April 6, 2004
SPOKANE, Wash. - Gonzaga University finished 12th in the final USA TODAY/ESPN Top 25 men's basketball poll, matching the highest finish ever for the Bulldogs in the poll.
Gonzaga (28-3) finished third in the final regular-season Associated Press Top 25, Gonzaga's highest finish in either poll. AP does not do a final poll following the NCAA Tournament.
The Bulldogs were ranked second and had received one first-place vote in the final regular-season USA TODAY/ESPN balloting, but the Bulldogs loss to the University of Nevada in the second round of the NCAA Tournament dropped Gonzaga in the final poll. The Bulldogs finished 12th in the final 1999 USA TODAY/ESPN Top 25, the year Gonzaga made its remarkable run to the NCAA Tournament Elite Eight.
Newly-crowned national champion University of Connecticut was a unanimous No. 1, followed by Duke University and Georgia Tech University, the latter falling to UConn in Monday's title game.
Stanford University, No. 1 in the final regular-season poll, dropped to sixth after suffering a second-round NCAA Tournament exit in Seattle. Saint Joseph's University, undefeated through the regular season and 30-2 overall, finished fifth. Gonzaga's only two regular-season losses were to Saint Joseph's in the season opener and to Stanford in the Pete Newell Challenge in Oakland, Calif. Gonzaga had a 21-game winning streak, the longest in the nation at the time, snapped in the setback to Nevada.
USA TODAY/ESPN Top 25 Poll
Final poll - April 6, 2004
(First-place votes in parentheses)
Rank School Record Points Last week 1. Connecticut (31) 33-6 775 7 2. Duke 31-6 722 6 3. Georgia Tech 28-10 721 15 4. Oklahoma State 31-4 688 3 5. Saint Joseph's 30-2 644 5 6. Stanford 30-2 553 1 7. Pittsburgh 31-5 544 8 8. Kentucky 27-5 522 4 9. Kansas 24-9 465 1410. Texas 25-8 437 1111. Illinois 26-7 419 1312. Gonzaga 28-3 415 213. Mississippi St. 26-4 373 914. Xavier 26-11 361 NR15. Wake Forest 21-10 357 1616. Wisconsin 25-7 334 1017. Alabama 20-13 248 NR18. Cincinnati 25-7 239 1219. Syracuse 23-8 218 2420. N.C. State 21-10 157 1721. Nevada 25-9 156 NR22. North Carolina 19-11 135 2023. Alabama-Birmingham 22-10 124 NR24. Maryland 20-12 119 2125. Vanderbilt 23-10 102 NR
Others receiving votes: Southern Illinois (25-5) 37; Memphis (22-8) 34; Providence (20-9) 29; Arizona (20-10) 28; Boston College (24-10) 24; Texas Tech (23-11) 23; Michigan (23-11) 13; Utah State (25-4) 12; DePaul (22-10) 10; Pacific (25-8) 7; Manhattan (25-6) 6; Western Michigan (26-5) 6; Seton Hall (21-10) 5; Air Force (22-7) 4; Central Florida (25-6) 4; Michigan State (18-12) 2; South Carolina (23-11) 2; Louisiana-Lafayette (20-9) 1.
