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Tag: Gonzaga Bulldogs men's basketball

  • Arizona takes No. 1 in AP Top 25 men’s basketball poll, Iowa State up to No. 4, Gonzaga into top 10

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    Arizona took over the top spot in the AP Top 25 men’s college basketball poll on Monday, a reward for a perfect start to the season that includes a quartet of wins against ranked foes, including a lopsided victory over Auburn last weekend.

    Purdue, which had spent the past three weeks at No. 1, slid to sixth following its 81-58 home loss to Iowa State and the entire poll got a shakeup as only two teams remained in the same spots from last week.

    The Wildcats received 33 of 60 first-place votes from a national media panel to claim No. 1 for the first time since Dec. 11, 2023, and only the third time since the 2013-14 season. They edged No. 2 Michigan, which earned 19 first-place votes, thanks in part to wins over Florida, UConn and UCLA, along with their 97-68 romp over the then-No. 20 Tigers on Saturday night.

    “Obviously it’s nothing you shy away from,” Wildcats coach Tommy Lloyd said of being No. 1. “You know, you’re at Arizona. The big stage. It’s part of being at a program like this. But we have bigger things on our mind.”

    The Wolverines also moved up one spot for their best ranking since March 2021. Duke claimed six first-place votes and moved up to No. 3. And the Cyclones parlayed their big win in West Lafayette, Indiana, into a six-spot climb to No. 4 and a first-place vote. Iowa State has never been ranked No. 1 in the AP poll era, which began with the 1948-49 season.

    “They stole our spirit,” said Purdue coach Matt Painter, whose team tied a record for largest margin of defeat at home as the nation’s No. 1 team. “Our reason for having a high frustration level was them. They’re damn good. They took us to the woodshed.”

    UConn remained ahead of Purdue at No. 5 after beating Kansas inside Allen Fieldhouse last week.

    Houston was seventh, Gonzaga climbed three spots to eighth, Michigan State was ninth and BYU rounded the top 10 following a week of high-profile matchups across college basketball.

    Louisville dropped five spots to No. 11 after losing to Arkansas. Alabama remained at No. 12, followed by Illinois, North Carolina and Vanderbilt, the only unbeaten team left in the SEC and one of just eight left in Division I men’s basketball.

    Texas Tech was next, followed by the Razorbacks, who jumped eight spots after also beating Fresno State last week. Florida fell to No. 18 following its 67-66 loss to the Blue Devils, while Kansas moved up to No. 19 and Tennessee finished out the top 20.

    The last five in the poll were Auburn, St. John’s, Nebraska, Virginia and UCLA.

    The No. 23 Huskers are 9-0 for only the third time in school history, and they have won 13 straight dating to last season, the third-longest run in school history. The ranking is their best since they were 21st the second week of the 2014-15 season.

    Rising and falling

    Arkansas was No. 14 in the preseason poll, nearly dropped out entirely, but made a big jump this week back to No. 17 following its two wins. Iowa State’s climb to No. 4 has been a steady one since it was ranked 16th in the preseason poll.

    Tennessee tumbled seven spots to No. 20 this week following losses to Syracuse and Illinois. Purdue and Louisville each fell five spots.

    In and out

    Nebraska and Virginia both made their poll debuts, replacing Indiana and USC. The Cavaliers did not receive a single vote last week but earned enough to join the rankings at No. 24. UCLA also returned to the rankings while Kentucky dropped out.

    Conference watch

    The Big 12, Big Ten and SEC lead the way with six ranked teams apiece, but the Big 12 has the nation’s No. 1 team. It also has four in the top 10, while the Big Ten has three and the SEC none. The ACC has four ranked teams, the Big East two and the West Coast one.

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    Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here and here (AP News mobile app). AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball

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  • Gonzaga, Timme move to Sweet 16 with 84-81 win over TCU

    Gonzaga, Timme move to Sweet 16 with 84-81 win over TCU

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    DENVER (AP) — Drew Timme added something new to his twisting, turning, head-faking, mustachioed repertoire — a 3-pointer to help Gonzaga get over the hump and back to the Sweet 16.

    The Gonzaga big man extended his one-of-a-kind college career by at least one more game, finishing with 28 points Sunday to help the Zags make their eighth straight Sweet 16 with a come-from-behind 84-81 win over TCU.

    Timme made his first 3 since December — and only his third of the season — as part of a 13-1 run that helped the third-seeded Zags (30-5) take a seven-point lead with just under nine minutes left after trailing most of the night.

    “It was huge — the clock, the two-point lead,” Timme said of the margin before he made his shot. “I just launched one up there. All you can do is smile and laugh.”

    After TCU pulled back within three late, Timme made a twisting shot in the lane with a defender draped all over him to trigger a 4-0 mini-run that put the game out of reach.

    Next stop for the 6-foot-10 senior and his social media-friendly mustache: Las Vegas for the West Region semifinals and a meeting with UCLA on Thursday. It will be a rematch of the teams’ Final Four game two years ago, when Jalen Suggs banked one in from the half-court logo at the buzzer for the win.

    Mike Miles Jr. finished with 24 points and four assists in his second straight electric game for the sixth-seeded Horned Frogs (22-13), who were trying to win two games in the same tournament for the first time in program history.

    Gonzaga coach Mark Few pulled Miles aside briefly during the postgame handshake.

    “He said that he’s coached a lot NBA players and that I am one,” Miles said. “It’s appreciated.”

    Damion Baugh finished with 15 points for TCU, including a not-so-meaningless 3 he hit at the buzzer to help the Horned Frogs cover the 4.5-point spread listed on FanDuel Sportsbook.

    Small consolation for TCU, though for 30 minutes-plus, the Frogs looked like very much like one of the 16 best teams in the country. They came at the Bulldogs in waves, trying to stop Timme with every big man on the roster.

    But while the Gonzaga big man worked for every one of his 12 baskets and his eight rebounds, TCU’s bigs were all in foul trouble as the game wound down. One of the two Horned Frogs who fouled out was JaKobe Coles, who made the last-second runner that gave TCU the first-round win against Arizona State.

    “Obviously, it was pretty early in the first half when we had to make some adjustments, play a lot of different lineups, probably even deeper than I thought we would,” TCU coach Jamie Dixon said.

    TCU had led by as many as 10 in the first half.

    Rasir Bolton (17 points) led Gonzaga’s first big run. His two 3-pointers and another by Julian Strawther gave the Bulldogs a 46-45 lead after they had missed 12 of their 14 attempts from behind the arc in the first half.

    Strawther, a Las Vegas native, will head home for his team’s next game. And Timme joined a list that includes Bill Bradley, Elvin Hayes and Danny Manning as only the seventh player with nine NCAA Tournament games of 20-plus points.

    “I think he’s going to go down as one of the all-time great college players in the history of the game,” Few said. “And he still wasn’t supposed to shoot that 3. But that’s what makes him good. He does things like that every once in a while.”

    TIMME ON SOCIAL MEDIA

    Timme said he was annoyed by what he called “some nice things on the internet before” the game that took shots at him and Gonzaga. “Throw a little lighter fluid on the fire if you wish,” he said. “I thought TCU was a highly educated school, and they didn’t sound so smart with their comments pregame, so you know. …”

    SWEET 16 ANNIVERSARY

    The meeting Thursday with UCLA in Vegas will fall on the 16th anniversary of their classic Sweet 16 game, won 73-71 by the Bruins. Over the final, frenetic 40 seconds, UCLA made two steals, scored the last five points and left Zags star Adam Morrison nearly crying on the court.

    ONE FEWER BIG MAN

    With TCU’s big men in foul trouble, one difference might have been the absence of Eddie Lampkin. Lampkin, a key cog in the TCU frontcourt much of the year, entered the transfer portal just before the Big 12 tournament.

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    AP March Madness coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madnes and bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25

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