I’m legitimately surprised the voters pulled the trigger on it.
I did some musing about how Feast “Week” results might affect YOUR Marquette Golden Eagles men’s basketball team and their Associated Press ranking on Sunday. I figured there’s be a rise for Marquette, but it wouldn’t be too dramatic. I trusted the voters to not go crazy with their reactions to “only lost their third game in five days after two wins” and that kind of a thing.
Nope, voters said “the hell with anyone who lost this week,” threw them all behind Marquette, and ascended the Golden Eagles to #5 in Monday’s brand new AP poll.
I’ll take it! This is Marquette’s highest ranking since they were #5 in the country….. last season, on February 26th, fresh off a 24 point home win against Xavier.
Marquette snagged 1,246 points in this week’s poll. They fell 21 points short of #4 Kentucky, but ended up 21 points ahead of #6 Iowa State, who were last week’s #5 team but unfortunately took a loss to then-#4 Auburn Tigers. ISU is definitely one of the teams that I didn’t expect to drop, but there they are, down one spot.
This is the 36th 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.
Six brave souls, including The Internet’s Jon Rothstein, voted Marquette at #3 in the country this week. That’s pretty neat. MU picked up multiple votes at every spot between #3 and #7, took a break, and then came back with four more at #9. Toyloy Brown is the last voter to install the Golden Eagles as a top 10 team, while Jeff Neiburg decided that MU is only #12 this week. In Jeff’s defense, he had them at #12 last week, and if we’re being honest, MU didn’t do anything that impressive by running through Stonehill and Western Carolina.
For the first time this season, there is no one ranked ahead of Marquette on their schedule this season. The aforementioned Iowa State squad has taken over as the top ranked team on the schedule as they come in at #6 right now, and yep, that’s MU’s very next game. Purdue is up five spots this week to be the only other opponent that’s in the top 10 right now.
Moving down the rankings, we have the other half of MU’s schedule this week at #11 in the Wisconsin. That’s a four spot bump for them and sets up a very important nationally relevant game at Fiserv on Saturday. The only other ranked team on the schedule right now is UConn, as the Huskies drop twenty-three spots from #2 to #25 this week after going oh-fer in Maui. They stayed in the top 25 by just 15 points ahead of Michigan State.
54 teams earned at least one vote somewhere in the top 25 this week, so things are a bit of a mess to say the least. Xavier is the best MU opponent in the Receiving Votes territory, picking up 33 points to be the unofficial #33 team in the country. That’s fun. Dayton (24 points), Maryland (13), Creighton (12), Georgia (10), St. John’s (7), and….. well, holy cow, look at this. Rounding out the Receiving Votes teams on MU’s schedule this week? DePaul, with three points, as Mike Hlas voted them #23 in the country. Mike is one of the people with MU at #3, so he’s obviously very smart and tuned in.
Marquette returns to action on Wednesday when they visit #6 Iowa State. Tipoff is set for 7pm Central time at Hilton Coliseum, and ESPN+ will have the broadcast.
You can check out the entire top 25 right here, and you can see how everyone voted for Marquette right here.