The Golden Eagles are the only team in the AP top 25 to stay in the exact same spot as last week.
The combination of #1 Tennessee and #6 Kentucky losing on the same day during the past week was bound to cause a whole bunch of topsy turvy changes in the Associated Press top 25 poll when it updated on Monday. That ended up being true, but for our purposes here, there’s one very notable thing about all of those changes.
YOUR Marquette Golden Eagles are the only men’s basketball team in the AP top 25 that did not change their ranking from last week. Everyone else in last week’s top 25 moved at least one spot up or down. But not Marquette, they’re still #7 in the country, same as last week. 50 more points worth of votes, but the exact same spot.
America’s most dependable team, obviously.
MU’s 1,184 points have them a pretty decent chunk of change behind Tennessee, which is now #6 with 1,251 points. The Golden Eagles are also less than 50 points ahead of Kentucky, which slipped two spots to fall one spot behind MU at #8 instead of being one spot ahead like they were last week.
This is the 42nd 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.
Everyone has Marquette somewhere between #5 and #10 this week. That’s right, America’s most dependable team is a consensus top 10 team for the second time this season. There’s a three-way tie for MU’s biggest fan amongst the voters this week between Brice Cherry, Randy Heitz, and Tony Paul, all of whom have Marquette at #5 in the country. Dylan Sinn has them there as well, but that’s DOWN one spot from last week, and so haters can not be the biggest fan. The majority of the votes came in the #7 spot, and if we’re being honest, all but one vote had Marquette in the top eight. No one voted MU at #9, and Adam Lichtenstein has them at #10. Lichtenstein had Marquette at #11 last week, so we’re not gonna be crabby about that one.
Iowa State remains the top ranked team on Marquette’s schedule. The Cyclones moved up to #2 in the country even though they didn’t get a first place vote. UConn tumbled five spots out of the top 10 to #14 this week after losing to Villanova, while Purdue rose up three spots to #17 because they extended their winning streak to five games.
We have two new MU foes in the rankings this week. Georgia enters the top 25 at #23 for their first ranking of the season and the first since 2011. Wisconsin is ranked for the fifth time this season, jumping into the top 25 at #24 thanks to a five game winning streak.
St. John’s missed the top 25 by more than 30 points, landing as the best unranked team in the country with 83 points this week. Maryland (11 points) is the only other MU opponent earning a vote of any kind this week.
Marquette returns to action when they visit DePaul on Tuesday night. Tipoff on CBS Sports Network is scheduled for 6pm Central time.
You can check out the entire top 25 right here, and you can see how everyone voted for Marquette right here.