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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Monday, February 15, 2010

CBKB: North Carolina’s streak in AP women’s poll ends


By DOUG FEINBERG
AP Basketball Writer

North Carolina’s streak of Top 25 appearances is over.

The Tar Heels fell out of The Associated Press women’s basketball poll Monday for the first time in 163 weeks, while Connecticut pushed its remarkable run at No. 1 to 39 straight weeks.
North Carolina dropped from the ranking for the first time since Nov. 19, 2001. It was the fifth-longest active streak in the country behind Tennessee (447 weeks), Connecticut (309), Duke (200) and Stanford (165), and ended three weeks after the North Carolina men’s program fell from the Top 25.
The Huskies, meanwhile, have won 64 straight games after beating DePaul and St. John’s last week — all by double digits. Connecticut (25-0) visits No. 11 Oklahoma on Monday night before hosting Providence on Saturday.
North Carolina has dropped four straight games, including a blowout loss to Duke last Monday. The Tar Heels then lost to Boston College on Thursday, marking the first time since 2000 that they had a four-game losing streak. North Carolina was trying to end that skid Monday night against Virginia.
Stanford, Nebraska, Notre Dame and Tennessee followed the Huskies in the top 5. Nebraska (23-0) created a bigger gap between itself and No. 4 Notre Dame. Last week the Cornhuskers moved past the Irish into third by two points. This week they are 10 points ahead.
Xavier, Ohio State, Duke, West Virginia and Florida State rounded out the top 10 — no changes from last week. It was only the third time in the last 15 years that the top 10 remained the same for two straight weeks once conference play began.
Oklahoma moved up one spot to 11th and was followed by Texas. Iowa State made the biggest leap in the poll by jumping seven places to 13th — it’s highest ranking since 2002. The Cyclones beat then-No. 11 Baylor by 24 points.
Georgetown moved up two places to 14th despite losing to West Virginia. Texas A&M dropped two spots to 15th.
Kentucky and Oklahoma State were the next two teams. Baylor fell seven places to 18th after losing in overtime to Oklahoma and getting routed by Iowa State, and was followed by Georgia Tech and Georgia.
Gonzaga, St. John’s, LSU, TCU and Vanderbilt rounded out the poll. LSU and TCU were tied at No. 23. Vanderbilt came back after falling out of the Top 25 on Jan. 25. The Commodores knocked off then-No. 17 Kentucky on Sunday.