Zags Up Three Spots In USA Today/ESPN Poll
12/4/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 4, 2006
BRISTOL, Connecticut (Ticker) -- For the second straight week, there is a new No. 1 in the USA Today/ESPN coaches' poll.
Taking advantage of a loss by Ohio State, UCLA ascended to the top spot in the latest rankings released Monday.
The Bruins (6-0) received 25 of a possible 31 first-place votes and 766 points from a panel of coaches to move from second to first.
Ohio State (7-1), which replaced Florida atop the poll last week, dropped three spots to fourth following a 98-89 loss at North Carolina on Wednesday night.
Off to an 8-0 start for a second straight season, Pittsburgh picked up the remaining six first-place votes to move up a spot to second. The Panthers have 740 points.
Following its win over Ohio State and a double-digit triumph over Kentucky three days later, North Carolina (6-1) moved from sixth to third.
Alabama (7-0), which has won five of its seven games by double digits, rounds out the top five.
Texas A&M (7-0) is sixth, followed by Florida (7-2), Washington (6-0), Duke (7-1) and Connecticut (7-0).
Louisiana State (4-1) is up a spot to 11th, followed by Wisconsin (7-1), Kansas (6-2), Butler (9-0) and Arizona (5-1).
Kansas dropped eight spots from fifth after Saturday's loss at DePaul.
Fresh off Saturday's win at Syracuse, Wichita State (6-0) jumped six spots to 16th. Memphis (5-1) is 17th, followed by Gonzaga (8-1), Nevada (7-0) and Marquette (8-1).
Gonzaga downed Texas last Saturday to jump three spots. The Bulldogs are at Washington State on Tuesday and host No. 8 Washington on Saturday.
Syracuse (7-1), Maryland (8-1), Air Force (8-1), Oklahoma State (9-0) and Michigan State (7-2) complete the poll. The final three teams are new to the rankings.
Dropping out of the poll were Georgetown (4-3), Georgia Tech (6-2) and Texas (5-2).
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 3, 2006) TEAM PTS PVS ---- --- --- 1. UCLA (25) (6-0) 766 2 2. PITTSBURGH (6) (8-0) 740 3 3. NORTH CAROLINA (6-1) 676 6 4. OHIO ST (7-1) 659 1 5. ALABAMA (7-0) 637 7 6. TEXAS A&M (7-0) 562 8 7. FLORIDA (7-2) 506 4 8. WASHINGTON (6-0) 489 11 9. DUKE (7-1) 488 1010. CONNECTICUT (7-0) 407 1511. LSU (4-1) 401 1212. WISCONSIN (7-1) 396 1313. KANSAS (6-2) 385 514. BUTLER (9-0) 380 1815. ARIZONA (5-1) 340 1616. WICHITA ST (6-0) 331 2217. MEMPHIS (5-1) 314 1718. GONZAGA (8-1) 296 2119. NEVADA (7-0) 276 2020. MARQUETTE (8-1) 263 921. SYRACUSE (7-1) 145 1422. MARYLAND (8-1) 138 1923. AIR FORCE (8-1) 79 NR24. OKLAHOMA ST (9-0) 64 NR25. MICHIGAN ST (7-2) 46 NRDropped Out: No. 23 GEORGETOWN, No. 24 GEORGIA TECH, No. 25TEXASOthers Receiving Votes: GEORGIA TECH 38, XAVIER 35, MISSOURI33, TEXAS 29, SOUTHN ILLINOIS 22, OREGON 21, SAN DIEGO ST17, MISSOURI ST 16, CLEMSON 15, VIRGINIA 14, LOUISVILLE 12,CREIGHTON 9, ARKANSAS 8, GEORGETOWN 5, VILLANOVA 5, BRADLEY3, ILLINOIS 3, PURDUE 3, TENNESSEE 3.
