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January 1, 2007

MRI2006: Week 6 - Pulling Away

North Carolina has a lot to smile about, like being #1 in the MRI. (AP Photo/Sara D. Davis)This is never a good sign for the rest of the nation. The #1 team in the MRI, North Carolina, had the largest gain in the MRI this week after dominating wins over Rutgers and Dayton this week. As a result, they have now opened up a huge lead on the #2 team Clemson, who are getting a lot of pressure themselves.

The Tigers remained undefeated on the year, and are starting to see some love in the polls and the press for surviving without a loss. However, they are also getting some scrutiny for their scheduling. The MRI likes them despite a schedule which has them playing teams with a worse winning percentage than all but North Carolina State in the ACC. The Tigers continue to prove they can win, and until they lose, you can't really say that they aren't among the elite. The gap opening up between them and North Carolina though, means that the Tigers are slipping slightly back to the pack.

Running up their back is UCLA, who showed they have overcome one of their biggest weaknesses from last season. A 22 point win over Washington shows that UCLA now can play against a team with a much larger front court. This will become big in the tournament, when last year, a much larger Florida team gave them fits, especially because the big men kept rotating in and they could also run. The Bruins look to be playing the best basketball in the country right now, and continuing to win the way they are, especially in conference, should have them looking eye to eye with North Carolina in the MRI soon.

Florida remains in the top 5 at #4 this week, and despite their first loss of the season, to West Virginia, Connecticut manages to hang onto their #5 spot.

Be sure to check out all the rankings in Week 6 of the MRI.

And Now the Rankings

RANK
TEAM
RECORD
MRI
LW
1
North Carolina
12-1
140.71
1
2
Clemson
14-0
126.91
2
3
UCLA
12-0
125.62
6
4
Florida
12-2
118.46
3
5
Connecticut
11-1
114.85
5
6
Arizona
11-1
114.69
8
7
Notre Dame
12-1
114.27
14
8
Oregon
13-0
113.97
4
9
Wisconsin
14-1
113.53
10
10
Pittsburgh
12-2
111.52
11
11
Duke
12-1
110.30
7
12
Texas A&M
11-2
109.13
13
13
Kansas
12-2
106.50
12
14
Air Force
12-1
106.46
23
15
Memphis
10-3
106.33
15
16
Villanova
9-2
104.26
16
17
Maryland
13-2
104.01
20
18
Ohio State
11-2
103.15
19
19
Michigan State
13-2
102.07
17
20
Illinois
12-3
101.37
9
21
Georgia Tech
10-3
100.96
NR(30)
22
Alabama
12-1
99.19
24
23
Marquette
12-2
98.05
18
24
Florida State
12-2
96.81
NR(35)
25
Missouri
10-2
94.48
NR(26)

Teams Dropped From The Top 25:
Washington (LW #21, TW #29), Providence (LW #22, TW #38), Virginia Tech (LW #25, TW #28)

Other Teams People Might Care About

RANK
TEAM
RECORD
MRI
LY
29
Washington
10-3
88.45
21
26
Tennessee
12-2
94.25
28
32
Indiana
9-3
87.71
29
33
Michigan
12-3
85.80
33
36
LSU
10-3
84.79
60
41
Purdue
11-3
83.18
27
51
Kentucky
10-3
73.40
62
52
Texas Tech
10-4
73.16
44
54
Northern Iowa
10-2
72.32
70
56
Texas
9-3
71.31
59
65
Drexel
8-2
67.32
71
75
Boston College
8-4
62.78
65
84
Auburn
9-4
59.14
89
86
Ohio
8-3
58.55
121
92
Iowa
8-5
55.25
92
93
Vanderbilt
8-4
54.86
105
100
Dayton
10-3
52.14
85
108
Miami
7-7
48.58
87
115
Pennsylvania
5-5
46.66
113
145
Illinois-Chicago
6-8
33.76
158
174
Ball State
4-9
26.68
171
302
Wofford
2-9
-16.83
293

Last Place this week: Winston-Salem (0-16) at -63.57.

Biggest Gain this week: North Carolina gained 20.97 points (Beat Rutgers and Dayton)
Biggest Loss this week: Loyola Marymount lost 19.06 points (Lost to Akron and Monmouth)

Conference rankings this week: ACC, Big Ten, Big East, PAC-10, SEC, Big 12, MVC, Mountain West, C-USA, WAC, Atlantic 10

The MRI Rankings are copyright 2007 by MRISports.com. Ben Miraski writes for MRISports.com and is a featured blogger on FanIQ. Readers can contact Ben at bmiraski@mrisports.com

Posted by bmiraski at January 1, 2007 6:45 PM

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