The conference challenges ended Sunday with the Big 12 beating the Big East 6-5 when Oklahoma State won at Seton Hall.The SEC crushed the ACC earlier in the week in their challenge 14-2 with the two lone wins being significant when Duke beat Auburn and Clemson knocked off Kentucky, both at home, handing the two SEC schools their first loss of the season. The Big 12 and Big East confirmed their challenge is over and there are no plans to resume in the future. The ACC-SEC will continue. The Big Ten-ACC Challenge ended two seasons ago. The Gavitt Games between the Big Ten and the Big East concluded last season. And while the challenge series is a guarantee of quality non-conference games and guaranteed programming for the networks that cover the leagues they don’t signal an end to high-level one-game events on home or neutral courts. Just check out this list below of single non-conference games, thus far, that weren’t in a challenge series, a multiple-team tournament or a traditional, annual rivalry. And this is all before final exams begin this week around the country: Kentucky vs. Gonzaga in Seattle Baylor at Gonzaga Marquette at Purdue Kentucky vs. Duke in Atlanta Kansas vs. Michigan State in Atlanta Duke vs. Kansas in Las Vegas Duke at Arizona UConn at Texas Illinois vs. Arkansas in Kansas City Illinois vs. Alabama in Birmingham Alabama at Purdue Tennessee at Louisville Auburn vs. Houston in Houston Ohio State vs. Texas in Las Vegas Gonzaga at San Diego State North Carolina at Kansas Marquette at Maryland Marquette vs. Georgia in the Bahamas Michigan vs. Wake Forest Iowa vs. Washington State in Moline, Ill. Iowa vs. Utah State in Kansas City Ohio State at Texas A&M Arizona at Wisconsin Nebraska vs. Saint Mary’s, in Sioux Falls, SD. Cal at USC Pitt at Ohio State Arizona State at Gonzaga The hope is that this trend will continue going forward. And all indications they will for the foreseeable future — especially with a number of teams shying away from three-game and in some cases two-game tournaments. This is great for the game going forward and for television coverage in November and December. The thirst and the need to deliver high-level games is a must to continue to generate interest in the game before the heart of conference play. The concept of playing early-season, December conference games is also a plus. A number of conferences need to do this to get all of their conference games in before champ week so there isn’t a crammed schedule. Playing two games before Christmas or sandwiched before and after in advance of New Year’s gives teams a real barometer on where they stand. Teams that get to 2-0 are hardly guaranteed of an upper-division finish, but if a team is 0-2 it creates a sense of urgency that is necessary to hit the ground running after New Year’s. Continuing to push the concept of high-level games and games that matter to each school is a must as the sport looks for ways to carve out interest as football season comes to its playoff push. Now, onto the rankings that were of course turned upside down again. And a reminder, these are not an exact science and not a metric. This is all my judgment on who is playing well or picked up significant wins this week while not completely punishing teams if there was a loss. For the week of Dec. 9: The March Madness Power 37 Tennessee (Prev. 3, 8-0): The Vols take a turn at No. 1. Chaz Lanier has been dominant of late. He’s led Tennessee in scoring in the last four games with 26, 25, 18 and 26. Auburn (Prev. 1, 8-1): The Tigers shouldn’t drop more than a spot after losing at Duke. Iowa State (Prev. 6, 7-1): The Cyclones beat Marquette at home by 11 — one of the best wins of the season, thus far. Marquette (Prev. 4, 9-1): The Golden Eagles followed up the loss at Iowa State by pulling away from Wisconsin behind 32 from Kam Jones. Kentucky (Prev. 5, 8-1): The Wildcats split the week by following up the loss at Clemson with a thrilling OT win over Gonzaga in Seattle. Duke (Prev. 8, 7-2): The Blue Devils had quite a week with a win over Auburn and then a comeback win at Louisville to open the ACC. Alabama (Prev. 11, 7-2): The Tide went to North Carolina and blitzed the Tar Heels. Clemson (Prev. 37, 9-1): The Tigers had a season-changing week by knocking off Kentucky and opening the ACC with a road win at Miami. Florida (Prev. 9, 9-0): The Gators will get tested mightily against ASU and North Carolina in the next week. Michigan (Prev. 16, 8-1): Love this Wolverines team. They are the surprise of the Big Ten and won at Wisconsin and outlasted Iowa. Purdue (Prev. 10, 8-2): The Boilermakers split their Big Ten games, losing at Penn State and knocking off Maryland. Kansas (Prev. 2, 7-2): I’m not ready to completely drop Kansas. They had two very difficult road games at Creighton and rival Missouri. Let’s wait another week on the Jayhawks. UConn (Prev. NR, 7-3): The Huskies are back. We had to wait and see after the 0-3 in Maui. UConn beat Baylor and then won at Texas. UCLA (Prev. NR, 8-1): Welcome back to the Bruins, who shocked Oregon in Eugene Sunday on a Dylan Andrews buzzer-beater after beating Washington at home to open the Big Ten 2-0. Michigan State (Prev. 26, 8-2): The Spartans have finally found their groove, starting the Big Ten 2-0 with wins at Minnesota and over Nebraska. Gonzaga (Prev. 13, 7-2): The Bulldogs lost a heartbreaker to Kentucky in OT in Seattle. They have a few more tests with UConn at MSG and UCLA in LA in the next few weeks. Oregon (Prev. 7, 9-1): The Ducks lost their first game of the season to UCLA after winning at USC. Oklahoma (Prev. 19, 9-0): Porter Moser has his best team in Norman. Huge tests coming up against Oklahoma State and Michigan. Ole Miss (Prev. 20, 8-1): The Rebels knocked off Louisville on the road and are quietly cruising in the non-conference. Illinois (Prev. 15, 6-2): The Illini shouldn’t get punished too much for an overtime loss at rival Northwestern. Penn State (Prev. NR, 8-1): Mike Rhoades may have one of the sleepers in the country after the Nittany Lions knocked off Purdue and look like an upper-division Big Ten team. Texas A&M (Prev. 24, 8-2): The Aggies have won four in a row with all of them coming against power schools, including former rival Texas Tech. Maryland (Prev. 28, 8-2): The Terps nearly got Purdue Sunday in West Lafayette after blitzing Ohio State. Missouri (Prev. NR, 8-1): Say hello to the Tigers, who were 0-18 in the SEC last season. Missouri beat rival Kansas Sunday to send a strong message to the rest of the SEC that they have returned from the abyss. Arizona State (Prev. 21, 8-1): The Sun Devils beat Saint Mary’s and have just one blemish — at Gonzaga. San Diego State (Prev. 22, 6-2): The Aztecs appear to be one of the two teams to beat again in the Mountain West. Baylor (Prev. 18, 5-3): The Bears were injured at UConn but could have maybe pulled off the win if healthy. They’ve had a brutal slate with Tennessee and UConn in two of their last three games. Wisconsin (Prev. 12, 8-2): The Badgers lost a tough home game to Michigan and then had to go to Marquette. Rough week after an 8-0 start. Creighton (Prev. NR, 7-3): The Bluejays are back after winning three in a row, including Kansas. Dayton (Prev. 30, 8-2): Love this Flyers crew. Massive test for them coming up when they host Marquette. Mississippi State (Prev. NR, 8-1): I shouldn’t have dropped the Bulldogs last week. And the convincing win over Pitt was a strong indicator of why that was a mistake. Drake (Prev. 23, 8-0): The Bulldogs haven’t lost. Yes, I dropped them based more on competition, but they don’t appear to be going anywhere. West Virginia (Prev. 32, 6-2): The Mountaineers got a good draw in the Big 12-Big East Challenge with Georgetown. They won’t get tested again until playing at Kansas on New Year’s. Saint Mary’s (Prev. 33, 9-1): The Gaels won at Utah for a quality true road win. Utah State (Prev. 29, 9-0): The Aggies have the win over Iowa in KC but the tests will come soon enough against Saint Mary’s and San Diego State on the road. Georgia (Prev. 36, 8-1): The Bulldogs have one blemish and it's against one of the best teams in the country in Marquette. Rhode Island (Prev. NR, 9-0): Archie Miller told me in the preseason that he thought this would be his best and most competitive team. He was right. The Rams beat rival Providence and will be in the A-10 title chase. Dropped out: Cincinnati (14), Memphis (17), Pitt (25), Texas (27), Louisville (31), Xavier (34), Butler (35).Under consideration: Houston, UC Irvine, Texas Tech, St. John’s, Washington State, Loyola-Chicago. March Madness National Player of the Week Tamar Bates, Missouri: Bates went off for 29 points in a rivalry win over Kansas Sunday. Bates had earlier in the week dropped 15 in an ACC-SEC Challenge W. Both games were in Columbia, but that doesn’t matter. Bates was on fire and delivered when it mattered most for the Tigers. Bates started his career at Indiana but has really blossomed in the two seasons at Missouri. He is definitely getting more looks and options under Dennis Gates and is flourishing. The Tigers were dreadful last season at 8-24, 0-18 in the SEC. But already they are 8-1 this season with the only loss at Memphis. No shame in that defeat. March Madness National Team of the Week Clemson: The Tigers handed Kentucky its first and now only loss of the season after the Wildcats came back to beat Gonzaga in OT in Seattle a few days later. Clemson also opened the ACC with a road win at struggling Miami. Clemson’s only loss was at Boise State, one of the tougher, under-appreciated road venues (and kudos to Clemson for making the trip to Idaho). The 1-2 punch of Chase Hunter and Ian Schieffelin is becoming extremely difficult to deal with, thus far. Shieffelin is a rebounding machine. He had 20 boards against Kentucky and a dozen against Miami. Clemson continues the tough slate by hosting Memphis on Saturday. The March Madness Games to WatchA little different spin this week, because Dec. 14 is too good not to just highlight the day. So let’s rank the Saturday: Louisville at Kentucky: The rivalry is back because the Cardinals are at least relevant again. This is the first game between Pat Kelsey and Mark Pope. Love this event. Xavier at Cincinnati: This has been ugly at times and the intensity between the two fan bases can get nasty. Let’s hope it’s calmer this time. Tennessee at Illinois: The Vols are one of the best teams in the country and are going into one of the top home-court venues. State Farm should be rocking. Gonzaga vs. UConn, Madison Square Garden, NYC: The Garden is going to be rocking between two teams that have familiarity over the past few seasons. UConn rocked Gonzaga in the NCAA Tournament and in Seattle over the past two years. UCLA vs. Arizona, Phoenix: The Bruins are playing better but Arizona desperately needs a quality W after missing out on a number of opportunities. Good deal that they are still playing this game now that they aren’t in the same league. Memphis at Clemson: The Tigers play in Maui and Clemson’s start has made this game take on even more meaning for March. Marquette at Dayton: The Golden Eagles have been flying of late. But Dayton is a tough out at home. This game is going to be very PHYSICAL. Oklahoma at Oklahoma State: Bedlam is on. Love it. The Sooners are a surprise and the Cowboys picked up a much-needed road win at Seton Hall. So this game should be a pleasant surprise. Arizona State vs. Florida, Phoenix: Don’t sleep on this matchup. The Gators have been flying under the radar but have played extremely well. The same is true for the Sun Devils. Creighton at Alabama: Last year’s game was epic. Hopefully the same can be true this time in Tuscaloosa. Ohio State vs. Auburn, Atlanta: The Buckeyes finally got right against Auburn and will have their hands full inside with Johni Broome. Texas A&M vs. Purdue, Indianapolis: The Aggies have stepped up of late while the Boilermakers are a tough out anywhere in the state of Indiana. Look for the guard play to be the dominant story. NC State at Kansas: The Wolfpack nearly clipped Purdue in San Diego and are searching for a marquee win. Hard to do that in Lawrence but the Jayhawks suddenly seem vulnerable. Wisconsin vs. Butler, Indianapolis: The Badgers lost two games in a row at home to Michigan and at Marquette. They’ve got to play at Illinois before this game against a Butler team that has had a decent non-conference, thus far. All-American favorites And finally, five weeks into the season, my three first-team all-American favorites are: Johni Broome, Auburn Kam Jones, Marquette Cooper Flagg, Duke.

Tennessee surges to top of men's basketball Power 37 rankings

The conference challenges ended Sunday with the Big 12 beating the Big East 6-5 when Oklahoma State won at Seton Hall. The SEC crushed the ACC earlier in the week in their challenge 14-2 with the two lone wins being significant when Duke beat Auburn and Clemson knocked off Kentucky, both at home, handing the […]

The conference challenges ended Sunday with the Big 12 beating the Big East 6-5 when Oklahoma State won at Seton Hall.

The SEC crushed the ACC earlier in the week in their challenge 14-2 with the two lone wins being significant when Duke beat Auburn and Clemson knocked off Kentucky, both at home, handing the two SEC schools their first loss of the season.

The Big 12 and Big East confirmed their challenge is over and there are no plans to resume in the future. The ACC-SEC will continue. The Big Ten-ACC Challenge ended two seasons ago. The Gavitt Games between the Big Ten and the Big East concluded last season.

And while the challenge series is a guarantee of quality non-conference games and guaranteed programming for the networks that cover the leagues they don’t signal an end to high-level one-game events on home or neutral courts.

Just check out this list below of single non-conference games, thus far, that weren’t in a challenge series, a multiple-team tournament or a traditional, annual rivalry.

And this is all before final exams begin this week around the country:

Kentucky vs. Gonzaga in Seattle
Baylor at Gonzaga
Marquette at Purdue
Kentucky vs. Duke in Atlanta
Kansas vs. Michigan State in Atlanta
Duke vs. Kansas in Las Vegas
Duke at Arizona
UConn at Texas
Illinois vs. Arkansas in Kansas City
Illinois vs. Alabama in Birmingham
Alabama at Purdue
Tennessee at Louisville
Auburn vs. Houston in Houston
Ohio State vs. Texas in Las Vegas
Gonzaga at San Diego State
North Carolina at Kansas
Marquette at Maryland
Marquette vs. Georgia in the Bahamas
Michigan vs. Wake Forest
Iowa vs. Washington State in Moline, Ill.
Iowa vs. Utah State in Kansas City
Ohio State at Texas A&M
Arizona at Wisconsin
Nebraska vs. Saint Mary’s, in Sioux Falls, SD.
Cal at USC
Pitt at Ohio State
Arizona State at Gonzaga

The hope is that this trend will continue going forward. And all indications they will for the foreseeable future — especially with a number of teams shying away from three-game and in some cases two-game tournaments.

This is great for the game going forward and for television coverage in November and December. The thirst and the need to deliver high-level games is a must to continue to generate interest in the game before the heart of conference play.

The concept of playing early-season, December conference games is also a plus. A number of conferences need to do this to get all of their conference games in before champ week so there isn’t a crammed schedule.

Playing two games before Christmas or sandwiched before and after in advance of New Year’s gives teams a real barometer on where they stand. Teams that get to 2-0 are hardly guaranteed of an upper-division finish, but if a team is 0-2 it creates a sense of urgency that is necessary to hit the ground running after New Year’s.

Continuing to push the concept of high-level games and games that matter to each school is a must as the sport looks for ways to carve out interest as football season comes to its playoff push.

Now, onto the rankings that were of course turned upside down again. And a reminder, these are not an exact science and not a metric. This is all my judgment on who is playing well or picked up significant wins this week while not completely punishing teams if there was a loss.

For the week of Dec. 9:

The March Madness Power 37

Tennessee (Prev. 3, 8-0): The Vols take a turn at No. 1. Chaz Lanier has been dominant of late. He’s led Tennessee in scoring in the last four games with 26, 25, 18 and 26.
Auburn (Prev. 1, 8-1): The Tigers shouldn’t drop more than a spot after losing at Duke.
Iowa State (Prev. 6, 7-1): The Cyclones beat Marquette at home by 11 — one of the best wins of the season, thus far.
Marquette (Prev. 4, 9-1): The Golden Eagles followed up the loss at Iowa State by pulling away from Wisconsin behind 32 from Kam Jones.
Kentucky (Prev. 5, 8-1): The Wildcats split the week by following up the loss at Clemson with a thrilling OT win over Gonzaga in Seattle.
Duke (Prev. 8, 7-2): The Blue Devils had quite a week with a win over Auburn and then a comeback win at Louisville to open the ACC.
Alabama (Prev. 11, 7-2): The Tide went to North Carolina and blitzed the Tar Heels.
Clemson (Prev. 37, 9-1): The Tigers had a season-changing week by knocking off Kentucky and opening the ACC with a road win at Miami.
Florida (Prev. 9, 9-0): The Gators will get tested mightily against ASU and North Carolina in the next week.
Michigan (Prev. 16, 8-1): Love this Wolverines team. They are the surprise of the Big Ten and won at Wisconsin and outlasted Iowa.
Purdue (Prev. 10, 8-2): The Boilermakers split their Big Ten games, losing at Penn State and knocking off Maryland.
Kansas (Prev. 2, 7-2): I’m not ready to completely drop Kansas. They had two very difficult road games at Creighton and rival Missouri. Let’s wait another week on the Jayhawks.
UConn (Prev. NR, 7-3): The Huskies are back. We had to wait and see after the 0-3 in Maui. UConn beat Baylor and then won at Texas.
UCLA (Prev. NR, 8-1): Welcome back to the Bruins, who shocked Oregon in Eugene Sunday on a Dylan Andrews buzzer-beater after beating Washington at home to open the Big Ten 2-0.
Michigan State (Prev. 26, 8-2): The Spartans have finally found their groove, starting the Big Ten 2-0 with wins at Minnesota and over Nebraska.
Gonzaga (Prev. 13, 7-2): The Bulldogs lost a heartbreaker to Kentucky in OT in Seattle. They have a few more tests with UConn at MSG and UCLA in LA in the next few weeks.
Oregon (Prev. 7, 9-1): The Ducks lost their first game of the season to UCLA after winning at USC.
Oklahoma (Prev. 19, 9-0): Porter Moser has his best team in Norman. Huge tests coming up against Oklahoma State and Michigan.
Ole Miss (Prev. 20, 8-1): The Rebels knocked off Louisville on the road and are quietly cruising in the non-conference.
Illinois (Prev. 15, 6-2): The Illini shouldn’t get punished too much for an overtime loss at rival Northwestern.
Penn State (Prev. NR, 8-1): Mike Rhoades may have one of the sleepers in the country after the Nittany Lions knocked off Purdue and look like an upper-division Big Ten team.
Texas A&M (Prev. 24, 8-2): The Aggies have won four in a row with all of them coming against power schools, including former rival Texas Tech.
Maryland (Prev. 28, 8-2): The Terps nearly got Purdue Sunday in West Lafayette after blitzing Ohio State.
Missouri (Prev. NR, 8-1): Say hello to the Tigers, who were 0-18 in the SEC last season. Missouri beat rival Kansas Sunday to send a strong message to the rest of the SEC that they have returned from the abyss.
Arizona State (Prev. 21, 8-1): The Sun Devils beat Saint Mary’s and have just one blemish — at Gonzaga.
San Diego State (Prev. 22, 6-2): The Aztecs appear to be one of the two teams to beat again in the Mountain West.
Baylor (Prev. 18, 5-3): The Bears were injured at UConn but could have maybe pulled off the win if healthy. They’ve had a brutal slate with Tennessee and UConn in two of their last three games.
Wisconsin (Prev. 12, 8-2): The Badgers lost a tough home game to Michigan and then had to go to Marquette. Rough week after an 8-0 start.
Creighton (Prev. NR, 7-3): The Bluejays are back after winning three in a row, including Kansas.
Dayton (Prev. 30, 8-2): Love this Flyers crew. Massive test for them coming up when they host Marquette.
Mississippi State (Prev. NR, 8-1): I shouldn’t have dropped the Bulldogs last week. And the convincing win over Pitt was a strong indicator of why that was a mistake.
Drake (Prev. 23, 8-0): The Bulldogs haven’t lost. Yes, I dropped them based more on competition, but they don’t appear to be going anywhere.
West Virginia (Prev. 32, 6-2): The Mountaineers got a good draw in the Big 12-Big East Challenge with Georgetown. They won’t get tested again until playing at Kansas on New Year’s.
Saint Mary’s (Prev. 33, 9-1): The Gaels won at Utah for a quality true road win.
Utah State (Prev. 29, 9-0): The Aggies have the win over Iowa in KC but the tests will come soon enough against Saint Mary’s and San Diego State on the road.
Georgia (Prev. 36, 8-1): The Bulldogs have one blemish and it’s against one of the best teams in the country in Marquette.
Rhode Island (Prev. NR, 9-0): Archie Miller told me in the preseason that he thought this would be his best and most competitive team. He was right. The Rams beat rival Providence and will be in the A-10 title chase.

Dropped out: Cincinnati (14), Memphis (17), Pitt (25), Texas (27), Louisville (31), Xavier (34), Butler (35).
Under consideration: Houston, UC Irvine, Texas Tech, St. John’s, Washington State, Loyola-Chicago.

March Madness National Player of the Week

Tamar Bates, Missouri: Bates went off for 29 points in a rivalry win over Kansas Sunday. Bates had earlier in the week dropped 15 in an ACC-SEC Challenge W. Both games were in Columbia, but that doesn’t matter. Bates was on fire and delivered when it mattered most for the Tigers. Bates started his career at Indiana but has really blossomed in the two seasons at Missouri. He is definitely getting more looks and options under Dennis Gates and is flourishing. The Tigers were dreadful last season at 8-24, 0-18 in the SEC. But already they are 8-1 this season with the only loss at Memphis. No shame in that defeat.

March Madness National Team of the Week

Clemson: The Tigers handed Kentucky its first and now only loss of the season after the Wildcats came back to beat Gonzaga in OT in Seattle a few days later. Clemson also opened the ACC with a road win at struggling Miami. Clemson’s only loss was at Boise State, one of the tougher, under-appreciated road venues (and kudos to Clemson for making the trip to Idaho). The 1-2 punch of Chase Hunter and Ian Schieffelin is becoming extremely difficult to deal with, thus far. Shieffelin is a rebounding machine. He had 20 boards against Kentucky and a dozen against Miami. Clemson continues the tough slate by hosting Memphis on Saturday.

The March Madness Games to Watch
A little different spin this week, because Dec. 14 is too good not to just highlight the day. So let’s rank the Saturday:

Louisville at Kentucky: The rivalry is back because the Cardinals are at least relevant again. This is the first game between Pat Kelsey and Mark Pope. Love this event.

Xavier at Cincinnati: This has been ugly at times and the intensity between the two fan bases can get nasty. Let’s hope it’s calmer this time.
Tennessee at Illinois: The Vols are one of the best teams in the country and are going into one of the top home-court venues. State Farm should be rocking.

Gonzaga vs. UConn, Madison Square Garden, NYC: The Garden is going to be rocking between two teams that have familiarity over the past few seasons. UConn rocked Gonzaga in the NCAA Tournament and in Seattle over the past two years.

UCLA vs. Arizona, Phoenix: The Bruins are playing better but Arizona desperately needs a quality W after missing out on a number of opportunities. Good deal that they are still playing this game now that they aren’t in the same league.

Memphis at Clemson: The Tigers play in Maui and Clemson’s start has made this game take on even more meaning for March.

Marquette at Dayton: The Golden Eagles have been flying of late. But Dayton is a tough out at home. This game is going to be very PHYSICAL.

Oklahoma at Oklahoma State: Bedlam is on. Love it. The Sooners are a surprise and the Cowboys picked up a much-needed road win at Seton Hall. So this game should be a pleasant surprise.

Arizona State vs. Florida, Phoenix: Don’t sleep on this matchup. The Gators have been flying under the radar but have played extremely well. The same is true for the Sun Devils.

Creighton at Alabama: Last year’s game was epic. Hopefully the same can be true this time in Tuscaloosa.

Ohio State vs. Auburn, Atlanta: The Buckeyes finally got right against Auburn and will have their hands full inside with Johni Broome.

Texas A&M vs. Purdue, Indianapolis: The Aggies have stepped up of late while the Boilermakers are a tough out anywhere in the state of Indiana. Look for the guard play to be the dominant story.

NC State at Kansas: The Wolfpack nearly clipped Purdue in San Diego and are searching for a marquee win. Hard to do that in Lawrence but the Jayhawks suddenly seem vulnerable.

Wisconsin vs. Butler, Indianapolis: The Badgers lost two games in a row at home to Michigan and at Marquette. They’ve got to play at Illinois before this game against a Butler team that has had a decent non-conference, thus far.