All for merely defeating Northern Illinois by 14.
Well, the good news is that Marquette men’s basketball is earning Associated Press votes for the second week in a row. The bad news is that about half of MU’s points have gone up in smoke over the last week while the Golden Eagles played one game and defeated Northern Illinois by 14 in said one game.
On Monday, the new AP poll came out, and the Golden Eagles were given 23 points worth of votes, down from 41 points last week. Bit of a bummer if we’re being honest. MU is now the unofficial #34 team in the country, down two spots from last week, and tucked between Texas Tech (34 points) and Iowa (9 points) in the Receiving Votes department.
Only six voters turned in a ballot with MU’s name on it, down from seven last week. The Dayton Daily News’ David Jablonski remains MU’s biggest supporter, as he has the Golden Eagles at #14. The other five votes come in the form of two votes at #22 and three at #25.
They slipped from #2 to #5, but UCLA is still the top ranked team on Marquette’s schedule this season. Villanova is one spot behind the Bruins after moving up one spot to #6 this week. Connecticut made a nice little boost, going from #22 to #17 in the new poll, while Wisconsin jumped into the top 25 at #23 after not earning a single vote at all last week. Seton Hall rounds out the top 25 in the last spot in the rankings, down from #21 last week.
The last spot in the top 25 and the first two Receiving Votes spots all have Marquette opponents in them as Illinois (111 points) and St. Bonaventure (106 points) fell out of the rankings this week. Xavier joins those two in their tumble out of the top 25, but they still got 46 points this week to round out the list of MU opponents.
The Golden Eagles will get an ideal chance to prove they belong in the top 25 this weekend, but first they have to face Jackson State on Tuesday night. If they can get through that with a win, then a trip to Madison to face those #23 ranked Badgers presents MU exactly the fuel they need to rocket boost into the top 25 when next Monday’s poll comes around.
You can check out the entire top 25 right here.