Feb. 23, 2009
MCLEAN, Virginia (Ticker) -- One week after knocking off rival Connecticut, Pittsburgh reclaimed the No. 1 ranking in the latest USA Today/ESPN college basketball poll, which was released Monday.
The Panthers (25-2) climbed four spots after winning both of their games last week, including last Monday's 76-68 upset victory at then-No. 1 UConn.
It marks the second time this season that Pittsburgh has attained the top ranking in the national polls. The Panthers reached the No. 1 spot for the first time in school history on January 4 but fell from the top two weeks later following a loss at Louisville.
Pittsburgh, which has won its last seven games, received 30 first-place votes and 774 total points from a national panel of Division I coaches.
The Huskies fell one spot to second and were given the final first-place vote.
Oklahoma (25-2) dropped one spot to third following Saturday's loss to rival Texas. The Sooners could possibly be without star forward Blake Griffin, who suffered a concussion against the Longhorns and has been listed as questionable for Monday's Big 12 showdown with Kansas.
Memphis (24-3) climbed two spots to fourth while the top five was rounded out by North Carolina (24-3), which was upset in overtime Saturday by Maryland.
Louisville (21-5) is sixth, followed by Duke (22-5), Missouri (23-4), Michigan State (21-5) and Marquette (23-4).
Arizona State (21-5) remained 11th, followed by Villanova (22-5), Clemson (22-4), Wake Forest (20-5), Kansas (22-5), Purdue (21-6), Gonzaga (21-5), Louisiana State (23-4), UCLA (20-7), Illinois (22-6), Washington (20-7), Xavier (22-5) and Butler (23-4).
Gonzaga swept Loyola Marymount and Pepperdine to clinch the West Coast Conference regular-season title for a ninth straight season.
Texas (18-8) re-joined the poll at No. 24 following Saturday's 73-68 victory over Oklahoma. Also new to the rankings was No.
25 Florida State (21-6).
Utah State and Syracuse both fell from 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 February 23, 2009) TEAM PTS PVS ---- --- --- 1. PITTSBURGH (30) (25-2) 774 4 2. CONNECTICUT (1) (25-2) 721 1 3. OKLAHOMA (25-2) 691 2 4. MEMPHIS (24-3) 682 6 5. NORTH CAROLINA (24-3) 668 3 6. LOUISVILLE (21-5) 668 7 7. DUKE (22-5) 559 9 8. MISSOURI (23-4) 517 10 9. MICHIGAN ST (21-5) 511 510. MARQUETTE (23-4) 471 1111. ARIZONA ST (21-5) 434 1112. VILLANOVA (22-5) 428 1413. CLEMSON (22-4) 424 1314. WAKE FOREST (20-5) 411 815. KANSAS (22-5) 355 1816. PURDUE (21-6) 261 2117. GONZAGA (21-5) 257 2018. LSU (23-4) 239 2419. UCLA (20-7) 202 1520. ILLINOIS (22-6) 197 1621. WASHINGTON (20-7) 178 1922. XAVIER (22-5) 175 1723. BUTLER (23-4) 75 2224. TEXAS (18-8) 55 NR25. FLORIDA ST (21-6) 52 NRDropped Out: No. 23 UTAH ST, No. 25 SYRACUSEOthers Receiving Votes: UTAH 22, UTAH ST 22, DAYTON 21,SYRACUSE 18, FLORIDA 16, PENN ST 10, ARIZONA 9, CALIFORNIA7, WEST VIRGINIA 7, BYU 6, SOUTH CAROLINA 5, SAINT MARYS CA4, BOSTON COLLEGE 3, CREIGHTON 2, KENTUCKY 1.
