Gonzaga 18th In USA Today/ESPN Poll
12/23/2003 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 23, 2003
McLEAN, Va. - The ESPN/USA Today top 25 finally stabilized a bit this week. Kentucky, Connecticut and Duke all took care of business on the court and as a result remained the top three teams in Monday's top 25 coaches poll.
The Wildcats routed Indiana 80-41 in their only game to improve to 6-0. Kentucky picked up two more first-place votes than last week, receiving 25 of 31 first-place votes.
Connecticut (8-1) also rolled in its only game of the week, routing Iona 104-54. Duke, meanwhile, picked up a pair of wins to improve to 7-1. The Blue Devils beat Princeton earlier in the week, and then routed Texas 89-61 on Saturday.
Moving up to No. 4 was Georgia Tech, which replaced fellow ACC rival North Carolina behind Duke. The Yellow Jackets have won 10 straight games to open the season and received two first-place votes from coaches.
Rounding out the top five was Arizona, which beat St. Mary's (Calif.) in its only game of the week. The rest of the top 10 was made up of Wake Forest (7-0), Oklahoma (8-0) , Stanford (8-0), North Carolina (6-0) and Saint Joseph's (8-0).
Stanford moved up three spots after beating Gonzaga on Saturday in the Pete Newell Challenge. The Zags (7-2) dropped from 15th to 18th in this week's poll. Saint Joseph's moved into the top 10 from 12th.
Texas fell from 10th to 16th after its second loss in as many trips to New York City this year. The Longhorns (5-2) also lost to Arizona in the Jimmy V Classic.
Purdue fell to No. 22 after losing to SMU on Sunday in the title game of the Boilermaker Invitational. Purdue (8-2) was ranked No. 17 last week.
Michigan State, which lost to UCLA on Saturday, was the only team to fall out of the top 25 from last week's ranking. The Spartans (4-5) were replaced by Maryland at No. 25.
USA Today/ESPN Top 25
The top 25 teams in the USA Today-ESPN men's college basketball poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, records through Dec. 21, total points based on 25 points for a first-place vote through one point for a 25th-place vote and previous ranking:
Record Pts Pvs 1. Kentucky (25) 6-0 761 1 2. Connecticut (4) 8-1 707 2 3. Duke 8-1 699 3 4. Georgia Tech (2) 10-0 648 6 5. Arizona 5-1 625 5 6. Wake Forest 7-0 618 9 7. Oklahoma 8-0 580 8 8. Stanford 7-0 551 11 9. North Carolina 5-0 504 410. Saint Joseph's 8-0 478 1211. Kansas 6-2 431 712. Cincinnati 6-0 389 1613. Florida 6-2 366 1314. Missouri 4-1 363 1415. Wisconsin 7-1 330 1816. Texas 5-2 324 1017. Pittsburgh 10-0 270 2018. Gonzaga 7-2 269 1519. Illinois 6-2 215 1920. Louisville 5-1 189 2221. Syracuse 5-1 171 2122. Purdue 8-2 150 1723. Dayton 9-0 142 2424. Marquette 7-2 72 2325. Maryland 6-2 62 NROthers receiving votes: Creighton 29; Colorado 20; Florida State 20; Vanderbilt 18; Oklahoma State 17; Texas Tech 16; South Carolina 10; Brigham Young 9; Southern Illinois 7; Mississippi State 5; Boise State 2; Providence 2; Auburn 1; Manhattan 1; Michigan State 1; Nevada 1; Seton Hall 1; Wichita State 1.
