Big 8 Rivals Still 1 and 2 in Cage Poll

Big Eight foes Missouri and Kansas remained 1 and 2 in the college basketball poll today, with Arkansas, Michigan and Duke each improving three places from last week to round out the top five.

The Tigers (19-1) held the top spot for the second straight week with 59 first-place votes and 1,569 points from the nationwide panel of sportswriters and broadcasters.

Missouri struggled in its first game as a No. 1 team in seven years, beating Rutgers 89-84. It followed that with an easy win over Colorado.

Kansas (20-1), which was No. 1 for two weeks before losing to Missouri on Jan. 20, received the other four first-place votes and finished with 1,510 points.

The three teams that improved three places from last week each had two conference victories in as many games.

Arkansas (17-2) beat Houston and Texas to stay unbeaten in the Southwest Conference and received 1,349 points. Michigan (15-3) downed Big Ten rivals Northwestern and Michigan State and had 1,285 points, 62 more than Duke, which beat North Carolina State and Georgia Tech in Atlantic Coast Conferences games last week.

Georgetown, which had been third, was sixth and was followed in the Top Ten by Syracuse, Purdue, Oklahoma and Louisville.

The Hoyas (15-2) lost to Big East rival Syracuse (14-3) on Saturday--the Orangemen’s first win ever at the Capital Centre--and received 1,190 points, 49 more than Syracuse.

Purdue (15-2) is the surprising Big Ten leader, and the Boilermakers moved from 13th to eighth with 1,034 points. Oklahoma (14-2) straightened out from a two-game losing streak and stayed ninth with 993 points, just two more than Louisville (14-3), which dropped from fourth after losing to DePaul on Saturday.

Illinois (15-3) led the Second Ten with 969 points and was followed by UNLV, Connecticut, Louisiana State, La Salle, UCLA, Georgia Tech, St. John’s, Minnesota and Loyola Marymount.

Oregon State topped the final five ahead of Indiana, Xavier, Ohio, Arizona and North Carolina.

The Tar Heels’ No. 25 ranking put them back in the poll after missing the last four weeks and six of seven after having been ranked every week for almost seven years.

North Carolina (15-6), which was seventh in the preseason voting, came back to the rankings with victories over Clemson and Wake Forest.

Dropping from the poll was Alabama (14-5). The Crimson Tide, 24th last week, lost to Tennessee and beat Auburn last week.

Connecticut, which has won its last three Big East games over Syracuse, Georgetown and St. John’s, improved seven places from last week’s No. 20 ranking and that jump was matched by UCLA, which was 16th after a Pac-10 victory over Oregon State.

The biggest drop of a ranked team was Indiana’s fall from 12th to 22nd after Big Ten losses to Michigan State and Minnesota by 18 and 19 points, respectively.

THE TOP 25

The top 25 teams in the AP college basketball poll, with first-place votes in parentheses.

1--Missouri (59): 19-1

2--Kansas (4): 20-1

3--Arkansas: 17-2

4--Michigan: 15-3

5--Duke: 16-3

6--Georgetown: 15-2

7--Syracuse: 14-3

8--Purdue: 15-2

9--Oklahoma: 14-2

10--Louisville: 14-3

11--Illinois: 15-3

12--Nevada Las Vegas: 14-4

13--Connecticut: 17-3

14--LSU: 14-4

15--La Salle: 15-1

16--UCLA: 14-3

17--Georgia Tech: 12-4

18--St. John’s: 17-4

19--Minnesota: 14-4

20--Loyola Marymount: 15-3

21--Oregon State: 15-3

22--Indiana: 13-4

23--Xavier (Ohio): 15-2

24--Arizona: 12-4

25--North Carolina: 15-6