Nov. 13, 2006

BRISTOL, Connecticut (Ticker) - After one impressive outing Florida is a near-unanimous No. 1 in the latest USA Today/ESPN coaches' poll released Monday.

The Gators (1-0), who opened their season with a 79-54 victory over Samford, received 30 of 31 first-place votes and 772 points.

Gonzaga was the first team receiving votes with 73 points, 16 points shy of No. 25 Creighton. The Bulldogs meet Rice on Tuesday at 9 p.m. in the NIT Season Tip Off at the Spokane Arena after opening the regular season with a 90-75 win over Eastern Washington last Friday.

Set to open its season Tuesday against Sacred Heart, North Carolina is second with 729 points, while Kansas (1-0) is third with 711 points.

Ohio State (3-0) received the remaining first-place vote and is fourth with 633 points.

Pittsburgh (1-0) is fifth followed by UCLA, Louisiana State, Georgetown (1-0), Wisconsin (1-0) and Duke (1-0).

Alabama (1-0) starts the second 10 followed by Texas A&M, Memphis, Boston College (1-0), Washington (1-0), Arizona (0-1), Marquette (1-0), Texas (2-0), Connecticut (1-0) and Syracuse (3-0).

Georgia Tech (1-0), Kentucky, Nevada (1-0), Tennessee (1-0) and Creighton complete the poll.

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 November 13, 2006)    TEAM                                   PTS   PVS    ----                                   ---   --- 1. FLORIDA (30) (1-0)                     772     1 2. NORTH CAROLINA (0-0)                   729     2 3. KANSAS (1-0)                           711     3 4. OHIO ST (1) (3-0)                      633     4 5. PITTSBURGH (1-0)                       598     5 6. UCLA (0-0)                             593     5 7. LSU (0-0)                              564     7 8. GEORGETOWN (1-0)                       547     8 9. WISCONSIN (1-0)                        545     910. DUKE (1-0)                             502    1111. ALABAMA (1-0)                          432    1212. TEXAS A&M (1-0)                        362    1313. MEMPHIS (0-0)                          356    1414. BOSTON COLLEGE (1-0)                   310    1515. WASHINGTON (1-0)                       261    1616. ARIZONA (0-1)                          258    1017. MARQUETTE (1-0)                        226    1718. TEXAS (2-0)                            222    1919. CONNECTICUT (1-0)                      194    1820. SYRACUSE (3-0)                         184    2021. GEORGIA TECH (1-0)                     156    2122. KENTUCKY (0-0)                         121    2223. NEVADA (1-0)                           103    2524. TENNESSEE (1-0)                        102    2425. CREIGHTON (0-0)                         89    23Dropped Out:Others Receiving Votes: GONZAGA 73, WICHITA ST 60,LOUISVILLE 54, SOUTHN ILLINOIS 48, XAVIER 35, ILLINOIS 34,AIR FORCE 25, VILLANOVA 24, MICHIGAN ST 21, SAN DIEGO ST 21,OKLAHOMA ST 18, MICHIGAN 17, MARYLAND 16, VIRGINIA 14,DEPAUL 9, FLORIDA ST 9, GEORGE MASON 8, INDIANA 4, HOUSTON3, BYU 2, GEO WASHINGTON 2, HOFSTRA 2, SAINT LOUIS 2,WINTHROP 2, MISSISSIPPI ST 1, NEW MEXICO ST 1.