#10 is still in the top 10, so that’s nine straight weeks in the top 10 for the Golden Eagles.
Well, things were bound to get a little bit shaky for YOUR Marquette Golden Eagles men’s basketball team in regards to the Associated Press top 25 poll this week. Marquette went to overtime with DePaul and lost at home to Xavier over the past seven days while ranked #7 in the country, so you can see how the AP voters might alter their opinions of MU when it came time to turn in their ballot.
And yet, perhaps helped by the teams ranked #2, #4, #5, #6, #8, and #9 losing alongside Marquette over the past week, the Golden Eagles didn’t tumble too far. With 950 points in the polling this week, Marquette is now the #10 ranked team in the country. #9 Kentucky is 107 points in front of the Golden Eagles at 1,057 points, while #11 Purdue landed just 44 points behind Marquette. That’s the difference between a ninth straight week in the top 10 and having the streak broken at eight straight.
This is the 43nd 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.
Last week, Marquette’s votes were pretty well grouped together. That is definitely not true now. Dylan Sinn elected to punt on making a decision, and so he’s MU’s biggest supporter this week after keeping them at #5, same as last week. No one has MU at #6, but there are at least three votes for the Golden Eagles at every spot between #7 and #12. #13 through #15 each got one vote, and Mitchell Northam and Seth Davis wrapped up the voting for Marquette at #18 and #25 respectively. That’s not the last ballot though, as Mike Hlas has dropped MU from #8 in the country last week to completely out of the top 25 this week. At least that’s less weird than when Marquette was #9 and Hlas had them unranked back on December 16th.
Iowa State is still the best ranked team on Marquette’s schedule right now, but they did slip down one spot to #3 in the country after losing at West Virginia. We mentioned Purdue earlier, and the Boilermakers moved up six spots to #11. There are three MU opponents rapid fire in the back half of the top 25. #18 Wisconsin are up six spots from last week, while #19 UConn is five spots down from last week. Right behind both of them is #20 St. John’s, as they move back into the top 25 for the first time since November 18th. They were #22 in the country for two straight weeks earlier this season, so this is the Johnnies’ best ranking since getting the #20 spot on December 15, 2014.
Georgia fell out of the top 25 with a loss in the past week, but they snagged 30 points to be the unofficial #30 team in the country right now. Well, tied with Clemson for that spot at least. Creighton picked up two 25th place votes thanks to their win over UConn, while Maryland is down to just one voter at #25 as well this week.
Marquette returns to action on Tuesday night when they visit Seton Hall. Tipoff on Peacock is set for 7pm Central.
You can check out the entire top 25 right here, and you can see how everyone voted for Marquette right here.