Boston College Joins Top 25

Boston College was among the teams listed near the bottom of almost all Big East men’s basketball preseason polls.

On Monday, the Eagles joined the Top 25, becoming the fifth ranked Big East team. Their only losses in 10 games have been to the only two teams from New England having a better year - No. 1 Massachusetts and No. 7 Connecticut.

The 24th-ranked Eagles beat Louisville when the Cardinals were still ranked and won 90-74 at Vanderbilt Saturday.

In a week when the Top 10 teams remained the same, the only changes came in the last three spots, where Texas, Boston College and New Mexico made their poll debuts this season.

The top three teams held their ground in the women’s poll. Louisiana Tech (9-0), which hasn’t played since Dec. 18, was a unanimous choice for No. 1 for the third straight week. Connecticut (10-1), which has lost only to Louisiana Tech, remains second and Vanderbilt (9-0) remains third.

Texas Tech (9-2) jumped from 15th to 10th after beating Stanford 71-65 Thursday. Stanford (7-2), which bounced back to defeat Texas, fell from fourth to seventh, enabling No. 4 Tennessee, No. 5 Virginia and No. 6 Penn State to move up one place each.