MBB/WBB each move up three spots in latest AP poll
Both sides of the Connecticut basketball program received good news upon the release of the latest Associated Press polls on Monday, as both the men and women shifted three spots forward. The women are situated in the seventh spot while the men are up to 21st. Both sides are coming off undefeated weeks in their respective polling cycles.
The Husky women (19-5, 13-1 Big East) have won four in a row by an average of over 33 points after their length winning streak against conference competition came to an end on Feb. 9 against Villanova. Their placement at No. 7 is their highest since they appeared in the same spot during the release of the Dec. 13 edition.
This week saw UConn crush Xavier by an 89-35 final in their final true road game of the 2021-22 effort. It was a lead mostly sustained by a 37-0 over the middle frames, with Christyn Williams leading a balanced scoring effort that saw five players reach double figures.
The Huskies later kicked off a four-game homestand that will end the regular season with a 90-49 win over Georgetown on Sunday afternoon in Hartford. Williams, set to embark on her final Connecticut showings, once again led the team in scoring, this time with 19 points on 7-of-11 shooting. For her efforts, Williams was named to the Big East’s weekly women’s basketball honor roll. This week also saw the UConn women welcome back Caroline Ducharme and Olivia Nelson-Ododa back from brief injury-induced absences, each coming off the bench in the wins over the Musketeers and Hoyas.
Three games remain in the final homestand, with Hartford hosting games on Wednesday and Friday against Marquette (7 p.m. ET, SNY) and St. John’s respectively. Senior Day festivities will be held on Sunday afternoon in Storrs when the Huskies battle Providence. UConn remains the only Big East ranked in the Top 25 though Villanova received five votes.
Meanwhile, the Connecticut men (19-7, 10-5 Big East) moved up to 21st in their latest rankings, sustained by revenge-inducing wins over Seton and Xavier. The former came on Wednesday when dueling double-doubles from Adama Sanogo (20 points, 16 rebounds) and Tyrese Martin (16 points, 11 rebounds) paced a 70-65 victory. Saturday's triumph over the Musketeers saw the Huskies withstand a visiting attempt to come back from a 17-point halftime deficit. Tyler Polley came off the bench to score 16 on a perfect shooting afternoon while Martin pulled down another 11 rebounds. Sanogo, who fell one rebound short of consecutive double-doubles against Xavier, made it back to the conference’s honor roll for his performance over the last two games.
UConn is one of three Big East teams listed in this week’s Top 25, a list topped by No. 8 Villanova thanks to their win over the previous occupiers of the spot, Providence (who fell to 11th). The Huskies will face the Wildcats in a primetime showdown in Hartford on Tuesday night
(8 p.m. ET, FS1) as they continue to compete for one of the Big East’s top seeds in its upcoming conference tournament in Manhattan. UConn will look to avenge an 85-74 loss to the Wildcats sustained on Feb. 5. Villanova hasn’t swept UConn in a two-game set since the 2000-01 season. Though the Huskies are in fourth place by virtue of losing the head-to-head tiebreaker for third to Creighton (whom they’ll face again on March 2), they’re three games up on Seton Hall for a first-round bye in the Madison Square Garden-based tournament.
The penultimate week of the Husky men’s regular season will also feature a visit to Georgetown currently scheduled for Sunday afternoon in Washington D.C.
Unanimity reigned at the top of each respective poll with the Gonzaga men and South Carolina women retaining their premier rankings. Arizona, Auburn, Purdue, and Kansas follow the Bulldogs while Stanford, North Carolina State, Louisville, and Baylor line up behind the Gamecocks.
Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags
