The Saint Mary's Gaels climbed in the college basketball rankings, rising to No. 16 in the latest USA Today/ESPN coaches poll. The Gaels were ranked No. 20 in last week's coaches poll.
Saint Mary's continued their romp through the West Coast Conference with a pair of wins last week, including Thursday night at Gersten Pavilion in Los Angeles against the Loyola Marymount Lions. LMU led by seven in the first half, but the Gaels proved too strong inside to remain undefeated in conference. Saint Mary's also won Saturday night 80-66 in Provo against the BYU Cougars.
Here is the USA Today/ESPN coaches poll top 10:
1) Kentucky (31 first place votes)
2) Syracuse
3) Ohio State
4) Missouri
5) Duke
6t) Baylor
6t) North Carolina
8) Kansas
9) Murray State
10) Michigan State
The Long Beach St. 49ers, undefeated in the Big West Conference at 9-0, received votes in the coaches poll for the first time all season. Long Beach State received three votes and is ranked No. 37.
The Gonzaga Bulldogs, who beat the Portland Pilots 74-62 on the road in their only game of the week, moved up from No. 28 to No. 26 in the Associated Press poll, still in the "others receiving votes" section. Gonzaga travels to Malibu for a WCC battle with the Pepperdine Waves at Firestone Fieldhouse on Saturday night.