It was not a good week to be a top-10 college basketball team.
The destruction began last Monday when No. 2 Pittsburgh lost to No. 15 Notre Dame. Then, No. 4 San Diego St. suffered its first loss of the season Wednesday against No. 9 BYU. The Cougars followed up that impressive win with a loss to New Mexico on Saturday. Three Big East squads -- No. 5 Connecticut, No. 8 Villanova and No. 9 Syracuse -- also lost on Saturday. The Orange dropped their fourth game in a row after winning the first 18 games of the season, while the Wildcats have lost three of four. And the head-scratching week was capped by No. 3 Duke losing to St. John's by 15 points on Sunday. That's seven top-10 squads falling in one week.
So there was some shakeup in the AP Top 25 Poll released Monday. Ohio State, Kansas and Texas were rewarded with the top three spots after surviving the crazy week unscathed.
But it's not time to panic because of a late-January defeat. Eight of the last 10 NCAA champions lost a game from Jan. 15-Feb. 1, including Duke, which lost to a Big East team on the same date -- Jan. 30 -- last year.
But in order for these teams to bounce back, they must understand what made them so successful during the first two months of the season.
Pittsburgh rebounds better than any team in the country. Duke pushes the pace with their high-scoring offense and pressure defense. Connecticut's supporting cast has really emerged to complement Kemba Walker. San Diego St. has rode its athletic frontcourt. BYU is all about Jimmer Fredette. And before their recent skids, Villanova's guards were much more efficient and Syracuse's 2-3 zone was forcing low-percentage shots.
So as January ends with teams searching for answers for uncharacteristic losses, February opens with these teams needing to rediscover their identities.