Marquette Women’s Basketball Moves Up In New Associated Press Poll

If my math is correct, then Marquette women’s basketball had just one game over the past week while ranked #22 in the country. That was Saturday’s 85-46 demolition of Providence. Apparently that, combined with other results from around the country was enough for the Associated Press voters to move MU up two spots from last week to #20 in the brand new top 25 rankings that were released on Monday.

Marquette snagged 183 points in the polling while appearing on 27 of the 31 ballots. Iowa came in at #19 with 185 points, just barely ahead of MU, while Texas A&M turned up at #21 with 173 points. Not a lot of separation there, so no matter what MU does this week, I would expect a ranking change one way or another when the first poll of 2019 is released.

Adam Minichino (Columbus (MS) Commercial Dispatch) continues to be Marquette’s biggest supporter this week, moving MU back up one spot in his ballot to #14 in the country. As was the case last week, Deb Antonelli (CBS Sports), Robert Cessna (College Station (TX) Eagle), Scott Nulph (Laramie Boomerang), and Ryan Thorburn (Eugene Register Guard) are the four holdouts for Marquette, and I can’t really fault them for not being impressed by the #BEATEMDOWN against the Friars.

When it comes to teams on Marquette’s schedule this year, Notre Dame is still holding down the #2 spot in the poll, although they have a date against #3 Louisville looming on January 10th. Mississippi State is up one spot to #7 this week while DePaul slips from #19 to #24 after losing to Creighton on Saturday.

Miami drops out of the top 25 and picks up 23 points, while South Dakota State is back to earning one 25th place vote. Remember when Michigan and Northwestern were earning votes and Marquette’s schedule seemed a whole lot tougher and cooler?

Marquette already returned to action after the poll was released but before this went up on the website, beating Creighton, 85-67. They’ll be back at it again at the McGuire Center on Friday night when #24 DePaul comes to town. Tipoff is set for 7pm Central, and the game will be broadcast on FS1.

You can check out the full top 25 poll and every individual ballot right here.