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The California Golden Bears start out conference play knocking on the door of the top 25. The Bears fell out of the top 25 after their sweep in Vegas, and have been hanging on the periphery with a vote here and there. After sweeping Colorado and former top 25 Utah, Cal could be the Pac-12's second ranked team with a good week in Oregon. The Bears received 54 votes in the AP Poll to finish 27th, and 52 votes in the Coaches Poll to knock on the door at 26th.
With regards to bracketology, beating Utah was huge for the Bears, as Cal jumped in Joe Lunardi's latest projections to the 7 seed and a date with Vanderbilt in Raleigh (with North Carolina looming in the next round). The success of St. Mary's (also a tournament team according to Lunardi) has also helped, giving Cal two signature wins. Cal's three losses have come to bubble teams San Diego State and Richmond and highly seeded Virginia.
Here are the full college basketball rankings.
AP Poll
| RK | TEAM | RECORD | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kansas Jayhawks (44) | 12-1 | 1,598 |
| 2 | Oklahoma Sooners (21) | 12-0 | 1,574 |
| 3 | Maryland Terrapins | 13-1 | 1,459 |
| 4 | Virginia Cavaliers | 12-1 | 1,409 |
| 5 | Michigan State Spartans | 14-1 | 1,400 |
| 6 | North Carolina Tar Heels | 13-2 | 1,275 |
| 7 | Arizona Wildcats | 13-1 | 1,126 |
| 8 | Providence Friars | 14-1 | 1,108 |
| 9 | Kentucky Wildcats | 11-2 | 1,039 |
| 10 | Xavier Musketeers | 13-1 | 1,001 |
| 11 | Villanova Wildcats | 12-2 | 979 |
| 12 | Miami-Florida Hurricanes | 12-1 | 921 |
| 13 | Iowa State Cyclones | 11-2 | 844 |
| 14 | Duke Blue Devils | 12-2 | 830 |
| 15 | SMU Mustangs | 13-0 | 731 |
| 16 | Louisville Cardinals | 12-2 | 568 |
| 17 | West Virginia Mountaineers | 12-1 | 558 |
| 18 | Butler Bulldogs | 11-3 | 516 |
| 19 | Iowa Hawkeyes | 11-3 | 456 |
| 20 | Purdue Boilermakers | 13-2 | 450 |
| 21 | Texas A&M Aggies | 11-2 | 420 |
| 22 | South Carolina Gamecocks | 13-0 | 286 |
| 23 | Connecticut Huskies | 10-3 | 107 |
| 24 | Pittsburgh Panthers | 12-1 | 103 |
| 25 | Dayton Flyers | 11-2 | 100 |
| Others receiving votes: Gonzaga 61, California 54, Texas Tech 40, George Washington 38, Saint Mary's 23, Baylor 22, Oregon State 4, Colorado 4, Seton Hall 4, Saint Joseph's 3, Wichita St 3, Utah 3, Cincinnati 2, Indiana 2, Michigan 2, Akron 1, Oregon 1 | |||
USA Today Coaches Poll
| RANK | TEAM | RECORD | PTS | PREV |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oklahoma (20) | 12-0 | 781 | 2 |
| 2 | Kansas (11) | 12-1 | 769 | 3 |
| 3 | Maryland | 13-1 | 732 | 4 |
| 4 | Virginia | 12-1 | 698 | 5 |
| 5 | Michigan St (1) | 14-1 | 676 | 1 |
| 6 | Arizona | 13-1 | 618 | 7 |
| 7 | North Carolina | 13-2 | 592 | 8 |
| 8 | Kentucky | 11-2 | 526 | 11 |
| 9 | Providence | 14-1 | 509 | 13 |
| 10 | Duke | 12-2 | 487 | 12 |
| 11 | Miami-Florida | 12-1 | 444 | 15 |
| 12 | Xavier | 13-1 | 442 | 6 |
| 13 | Villanova | 12-2 | 434 | 16 |
| 14 | Iowa St. | 11-2 | 402 | 9 |
| 15 | West Virginia | 12-1 | 350 | 17 |
| 16 | Louisville | 12-2 | 282 | 18 |
| 17 | Texas A&M | 11-2 | 265 | 19 |
| 18 | Purdue | 13-2 | 248 | 14 |
| 19 | Butler | 11-3 | 238 | 10 |
| 20 | South Carolina | 13-0 | 232 | 20 |
| 21 | Pittsburgh | 12-1 | 121 | 25 |
| 22 | Gonzaga | 12-3 | 112 | 24 |
| 23 | Iowa | 11-3 | 110 | NR |
| 24 | Connecticut | 10-3 | 81 | 26 |
| 25 | Baylor | 10-3 | 61 | 21 |
| Others Receiving Votes: California 52; Dayton 28; George Washington 23; Cincinnati 19; Saint Mary's 18; Texas Tech 17; Vanderbilt 6; Oregon 6; Utah 5; Indiana 5; Colorado 4; Oregon State 3; Southern California 2; Houston 2. | ||||