#25 in the top 25 is STILL RANKED, eat it, haterzzzzzz
And so, Marquette men’s basketball put their Associated Press top 25 ranking at risk with two losses in the last week to end the regular season. They were #20 in the country last week, and we were left to wonder what the voters would do after a road loss to UConn and home loss in overtime against #6 St. John’s.
The answer?
Put Marquette at #25 in the country!
This is the 50th 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.
Marquette snagged 127 points worth of votes this week. Drake is the best unranked team at 103 points, which is of course a 24 point gap between MU and the Bulldogs. Illinois comes in at #24 with 137 points, just 10 more than Marquette…. and #23 Oregon had 140, just 13 more. Very interesting that Marquette was closer to being #23 than they were to landing outside the top 25, I think.
The Golden Eagles’ top supporter this week is Mark Ziegler, who only dropped Marquette from #13 to #14 over the past week. One vote each at #16 and #17, two at #18, one at #19, and then at least two at each of the last remaining spots in the top 25. 32 people did not vote for Marquette at all, which is a majority of voters with 29 people putting the Golden Eagles somewhere in the top 25.
Beating Marquette did St. John’s no good as far as their ranking goes, as the Red Storm are still #6 in the country this week. That’s still good enough to be the best ranked team on Marquette’s schedule right now, though. Maryland moved up two spots to #11, while Iowa State went the other direction by two spots to #12. Wisconsin is Going Through It right now, tumbling down six spots to #18 after losing for the third time in five games. Purdue is also dipping down, falling two spots to #20 to wrap up the list of ranked MU opponents.
There’s some familiar names down in the Receiving Votes area. UConn has 38 points this week, using their win over Marquette to nudge closer to a spot in the top 25. Creighton gathered up 18 points, while Xavier grabbed one 25th place vote from Noted UConn Honk Dave Borges.
Marquette’s next game will be against those Musketeers, as the two squads face off in the 4/5 game of the Big East tournament quarterfinals. Tipoff is scheduled for 1:30pm Central on Thursday, although that’s pending the end of the first quarterfinal game of the day. No matter what, the broadcast will be exclusively on Peacock.
You can check out the entire top 25 right here, and you can see how everyone voted for Marquette right here.
Follow Anonymous Eagle on social media
Facebook: AnonymousEagle
Instagram: AnonymousEagleSBN
Bluesky: AnonymousEagle