Purdue, South Carolina maintain No. 1 spots in AP men's, women's polls
Purdue remained atop The Associated Press Top 25 men’s college basketball poll for a third straight week, while preseason No. 1 North Carolina returned to the rankings and New Mexico cracked the poll for the first time in eight years.
The Boilermakers (12-0) earned 40 of 60 first-place votes in Monday’s latest poll, while fellow unbeaten Connecticut (13-0) earned the other 20 to sit at No. 2 in an unchanged top.
Purdue had never been ranked No. 1 before a oneweek stay there last December, and was unranked to start the season. But the Boilermakers made a rapid rise from No. 24 to No. 5 in a one-week span in late November, then climbed to No. 1 on Dec. 12.
The Boilermakers’ win against New Orleans last week marked their first home game with that No. 1 ranking.
“We’ve not had any handouts. We’ve had to work for everything,” coach Matt Painter said afterward, adding: “But we’ve earned it. but we’ve got to keep earning it. This isn’t the season. This is just a third of the season.”
No. 3 Houston, No. 4 Kansas and No. 5 Arizona held their positions as the top five remained in place for a second straight week.
Texas was next at No. 6, followed by Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas and Gonzaga — the preseason choice at No. 2 that returned to the top 10 after sliding as low as No. 18 earlier this month.
UCLA (11-2) moved up two spots to No. 11.
North Carolina is back in the poll at No. 25 after a tumultuous opening to the season.
Returning four starters from last year’s unexpected run to the NCAA title game, the Tar Heels started December by becoming only the sixth team to go from preseason No. 1 to unranked since at least the 1961-62 season. That came after a run of four straight losses.
But UNC has won four straight since, the past two coming against Big Ten teams — Ohio State on Dec. 17 and Michigan last week — to regroup.
Miami had the week’s biggest jump after a win against Virginia, climbing eight spots to No. 14 for its highest ranking since the 2017-18 season.
New Mexico is tied with Xavier at No. 22, marking the first time the Lobos have cracked the AP Top 25 since March 2014.
• South Carolina maintained its hold on top of The Associated Press Top 25 women’s basketball poll, reaching a milestone in the process.
The Gamecocks have held the No. 1 spot for 27 consecutive weeks, which is the fifth longest run all time. UConn has three of the top four streaks, including the record 51-week run from Feb. 18, 2008-Dec. 10, 2010. Louisiana Tech has the second longest streak of 36 weeks. The Huskies also had 34-and 30-week runs at No. 1.
South Carolina started last season at No. 1 and hasn’t relinquished the ranking since, including a week a year ago when it lost a game, but remained the top team.
The Gamecocks passed Texas’ 26-week run. They’ve gone 17-0 against Top 25 teams over the past two years, including a 3-0 mark this season.
The top five teams in the poll remained unchanged as Stanford, Ohio State, Indiana and Notre Dame stayed behind the Gamecocks, who garnered all 28 votes from a national media panel. South Carolina (12-0) hosts Texas A&M on Thursday.
North Carolina State, Virginia Tech, UConn, LSU and UCLA round out the top 10, with the Bruins (121) climbing one spot.
• UConn’s women hope to have coach Geno Auriemma back when the Huskies visit No. 21 Creighton on Wednesday.
Auriemma missed the last two games, both UConn wins. The school said he began experiencing flu-like symptoms after shootaround on Dec. 18 before the Huskies faced Florida State. Auriemma’s 91-year-old mother died on Dec. 8.
“There’s been a lot going on in the last couple weeks, and I think it caught up to me physically,” the 68-yearold Hall of Famer said in a statement. “I’ve been feeling under the weather for about 10 days now, and my doctor recommended I take a few days off to fully recover. CD (longtime associate head coach Chris Dailey) and the coaching staff will continue to do a phenomenal job in my absence, and I look forward to returning to the team in a few days.”
Dailey has gone 15-0 in games that Auriemma has missed.
Sabres-Blue Jackets game postponed
The Buffalo Sabres game at the Columbus Blue Jackets scheduled for tonight was postponed by the NHL because Buffalo International Airport remains closed due to a severe winter storm that has paralyzed the region.
A makeup date has yet to be determined.
A travel ban is in place in Buffalo, and the airport won’t open until at least Wednesday morning as a result of a storm that’s dumped close to 50 inches of snow on the area since Friday. The Sabres were scheduled to travel to Columbus this morning following the NHL’s mandatory Christmas break, which ran through Monday night.
Buffalo has won four straight but hasn’t played since closing a three-game road trip with a 3-2 victory at Vegas on Dec. 19. The Sabres’ home game against Tampa Bay on Dec. 23 was postponed as a result of the storm.
Buffalo is next scheduled to play on Thursday night, when it hosts the Detroit Red Wings.
• Luke Hughes, Red Savage, Chaz Lucius, Sean Behrens and Jimmy Snuggerud scored for the United States in a 5-2 victory over Latvia in an opening game of the world junior hockey championship in Moncton, New Brunswick .
The teams were scoreless after the first period and tied 2-2 heading into the final frame. The U.S. outshot Latvia 46-17.
In another opener, Jaroslav Chmelar and Matous Mensik scored 33 seconds apart during a five-minute power play as the Czech Republic stunned defending champion Canada 5-2 in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Czech goaltender Tomas Suchanek was stellar in making 36 saves