Feb 25, 2002

By JIM O'CONNELL
AP Basketball Writer

Kansas became the first team this season other than Duke to be ranked No. 1 in the AP college basketball poll in consecutive weeks.

The Jayhawks (25-2) held the top spot in the national media voting Monday, a day after winning 88-87 at Nebraska, their 12th straight victory that clinched the Big 12 regular season title.

It is the third time this season Kansas has been No. 1. The first time lasted only a week as the Jayhawks lost at UCLA, the last time they lost this season.

Kansas received 51 first-place votes and 1,769 points, 43 more than Maryland, which held the No. 2 spot after beating Wake Forest 90-89 Sunday. The Terrapins received 14 No. 1 votes.

Duke (25-2), which had seven first-place votes and 1,686 points, was third for the second straight week. The Blue Devils are the only other team to be ranked No. 1 this season, holding the top spot for all but the three weeks Kansas was there.

Cincinnati stayed No. 4, while Oklahoma and Alabama swapped fifth and sixth. Gonzaga, Florida and Marquette stayed seventh through ninth, respectively, while Pittsburgh moved up one spot to No. 10, the Panthers' first Top Ten ranking since the final poll of the 1987-88 season.

Gonzaga ended the regular season with road victories at San Francisco and Saint Mary's. The Bulldogs open West Coast Conference Tournament play Saturday against Loyola Marymount at the Jenny Craig Pavilion on the University of San Diego campus. The Bulldogs have won three straight WCC Tournament crowns.

Kentucky led the Second Ten and was followed by Oklahoma State, Oregon, Arizona, Illinois, Georgia, Stanford, Ohio State, Southern California and Western Kentucky.

The last five ranked teams were California, Miami, Connecticut, Wake Forest and Indiana.

California, which was last ranked in the 1998-99 season, and Connecticut, which was in the Top 25 last month, were this week's newcomers, replacing Virginia and UCLA.

Virginia (16-9) and UCLA (18-9) became the sixth and seventh teams this season to be ranked in the Top Ten and fall out of the poll. The others were Missouri, Iowa, Saint Joseph's, Syracuse and Boston College.

That ties the most Top Ten teams to fall out of the rankings since the poll expanded from 20 to 25 for the 1990-91 season. It also happened in 1992-93. The fewest number of teams to fall from Top Ten to out of the rankings was two which happened in 1993-94, 1995-96 and 1996-97.

California (20-6) entered the rankings having won six of its last seven, including last weekend's home sweep of UCLA and Southern California. The Bears have climbed into a tie for second in the Pac-10, a half-game behind Oregon.

Connecticut (19-6) have won four straight to get back into the rankings. The Huskies were ranked for two weeks in January but fell out by losing three of four before starting the current winning streak.

Virginia, which has lost seven of nine and finishes the regular season with games against Duke and Maryland, was ranked No. 4 on Dec. 31. The Cavaliers have fallen each week since, dropping out this week from 22nd.

UCLA, which was ranked third in the first poll of the regular season, was No. 9 on the poll released Jan. 14, two days after the win over Kansas. Since, the Bruins have split their 12 games.

Stanford, which lost home games to Southern California and UCLA last weekend, had the week's biggest drop, falling from 10th to No. 17. Western Kentucky's climb from 24th to No. 20 was the biggest climb of the week.

There are five games involving two ranked teams this week. On Tuesday, Indiana is at Illinois. Stanford is at Arizona and Oregon is at Southern California on Thursday. On Saturday, Florida is at Kentucky and California visits Arizona.

By The Associated Press 

The top 25 teams in The Associated Press' men's college basketball poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, records through Feb. 24, total points based on 25 points for a first-place vote through one point for a 25th-place vote and previous ranking:

                        Record  Pts  Pv  1. Kansas (51)           25-2  1,769  1 2. Maryland (14)         23-3  1,726  2 3. Duke (7)              25-2  1,686  3 4. Cincinnati            26-2  1,578  4 5. Oklahoma              22-4  1,486  6 6. Alabama               23-5  1,395  5 7. Gonzaga               26-3  1,362  7  8. Florida               20-6  1,184  8 9. Marquette             23-4  1,178  910. Pittsburgh            23-4  1,148 1111. Kentucky              19-7  1,000 1212. Oklahoma St.          22-6    940 1313. Oregon                20-7    867 1514. Arizona               18-8    801 1415. Illinois              21-7    795 1616. Georgia               20-7    727 1817. Stanford              17-8    449 1018. Ohio St.              19-6    437 1919. Southern Cal          19-7    380 2020. W. Kentucky           25-3    343 2421. California            20-6    322  -22. Miami                 21-6    308 1723. Connecticut           19-6    274  -24. Wake Forest           18-10   244 2025. Indiana               18-9    225 23

Others receiving votes: UCLA 159, Texas Tech 134, Xavier 74, Hawaii 70, N.C. State 55, Pepperdine 44, Mississippi St. 43, Notre Dame 39, Kent St. 33, Virginia 31, Butler 30, Syracuse 9, Tulsa 9, Wisconsin 9, Georgetown 8, S. Illinois 8, Michigan St. 7, Memphis 4, Cent. Connecticut St. 3, Mississippi 2, Utah St. 2, Penn 1, Utah 1, Wyoming 1.