December 24, 2008

Steve Megargee
Rivals.com College Basketball Staff Writer

Rivals.com Power Rankings: PG | SG | SF | PF | C | Head Coach

Now that junior guard Jodie Meeks is feeling good again, Kentucky opponents are feeling the pain.

Meeks poured in a career-high 46 points against Appalachian State on Saturday and followed it up with a 32-point effort against Tennessee State two days later. The back-to-back performances helped make Meeks the new No. 1 shooting guard in the Rivals.com College Basketball Power Rankings, which measure the nation's top players and coaches at each position.

"I am always a guy that doesn't lack any confidence," Meeks said. "If I come out of a game after missing a couple of shots, I just go back into the game and keep shooting. I shoot every day, so I am either hitting a lot or missing a lot."

Lately, he has been hitting just about everything.

Meeks has come a long way in the last year. He missed 20 games last season with a stress fracture in the pelvic area and a strained hip flexor. He averaged just 8.8 points per game, and wasn't a first- or second-team preseason All-SEC selection this season.

Now he's averaging 24.8 points and has reached the 30-point mark four times. He has shot 60 percent overall and is 17-for-29 from 3-point range during this remarkable two-game run, which helped him move from the No. 7 spot to No. 1 in the power rankings.

Meeks shot 14-of-21 while scoring 46 points ? the most ever by a Kentucky player in 74 games at Freedom Hall and the sixth-highest total overall in school history ? in the 93-69 victory over Appalachian State. Meeks went 9-for-14 from beyond the arc to tie Tony Delk's school record for 3-pointers in a game.

His hot streak didn't end when Meeks left Freedom Hall. Meeks outscored the entire Tennessee State team 27-24 in the first half on his way to finishing with 32 points and six rebounds in a 102-58 triumph Monday night. Meeks was 10-for-19 from the floor overall and 8-for-15 from 3-point range.

"It is amazing to me how well he is shooting the ball," Kentucky coach Billy Gillispie said after the Tennessee State victory. "I think we are moving the ball better, and he is running the court very well. He is not taking any bad shots, either."

This week's edition of the power rankings also features a policy change. We no longer will be ranking two teammates at the same position, unless one of those teammates is a starter and the other comes off the bench. North Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough now is listed at center instead of a power forward, and teammate Deon Thompson remains at power forward. Ranked as the No. 2 power forward behind Oklahoma's Blake Griffin last week, Hansbrough now replaces Connecticut's Hasheem Thabeet as the top center.

Players staying atop their respective positions this week are North Carolina point guard Ty Lawson, Pittsburgh small forward Sam Young and Griffin at power forward. North Carolina's Roy Williams remains the No. 1 coach, while Georgetown power forward Greg Monroe continues to lead the freshman rankings.

This marks the first of three consecutive weeks in which the power rankings run on Wednesday. The rankings each week will take into account a player's performance through that Monday. The power rankings will return to their usual Tuesday home Jan. 13.

The power rankings of a player and coach can fluctuate each week during the season depending on how they fared the previous week, but the power rankings measure overall career performances as well as their most recent results.

Rivals.com Power Rankings: PG | SG | SF | PF | C | Head Coach

Steve Megargee is a national writer for Rivals.com. He can be reached at smegargee@rivals.com.