St. John's continued their ascent in the national rankings earlier today, as they moved up four spots to number 20 in the AP Poll and cracked the USA Today Coaches Poll for the first time this season, coming in at 23rd in the nation.
After back-to-back impressive blowout wins over Farleigh Dickinson and Fordham this week, the Red Storm have jumped over Butler in each of the national rankings and are now the second highest-ranked team in the Big East.
The only Big East team to come in ahead of the Johnnies in this week's polls were the Villanova Wildcats, who for the sixth-straight week are the conference's highest-ranked team and remain at number 7 in both the AP and Coaches Polls.
More on the Big East teams in the polls - after the tables. Big thanks to Mike of VU Hoops for putting together the tables for us.
AP Top 25
RANK | SCHOOL | RECORD | Pts | Prev |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Kentucky Wildcats (65) | 11-0 | 1,625 | 1 |
2 | Duke Blue Devils | 8-0 | 1,545 | 2 |
3 | Arizona Wildcats | 10-0 | 1,505 | 3 |
4 | Louisville Cardinals | 9-0 | 1,349 | 4 |
5 | Wisconsin Badgers | 10-1 | 1,331 | 5 |
6 | Virginia Cavaliers | 9-0 | 1,294 | 6 |
7 | Villanova Wildcats | 10-0 | 1,215 | 7 |
8 | Gonzaga Bulldogs | 10-1 | 1,175 | 9 |
9 | Texas Longhorns | 8-1 | 1,154 | 8 |
10 | Kansas Jayhawks | 8-1 | 1,102 | 10 |
11 | Wichita State Shockers | 7-1 | 959 | 11 |
12 | Ohio State Buckeyes | 8-1 | 838 | 12 |
13 | Iowa State Cyclones | 8-1 | 772 | 14 |
14 | Utah Utes | 7-2 | 670 | 13 |
15 | Oklahoma Sooners | 6-2 | 647 | 16 |
16 | Washington Huskies | 8-0 | 598 | 17 |
17 | Maryland Terrapins | 10-1 | 512 | 19 |
18 | Miami-Florida Hurricanes | 9-1 | 426 | 20 |
19 | San Diego State Aztecs | 7-2 | 424 | 18 |
20 | St. John's Red Storm | 8-2 | 353 | 24 |
21 | Notre Dame Fighting Irish | 10-1 | 351 | 25 |
22 | West Virginia Mountaineers | 9-1 | 333 | 22 |
23 | Butler Bulldogs | 8-2 | 259 | 15 |
24 | North Carolina Tar Heels | 7-3 | 122 | 21 |
25 | Michigan State Spartans | 7-3 | 116 | NR |
Others receiving votes: Baylor 97, TCU 80, Colorado State 75, UNI 65, Georgetown 41, California 37, Arkansas 19, Seton Hall 14, VCU 6, Old Dominion 4, LSU 4, Oklahoma State 4, Penn State 3, Davidson 1. |
USA Today Coaches Poll
RANK | TEAM | RECORD | POINTS | PREV |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Kentucky (29) | 11-0 | 773 | 1 |
2 | Duke (1) | 8-0 | 736 | 2 |
3 | Arizona (1) | 10-0 | 721 | 3 |
4 | Louisville | 9-0 | 658 | 4 |
5 | Virginia | 9-0 | 633 | 5 |
6 | Wisconsin | 10-1 | 619 | 6 |
7 | Villanova | 10-0 | 592 | 7 |
8 | Gonzaga | 9-1 | 556 | 8 |
9 | Texas | 8-1 | 539 | 9 |
10 | Kansas | 8-1 | 519 | 10 |
11 | Wichita State | 7-1 | 439 | 11 |
12 | Ohio State | 8-1 | 417 | 12 |
13 | Iowa St. | 8-1 | 373 | 13 |
14 | Utah | 7-2 | 300 | 14 |
15 | Oklahoma | 6-2 | 295 | 15 |
16 | Washington | 8-0 | 287 | 17 |
17 | San Diego State | 7-2 | 246 | 16 |
18 | Maryland | 10-1 | 214 | 20 |
19 | Miami | 9-1 | 164 | 21 |
20 | West Virginia | 9-1 | 159 | 21 |
21 | Notre Dame | 10-1 | 155 | 26 |
22 | Michigan State | 7-3 | 122 | 23 |
23 | St. John's | 8-1 | 114 | 27 |
24 | North Carolina | 6-3 | 86 | 18 |
25 | Butler | 8-2 | 85 | 19 |
Others receiving votes: Baylor 49; Northern Iowa 40; Colorado State 29; Georgetown 28; California 26; TCU 26; Seton Hall 19; Illinois 13; Arkansas 12; Oklahoma State 9; Old Dominion 7; Florida 4; LSU 4; Iowa 3; Minnesota 1; Penn State 1; Saint Mary?s 1; Virginia Commonwealth 1. |
Big East in the polls
The Wildcats extended their unbeaten streak to 10 games to open the season this week after they had no troubles with Illinois at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night before blowing out Temple yesterday. They'll have five full days of rest before taking on Syracuse at home this Saturday in their only game this week.
The Bulldogs of Butler were also able to cling on to their top 25 ranking in both polls today, as they dropped eight spots in the AP Poll from 15th to 23rd and six in the Coaches from 19th to 25th after a 65-57 loss at Tennessee yesterday where they were outscored by 21 points in the second half.
The Bulldogs will face off with state rival Indiana in the Crossroads Classic on Saturday before taking on New Orleans on Monday.
The similar cast of characters were again found in the "others receiving votes" category for the Big East this week, with one minor exception. Georgetown remained steady in their position from last week as they came in at 30th and 29th in the AP and Coaches, respectively, while Seton Hall dropped a few spots and received only 14 votes in the AP and 19 in the Coaches.
The Hoyas slipped in the polls this week after their 75-70 loss to 10th-ranked Kansas at home on Wednesday night. Despite a blowout victory over Radford on Saturday, they were still unable to come close to appearing in this week's rankings. Georgetown will now enter a strange part of their schedule (finals? Holidays?) as they play just two games over the next two weeks, first against Charlotte on Saturday and then against Indiana at Madison Square Garden on December 27th.
And the final Big East team to see their name associated with this week's rankings was Seton Hall. The Pirates kept things interesting this week on the road at 11th-ranked Wichita State, but they were unable to pick up what would've been a huge resume-boosting victory and instead suffered their first loss of the young season.
After getting by St. Peter's yesterday, Seton Hall will take a trip down south and face South Florida on Thursday before a game with Georgia on Sunday.
After disappointing weeks, both Creighton and Providence slipped out of the rankings all together and did not receive any votes in either poll. Creighton now sits at 8-3 after they barely squeaked by South Dakota in double overtime before falling to St. Mary's in overtime on Saturday.
And Providence suffered a disheartening 69-60 loss to Brown on Monday of last week for their third straight loss. The Friars are now 8-3 after wins in their last two games.
Harrison, Jordan take home weekly awards
And as always, the Big East weekly awards were handed out today, with St. John's guard D'Angelo Harrison taking home his second straight Big East Player of the Week award. Harrison averaged 24 points and 4 rebounds per game in the two St. John's victories this past week.
Seton Hall's Isaiah Whitehead also repeated as Big East Rookie of the Week after he averaged 14 points for the Pirates this week, including a 23-point outburst against Wichita State on Tuesday.
And finally, guard Rysheed Jordan took home his first accolades of the season with a selection to the Big East Honor Roll this week. Jordan tied his career-high with 24 points yesterday against Fordham.