Bye, Bye 'Bama

#1 Florida likely put #25 Alabama out of the Top 25 for good last night, handing the Crimson Tide a 76-67 whipping in Gainesville.

Florida extended its nation's-longest winning streak to 17 straight and seem destined to win the SEC East with ease and enter the NCAA tournament as a #1 seed.

Alabama, on the contrary, will be lucky to get an invitation to the Big Dance unless they step up their play considerably. The loss was the second straight for "Bama, dropping them to 2nd place in the wobbly SEC West at 5-6. They trail 6-5 Mississippi, which is unranked.

Alabama's next two games are critical. They play at Kentucky on Saturday and then host red-hot Tennessee on Wednesday, Feb. 17. Both teams have better conference records and a pair of defeats would preclude a winning conference record for the Tide and probably have them watching the tourney on TV.

Top 25 Quick Update

Due to heavy snows yesterday - and digging out today - time is a little short so, I'll just recap briefly the Top 25 events from Wednesday night.

There were two upsets of note:

Duke 78 #21 Boston College 70 - Duke ended a four-game losing streak by beating the ACC-leading Eagles in Boston and putting the conference title up for grabs. 9-3 BC has a 1/2-game lead over North Carolina, Virginia and Virginia Tech, all at 8-3. Duke evened their conference record at 6-6.

DePaul 72 #14 Marquette 67 - Lowly DePaul (6-6, 15-11) won at home, sending Marquette to their second straight loss. With just four games left on their schedule, the Big East crown seems out of reach for the Golden Eagles, though their 21-6 record should provide enough of a cushion for a decent seeding in the national tourney.

Home winners:

#17 Air Force 69 Utah 43 - The Falcons continue to trail unranked BYU by a game in the Mountain West.

#11 Nevada 68 San Jose St. 60 - Another double-double for Nick Fazekas (20 points, 10 rebounds). Is the Wolf Pack as good as their ranking? We'll find out in late February. Their final 3 games are against the teams closest to them in the WAC - New Mexico St., Utah St. and Boise St. Currently, Nevada leads them by 2, 3, and 4 games respectively.

Road winners:

#2 Ohio State 64 Penn St. 62 - Greg Oden, 15 points, 10 rebounds

#3 Wisconsin 75 Minnesota 62 - Alando Tucker, 29 points, 9 rebounds

#8 Memphis 69 Tulsa 52 - Tigers lead Conference USA at 12-0 and have won 14 straight.

#9 Kansas 75 Colorado 46 - Colorado: 27% shooting, 17 turnovers. Jayhawks are tied with Texas A&M for first place in the Big 12 at 9-2.

#10 Washington St. 65 Washington 61 - 11-3 Cougars tied with 10-2 UCLA for top honors in Pac-10. Cougars final four games: at Oregon, at Oregon St., UCLA, USC.