Even with the 2007-2008 National Player of the Year, Tyler Hansbrough, sitting on the sidelines with a stress reaction in his shin, North Carolina looks like the best team in America. The Tar Heels picked up their first spread cover of the year with Tuesday's 77-58 win over Kentucky as 18-point home favorites.

They remain atop the Las Vegas Sports Consultants Top 30, nearly six points ahead of second-ranked UConn. In other words, UNC would be at least a six-point favorite against the Huskies on a neutral court tomorrow.

Louisville, Duke and Pitt round out the top five, separated by less than one point. The sixth through eighth spots go like this: Michigan St., Texas and UCLA. The Spartans and Longhorns both moved up one notch apiece this week, while the Bruins fell two slots.

Oklahoma is ranked ninth. The Sooners probably have the nation's best rebounder (Blake Griffin) and one of the most explosive freshmen scorers in Willie Warren from out of Ft. Worth, TX. They got past Davidson on Tuesday night by an 82-78 count, although Griffin's slam dunk just after the horn came a tad too late for OU backers, who lost laying five points to Stephen Curry and Co., who are 29th this week.

How nasty is the Big East? Consider this: The league occupies five of LVSC's top 15 slots and eight of the first 20 spots.

Wake Forest is the newcomer to the Week 2 rankings. The Demon Deacons, who are sporting a dynamic group of freshmen that Skip Prosser recruited just before his tragic passing, are a team to watch at No. 25.

Kentucky, fresh off a stunning home loss to VMI, was the only team to drop out of this week's rankings. The Wildcats did nothing to deter that notion in Tuesday's never-a-doubt loss in Chapel Hill. UK is desperately in need of a point guard and has got to make a more concerted effort to get Patrick Patterson the ball down low.

LVSC College Basketball Rankings - Week 2

LVSC Rank Team Rating Previous Rank 1 North Carolina 145.0 1 2 Connecticut 139.3 4 3 Louisville 139.1 2 4 Duke 138.8 3 5 Pittsburgh 138.2 5 6 Michigan State 137.6 7 7 Texas 137.5 8 8 UCLA 137.2 6 9 Oklahoma 135.0 9 10 Gonzaga 134.9 10 11 Tennessee 134.3 11 12 Purdue 133.7 12 13 Notre Dame 133.3 12 14 Memphis 133.2 15 15 Georgetown 133.0 14 16 Arizona State 132.3 16 17 Florida 131.8 17 18 Miami Florida 131.4 18 19 Marquette 131.3 19 20 Villanova 130.7 21 21 Wisconsin 130.4 20 22 Kansas 130.1 22 23 UNLV 130.0 23 24 Syracuse 129.9 25 25 Wake Forest 129.8 NR 26 Ohio State 129.8 25 26 Xavier 129.7 30 28 Southern California 129.5 24 29 Davidson 129.3 28 29 St. Mary's 129.3 28 Dropped Out: Kentucky (27)