San Diego State moved from ninth to sixth in the l

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Ohio State's emphatic regular season-ending win over Wisconsin solidified the Buckeyes' hold on the top spot in the ESPN/USA Today men's basketball coaches' poll released Monday.The Buckeyes, the top seed in this week's Big Ten tournament, picked up 25 first-place votes -- eight more than last week. No. 2 Kansas, which beat a pair of Top 25 teams Texas A&M and Missouri last week, picked up six first-place votes -- eight fewer than a week ago.Two Big East teams hoping for a No. 1 seed in next week's NCAA tournament -- Pittsburgh and Notre Dame -- moved up to third and fourth in the rankings. NCAA Jerseys The Panthers are the top seed in the Big East tournament, which begins Tuesday at Madison Square Garden. The Irish wrapped up their Big East regular season with a win at Connecticut and are No. 2 in the conference tourney.Duke fell one spot to No. 5 after losing to North Carolina. The Tar Heels, meanwhile, vaulted six spots to No. 7 after wrapping up the ACC regular-season title and No. 1 seed in the conference tournament with the win over the Blue Devils.
San Diego State moved from ninth to sixth in the latest balloting of 31 NCAA Division I head coaches.Two other teams tumbled after costly losses. BYU fell from No. 3 to No. 8 after losing at home to New Mexico, while Purdue slipped from No. 6 to No. 9 after losing at Iowa.Louisville's Rick Pitino discusses the recruitment of one-and-done players, thinks Florida could go far in the NCAAs, expects 11 teams from the Big East to make the tournament and breaks down LeBron the facilitator.When asked by Goldandblack.com's Brian Neubert during Painter's weekly teleconference this morning just who his vote was for Big Ten Player of the Year, Painter said he wouldn't tell."We've still got to play games," Painter said with a laugh. "It's like setting me up, brother."Then he budged, a tad."I don't think it's real hard to figure out," he said.Senior center JaJuan Johnson certainly is a prime candidate.Not only has Johnson had his best statistical season for the Boilermakers -- averaging a Big Ten-best 20.5 points and 2.35 blocks to go with 8.1 rebounds per game -- he's been consistent. That's one of the best marks of a great player.
Johnson scored in double digits in every game this season and had 13 20-plus games against Big Ten opponents.And Johnson produced when he knew he had to do more with Rob Hummel out for the season. It helps to have fellow All-Big Ten first-teamer E'Twaun Moore on the court, too."We made more of an emphasis this year to get the ball to JaJuan," Painter said. "That was a thing we'd done even if we had Rob (Hummel)."It'll be interesting to see if Moore also lands on the first team again this season. There'd seem to be six guys vying for the five spots: Johnson, Moore Ohio State's Jared Sullinger, Wisconsin's Jon Leuer and Jordan Taylor and Penn State's Talor Battle.Personally, I like Leuer and Taylor more than Battle, but no one can argue with Battle's ability to score. NFL Jerseys Johnson just edged him out for the league scoring title (20.5,MLB Minnesota Twins Jerseys, 20.4)."I'm proud of our seniors. Those guys have come a long way," Painter said of Johnson and Moore. "They deserve a lot of awards, and I would think tonight they're going to get them."This year, JaJuan and E'Twaun made other guys better. That just shows you about their development as players because that's a hell of a compliment. You can actually be a really good player and you don't make other guys better. I think that's when the word great comes."