Bay Area split drops Huskies out of AP Top 25 poll
The Washington Huskies’ weekend split in the Bay Area was a classic case of a glass that could be seen as half full or half empty.
The Associated Press media voters took the half-empty approach and dropped UW out of the rankings after climbing to No. 22 last week. The coaches who vote in the ESPN/USA Today poll saw the weekend as half full and moved the Huskies up a notch to No. 24.
Washington (17-6 overall, 8-3 Pacific-10 Conference) began the trip with an 86-71 loss at California on Thursday and ended it with a 75-68 win at Stanford on Sunday.
The Huskies conclude the regular season with six of their eight games at home, starting Thursday when Oregon State visits Hec Edmundson Pavilion.
UW is one of three Pac-10 teams in the coaches’ poll, trailing No. 6 UCLA and No. 18 Arizona State.
The Bruins are 11th in the AP poll and the Sun Devils are 18th.
There was rare stability at the top of the AP poll, however, as Connecticut held the top spot for a second straight week, ending a run that saw a different team on top for four straight weeks.
UConn (22-1) beat Louisville and Michigan last week to again be a runaway No. 1, receiving 67 of 72 first-place votes from a national media panel.
Oklahoma (23-1) and North Carolina (21-2) held second and third place in the rankings with the Sooners getting three first-place votes, while the Tar Heels were No. 1 on two ballots.
The run of No. 1s started when Pittsburgh finished its two-week stint on top. Wake Forest and Duke each were up there for a week before Connecticut moved in.
The changes in the Top 25 started after the first three following a week that saw 14 teams – six in the top 10 – lose at least one game.
Pittsburgh jumped from sixth to No. 4, while Louisville remained fifth after rebounding from a home loss to Connecticut with a road win over St. John’s.
Duke, which lost by 27 points to Clemson then beat Miami in overtime, dropped from fourth to sixth.
Wake Forest, which lost by 27 points to Miami before snapping a two-game losing streak with a win over Boston College, held seventh place.
Memphis, which beat Gonzaga in a matchup of ranked teams, moved from 14th to eighth, while Michigan State moved from 13th to No. 9. Marquette, which fell to South Florida for its first Big East loss, dropped two spots to 10th.
Gonzaga fell one spot to 19th in the AP poll and three spots to 21st in the coaches’ poll.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Don Ruiz, 253-597-8808
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