Local Sports

After Big Week, Illinois Inching Closer to No. 1 Seed in NCAA Tournament

Gonzaga received 61 of 63 first-place votes from a media panel in The Associated Press men’s college basketball poll released Monday as they attempt to become the first wire-to-wire No. 1 since Kentucky in 2014-15.

 

Baylor had two first-place votes and moved back into the No. 2 slot after dropping a spot last week.

Illinois, Michigan and Iowa rounded out the top 5. No. 8 Arkansas is in the top 10 for the first time since reaching No. 1 in 1994-95.

 

No. 12 Oklahoma State and No. 16 Virginia had the biggest jumps of the week, moving up five spots each. 

 

No. 25 Oklahoma had the biggest drop, falling nine places after losing four consecutive games, including 69-65 to No. 13 Texas on Thursday. 

 

Southern California moved into the Top 25 at No. 24 after beating Stanford and rival UCLA last week. 

 

Wisconsin dropped out from No. 25 following losses to Iowa and No. 23 Purdue.

 

 

Michigan may have gotten the No. 1 seed in the Big Ten Tournament and a claim of the regular-season championship, but AP voters are giving the nod to Illinois as the best team in the conference after the Fighting Illini handed the Wolverines one of their two losses in the final week of the season.

 

No. 1 Gonzaga was off all week, and held its spot at No. 1 with 61-first place votes. Baylor moved up one spot to No. 2 in the reshuffling of the top four, picking up two first-place votes after a tremendous week that included three wins against ranked teams, and Illinois was bumped up to No. 3, one spot ahead of Michigan. The voters appear to be honoring the head-to-head result over winning percentage, which was used to crown the Wolverines as league champions heading into the conference tournament.

 

Oklahoma State moved up five spots to No. 12 after a busy week that included a sweep of rival Oklahoma, a loss to Baylor that included Cade Cunningham suffering an ankle injury and then a Cunningham-less win at West Virginia. The Mountaineers went 1-2 last week, sandwiching a win against TCU between losses to the Bears and Cowboys, and fell four spots to No. 10.

 

Villanova and Florida State were both notable for finishing the regular season with a loss, the Wildcats against Providence and the Seminoles at Notre Dame, and each dropped four spots in the rankings to No. 14 and No. 15, respectively. Virginia got a boost after its two wins helped propel it to the program's fifth ACC regular-season title in the last eight years, moving up five spots to No. 16.

 

The biggest movement in either direction was Oklahoma's nine-spot drop to No. 25 following losses to Oklahoma State and Texas. Wisconsin was the only team to drop out of the rankings, clearing the way for USC's arrival at No 24 following its epic buzzer-beating win at UCLA.

Townhall Top of the Hour News

Local Weather - Sponsored By:

CLINTON WEATHER

Local News

DeWittDN on Facebook