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Gonzaga Basketball

No. 1 Gonzaga ranked for 90th straight week, nation’s longest active streak

Gonzaga coach Mark Few makes a call during a 2020 WCC Tournament semifinal win over San Francisco. (By Tyler Tjomsland / The Spokesman-Review)
By Jim Meehan jimm@spokesman.com(509) 459-5585

Gonzaga’s stay at No. 1 is now 12 straight weeks and its stay in the AP college basketball rankings is 90 consecutive weeks.

The former is a school record and the latter is the longest active streak in the nation. Kansas, which has lost five of its last seven games, dropped out of the rankings for the first time since Feb. 2, 2009, an NCAA record 231 weeks.

Gonzaga had 55 first-place votes from the media panel, down six from last Monday, and 1,567 points. No. 2 Baylor picked up five first-place votes (eight overall) and trails GU by 47 points. The margin was 58 last week.

Baylor’s next four games have been postponed due to COVID-19 issues. The Bears’ next scheduled game is Feb. 20 vs. Oklahoma State.

There were big changes in the rest of the top 10 behind GU and Baylor, the only two unbeatens remaining in Division I. Michigan, currently on a COVID-19 pause, moved up to third and Ohio State jumped from seventh to fourth.

Villanova slipped from third to fifth. No. 6 Illinois and No. 7 Texas Tech both climbed up six spots. Houston dropped from fifth to eighth. No. 9 Virginia is back in the top 10. Missouri soared eight spots to No. 10.

Blue bloods Kansas, Duke, Kentucky, North Carolina and UCLA are unranked for the first time since 1961.

The Jayhawks, who lost to Gonzaga 102-90 in the season opener, are 13-7, 7-5 in the Big 12. Kentucky is 5-12 overall and 10th in the SEC.

Duke (7-7, 5-5) is tied for eighth in the ACC. North Carolina is 12-6, 7-4. UCLA (13-4) fell out of the rankings after falling to USC on Saturday. The Trojans moved into the rankings at No. 20.

None of the top 13 winningest programs are ranked in the current top 25.

The Zags have wins over Virginia, No. 14 West Virginia and No. 15 Iowa.

BYU received one point.

The voting totals stayed the same in the USA Today poll for the second straight week. Gonzaga received 28 first-place votes and 796 points, followed by No. 2 Baylor with four-first place votes and 772 points.

Baylor remained No. 1 in the NET rankings, the NCAA’s primary seeding and sorting tool, for the fourth straight Monday. Gonzaga was second, followed by Michigan, Illinois and Houston. BYU is 27, Saint Mary’s 64 and San Francisco No. 84.

The Bears and Zags are 1-2 in KenPom’s rankings.