COLLEGE BASKETBALL : Life Gets Tough at Top of the Polls

Who’s No. 1 in college basketball now? How about No. 2? Or No. 3? Or even No. 5?

“I just don’t know who the best team is,” Arkansas Coach Nolan Richardson said this week. “If a team doesn’t play well, regardless of whether they’re number one or two or five, they can be beaten.”

That was proven Wednesday night, when six of the nation’s top 25 teams lost, including No. 1 Duke, No. 2 Oklahoma State and No. 5 Arkansas. All six lost to conference foes.

Ninth-ranked North Carolina as well as Nebraska removed whatever doubts remained about a Division I team going undefeated this season, with the Tar Heels beating Duke, 75-73, in Chapel Hill, N.C., and the Cornhuskers sideswiping Oklahoma State, 85-69, in Lincoln, Neb. Tennessee added to the uprising by dumping the Razorbacks, 83-81, in Knoxville, Tenn.

Colorado ended one of the nation’s longest active winning streaks of one team over another with a 70-68 overtime decision against 21st-ranked Oklahoma in Boulder, Colo. The Buffaloes had lost 24 consecutive games to the Sooners, dating from 1982. In another overtime game, Clemson ran away from 24th-ranked Georgia Tech, 95-78. The Tigers scored every time they had the ball in the extra period, and their 24 overtime points are one short of the NCAA record shared by three teams.

Maryland even saw to it that a ranked team lost at home. Behind 38 points from senior guard Walt Williams, the Terrapins defeated No. 23 Florida State, 93-85, in Tallahassee, Fla.

“It’s Merry Christmas, Happy New Year -- just celebration,” said Nebraska Coach Danny Nee, who proclaimed his team’s victory over the Cowboys the best of his six seasons with the Cornhuskers.

On Saturday, Duke -- now without starting point guard Bobby Hurley, out for three weeks because of a broken bone in his foot -- will play at 22nd-ranked Louisiana State.

Kentucky Coach Rick Pitino, whose team was ranked eighth when it lost at Tennessee on Jan. 21, said, “That’s what makes college basketball so special right now.

“I think the pros have turned into a predictable group,” he added during the Southeastern Conference coaches’ teleconference. “Anybody who thinks Chicago is not going to win it is in the minority. In college basketball, you don’t have any idea. ... “

No. 11 Michigan State and No. 20 North Carolina-Charlotte were next, falling Thursday, also in conference play. Iowa defeated the Spartans, 77-63, in Iowa City, and Louisville, which had been ranked earlier in the season, scored a 73-63 victory over the 49ers in Louisville. No. 7 Arizona escaped with a last-second win at Stanford, 72-70.