Maurice Sutton (L) and Isaiah Armwood of Villanova try to block Augustus Gilchrist of the University of Florida in the first half at the NCAA Big East Basketball Championship. Florida is the No. 1 seed heading into the 2014 championship. UPI Photo/Monika Graff... |
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New York, NY (SportsNetwork.com) - Florida will head to the SEC Tournament as the top-ranked team in the country, while unbeaten Wichita State is again No. 2 and will await its NCAA Tournament seeding after capturing the Missouri Valley championship.
The Gators will carry a 23-game win streak into Atlanta and will be the No. 1 team in the Associated Press poll for a third straight week. Florida received 50 first-place votes -- four more than last week -- and a total of 1,610 points from a nationwide media panel.
Wichita State picked up the remaining 15 first-place votes and can't do anything else before the NCAA Tournament. The Shockers are 34-0 after beating Indiana State for the MVC crown on Sunday and will be the first team to enter the NCAA tourney without a loss since UNLV in 1991.
Villanova, the Big East regular-season champion, rose three places to third, while Arizona fell one spot to fourth after a loss at Oregon on Saturday. The Wildcats had five first-place votes last week.
Louisville, Virginia, Duke, Michigan, San Diego State and Kansas round out the top 10. The defending national champion Cardinals rose six spots from 11th after losses last week for top-10 teams Virginia, Duke, Kansas, Syracuse and Wisconsin. Michigan also moved up four spots from 12th.
Syracuse continued to slide down the rankings and now sits 11th in the poll. After a three-week stay at No. 1 and a 25-0 start, Syracuse fell to fourth and then seventh before a stunning home setback last week to Georgia Tech for its fourth loss in five games. A 74-58 win at Florida State on Sunday temporarily stemmed the skidding momentum.
The second 10, following Syracuse, consists of Wisconsin, Cincinnati, Creighton, North Carolina, Iowa State, Oklahoma, Saint Louis, Memphis and New Mexico. Wisconsin dipped three places from ninth after Sunday's loss at Nebraska.
Connecticut, Michigan State, VCU, Ohio State and SMU are the last five teams ranked.
VCU was preseason No. 14 and rose to 10th before losses to Florida State and Georgetown in the Puerto Rico Tip-off in November dropped the Rams from the rankings. Ohio State has bounced in and out of the poll since the start of February.
Iowa and Kentucky dropped out this week. Iowa, which was 24th, had been ranked since Thanksgiving week, while Kentucky was 25th and has lost three of its last four. The Wildcats were preseason No. 1 and their exclusion leaves Florida as the lone ranked team from the SEC.
