AP Top 25: Gonzaga men fall big; UW women just hang on

For the second time in three weeks, the UW Huskies barely held onto a spot in the weekly Associated Press women’s basketball Top 25 poll.

And while the Gonzaga Bulldogs are still safely in the thick of the men’s rankings, they suffered a big fall after their first loss in over two months.

AP college basketball polls: Men | Women

UW (18-6 overall) dropped a spot to No. 25 in Monday’s women poll, likely saved by Sunday’s 91-86 overtime victory at Wisconsin. That was a bounce-back win for the Huskies, who had lost back-to-back games at home – first a 75-66 defeat to Illinois on Feb. 1, then a 70-60 loss last Thursday to Ohio State in a battle of ranked Big Ten teams. Ohio State moved up a spot to No. 8 in the new rankings.

The Huskies have another big game against a ranked conference opponent coming up, as they’ll take on No. 15 Iowa on Wednesday to wrap up their road trip. They will also face Oregon next Sunday, and a meeting with No. 2 UCLA in Los Angeles awaits on Feb. 19.

UW, which is one of seven ranked teams in the Big Ten, sits in seventh place in the conference standings with an 8-5 record in Big Ten play.

As for Gonzaga, it was shocked on the road by Portland 87-80 last Thursday. Considering the Pilots are just 11-14 this season, the loss did not portend well for the Zags’ standing in Monday’s rankings.

Gonzaga rebounded with an 81-61 victory at Oregon State on Saturday, improving to 23-2 overall and 11-1 in West Coast Conference play. The Zags find themselves in the rare position of sitting in second place in the WCC behind Santa Clara (21-5 overall, 12-1 WCC), but they can end this week back in the lead if they take care of business Tuesday at home against WSU and Saturday at Santa Clara. Gonzaga beat Santa Clara 89-77 in Spokane on Jan. 8.

In the men’s rankings, Arizona (23-0) and Michigan (22-1) remain the No. 1 and No. 2 teams, respectively, while Houston (21-2) jumped five spots to No. 3 after beating No. 16 BYU on Saturday.

The top four teams in the women’s rankings – UConn, UCLA, South Carolina and Texas – remained unchanged this week, with Vanderbilt rising two spots to No. 5.

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