I have never believed in college basketball polls (political polls don't seem to mean too much either). You can say that they are good for conversation or historical precedent, but the numbers are basically meaningless. Of course, college sports have conferences called the Big 10 and Big 12 that do not have 10 or 12 teams, respectively. Apparently, branding trumps everything else.

All of this is to say that while watching Kansas beat Villanova on Saturday afternoon, I did not feel like I was watching the best team in the country. The Jayhawks are undefeated, but they have hardly been dominant with relatively narrow wins of late over Stanford, New Mexico State and the Wildcats. Maybe the problem is that Dedric Lawson is not a flashy player; he just scores and rebounds consistently. Kansas will lose eventually and it probably won't be an "upset."

With that aside, on to the top pickups of the week:

ACC

Jose Alvarado, guard, Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

Alvarado was the known commodity coming into the season for coach Josh Pastner. Before being held to four points in the blowout win over Florida A&M last Sunday, the 6-0 sophomore had scored at least 12 points in four straight games. He is not a consistent producer of assists with just 3.3 per game, but he has recorded a steal in every game except one. Alvarado is leading the Yellow Jackets with 12.9 points and 1.9 steals. This week, Georgia Tech has a three-game schedule with home