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Duke tops AP Top 25 Michigan State moves to No. 2; Cincy drops to No. 7
Posted: Monday March 13, 2000 11:50 PM
NEW YORK (AP) -- Duke, Michigan State, Stanford and Arizona, the No. 1 seeds in the NCAA tournament, held the top four spots Monday in the final Associated Press college basketball poll of the season. The Blue Devils (27-4) jumped from third to No. 1, the second straight season they finished the season on top of the rankings. It is the eighth season, and third in a row, of coach Mike Krzyzewski's 19 at Duke that the Blue Devils were ranked No. 1 at some point during the season. The Atlantic Coast Conference regular season and tournament champions received 58 first-place votes and 1,729 points from the national media panel, easily outdistancing Michigan State (26-7), which got six No. 1 votes and 1,628 points. The Spartans moved from fifth to second after winning the Big Ten tournament for the second straight year. Stanford and Arizona, the Pac-10 co-champions, were third and fourth. The Cardinal (26-3) dropped one spot from last week after losing to Arizona and beating Arizona State, while the Wildcats (26-6) jumped from ninth to No. 4 after closing the regular season with wins over Stanford and California. Stanford was No. 1 on three ballots, one more than Arizona. Temple and Iowa State each moved up one spot to fifth and sixth. Cincinnati, which was No. 1 last week, dropped to seventh following its loss to Saint Louis in the quarterfinals of the Conference USA tournament. Star center Kenyon Martin broke a leg three minutes into that game, the third loss in 31 games for the Bearcats, who still received one first-place vote. Cincinnati held the No. 1 ranking for a total of 12 weeks this season. Stanford was on top for five weeks and Connecticut, the defending national champion, was No. 1 in the preseason poll. Ohio State dropped four spots to eighth, while St. John's, the Big East champion, leaped from No. 19 to ninth, the same ranking the Red Storm had in last year's final poll. LSU rounded out the Top Ten for the second straight week. Tennessee dropped from No. 8 to lead the Second Ten and was followed by Oklahoma, Florida, Oklahoma State, Texas, Syracuse, Maryland, Tulsa, Kentucky and Connecticut. The last five teams were Illinois, Indiana, Miami, Auburn and Purdue. Auburn, which lost to Arkansas in the Southeastern Conference championship game, returned to the rankings after a one-week absence. The Tigers replaced Kansas, which dropped out from 24th after losing to Oklahoma State in the Big 12 quarterfinals, the only week this season the Jayhawks weren't ranked. This is the 79th time Duke has been ranked No. 1, the fourth highest total behind UCLA (128), Kentucky (87) and North Carolina (79). A total of 39 teams were ranked this season with 12 being in the Top 25 every week. Only Cincinnati and Arizona were ranked in the Top Ten each week. Seven teams that were ranked in the preseason poll -- North Carolina, Kansas, UCLA, Utah, DePaul, Gonzaga and Miami -- were not ranked at the end of the season. Louisville, Southern California and Seton Hall made the briefest appearances in the Top 25, each being ranked for one week.
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