolina (1870) and Kansas (1858) all lost at home on the same day, for the first time ever! NFL playoff coverage begins tomorrow.