Monday, November 29, 2010

AP Top 25 Poll: Duke Is Unanimous No. 1, UConn Makes Historic Leap

Duke finished the week with two decisive victories against Kansas State and Oregon. It picked up another decisive win Monday, capturing each of the 65 first-place votes in the AP Top 25 poll.

Meanwhile, UConn completed the biggest rise in the polls' rankings since 1989, vaulting from unranked to No. 7. The Huskies toppled then-No. 2 Michigan State and then-No. 8 Kentucky in the Maui Invitational. It was the biggest jump since Kansas vaulted from unranked to No. 4 after winning the 1989 preseason NIT.

Duke received all but seven first-place votes a week ago. Six went to Michigan State and the last went to Kansas State, which the Blue Devils defeated to win the CBE Classic. The Blue Devils are the first unanimous No. 1 team since Kansas finished the regular season with all first place votes last season.

No. 24 UNLV, which claimed the 76 Classic, and No. 25 Notre Dame, winner of the Old Spice Classic, joined the bottom of the rankings. Temple, Gonzaga and North Carolina were knocked out.

Ohio State, Pitt, Kansas and Kansas State rounded out the top five. Michigan State fell from second to sixth, followed by the fast-riser Connecticut. Syracuse, which won the Legends Classic, rose to eighth, followed by Missouri and Kentucky, which beat Washington before falling to Connecticut.

Undefeated Baylor rose to 11th, while Villanova, which lost to Tennessee in the preseason NIT final, fell to 12th. The Vols were 13th, followed by Memphis and Minnesota. Georgetown, San Diego State, Florida, Texas and Illinois rounded out the top 20. The Longhorns and Illini finished second and third in the preseason NIT, each losing to Pitt.

Brigham Young checked in at 21st, followed by Purdue, which was upset Saturday by Richmond. Washington, UNLV and Notre Dame rounded out the poll.

While Duke celebrates the top ranking, the rest of its conference must be wondering just what went wrong. The ACC had just one ranked team in the top 25. North Carolina fell out of the rankings altogether, despite twice winning last week.

The ACC previously had just one team in the poll last season, also Duke, in the Feb. 22 poll.

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