BYU basketball: Cougars unchanged in national rankings

Aggies still out of Top 25

By Jim Rayburn, Deseret News

Published: Monday, March 8 2010 11:11 a.m. MST

Summary

There were no changes in positioning for BYU in the national men's college basketball rankings released Monday morning as the Cougars remain at No. 14 in the AP poll and No. 15 in the ESPN/USA Today coaches poll.

PROVO — There were no changes in positioning for BYU in the national men's college basketball rankings released Monday morning as the Cougars remain at No. 14 in the AP poll and No. 15 in the ESPN/USA Today coaches poll.

The Cougars (28-4) routed Utah on the road last Wednesday by 20 points and then blasted TCU on Saturday by 30 points in Fort Worth. They begin play on Thursday at the Mountain West Conference tournament in Las Vegas as the No. 2 seed with a rematch against the Horned Frogs.

With Vanderbilt, ranked No. 13 last week in the AP poll, losing on Saturday to South Carolina, some thought the Cougars would move up a spot. Instead, Wisconsin, ranked No. 15 last week, leapfrogged BYU into the 13th spot after a 27-point win over Iowa and a 15-point win over Illinois. The Cougars did, however, receive 690 points in the poll compared to 633 last week.

In the coaches poll, the Cougars actually lost ground in terms of points received in the voting. They got 337 points last week, which left them only four points behind No. 14 Gonzaga. This week, however, they received 324 points, which was 23 points fewer than Gonzaga received. The Cougars are ranked ahead of both Gonzaga and Tennessee in the AP poll, while being ranked lower than both in the ESPN/USA Today poll.

New Mexico, the regular season champion of the MWC, remained at No. 8 in both polls. The UTEP Miners, a team BYU beat in January in El Paso, is ranked No 25 in the AP poll and No. 21 in the ESPN/USA Today poll. The Utah State Aggies, who beat BYU in December in Logan, are just out of the Top 25 in both polls. The Aggies are No. 28 in the AP poll and No. 26 in the coaches poll.

AP Top 25

The top 25 teams in The Associated Press' college basketball poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, records through March 7, total points based on 25 points for a first-place vote through one point for a 25th-place vote and previous ranking:

1. Kansas (63) 29-2 1,623 2

2. Kentucky (2) 29-2 1,553 3

3. Syracuse 28-3 1,500 1

4. Duke 26-5 1,348 4

5. Ohio St. 24-7 1,344 6

6. Purdue 26-4 1,252 7

7. West Virginia 24-6 1,231 10

8. New Mexico 28-3 1,188 8

9. Kansas St. 24-6 1,063 5

10. Villanova 24-6 1,016 9