Gonzaga 21 In USA Today/ESPN Top 25
12/27/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 27, 2004
BRISTOL, Connecticut (Ticker) -- So far, life without senior forward Wayne Simien has not been that bad for Kansas.
Despite a close 73-62 victory over Wisconsin-Milwaukee on Wednesday, Kansas (8-0) kept its second-place ranking in the latest edition of the USA Today/ESPN coaches' poll, released Monday.
Playing its first game without their leading scorer and top rebounder, the Jayhawks overcame a career-high 26 points from Ed McCants to maintain their 26-point deficit behind top-ranked Illinois. Kansas did drop a first-place vote, falling to four, but gained a point to move up to 741.
Behind a solid 70-64 win over Missouri last week, the Fighting Illini (11-0) held the top spot for the fourth straight week, collecting 25 of 31 first-place votes and 767 points.
Oklahoma State (9-0), which was awarded the last two first-place votes, stayed in third for the second straight week with 713 points. The Cowboys are followed by three Atlantic Coast Conference teams - Wake Forest (10-1), North Carolina (9-1) and Duke (8-0).
Gonzaga, which faces OSU Tuesday in Oklahoma City, moved up two spots to 21 following a win over Eastern Washington last Tuesday.
Big East powers Pittsburgh (9-0) and Syracuse (11-1) maintained their seventh and eighth-place rankings, and Georgia Tech (8-1) rounded out the four ACC teams in the Top 10 at ninth.
Kentucky (8-1) is ranked 10th followed by Connecticut (6-1) and Texas (8-2). The top 12 teams in the poll remained unchanged.
Alabama (10-1) and Arizona (8-2) both moved up a spot to No. 13 and No. 14, respectively.
Despite beating BYU, 72-61, North Carolina State (9-1) dropped one spot to No. 15 and Washington (10-1) moved up a rung to No.
16.
Cincinnati (9-0) stands at No. 17 followed by Iowa (10-1), Louisville (8-2) and Michigan State (7-2).
Gonzaga (9-1), unranked two weeks ago, continued its climb up the poll, moving up two spots to No. 21 after a strong win over Eastern Washington, 83-70.
George Washington (8-1) maintained its No. 22 ranking with Maryland (7-2), Mississippi State (11-2) and Virginia (8-1) closing out the poll.
No team fell out or was added to the Top 25.
The USA TODAY/ESPN Coaches Top 25 college basketballcoaches' poll, with number of first-place votes and recordin parentheses, total points and previous ranking:(Records through December 26, 2004) TEAM PTS PVS ---- --- --- 1. ILLINOIS (25) (11-0) 767 1 2. KANSAS (4) (8-0) 741 2 3. OKLAHOMA ST (2) (9-0) 713 3 4. WAKE FOREST (10-1) 654 4 5. NORTH CAROLINA (9-1) 643 5 6. DUKE (8-0) 620 6 7. PITTSBURGH (9-0) 542 7 8. SYRACUSE (11-1) 538 8 9. GEORGIA TECH (8-1) 516 910. KENTUCKY (8-1) 485 1011. CONNECTICUT (6-1) 423 1112. TEXAS (8-2) 389 1213. ALABAMA (10-1) 350 1414. ARIZONA (8-2) 339 1515. NO CAROLINA ST (9-1) 337 1316. WASHINGTON (10-1) 326 1717. CINCINNATI (9-0) 291 1618. IOWA (10-1) 250 1919. LOUISVILLE (8-2) 224 1820. MICHIGAN ST (7-2) 188 2021. GONZAGA (9-1) 171 2322. GEO WASHINGTON (8-1) 153 2223. MARYLAND (7-2) 119 2124. MISSISSIPPI ST (11-2) 75 2425. VIRGINIA (8-1) 61 25Dropped Out:Others Receiving Votes: BOSTON COLLEGE 36, MARQUETTE 35,OKLAHOMA 24, SOUTHERN ILL 11, WICHITA ST 11, WISCONSIN 11,UAB 6, ARIZONA ST 5, IOWA ST 5, WEST VIRGINIA 5, FLORIDA 4,NEW MEXICO 3, NOTRE DAME 3, OLD DOMINION 1.
