Posted at 8:04 a.m., Monday, March 12, 2007
Ohio State No. 1 in final AP men's basketball poll
By Jim O'Connell
Associated Press
The Buckeyes (30-3), who beat Wisconsin in the Big Ten championship game on Sunday, were No. 1 in the Top 25 for the third straight week, receiving all but one first-place vote and 1,799 points from the 72-member national media panel. It is the third time Ohio State finished No. 1 in the final poll. Both other times, 1961 and 1962, the Buckeyes lost to Cincinnati in the national championship game.
Kansas (30-4), which beat Texas in overtime Sunday to win the Big 12 tournament, received the other No. 1 vote and had 1,718 points in staying second.
Florida (29-5), the defending national champion, jumped from sixth to third after beating Arkansas in the Southeastern Conference championship game. North Carolina (28-6), which beat North Carolina State in the Atlantic Coast Conference title game, moved from eighth to fourth.
Memphis, Wisconsin, UCLA, Georgetown, Texas A&M and Oregon rounded out the top 10.
Texas moved up four spots to 11th and was followed by Pittsburgh, Washington State, Southern Illinois, Nevada, Louisville, Notre Dame, Maryland, UNLV and Marquette.
The last five teams were Butler, Winthrop, Southern California, BYU and Tennessee.
Duke (22-10), which was 21st last week, fell out of the rankings after losing to North Carolina State in the ACC tournament, the Blue Devils' third straight loss. This is the first time since 1997 Duke was not in the final poll. They finished No. 1 five times — 1999-2002 and last season.
The Blue Devils also fell out of the rankings for one week last month ending a streak of 200 consecutive polls, the second-longest streak ever behind UCLA's 221 from 1966 to 1980.
Southern California (23-11) moved back into the poll after a one-week absence following its run to the Pac-10 championship game where the Trojans lost 81-57 to Oregon.
Forty-eight schools were ranked at some point this season tying the record set in 1992-93.
Five teams were ranked No.1 this season: Florida for eight weeks, UCLA for six, Ohio State for three and North Carolina and Wisconsin for one each.
Four teams _ Florida, North Carolina, UCLA and Ohio State _ were ranked in the top 10 all season, while six others — Kansas, Pittsburgh, Wisconsin, Texas A&M, Memphis and Nevada — were in the poll all season.
Two teams ranked in the preseason top 10 — LSU and Arizona — weren't ranked in the final poll.
Xavier was the season's only one-week wonder, making an appearance at No. 24 for one poll.
The Big East and ACC both had eight teams ranked at some point in the season, while the Pac-10 had seven and the Southeastern Conference six.
