Duke out of top 25 for first time in 11 years

[citizen snips]

Duke's Top 25 streak is over.

Saddled by its first four-game losing skid in 11 years, Duke fell out of The Associated Press poll Monday for the first time since the end of the 1995-96 season. The Blue Devils had been in the media poll for 200 straight weeks -- the second longest streak behind UCLA.

The Bruins' run lasted 221 weeks, from the 1966-67 preseason poll to Jan. 8, 1980. North Carolina is third all-time with 172 straight weeks from the 1990-91 preseason poll to Jan. 17, 2000.

"If you do it for a long period of time, it means you've been good that long," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said of his team's streak that began in the 1996-97 preseason poll. "We never bring it up. It's a nice stat thing."

UCLA and Memphis are now tied for the longest active streak at 34 straight weeks in the Top 25.

Duke was No. 8 two weeks ago before losing in the final seconds to Virginia and Florida State. The Blue Devils lost to then-No. 5 North Carolina 79-73 on Wednesday and fell 72-60 at Maryland on Sunday for their first four-game losing since Jan. 3-13, 1996.

more...
http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaab/news?slug=ap-t25-collegebkbpoll&prov=ap&type=lgns

[TZ]

1. I smell a fellow Duke hater..

As a long time Terp fan/alumni can I just say : BWAHAHAHAHHA!!! Sorry childish, but hey...:rofl:

[citizen snips]

2. I am a UNC fan

so I do hate Duke. Maybe we can start a DU Duke haters group.

[TZ]

3. absolutely!

BTW if Terps can't win ACC I root for Carolina. Always liked Dean Smith and now Roy Williams. Seem like decent fellows.

[Jack from Charlotte]

4. Florida's streak was broken when they were NOT voted in the Top 25....

in last year's PRESEASON. The 1st week of last season, after winning the Preason NIT they were ranked again and then went on to finish #1. Too bad they lost a long streak that way. Duke lost on the court. Florida lost their streak because of poor judgement by voters during the offseason.

[citizen snips]

5. do you mean FSU?

that have found some ways to beat Duke.

[Jack from Charlotte]

11. Are you friggin' kidding? When was the last time Felony State U. had a ranked........

basketball team? Much less one that had a streak of many weeks ranked, that was broken?

They haven't even been in the NCAA Tourney for something like 5 or 6 years.

[Broken_Hero]

6. I'm not crying, now hopefully Vitale will stop

blabbering about them....they will still make it to the dance though....no question about that. But, no tears lost over their drop out of the top 25

[Awsi Dooger]

7. Excluding UCLA in 1980 was obviously an error

I'm almost positive UCLA made the NCAA final that year, losing to Louisville and Darrell Griffith. That's when college basketball was a real sport, i.e. before the idiotic 3-point shot with three guys doing nothing but making sure their toes are behind an arbitrary line.

Actually, I was new at USC in 1980 and I do remember UCLA kinda sucked that year. We even beat them at our place and they lost plenty of Pac-10 games, and there was talk they might miss the tournament. It wasn't 64 teams at that point, either 32 or 48.

Actually, this is mostly stupid and irrelevant. Duke may have lost a string of close games but that hardly means they aren't among the top 25 teams in the country. I work with oddsmakers and all of them have Duke comfortably within the top 25 in terms of power rating. Their numbers are similar to where Jeff Sagarin of USA Today currently places Duke, #14 in his power ratings.

[TZ]

8. Duke's loss to MD was not close

The margin was twelve. At half time the margin was twelve. Love my Terps but we are talking about the same team that could only score about 60 points on Miami at Comcast earlier this season. So no, I think Duke really isn't that good

[Awsi Dooger]

12. Yeah, I forgot about that game

The other ones were close. I think the Virginia game was overtime after Duke missed chances to win in regulation, and the FSU loss was by 1 point after blowing a lead and missing two tip in opportunities. Then the North Carolina game was always close. I know it was tied with about 6 minutes left when I had to leave, and didn't see the end.

Earlier in the year I watched Duke get beat fairly handily. Might have been by Marquette. Even that game was very tight until the final minutes.

I hate Duke basketball but I'm not discounting them, even though it's a young team. The ACC is like the SEC in football. Even if Duke gets knocked out early in the ACC tournament I think they'll advance in the tournament to the Sweet 16 or beyond.

The year Duke was out of the top 25 they sucked, a losing record if I remember correctly. I think they were in the play-in game of the ACC tournament. This hardly resembles that year.

[northzax]

13. good point

I think they will work their way back into the top 25, but honestly, any team that loses four straight games, including two to unranked teams, has to drop out of the list. THe problem is, they only have two home games left, and still have to travel to Chapel Hill, Chestnut Hill, Clemson, and for some reason, St. John's. if they lose to both CArolina and BC, and beat Maryland, Clemson and Tech, they are 500 in the conference. lose another one of those games, and they are a sub-500 team and will need their typical run in the ACC tourney to get a decent seed. they could, quite seriously, lose to CArolina, BC, Maryland and Clemson, and end up looking at 6-9 in the ACC.

[Awsi Dooger]

16. Thanks for pointing out the schedule

That is tough with all the road games. Hey, I'd love for Duke to flop into a low seed or even the NIT.

I never pay attention to college basketball rankings so I probably shouldn't be commenting in a thread like this. For betting purposes I use preseason ratings from the Sporting News and the Blue Ribbon book and use those all year, regardless of results.

[northzax]

17. mm, well they took BC in Chestnut Hill tonight

and Carolina lost to VaTech, so SoS went up. they'll be fine. I just think that Duke on the bubble would be turned away by the tourney, people expect them to be so good that a mediocre (by their standards) Duke team would have trouble in the selection committee. but that's just my thought.

[smtpgirl]

15. Wasn't the score 72-60, with MD winning against Duke?

GO Terps.

[underpants]

9. Aww that's too bad

:cry:

[bmbmd]

10. This represents the opening of the second seal

in the Revelation. The apocalypse is, indeed, upon us.

[smtpgirl]

14. Yep, the Terps threw the Dukies out of the top 25

with a BIG win, go Terps.