Uconn men, South Carolina women remain atop the AP Top 25 polls
By The Associated Press
Reigning national champion Connecticut, Purdue and North Carolina remained atop The Associated Press Top 25 men’s college basketball poll for the third consecutive week, while South Carolina cracked the rankings for the first time in nearly seven years.
The Gamecocks women, the nation’s lone unbeaten team, remain atop the women’s poll
Uconn earned 45 of 61 first-place votes to remain at No. 1 pf the men’s national rankings for the fourth straight week.
The top of the poll remained set after a big week that included four top-10 matchups over the weekend, with Purdue winning at Wisconsin and UNC beating rival Duke. The week also included Kansas beating Houston, which vaulted the Jayhawks up four spots to No. 4 and dropped the Cougars one spot to No. 5.
Tennessee fell one spot to No. 6 after losing at home to the now-no. 15 Gamecocks but followed that with a win at Kentucky in the weekend’s other top-10 tussle.
South Carolina is making its first appearance in the men’s poll since February 2017, a season that saw the Gamecocks make a surprise run to the Final Four. The Gamecocks joined No. 24 San Diego State as the week’s new additions, replacing Oklahoma (No. 23) and TCU (No. 25). The Aztecs (17-5) are back in after an impressive home win Saturday over No. 22 Utah State (19-3).
Caitlin Clark and Iowa climbed back to No. 2 in this week’s rankings, settling in behind South Carolina (210) which faces a challenging week. Coach Dawn Staley’s Gamecocks will play host to Missouri and No. 11 Uconn without star center Kamilla Cardoso,
WOMEN’S POLL >> who left for a week to play with the Brazilian national team at an Olympic qualifying tournament. Cardosa, a 6-foot-7 senior, had 17 points in Sunday’s 85-56 rout of Mississippi.
It’s the second time in a few weeks that Iowa has been second in the poll, a spot that hasn’t been kind to teams the past month. UCLA, Iowa and Kansas State all took turns in the second position since Jan. 8 and none of the schools could hold that ranking for more than a week at a time. Kansas State, No. 2 last week, responded by losing twice, including 6154 on Sunday to then-no. 12 Texas. The Longhorns (21-3) are No. 7 this week.
Stanford (20-3) fell two spots to sixth after losing to Juju Watkins and USC. The phenomenal freshman scored 51 points in that game Friday night.
A sweep of the Bay Area schools vaulted USC (16-4) five sports to No. 10. UCLA (17-4), which split, losing
Sunday at Stanford after winning at Cal, dropped to No. 9.
Late highlight
NO. 11 ARIZONA 82, STANFORD 71 >>
Oumar Ballo had 18 points and 13 rebounds, as the Wildcats shut down the Cardinal in the second half late Sunday night in Tucson.
Arizona (17-5, 8-3 Pac12) let Stanford (11-10, 6-5) have its way offensively for the second straight game, falling into an 11-point halftime hole as the Cardinal hit nine 3-pointers.
Arizona turned the game around with its defense, holding Stanford to 9-of-32 shooting while forcing 11 second-half turnovers.
Caleb Love scored 18 points for the Wildcats. Maxime Raynaud scored 29 points and Michael Jones had 21 for Stanford, which played without leading scorer Kanaan Carlyle due to an upper-body injury.