Oregon’s No. 3 ranking will take a dip after loss
Kelly Graves thought his Oregon Ducks hadn’t really done anything to deserve the No. 3 ranking in the AP Top 25 — the school’s best ever.
Now, after suffering their first loss of the U.S. college basketball season on Sunday at Michigan State, the Ducks will fall in the poll. “We hadn’t earned the ranking,” the coach said after the 88-82 loss. “I think everybody assumes because of what we’ve done in the past, that it’s just naturally going to happen, and we haven’t played hungry. We didn’t play hungry. They played hungrier tonight.”
It’s been a rough week for the women’s program.
On Wednesday, the NCAA announced that Oregon violated rules related to the basketball teams and the track and field program and put the school on probation for two years.
The decision issued
Wednesday said Graves failed to “monitor and promote an atmosphere of compliance in his program.” He must serve a two-game suspension this season.
“I regret that some members of my staff made errors of judgment, and I have taken actions to ensure that it doesn’t happen again,” Graves said in a statement when the university received notice. “I am steadfastly committed to building a winning program at the UO that operates in full compliance with NCAA bylaws and is committed to the highest levels of integrity.”
While Oregon will drop in the poll, Michigan State has a good shot of getting ranked because the Spartans have only one loss this season — by four to No. 10 N.C. State.
It would be Michigan State’s first ranking since November 2016.
The win was the Spartans first over a top-three opponent since April 3, 2005, when they defeated No. 3 Tennessee, 68-64 in the
Final Four.
It’s also the team’s first regular-season win over a top-three opponent since Dec. 2, 2004, when they won at No. 3 Notre Dame, 82-73 in overtime.
Here are other things that happened in women’s college basketball this past week: MEMORABLE BIRTHDAY:: Former UCLA basketball player Nicole Kornet showed she’s still got it. She participated in a promotional contest in her former team’s game against Fresno State on Friday night.
The prize for hitting a layup, free throw, three-pointer and half-court shot in succession is usually a car, but Kornet wasn’t eligible to win because she was a former player. Kornet made it clear on social media that she knew she wasn’t eligible to win the car, but still enjoyed participating.
ALMOST 2K CLUB: Allazia Blockton became Marquette’s all-time leading scorer on Sunday breaking Krystal Ellis’ mark of 1,940 points. Blockton now has 1,946 in her career while only playing in 106 games. She’s on pace to become the first 2,000point scorer — male or female — in school history.
“It means everything to me because Marquette has a history of great basketball players, so achieving that means the world to me. It is everything I could have hoped for.”
HOOSIER HYSTERIA: Indiana improved to 9-0 with a 98-74 win over Missouri State on Sunday. It’s the Hoosiers’ best start since winning their first 14 games in the 2013-14 season. Indiana also has the longest current winning streak in the country with 15 consecutive victories. The team has won 17 straight at home and 24 of 26 overall.