These days, it takes a special effort to defeat Syracuse or Colorado State on their home courts.

The Orange and the Rams have owned their arenas, with home winning streaks of 38 and 27 games, respectively. Both of those streaks ended Saturday thanks to dominating performances from two players.

Another week, another Big Ten showdown with national implications.

With a five-game win streak including last week’s 75-52 rout of Michigan, Michigan State has gone from sneaky Final Four contender to potential No. 1 seed. The Spartans, who moved from No. 9 to No. 3 in our rankings this week, will have their chance to test that in their second meeting with Indiana this season.

Another week, another No. 1 in the Athlon Sports college basketball power rankings.

For the third week in a row, we have a new team in the top spot following Duke two weeks ago, then Michigan. We return to an old friend at No. 1 in Indiana, who defeated the Wolverines 81-73 on Saturday.

Miami’s 90-63 drubbing of Duke last week shuffled the power rankings in more ways than one.

With nearly 350 Division I teams, following college basketball can be overwhelming. Let Athlon Sports start your college hoops week each Monday with a look at some of the most intriguing, most important and most interesting stats from around the sport:

With 347 Division I teams, following college basketball can be overwhelming. Let Athlon Sports start your college hoops week each Monday with a look at some of the most intriguing, most important and most interesting stats from around the sport:

Butler coach Brad Stevens

The Hoosier State doesn’t belong to the Hoosiers, at least not entirely.

Even since his first season as a college head coach at UMass, John Calipari has thrived with freshmen. That season in 1988-89, Calipari had a rookie Jim McCoy, who averaged 19.8 points per game.

That freshman and that team didn’t resemble the recruiting empire Calipari built at Memphis and Kentucky where a glut of talented freshmen sign with Cal, win a ton of college games in one year and then go on to be NBA Draft picks.

This much is certain: The team returning to the mainland as the Battle 4 Atlantis champion will have earned it.

The early season tournament season is under way, first with the NIT Tip-Off and now the Puerto Rico Classic, beginning Thursday.

The even in San Juan will be a proving ground for the major teams involved. For NC State, it’s a chance to prove the Wolfpack belong in the national elite. For Oklahoma State, Tennessee and UMass, it’s a chance to prove they’re ready to contend for the NCAA Tournament.

Here’s our preview of the action down in Puerto Rico