Bruins Climb Polls After Sweeping Oregon Schools

By Bruin Basketball Report

After defeating both Oregon schools at home last week, UCLA (22-6, 12-4) climbed to No.13 and No.15 in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches and AP polls, respectively. The Bruins moved up four spots in each poll from the prior week.

The only other Pac-10 team in the top rankings is Washington (22-5, 11-5) which moved up three spots in both polls to No. 16 and No.14. Cal was the only other school in the conference to earn points in the polls.

Duke remained No.1 and are followed by Connecticut, Memphis, and Villanova in both polls.

In the official NCAA RPI released last week, the Bruins are ranked No.14. After the two home victories last week, UCLA should move up when the new NCAA RPI rankings are released on Wednesday.

The Ken Pomeroy College Basketball RPI ranking has the Bruins at No.16 with a SOS of No.27.

UCLA travels to the Bay area this week for conference title deciding games against California (17-8, 11-5) on Thursday and Stanford (14-11, 10-6) on Saturday.

The Bruins are in first-place one game ahead of both California and Washington in the Pac-10 conference race.

While California plays both UCLA and USC at home this week, Washington will play both Arizona schools on the road.

At the moment, the Pac-10 most likely will have only four teams selected to play in the NCAA tournament; UCLA, Washington, Arizona, and California; unless of course another team in the conference, besides the four mentioned, wins the Pac-10 tournament in March.

(BruinBasketballReport.com)