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The Indiana Hoosiers climbed back onto the top spot in this week’s ratings, courtesy their victory over then-No. 1 Michigan and a home loss by No. 2 Kansas on Saturday.

Hanging onto the top of the heap for a second week in a row is going to be a tough chore for the Hoosiers, though.

That’s because they take to the Big Ten road twice over the next seven days, visiting Illinois on Thursday night and Ohio State on Sunday.

There are no such rankings (at least that I’m aware of), but Oregon and Miami would be two solid candidates to sit atop any national “Most Surprising Teams” Top 25.

The Ducks are sitting (relatively) comfortably atop the Pac 12 standings (at 6-0 in conference and 18-2 overall) while Miami is looking down at the ACC (6-0 and 15-3).

And Mississippi (6-0 in the SEC and 18-2 overall) would be in that mix, as well.

Rising

Ben McLemore 6'5 Kansas, SG

And then there were zilch . . .

First Wyoming, then Arizona, then Duke and then, finally, Michigan fell by the wayside in the most recent “week” (Monday-Sunday) of college hoops, leaving us with nary an unbeaten two weeks into 2013.

That resulted in a bit of a shakeup in my latest ratings, with Indiana – which barely survived a furious rally by Minnesota Saturday in Bloomington – moving into the top spot, replacing another Big Ten club (Michigan) which slipped just a notch after narrowing pulling off another remarkably rally on Sunday in Columbus.

From January 4th to 6th C.B. L’Hospitalet held the second of the four qualification tournaments (Rome (Citta di Roma Tournament), Siaulai and Belgrade are the other venues), of the Nike Junior International Tournament. The winner was the Spanish team of Joventut Badalona in the final game against Real Madrid. Here is a list of the prospects that showed the best potential.

Conference play is now in full swing and it means there are going to be some dandy matchups this week.

Unbeaten Duke will play Clemson on Tuesday night but the strong candidate for Game of the Week takes place Saturday in Raleigh, when the Blue Devils take on a North Carolina State club that was the preseason choice to win the Atlantic Coast Conference.

The updated Power 16, as of games played Sunday:

2013 is upon us and so is conference play. While the top overall pick is far from determined, the rest of the first round is starting to become a little clearer. Here is our second early season (first round) mock with player descriptions and comparisons. *Team needs have not been taken into account. Our first edition (November 12) can be found here: 2013 Extended Mock Draft 1.0.

Glenn Robinson IIINothing that happened in November and December altered my belief that the Big Ten is the strongest hoops conference in the country right now.

A half-dozen of its squads – Michigan, Indiana, Ohio State, Illinois, Michigan State and Minnesota – are already NCAA Tournament “locks” and each of those is more than capable of playing during the second week of the tournament.

From December 27th to 29th Stella Azzurra hosted the Citta di Roma, which is the first of the four qualification tournaments (L’Hospitalet, Siaulai and Belgrade the other venues), of the Nike Junior International Tournament. The winner was the Bosnian team KK Spars Sarajevo who topped Fenerbahce Ulker Istanbul. Here is a list of prospects that showed the most NBA potential.

Romaric Belemene (1997, 6’9”, SF, Unicaja Malaga, Congo)

Ben McLemoreTwo weeks ago we placed Kansas 2-guard Ben McLemore above Shabazz Muhammad and #3 on the 2013 mock draft and many scouts thought it might be a little high. No other draft prognosticators even had him projected in the lottery. Some had him in the late 20s, while others had him in the late teens. Over the past two weeks, McLemore has lived up to that early projection and now the question has turned to whether he could go #1 overall.