UConn, Villanova remain atop AP Top 25 polls

The UConn women’s basketball team remains the unanimous No. 1 choice in the Associated Press Top 25 poll while the Villanova men strengthen its hold on the top spot.

It’s been a wonderful few months for Cal coach Lindsay Gottlieb.

She’s pregnant with her first child due next spring, her team is unbeaten through non-conference play and now the Bears are back in the Top 25. The Bears entered The Associated Press women’s basketball poll at No. 21 on Monday. UConn remained the top choice, as the unanimous No. 1.

“Definitely for me I think it’s nice, but I understand how these things go. A lot of it is perception,” Gottlieb said. “For these young women who handled losing last year and finished strong. They did nothing but bring this program back to where we can be. Hopefully it’s a motivating factor to keep doing what we are doing.”

The Bears are 12-0 and off to the best start in school history. They open up Pac-12 play in Arizona on Thursday before facing No. 18 Arizona State on Sunday.

“You look at every weekend and there isn’t an easy one,” Gottlieb said of the conference which has seven teams ranked and three more just outside the Top 25. “For us going to start at Arizona is a repeat of what we did last year that didn’t go so well. Our players are motivated and ready for conference play.”

Cal was 15-17 last season, the first losing one under Gottlieb. With most of the team back, including star sophomore forward Kristine Anigwe , the Bears have been stellar so far.

“It’s a very similar cast of characters to last year. Every single person was in a new role last year,” Gottlieb said. “We have similar talent and much more understanding in roles . ... Whether you call it gelling, maturing or just owning roles better. It’s Cal version 2.0.”

While Cal has won its first 12 games to start the season, UConn continues to roll. The Huskies received all 33 first place votes again after beating then No. 12 Ohio State and Nebraska to stretch their winning streak to 86 consecutive games. UConn faces No. 4 Maryland on Thursday. A victory would be the team’s 30th straight on the road tying the NCAA record. It would also leave them three victories short of matching the 90-game overall winning streak the school set from 2008-11.

Notre Dame, Baylor, Maryland and Mississippi State followed UConn in the poll again. The top 11 teams remain unchanged as most schools had a light week of games because of the holidays.

Villanova gets 56 first-place votes

Villanova starts its fourth week as the No. 1 team in The Associated Press Top 25 and the ranked teams stay the same from the last poll except for Florida, which replaces fellow Southeastern Conference member South Carolina.

The Wildcats (12-0) received 56 first-place votes from the 65-member national media panel to maintain its big lead over UCLA (13-0), which received three No. 1 votes.

Kansas (11-1) was third, followed by Baylor (12-0), which got the other six first-place votes.

Duke remained fifth while Louisville jumped from 10th to sixth following its 73-70 victory over Kentucky last week.

Gonzaga is seventh followed by Kentucky, North Carolina and Creighton.

West Virginia is again No. 11, followed by Virginia, Butler, Wisconsin, Purdue, Indiana, Xavier, Arizona, Saint Mary’s and Florida State.

The last five ranked teams are Oregon, Southern California, Cincinnati, Notre Dame and Florida.

Florida (9-3) returns to the Top 25 after two weeks out of the rankings. The Gators come back in off a 94-71 victory over Arkansas-Little Rock in their first game in the renovated O’Connell Center. They had played their first 11 games on the road or at neutral sites.

South Carolina (9-2) was ranked for four weeks, reaching as high as No. 16. The Gamecocks lost 62-60 last week to instate rival Clemson.

Kansas is ranked for the 150th consecutive poll, a streak that started on Feb. 3, 2009. The second-longest current streak is 86 polls by Arizona. The alltime record is 221 consecutive polls by UCLA from 1966-80.

With the start of conference play this week, there are six games featuring two ranked teams.

On Wednesday, No. 2 UCLA is at No. 21 Oregon and No. 6 Louisville hosts No. 12 Virginia. On Friday, No. 21 Oregon hosts No. 22 Southern California.

On Saturday, Villanova puts the No. 1 ranking on the line by visiting No. 10 Creighton. The others are No. 6 Louisville hosting No. 16 Indiana and No. 20 Florida State is at No. 12 Virginia.