The new men’s college basketball polls were released yesterday and Louisville finds itself holding steady in both polls. The are number 6 in the AP Poll and number 5 in the USA TODAY Coaches Poll. This, after a week where they defeated a feisty Georgia Tech team 68-64 and overwhelmed Clemson 80-62. That Clemson team had defeated then number 3 Duke the previous week. So, let’s take a look at the top 10 in each poll.
AP Poll
As mentioned above, the Cards maintained their position at 6 this week. The top of the top 10 remained the same. Baylor remains number 1 with a 17-1 record. Gonzaga stays at 2 with 21-1 record. Kansas remained at 3 with victories over in-State rival Kansas State and over Tennessee in the Big 12/SEC Challenge. The only undefeated team left in college basketball, San Diego State checks in at 4. Florida State, one of Louisville’s three losses on the year and their lone conference loss rounds out the top 5.
Louisville is, of course, at 6. Dayton comes in at 7 with only 2 losses on their resume. Villanova is slowly climbing up the poll moving one spot from last week from 9th to 8th. Duke at 9 and Seton Hall at 10 round out the top 10.
Baylor got a much bigger share of this week’s first place votes, getting 44 of the 64 possible first place votes. While unable to find where the other votes went, it’s a pretty fair bet Gonzaga got a majority of the rest while Kansas and San Diego State likely got some as well.
USA TODAY Coaches Poll
Louisville remained in the top 5 of this week’s coaches poll at 5. The top 10 remained largely the same with the exception of the top spot and at the bottom. Last week, the coaches kept Gonzaga in the number 1 spot, but this week they joined their AP colleagues and moved Baylor into the top spot. Gonzaga drops into the 2nd spot. Kansas stayed at 3 and San Diego State remains 4th. As they had last week, despite Louisville’s head-to-head loss at home to the Seminoles, Louisville remains at number 5 while Florida State stays right behind them at 6. Dayton is at 7 while Duke stayed at 8. Seton Hall moved up a spot from 10th to 9th while Villanova rejoins the top 10 at number 10.
First place votes in this poll only went to the top two teams this week. However, the amount that each team received may surprise you. Baylor only received 15 first place votes while Gonzaga actually received the majority with 17 of them. Surprising to say the least.
Louisville will become road warriors this week as they head to Boston College and NC State. The Boston College game takes place Wednesday at 9 PM and will air on the ACC Network. Saturday’s game with NC State will tip at 2 PM on ESPN.
