Lobos climb into Top 10; Huskies get some company

ASSOCIATED PRESS

This is what Steve Alford had in mind when he left the Big Ten for New Mexico, a program with a rich tradition that had fallen on hard times.

The Lobos moved into the top 10 in The Associated Press college basketball poll Monday for the first time in 12 seasons, after a pair of wins over Wyoming and Air Force last week. New Mexico has won 11 straight and at 25-3 has the best record in school history at this point.

While the Lobos are climbing, the ACC is sliding, with only fifth-ranked Duke in the poll.

The last time the conference had only one ranked team was Dec. 13, 1977, when North Carolina was No. 5 in what was then the Top 25. Seven schools from the 12-team league have been ranked at some point this season: North Carolina, Georgia Tech, Clemson, Maryland, Florida State, Miami and Wake Forest.

Kansas (26-1), one of five ranked teams from the Big 12, was again the runaway No. 1 with 61 first-place votes from the 65-member national media panel. The Jayhawks were on top for the fourth straight week and 13th this season.

Kentucky (26-1), which was No. 1 on the other four ballots, held onto second after surviving its trip to Vanderbilt last weekend. Purdue, Syracuse, Duke and Kansas State all moved up one spot from last week to round out the first six.

Villanova, which lost to Connecticut and Pittsburgh last week, dropped four places to seventh. The Wildcats have been in the top 10 all season, along with Kansas, Kentucky and Duke.

West Virginia, Ohio State and New Mexico rounded out the top 10.

Women

Hartford rode a school-record winning streak to its first Top 25 appearance, and gave UConn a little Nutmeg State company in AP women’s basketball poll.

The Hawks entered the ranking for the first time in school history on Monday, tied at No. 24.

Connecticut ran its remarkable streak at No. 1 to 40 weeks. The Huskies (27-0) have won 66 consecutive games after beating Providence on Saturday. Stanford, Nebraska, Tennessee and Xavier followed the Huskies. The Musketeers are the first non-BCS conference team to crack the initial five since Louisiana Tech did it in 2001, and are the first Atlantic 10 team to appear in the top 5 since Penn State was No. 1 in the final poll of 1990-91. The Nittany Lions now play in the Big Ten.

Duke, Notre Dame, West Virginia, Florida State and Ohio State rounded out the top 10.