No one in the top 13 of the rankings moved since last week.
As I type this, Marquette men’s basketball hasn’t played a game since December 21st. It’s the ninth straight day without a game, and that means we’re on our second Associated Press top 25 poll since the last game happened. To the surprise of no one, Marquette is still #8 in the country this week, same as they were last week.
In fact, everyone in the top 13 of the poll is in the exact same place that they were last week. Congrats to Houston for being the team to break that trend by moving up one spot to #14 from a week ago, but they’ve been idle since the 21st as well. The Cougars moved because Gonzaga slipped out of the #14 spot because of their three point loss to UCLA on Saturday.
This is the 40th consecutive week that Marquette has been in the AP top 25 after appearing in all 21 polls a year ago. We have not seen a run like this in the Associated Press poll since the 1970s, and hooooooooboy, we’re in for a treat if Shaka Smart gets to this mark. This is the longest AP run since MU appeared in every ranking from December 29, 1969 through December 3, 1979. Nearly 10 full years! 166 consecutive polls! Al McGuire was good at his job.
Marquette is in the exact same ranking spot as they were a week ago, but someone is a coward and changed their ballot from last week. MU is the exact same team they were last week, record-wise, but they have gone from 1,038 points to 1,037 points now. The good news is that the Golden Eagles did gain ground on #7 Kansas (47 points away, down from 59), while the medium news is that #9 Oregon (58 points away, down from 68) also gained ground on Marquette.
With no one moving in the top 13, Iowa State is your top ranked team on Marquette’s schedule again, holding steady at #3. UConn is the next best ranked team and best Big East foe at #11. Purdue used a win over Toledo to bump up one spot to #20 this week to round out the list of ranked MU opponents.
As was the case a week ago, we’re on the edge of having six Marquette opponents in the top 25. Maryland (133 points) missed the rankings by just seven points, while St. John’s (98) and Dayton (90) are the third and fourth teams outside the top 25 respectively. Georgia (48) and Wisconsin (7) are still on the national radar as well.
Marquette returns to action on Tuesday evening when they visit Providence for a New Year’s Eve clash at the AMP. I’m sure nothing weird will happen. Tipoff on FS1 is scheduled for 5pm Central time.
You can check out the entire top 25 right here, and you can see how everyone voted for Marquette right here.