Bruins rise to No. 5 in polls

After UCLA moved to 11-1 last Saturday with its 69-54 victory over Michigan, Coach Ben Howland said he was not satisfied with how this season has progressed.

“I’d rather be 12-0,” Howland said. “I’d rather we never would have had the injuries to Michael Roll and Darren Collison but the fact is, 11-1 is not all bad. We could have lost to Davidson, we could have won that Texas game.”

That 11-1 record was good enough to move the Bruins to fifth in both the Associated Press poll and the ESPN/USA Today’s coaches’ poll from eighth in both polls last week.

In fact, both major polls had the same top 10 with North Carolina, Memphis, Kansas, Washington State and UCLA the top five and Pittsburgh, Michigan State, Georgetown, Texas and Duke next.

USC moved from 25th to 24th in the AP poll and remained unranked in the coaches’ poll.

UCLA had been ranked as high as No. 1 in the coaches’ poll and No. 2 in AP before losing at home in the final seconds to Texas. After UCLA won Saturday, Howland said he would pay close attention to Saturday’s game between Texas and Michigan State. UCLA beat the Spartans to win the CBE Classic last month.

“It will be an interesting game,” Howland said. “I guess I’m rooting for MSU tonight. Go Spartans.” And the Spartans won.

Michigan State’s victory helped UCLA move up. Bruins forward Josh Shipp said after the game that although the polls don’t matter, “It would be nice to see us back in the top five.”

Washington State’s No. 4 ranking in both polls was its highest ever, but with Oregon’s upset loss to Oakland in Auburn Hills, Mich., the Pacific 10 Conference was down to five ranked teams -- Washington State, UCLA, Arizona and USC in AP and Washington State, UCLA, Arizona and Stanford in the coaches’ poll.

UCLA is more likely to gain ground than lose it in the next poll. The Bruins have only one game this week with UC Davis coming to Pauley Pavilion on Saturday. The only game between ranked teams is Arizona at Memphis, also Saturday.

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diane.pucin@latimes.com