Kansas still No. 1 in AP poll; Syracuse No. 10

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Syracuse was so impressive in the 2K Sports Classic that it made one of the best entrances ever into The Associated Press’ college basketball poll.

The Orange, who beat California and North Carolina by an average of 19 points in winning the tournament at Madison Square Garden, went from unranked to No. 10 on Monday, the third-best jump-in in poll history.

Kansas was still the runaway No. 1 and Michigan State and Texas held on to second and third in the second poll of the regular season, but that’s where the changes started after a week that saw six ranked teams lose, including California and Dayton, which both lost twice and dropped out.

Notre Dame (4-0) and Vanderbilt (2-0) moved into the rankings this week at No. 23 and 24, respectively, while Georgia Tech also fell out.

Kansas (3-0) received 56 first-place votes from the 65-member national media panel, while Michigan State (4-0) had seven and Texas (2-0) got one. Syracuse received the other vote for No. 1.

Villanova, which won the Puerto Rico Tip-Off, and Kentucky, which wasn’t impressive in wins over Miami of Ohio, Sam Houston State and Rider, switched places at fourth and fifth. Purdue moved up one spot to sixth and Duke moved up two to seventh.

West Virginia held eighth and Tennessee moved up one place to ninth.

Then came the Orange, who beat then-No. 13 California 95-73 and then-No. 6 North Carolina 87-71 in the tournament that benefits Coaches vs. Cancer.

“I just watched the tape of the second half of the Carolina game and it was unbelievable,” Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said Monday of the half that started with a 22-1 run.

The Orange didn’t look anything like the team that lost an exhibition game to Division II LeMoyne earlier in the month.

“I just wanted to find out if we could play some man-to-man this year. LeMoyne executed well and they have a nice team. We played man-to-man and realized we can’t. We tried to play 10 guys and realized we can’t,” Boeheim said of the exhibition loss. “We learned from that, went back to working on the zone and intensified it a bit and came right out against Albany and Robert Morris and played really good defense. The defense is better than the past few years. The offense could be, but the defense is better and that’s what has been the difference.”

The most impressive move from unranked to ranked was Kansas’ jump in to No. 4 in 1989 after beating No. 2 LSU, No. 1 UNLV and No. 25 St. John’s in the Preseason NIT.

Second on the list was Arizona coming in at No. 8 in 2001 following wins over No. 2 Maryland and No. 7 Florida in the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic and a victory over No. 23 Texas.

North Carolina, which has one starter back from last season’s national championship team, dropped to 11th and was followed by Butler, Connecticut, Washington, Michigan, Louisville, Ohio State, Georgetown, Clemson and Illinois.

Maryland was No. 21, followed by Minnesota, Notre Dame, Vanderbilt and Oklahoma.

California (2-2) dropped out from 13th after the semifinal loss to Syracuse and a 76-70 loss to Ohio State in the third-place game.

Dayton (2-2) beat Georgia Tech 63-59 in the opening round of the tournament in Puerto Rico then lost 71-65 to Villanova and 83-75 to Kansas State 83-75 and fell out from 18th.

Even though Georgia Tech rallied from the loss to Dayton with wins over George Mason and Boston University, the Yellow Jackets dropped out from 21st.

The other ranked teams to lose last week were Ohio State to North Carolina in the 2K Sports Classic semifinals and Oklahoma, which lost at Virginia Commonwealth.

Syracuse and Notre Dame join Villanova, West Virginia, Connecticut, Louisville and Georgetown to give the Big East seven teams in the Top 25, two off the record the 16-team conference set in the Jan. 5, 2009 poll.

Updated Nov 23, 7:36 pm EST
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307 Comments

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  1. diamond
    307. Posted by diamond Thu Nov 26 12:11pm EST

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    Kentucky overated

    Louisville underated

    Kentucky will win the SEC and probably end up with a #2 seed in the NCAA Tounament

    Louisville will probably be runner up in the Big east and win the Big East Tournament/# 2 seed in NCAA Tournament

    Watch out for Memphis!

    GO CARDS!
  2. samuel c
    306. Posted by samuel c Tue Nov 24 9:02pm EST

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    #258 you forgot indiana
  3. samuel c
    305. Posted by samuel c Tue Nov 24 8:56pm EST

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    steve #281 are you serious duke and unc dont play anyone have you seen uncs schedule ohiost was ranked syracuse would have been had they not lost to whoever it was they also play michigan st and texas back to back and then they play kentucky i hardly consider those teams nobodys as far as duke i havent seen theyre schedule but im sure its just as impressive as far as not leaving the state come tournament time they earn that right just like other team do and the other team usually goes out west depending on theyre record and the officals dont do them any favors either the big east teams are more physical so theyre ganna get fouls called on them i dont her theyre coaches @#$%ing about it go acc go unc
  4. yankeeboy
    304. Posted by yankeeboy Tue Nov 24 7:08pm EST

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    ok Bobby Boy what are you a F in REDNECK ???????? still livin in the civil war you douche bag !!!!!!!!!!
    and flemmester, yes they were ranked in the espn/usa 25th, but unranked in the AP, point wise they were like 42nd lololol see ya tourney time Bobby BOY
  5. <i>stealth0186</i>
    303. Posted by stealth0186 Tue Nov 24 6:29pm EST

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    In response to #293
    Syracuse was ranked on the USA Today /ESPN Poll but not the AP25 Poll
  6. <i>sportsnbikes@...</i>
    302. Posted by sportsnbikes@... Tue Nov 24 1:30pm EST

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    NUMBER 26 Nevasatisfiedone--

    You can say what you want about KU, Kansas or make fun of us all you want. But you are crossing a line with the comment about the tornados that destroyed an entire community and left an entire town in peril. You are a piece of SH** for that!! Karma is a BI**H and you will surely get yours in one form or another!

    PS...Roy is the one who says Awe shucks and dadgum and other hick comments like that...and I don't even hate him for it...that's just the way he talks!
  7. joec
    301. Posted by joec Tue Nov 24 1:06pm EST

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    @ b080703b

    Just ignore the Big Beast haters bro, most people realize it'll be the cuse, nova, and wvu that'll make a heck of a lot of noise come tournament time.
  8. Common Knowledge
    300. Posted by Common Knowledge Tue Nov 24 12:57pm EST

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    #275 - Beezy

    My repsonse is best summed up by 298 - b080703b, who says he actually played for the school that is the same "piece of crap team," as you so eloquently put it, that I am from so I will defer any comments to the said former Villanova player. However, let me add Hubert Davis' comment, made on more than one occasion over the 3 days, that the Puerto Rico Tip-Off is the best pre-season tournament this year with potentially 7 of the 8 teams (all except Indiana) NCAA tournament bound this season.
  9. Daniel
    299. Posted by Daniel Tue Nov 24 12:15pm EST

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    Wow? An unranked team, SU, beats a Top 10 team, NC, and the polls actually work and move the winner ahead of the loser.
    Quite a surprise as the darlings of D1 like: UNC, Duke, Kansas, Kentucky,..., are usually protected from such negative drops which other teams are subjected.
    I guess it is early enough in the season that pollsters do not need to flex the political muscle.
    I bet February voting would have been much different!
  10. <i>b080703b</i>
    298. Posted by b080703b Tue Nov 24 11:35am EST

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    In response to Jay Williams, alias Jayson Williams, alias NBA bust; on his comments about the most overrated team being Villanova. Let's just say Villanova lost Dante Cunningham and Dwayne Anderson two hard working and under appreciated three star players from last year's final four. Yes, they are sorely missed; however, Nova picked up one five star 6'10" center, three four star guards and small forward, a three star 6'11" center and a 6'6" four star transfer. Add that to 3 starters from last year's team; and, I included Antonio Pena as a starter until he missed seven foul shots in the one point loss to Louisville, plus the best sixth man in the Big East in Fisher (a five star player) and a highly competitive three point shooter in Corey Stokes (also a five star player); and, just for measure you add Scotty Reynolds (a four star player) who is just starting to get back into competitive shape. I wouldn't consider this team as over rated.
    Let's see, Duke, lost their best player in Henderson and have the basic core of what they had last year plus a freshman or two. Currently playing sisters of the poor teams like they always do. And, of yes, lost to Nova by 20 plus points last year.
    If anyone's over rated it has to be DUKE!
    As a former Nova player I take offense to the comment that J.Williams made about VU. He also didn't know that two of Nova's starters didn't even play in Puerto Rico. You lose one starter against today's competition and it's trouble, lose two it's devastating. And, Nova still found a way to win. That's a top ten team and not over rated.
    I wish we could play DUKE tomorrow and give them another butt kicking. But, they better hope they don't run into us come March or they'll be going home early from the tournament.
    Oh yes, I played for Nova and am a product of NJ basketball.
  11. playball
    297. Posted by playball Tue Nov 24 9:22am EST

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    well, well, well. here we are again, think what about if you play and wins 18 games against non conference ( small school) and 10 conference games that make you the best team in the NCAA, I'm from a Island in the carebean sea I thinks the BIG EAST its the most hard Conference in the NCAA 1 (18 Team in the BIG EAST 9 team in the top 25 its hard to stay in the top) but its to early in the game I'll see you in March.
  12. Bobby B
    296. Posted by Bobby B Tue Nov 24 12:44am EST

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    YankeeBOY.You are just wwhat your name says.A BOY.I cant stand a dam yankee.
  13. <i>flemmster403</i>
    295. Posted by flemmster403 Mon Nov 23 11:47pm EST

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    First off... LeMoyne was a preseason game... if it counted for ANYTHING it would not be a preseason game.... not to mention Syracuse did not run their patent 2-3 zone defense once the ENTIRE game ......they didn't want their first few opponents to have any film on their zone
  14. Brian M
    294. Posted by Brian M Mon Nov 23 11:32pm EST

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    The only bitterness will be out of the 'Cuse when they have an average record, get the seed they deserve, Boeheim whines and cries about it like every March, and they lose to a mid major in the second.
  15. <i>flemmster403</i>
    293. Posted by flemmster403 Mon Nov 23 11:14pm EST

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    if i recall correctly, SU was ranked 24th last week, not unranked..... correct me if i am wrong
  16. Susan C
    292. Posted by Susan C Mon Nov 23 11:08pm EST

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    To Brian M # 269............BITTER, PARTY of ONE!
  17. I HATE SPAM!
    291. Posted by I HATE SPAM! Mon Nov 23 10:51pm EST

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    'Ginger' the SPAMMER is a SCAM! Site is full of MAL-WARE to steal info....The accts & pics used here are hacked....5th username in 2 days!! Help report these THIEVES!!
  18. Ed
    290. Posted by Ed Mon Nov 23 10:35pm EST

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    Indyfan @287 and 286 - clueless is hiring Kelvin Sampson ... ;-)

    Now as for 1987, that was a great game. Of course, that was 22 years ago. Did you just wake up from a coma and pull the bottom newspaper from the stack?
  19. JamesA
    289. Posted by JamesA Mon Nov 23 10:23pm EST

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    I hope syracuse does well!! Earlier this season or preseason no one even jocked on the cuse! Now yall got them winning the championship? Come on now!! Cuse fans not believe that and if u do; dont bet your money on it. What a waste of federal notes!!!!!
  20. warrenL
    288. Posted by warrenL Mon Nov 23 9:40pm EST

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    well. listen up all u duke haters.. the thing about duke is that they are students that just play basketball. and they kisk ass when they do it on the court.. they just get screwed at ncaa tournament time 'coz everyone just get sick of seeing them.. and when they do win national championships.. they WIN them.. not by some "time out " by the other team or getting the ball "handed " to them. by the other team.... hint, hint....lol.. . all the other teams get the players that cant cut it at the most " regal" program in the nation.... duke always puts acedemics first..so put that in your pipe and smoke it... go, D U K E...!!!
  21. hecubis
    287. Posted by hecubis Mon Nov 23 9:36pm EST

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    not that it really matters..early season and all..but how does Notre Dame move up four spots playing NOBODY?
  22. <i>modelswanted62</i>
    286. Posted by modelswanted62 Mon Nov 23 9:33pm EST

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    talk about a fix what a joke just the coach and name i guess
  23. Indy Fan
    285. Posted by Indy Fan Mon Nov 23 9:29pm EST

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    87 not 81-mybad! call me -q-less
  24. Indy Fan
    284. Posted by Indy Fan Mon Nov 23 9:23pm EST

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    1981 Keith Smart from the baseline........4....3....2.....1 oh yea let's call time out.....Q-less then Q-less now - come tourney time they'll be throwin Coleman-esque bricks at the line,,,Q-LESS
  25. <i>bendgod</i>
    283. Posted by bendgod Mon Nov 23 9:15pm EST

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    You mean the doc is back in the house?
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