Duke, Texas on top
Duke and Texas were on top of the Associated Press’ basketball poll again Monday, keeping this weekend’s 1 vs. 2 matchup intact.
A familiar name returned near the bottom of the poll as North Carolina jumped in at 23rd following its upset win at Kentucky.
Duke (7-0) stayed unbeaten with a 77-75 home win over Virginia Tech on a 40-foot buzzer beater by Sean Dockery Sunday night. The close win cost the Blue Devils, who won 75-67 at Indiana on Wednesday, eight first-place votes from last week, but they were on top of 53 ballots and had 1,767 points.
Texas (7-0), which beat Texas-Pan American and Texas-Arlington by an average of 33 points last week, had nine first-place votes – three more than last week – and 1,699 points from the national media panel.
Duke and Texas play Saturday in East Rutherford, N.J., the 35th 1-2 matchup since the AP poll began in the 1948-49 season. The most recent one was last season’s NCAA championship game when North Carolina beat No. 1 Illinois 75-70.
The Tar Heels lost their top seven scorers from that team – four of them underclassmen who went in the NBA draft lottery – and they weren’t ranked in the preseason poll. Led by a talented freshman class, North Carolina didn’t wait long to return to the ranks of the ranked.
The Tar Heels lost a rematch of April’s title game 68-64 on Tuesday as part of the ACC-Big Ten Challenge, then went and beat then-No. 10 Kentucky 83-79.
“It may be satisfying to such a young team, but I don’t believe it will cause them to lose their focus because they know it is so early in the season,” Tar Heels coach Roy Williams said Monday. “For me personally, the polls are fine, but I really don’t pay attention to where we are ranked.”
Connecticut (6-0) stayed third, just six points behind Texas. The Huskies had nine first-place votes, five more than last week. Villanova (4-0), which beat then-No. 5 Oklahoma 85-74 on Saturday, stayed fourth, again receiving one first-place vote.
Duke’s close win over an unranked opponent seemed to be what cost the Blue Devils the eight first-place votes.
“They way Duke won yesterday, you could look at it as resourceful and you could look at it as lucky,” said Jim Mashek of The Sun-Herald in Gulfport, Miss., one of the voters who switched to Texas. “What happens Saturday could make another switch since I’ve been hedging on Duke and Texas all season.”
Louisville, Boston College and Memphis all moved up two places to fifth through seventh. Oklahoma dropped to eighth following the road loss to Villanova, while Gonzaga, which lost 99-95 at Washington on Sunday night, fell from sixth to No. 9.
Florida was 10th and was followed by Illinois, Iowa, Washington, Michigan State, Kentucky, UCLA, Nevada, Indiana, George Washington and Wake Forest.
The last five ranked teams were Maryland, Alabama, North Carolina, Arizona and North Carolina State.
LSU (3-1) dropped out of the poll after a one-week appearance at No. 25 following an 84-83 loss to Houston. The Tigers weren’t the only ranked team to lose to Houston last week as Arizona fell 69-65 to the Cougars and the Wildcats (2-3) had the week’s biggest drop, from 15th to No. 24.
The biggest jump of the week was Washington, which moved from 18th to No. 13.
Women
Two more victories over ranked teams finally did it for Tennessee. The Lady Vols are back at No. 1 in the AP women’s basketball poll.
Tennessee replaced Duke at the top of the poll on Monday, the 97th time Pat Summitt’s team has led the rankings. Connecticut and coach Geno Auriemma have 94 appearances at No. 1.
Another longtime power, Texas Tech, dropped out after its fourth loss in five games, ending the school’s string of consecutive appearances in the poll at 248. North Carolina State returned at No. 25 after being out for two weeks.
Tennessee (7-0) had run a close second to Duke (6-0) in the first three polls this season, but the Lady Vols’ two victories this past week pushed them past the Blue Devils. First, they overwhelmed then-No. 16 Texas 102-61 in Knoxville. Then they flew to the West Coast and beat then-No. 12 Stanford 74-67 three days later.
Tennessee received 28 of 46 first-place votes from a national media panel and had 1,128 points. Duke was a strong No. 2 with 16 first-place votes and 1,115 points. LSU (4-0) was third with two first-place votes and 1,042 total points.
Duke led by seven points last week even though Tennessee had a 22-21 edge in first-place votes. Duke also played Texas, winning 84-70 in Austin in its only game last week.