College basketball

Movement light in post-holiday poll

Duke held the No.1 spot it has occupied since the preseason after a light week of games failed to produce changes Monday at the top of the Associated Press poll.

There was some movement near the bottom of the rankings. Wisconsin entered the poll for the first time this season at No.24, and West Virginia returned at No.25 after a four-week absence.

Florida remained at No.5.

The Badgers and Mountaineers replaced Tennessee, which fell out after a one-week appearance, and Iowa, which fell out for the first time despite being on a three-game winning streak.

Duke, which beat St. John's 70-57 in its only game last week, was again an overwhelming choice at No.1. The Blue Devils received 61 of 69 first-place votes and 1,714 points from the national media panel.

Connecticut set a Gampel Pavilion scoring record in a 129-61 victory over Morehead State in its only game last week. The Huskies, ranked second for a third straight week, got seven No.1 votes and 1,658 points.

Villanova received the only other first-place vote.

Oklahoma, which lost 92-68 to West Virginia last week, fell from seventh to 14th.

Wisconsin moved into the rankings on a five-game winning streak that includes victories over instate rivals Wisconsin-Green Bay, Marquette and Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The Badgers' only loss was 91-88 at Wake Forest in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge.

Wisconsin was ranked for all but five weeks last season, peaking at No.18.

West Virginia was 14th in the preseason poll and ranked for the first two weeks of the regular season before losing consecutively to Texas, Kentucky and LSU. But the Mountaineers have won their past five, most recently beating Oklahoma at Oklahoma City.

WOMEN'S POLL: Tennessee is still the top team, but the ACC has replaced the SEC as the No.1 league.

The ACC gained a fifth team when unbeaten Virginia Tech joined the poll at No.25. It accompanied No.2 Duke, No.5 North Carolina, No.6 Maryland and No.24 Boston College.

After having five ranked teams last week, the SEC lost one when Mississippi dropped out after a loss at Louisiana Tech.

[Last modified December 27, 2005, 02:30:20]