| | Stanford, which held the No. 1 spot in the AP college basketball
poll for three weeks earlier this season, moved back to the top of
the rankings on Monday.
Cincinnati's six-week run at No. 1 ended, along with its 16-game
winning streak, with a 77-69 loss to Temple on Sunday.
The Cardinal (22-1) moved up one place into No. 1 with a 101-50
victory over California on Saturday, the Bears' worst loss in
school history.
When Stanford was No. 1 in the Dec. 20 poll, it was the school's
first appearance ever there. The Cardinal stayed there until their
only loss of the season, 68-65 to Arizona on Jan. 8.
The Cardinal received all but one of the 70 first-place votes
and 1,749 points from the national media panel. Duke (21-3) moved
up one place to No. 2, its highest ranking of the season, with
1,622 points.
Cincinnati (24-2) dropped to third, and Arizona (23-4), which
had the only other first-place vote, remained fourth after beating
Southern California and UCLA last week.
Michigan State and Ohio State each moved up one place to fifth
and sixth, while Tennessee, which lost at Vanderbilt last week,
dropped two spots to seventh.
Temple, which has won 11 straight games, jumped from 15th to No.
8 following road wins over Dayton and Cincinnati. It's the Owls
highest ranking since they were fifth in the second poll of the
regular season.
Florida and Oklahoma State rounded out the Top Ten.
Auburn moved up one place to lead the Second Ten and was
followed by Tulsa, Syracuse, Texas, LSU, Indiana, Iowa State,
Kentucky, Maryland and Oklahoma.
The final five ranked teams were Purdue, Connecticut, Kansas,
Vanderbilt and Utah.
Vanderbilt (17-6) dropped out of the Top 25 last week after a
loss to Alabama. The Commodores then lost to Auburn, but beat
Tennessee on Saturday, giving them a season sweep of the
Volunteers.
Seton Hall (18-6) moved into the rankings last week for the
first time since the final poll of the 1992-93 season, but the
Pirates didn't stay there long following home losses to Connecticut
and Notre Dame, the latter 76-74 on a rebound basket in the final
second.
Connecticut, which followed the 59-50 win over Seton Hall with a
63-57 home loss to Miami, dropped from 18th to No. 22. That's
the lowest ranking for a preseason No. 1 since Indiana fell out of
the then-Top 20 for one week late in the 1979-80 season. The
Hoosiers returned to the poll the next week and were seventh in the
final rankings.
While Temple's jump from 15th to No. 8 was the biggest of the
week, Indiana's fall from No. 10 to 16th was the biggest drop. The
Hoosiers lost their only game last week, 82-71 to Ohio State at
home on Saturday.
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ALSO SEE
AP Top 25
ESPN/USA Today poll has Stanford as new No. 1
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