HARTFORD, Connecticut -- Down on Tobacco Road, the main street of the Atlantic Coast Conference, college basketball fans expect their teams to be highly ranked every season.
The same expectations have never existed in New England. But at least for this week, The Associated Press basketball poll has a distinctive Yankee flavor.
Massachusetts and Connecticut, two former Yankee Conference rivals, are No. 1 and No. 2 in the media poll released Monday. UMass jumped from No. 4 to No. 1, and the Huskies from No. 6 to No. 2 after last week's top three teams -- North Carolina, UCLA and Arkansas -- lost conference road games.
The Minutemen (8-1) received 44 first-place votes and 1,615 points after defeating West Virginia, St. Louis and La Salle last week. The Huskies (10-0) got 17 first-place votes and 1,534 points. A 98-78 victory over St. John's on national television Sunday helped UConn's cause.
It is the first time in AP poll history that New England teams have been first and second. UMass also is No. 1 in the USA Today/CNN coaches poll. UConn is third.
Kansas (10-1), the team that beat Massachusetts, moved from fifth to third and had two first-place votes as did North Carolina (10-1), which had its five-week run at No. 1 ended with a loss at North Carolina State. Arkansas was fifth and UCLA sixth. Kentucky was seventh and was followed by Syracuse, Maryland and Georgetown.
Following Michigan State in the Second Ten was Arizona State, Arizona, Wake Forest, Florida, Duke, Missouri, Clemson, Iowa and California. The last five ranked teams were Penn, Georgia Tech, Iowa State, New Mexico State and Oregon.
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