Huskies jump to No. 20 in AP poll
The Uconn men’s basketball team moved up one spot to No. 20 in Monday’s AP Top 25 poll, and down to No. 23 in the USA Today Coaches’ Poll after landing at No. 21 in both last week.
With a 7-6 record in Quad 1 games, the Huskies have maintained Top 10 positioning in both the NCAA’S NET rankings (No. 9) and in the Kenpom metricbased rankings (No. 6).
Alabama (22-3), who the Huskies beat in November at the Phil Knight Invitational, is ranked No. 1 in the AP Poll for the first time since 2002 and No. 1 in the USA Today coaches’ poll for the first time ever. Houston held at No. 2 while Purdue dropped from the top spot down to No. 3 after picking up its third loss of the season, to Northwestern on Sunday. UCLA and Kansas each made leaps to round out the top five.
Adama Sanogo was named to the Big East weekly honor roll on Monday after leading the Huskies through a 1-1 week with 18 points, seven rebounds and three assists in the win over Marquette, and 17 points, 10 rebounds and two assists in the loss at Creighton. Sanogo made a career-high three 3-pointers on Saturday; he attempted just one shot from beyond the arc in his previous two seasons at Uconn and spent time developing his range in the summer leading into this season.
“That’s something that I really wanted to do,” Sanogo said after the loss. “I worked on it my last two years in college, I worked on it in the summer . ... So me, making a couple of shots this year, I’m really happy about it.”
The 6-foot-9 Big East Preseason Player of the Year has made 16 of his 40 attempts from 3-point range this season (40%). Recently named a Top 10
Recently named a Top 10 candidate for the Kareem Abdul-jabbar award and listed on the Naismith Player of the Year midseason team, among other national recognitions, Sanogo is averaging 17.2 points and 7.3 rebounds per game while shooting an improved 58.2% from the field.
His assist to turnover ratio is 0.82 — twice what it was last season (0.43).
With five games left, Uconn finds itself tied with Seton Hall for fifth in the Big East standings. The Hall, which beat Uconn on a last-second shot Jan. 18, will come to Storrs to complete the season series at Gampel Pavilion on Saturday.
Marquette, currently sitting atop the conference standings, fell one spot to No. 11 after losing to Uconn. Xavier and Creighton, tied for second in the conference, came in at No. 16 and No. 18 in the AP Top 25, respectively. Providence gives the Big East five ranked teams for the second straight week, dropping four spots to No. 24