The Golden Eagles move up one spot to #7 this week.
After spending Christmas and New Year’s at #8 in the country, YOUR Marquette Golden Eagles are back to moving up in the world. Wins over Providence and Creighton in the past seven days have given the Associated Press top 25 voters reason to nudge the Golden Eagles a little bit up, as they are now ranked #7 in the country.
This is the 41st 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 grabbed 1,134 points in this week’s balloting, which has them 20 points shy of the 1,154 garnered by #6 Kentucky as the Wildcats leap past MU from the #10 spot last week. The Golden Eagles are almost 100 points ahead of #8 Florida and their 1,045 points, as the Gators sink down from the #6 spot after losing to Kentucky over the weekend.
Every voter has Marquette in the top 11 this week. Dylan Sinn leads the way as the only voter with MU at #4, and he’s way out in front of everyone since there are no #5 votes this week. Most of the voters put Marquette at #6 or #7, but they still got at least three votes at #8, #9, and #10. Adam Lichtenstein is your low voter this week as the only ballot with MU outside the top 10. In his defense, he did move Marquette up from #13 last week.
The top five spots in the AP poll all stayed the same from last week, so #3 Iowa State are still the top ranked team on Marquette’s schedule this week. UConn moved up two spots to join the Golden Eagles and the Cyclones in the top 10 at #9. Purdue stayed steady at #20 to round out the list of ranked opponents.
We have some interesting things happening in the Receiving Votes department this week. Wisconsin is the best team on MU’s slate in that area of the polling, getting 31 points worth of votes to be the unofficial #30 team in the country. St. John’s is four points and one spot behind them, while Maryland are down at seven points. Georgia is just one point behind the Terps, and speaking of one point! The collection of teams with one 25th place vote this week is a glimpse at Marquette’s schedule, kind of. Dayton fell very far after getting shelled by George Washington but not completely off the national radar, while Georgetown’s winning streak earned the attention of one voter. Finally, there’s Xavier, getting one #25 vote from Eric Newman, their first AP vote of any kind since December 2nd. Xavier has lost four of their last five games, including a 69-63 defeat on Saturday on the road at ….. Georgetown. Eric. What are we doing here. For what it’s worth, Newman has Marquette at #7, so he’s not completely discombobulated.
Marquette returns to action on Tuesday night when they host Georgetown and their one 25th place vote at Fiserv Forum. Tipoff is set for 7pm Central, and CBS Sports Network will have the broadcast.
You can see the entire top 25 right here, and you can see how everyone voted for Marquette right here.
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