Monday, January 26, 2009

Duke Claims No. 1 (January 26, 2009)

Duke is the new No. 1 team in America. The Blue Devils sit atop the AP Men's College Basketball Top 25 for the first time since the 2005/06 season. Duke's climb to No. 1 comes as no surprise: last week's No. 1 team, Wake Forest, lost its first game of the season to unranked Virginia Tech on Wednesday. Duke beat North Carolina State and Maryland convincingly during the week, which practically guaranteed them a promotion from last week's No. 2 ranking.

Wake Forest's stay atop the polls was short-lived: last week, the Demon Deacons captured the No. 1 ranking in the AP Top 25 for the first time since 2004. But thee days after taking over the top position in the AP poll, Wake fell at home to the unheralded Virginia Tech Hokies.

The Big East leads all conferences with four teams in the top 10: Connecticut is No. 2, Pittsburgh is No. 3 , Louisville is No. 7 and Marquette is No. 8. The Atlantic Coast Conference has three teams in the top ten, with the aforementioned No. 1 Duke, No. 5 North Carolina and No. 6 Wake Forest.

Only three non Big East or ACC teams appear in the top ten (No. 4 Oklahoma, No. 9 Michigan State and No. 10 Xavier).

AP Top 25:

1. Duke (62) 18-1 1,789
2. Connecticut (6) 18-1 1,694
3. Pittsburgh (3) 18-1 1,647
4. Oklahoma (1) 19-1 1,539
5. North Carolina 17-2 1,529
6. Wake Forest 16-1 1,509
7. Louisville 15-3 1,351
8. Marquette 17-2 1,209
9. Michigan State 16-3 1,136
10. Xavier 17-2 1,084
11. Texas 14-4 1,017
12. Clemson 17-2 929
13. Butler 18-1 916
14. Arizona State 16-3 834
15. Syracuse 17-4 808
16. Purdue 15-4 724
17. UCLA 15-4 544
18. Memphis 16-3 530
19. Illinois 17-3 401
20. Gonzaga 14-4 381
21. Villanova 15-4 276
22. Saint Mary's 18-1 247
23. Washington 15-4 218
24. Kentucky 16-4 217
25. Georgetown 12-6 189

Others Receiving Votes

Notre Dame 154, Minnesota 138, Kansas 84, Florida 65, Missouri 52, Virginia Tech 37, Baylor 34, West Virginia 32, Davidson 27, Utah State 23, Dayton 14, California 13, UNLV 4, Florida State 3, Ohio State 1, Virginia Commonwealth 1.

Dropped From Rankings

Notre Dame 19, Minnesota 21, Florida 24.

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