No. 5 UConn men ranked higher than women for first time since 2006

For the first time since March 2006, the UConn men’s basketball team is ranked higher than the UConn women in their respective AP Top 25 polls.

The UConn men are ranked No. 5 this week, jumping up three spots after beating Oklahoma State on Thursday night, while the women are ranked No. 6 following Sunday’s loss at Notre Dame. The last time the men were ranked higher than the women was in the final AP Top 25 poll of the 2005-06 season.

On March 14, 2006, the men were ranked No. 2 in the nation heading into the NCAA tournament, while the women were No. 8. The men were in the top four throughout that entire season, while the women only peaked at No. 4 and spent most of the season in the upper reaches of the top-10.

The UConn men’s ranking this week is its highest (and first time it’s been ranked in the top-five) since the Nov. 21, 2011 poll when the Huskies were ranked fourth.

The last time the UConn men and women shared the same ranking in a week was the first two weeks of the 2011-12 season in November, when both were ranked No. 4. The men dropped to No. 8 on Nov. 28 and were unranked by February, a team with three future firstround draft picks (Andre Drummond, Jeremy Lamb, Shabazz Napier) falling woefully short of expectations in Jim Calhoun’s final