The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
UConn remains unanimous No. 1 in women’s poll
DePaul coach Doug Bruno keeps losing players to injury and still is finding ways to win.
The Blue Demons re-entered the AP women’s basketball poll Monday at No. 23 after winning their fourth straight game this weekend. UConn remained the unanimous top choice from the 33-member national media panel. The Huskies, who have won 88 straight games and next play on Wednesday against East Carolina, were followed by Baylor, Maryland, Mississippi State and South Carolina.
DePaul guard Jessica January is the latest one of Bruno’s players to get hurt. She broke her right index finger against Georgetown last Wednesday. She’s the third DePaul starter to go down as Ashton Millender has been dealing with a leg injury that has kept her out since December 15 and junior forward Mart’e Grays is missing the season with an Achilles injury.
January is a big loss for the Blue Demons as she leads the team in points, assists and steals.
She’ll have surgery on Tuesday and is out indefinitely.
DePaul (10-4) spent the first six weeks in the polls before falling out. Three of the team’s four losses have come to UConn, Baylor and Notre Dame.
The Irish fell five spots this week to No. 7 after losing at N.C. State on Thursday night.
Florida State was sixth with Louisville, UCLA and Stanford following Notre Dame.
Kansas State also reentered the poll at No. 25 while Colorado and Syracuse fell out. Kentucky fell seven spots to No. 24 after losing to Duke and Tennessee. The Wildcats did keep alive their 132-week streak of being ranked. That’s the fifth longest active streak and eighth longest all-time.
Villanova men No. 1
Villanova’s impressive win at No. 10 Creighton kept the Wildcats at No. 1 for a fifth straight week, while Baylor made the jump from fourth to second.
The only new member of The Associated Press Top 25 is Virginia Tech, which beat Duke 89-75. The Hokies (12-1) jump in at No. 21, their first ranking since the opening week of the 201011 season.
Villanova (14-0) received 59 first-place votes from the 65-member national media panel Monday to easily outdistance the Bears (13-0), who got the other six votes for No. 1.
Kansas held third while UCLA, which lost to Oregon, fell from second to fourth. Gonzaga and Kentucky both moved up two spots to fifth and sixth. Gonzaga (14-0), Villanova and Baylor are the lone unbeaten teams in Division I.
West Virginia jumped from 11th to seventh while Duke and Louisville both dropped three spots to eighth and ninth, and Creighton held on at No. 10.
Villanova’s run at No. 1 is the longest since Kentucky was on top of the poll for the entire 2014-15 season.