Dec. 22, 2008
MCLEAN, Virginia (Ticker) -- Off to its best start in 32 years, Minnesota entered the latest USA Today/ESPN coaches' poll, which was released Monday.
The Golden Gophers (10-0) continued their surprising season Saturday with a 70-64 victory over then-No. 9 Louisville.
Minnesota, ranked 23rd, is off to its best start since opening the 1976-77 campaign at 11-0.
It was a big drop for Louisville, which fell 10 spots to 19th.
One team not going anywhere soon is North Carolina (11-0), which remained the unanimous choice atop the poll. The Tar Heels, who have won all of their games by double digits, picked up 31 first-place and 775 points.
Connecticut (10-0) made a cross-country trek this past weekend and emerged with an 88-83 overtime victory over then-No. 7 Gonzaga on Saturday.
Pittsburgh (12-0) remained third, followed by Oklahoma (11-0) and Duke (10-1), which routed then-No. 12 Xavier, on Saturday.
The next five are Wake Forest (10-0), Gonzaga (8-2), Texas (9-2), Georgetown (8-1) and UCLA (8-2).
Notre Dame (8-2) is 11th, followed by Xavier (9-1), Ohio State (8-0), Syracuse (11-1) and Purdue (9-2).
Villanova (10-1) fell a spot to 16th and is followed by Arizona State (9-1), Michigan State (8-2), Louisville (7-2) and Clemson (12-0).
The final five are Tennessee (8-2), Baylor (9-1), Minnesota, Memphis (6-3) and Marquette (9-2).
Davidson (9-2) dropped out of the rankings.
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 21, 2008) TEAM PTS PVS ---- --- --- 1. NORTH CAROLINA (31) (11-0) 775 1 2. CONNECTICUT (10-0) 737 2 3. PITTSBURGH (12-0) 715 3 4. OKLAHOMA (11-0) 683 4 5. DUKE (10-1) 651 6 6. WAKE FOREST (10-0) 552 10 7. GONZAGA (8-2) 499 7 8. TEXAS (9-2) 486 5 9. GEORGETOWN (8-1) 476 1310. UCLA (8-2) 465 1211. NOTRE DAME (8-2) 398 1413. XAVIER (9-1) 371 714. SYRACUSE (11-1) 368 1115. PURDUE (9-2) 341 1816. VILLANOVA (10-1) 324 1517. ARIZONA ST (9-1) 306 1718. MICHIGAN ST (8-2) 254 2219. LOUISVILLE (7-2) 231 920. CLEMSON (12-0) 218 2521. TENNESSEE (8-2) 215 1922. BAYLOR (9-1) 163 2423. MINNESOTA (10-0) 78 NR24. MEMPHIS (6-3) 60 2125. MARQUETTE (9-2) 58 23Dropped Out: No. 16 OHIO ST, No. 20 DAVIDSONOthers Receiving Votes: BYU 44, DAVIDSON 39, MICHIGAN 38,MISSOURI 28, DAYTON 26, BUTLER 14, SAINT MARYS CA 14, KANSAS10, MIAMI FL 10, ARIZONA 9, WISCONSIN 9, WEST VIRGINIA 5,FLORIDA 4, ILLINOIS ST 3, LSU 3, STANFORD 3.
