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A noteworthy week at No. 1 for Duke
By JIM O'CONNELL
AP Basketball Writer Duke is No. 2 at being No. 1.
 Marquette,
which East Carolina will challenge Wednesday night in Milwaukee,
rocketed back into the rankings this week after shocking league
rival Cincinnati. Meanwhile, Memphis is knocking on the door of
the Top 25 after moving up to No.
 27
in the list of top vote-getters...
View the AP Top 25... |
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The Blue Devils were the top-ranked team in The AP college
basketball poll Monday, their 12th week this season leading the Top 25 and
the 88th time in school history they have been No. 1.
Only UCLA, with 128 weeks, has spent more time on top of the
rankings, which began in January 1949.
Duke (20-1), which beat rival North Carolina and Clemson
last week, received all 71 first-place votes from the national media panel
its third straight week and eighth overall this season as a unanimous pick
to break a tie with Kentucky for the second-most weeks at No. 1.
The Blue Devils started the season fourth on the list with
76 weeks on top. In December, they passed North Carolina, which has 81.
Kansas (19-2), which beat Missouri and Colorado last week,
and Maryland (18-3), which defeated Virginia and North Carolina State, were
second and third for the third straight week.
Golden Eagles Soar to No. 18
After Knocking Off Cincinnati
Otherwise, there was quite a shake-up in the Top 25 21 teams
shifted places after 15 ranked teams lost a total of 20 games during the
past week. It was the fifth straight week at least 14 ranked teams lost.
New No. 4 Oklahoma and No. 5 Alabama each moved up two
spots, while Cincinnati, which had its 20-game winning streak snapped
Saturday by Marquette, dropped from fourth to No. 6.
Kentucky, Florida, Gonzaga and Virginia rounded out the Top
Ten.
It's the first Top Ten appearance in school history for
Gonzaga (20-3), while Virginia (14-5) only fell two places despite losing to
Maryland and Missouri.
Arizona beat California and Stanford to jump from 19th to
11th, and was followed by Miami, Oregon, Oklahoma State, UCLA, Ohio State,
Georgia, Marquette, Wake Forest and Stanford.
The last five ranked teams were Illinois, Missouri,
Syracuse, Texas Tech and Southern California. Oregon and Marquette both
returned to the rankings.
The Ducks (17-5), who beat UCLA and Southern California,
moved in at No. 13 after being out for one week. Oregon had been ranked for
two weeks before losing to Washington and falling out.
Marquette (19-3) had been ranked for six weeks, reaching as
high as No. 14, before falling out when it lost three of four games. But the
victory over Cincinnati vaulted the Golden Eagles all the way back up to No.
18 after not being ranked for four weeks. Marquette will be favored to pick
up a couple of more victories this week when it hosts East Carolina
Wednesday and the faces Southern Mississippi in a Saturday road game.
Two Big East teams _ Connecticut and Pittsburgh _ fell out
of the Top 25.
The Huskies (14-5) lost to Rutgers and Miami, dropping out
from No. 17 after two weeks in the rankings.
Pittsburgh (19-4) lost to Notre Dame and beat Villanova, but
the Panthers dropped out from 21st just one week after returning to the
poll.
Oklahoma State, Illinois and Syracuse joined Virginia and
Connecticut as ranked teams losing two games last week.
Illinois, which fell to Ohio State and Michigan State, and
Syracuse, which lost to Georgetown and Rutgers, both had the week's biggest
drops, falling nine spots to 21st and 23rd, respectively.
The week's biggest climb was Ohio State's move from No. 25
to 16th after beating Illinois and Northwestern.
AP-NY-02-04-02 1434EST
Copyright 2002
Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Bonesville.net
contributed to
this report.
02/23/2007 11:03:32 AM
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