UCLA Drops in Polls After Disappointing Loss

By Bruin Basketball Report

With the 71-68 loss to the Trojans on Sunday, the Bruins fell to No.17 and No.19 in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches and AP polls, respectively.

UCLA (20-6, 10-4) is tied with California (16-7, 10-4) for first place in the Pac-10 conference. The Bears remain unranked this week, however, they received eight votes apiece from both polls.

In an interesting departure between the polls, Coaches poll voters ranked the Washington Huskies (20-5, 9-5) behind the Bruins at No.19; but AP voters moved the Huskies to No.17 and ahead of the Bruins. The Huskies are one game behind the Bruins in the Pac-10 conference race.

More importantly, the Bruins moved down in the RPI rankings. Although, the official NCAA RPI will not be released until Wednesday, the Ken Pomeroy RPI rankings have been a good reflection of the NCAA's RPI rankings.

In the most recent Ken Pomeroy RPI rankings, the Bruins are ranked No.14 in RPI and No.22 in SOS (strength of schedule). Last week the Bruins were No.17 in RPI and NO.17 in SOS.

With their current RPI ranking, the Bruins are likely projected to be a 5th seed in the NCAA tourney at this point.

With four regular season Pac-10 games remaining and the upcoming Pac-10 tournament, UCLA still has a good chance to improve upon their seedings, but the loss to the Trojans (No.105 RPI) was certainly a setback for UCLA's higher seeding hopes.

Duke (25-1) is the new No.1 ranked team in both polls. Connecticut (23-2), the former top ranked team, lost to Villanova last week.

(BruinBasketballReport.com)