Week 12 of the college basketball polls have been released and Providence is moving on up after a 2-0 week that included a home win over a top 20 team and a road win against a top 5 team. Not bad for a week’s work. The Friars are now 5-2 in Big East play and they will host Xavier on Tuesday night before traveling to Washington DC to take on Georgetown at the Verizon Center on Saturday. This is the first time Providence has been ranked in the AP Poll for 9 straight weeks since the 1977-78 season when the Friars spent the final 13 weeks ranked in the AP Top 25. The Friars moved from 16th to 10th in the AP Poll and from 17th to 10th in the USA Today Coaches’ Poll this week. Providence’s 7 slot jump in the Coaches’ Poll was the largest move up of any team in this week’s poll.
Week 11 of the college basketball polls have been released and Providence is heading in the wrong direction for the second straight week after a home loss. The Friars are now 3-2 in Big East play and they will host Butler on Tuesday night before traveling to Philadelphia to take on Villanova at the Wells Fargo Center. This is the first time Providence has been ranked in the AP Poll for 8 straight weeks since the 2003-04 season when the Friars spent the final 8 weeks ranked in the AP Top 25. The Friars moved from 12th to 16th in the AP Poll and from 12th to 17th in the USA Today Coaches’ Poll this week.
Week 10 of the college basketball polls have been released and Providence has taken a predictable fall in both falls after their home loss to Marquette on January 5th in their only action last week. The Friars are now 2-1 in Big East play and they’ll travel to Omaha to take on the Creighton Bluejays on Tuesday night. This is the first time Providence has been ranked in the AP Poll for 7 straight weeks since the 2003-04 season when the Friars spent the final 8 weeks ranked in the AP Top 25. The Friars moved from 8th to 12th in the AP Poll and from 9th to 12th in the USA Today Coaches’ Poll this week.
Week 9 of the college basketball polls have been released and Providence moved back up in both polls. The Friars opened Big East play 2-0, including an impressive comeback win at Butler. Kris Dunn averaged 23 points/game, 8 rebounds/game, 7.5 assists/game and 2.5 steals/game during both games and was named Big East Player of the Weekfor the third time this season. This is the first time Providence has been ranked in the AP Poll for 6 straight weeks since the 2003-04 season when the Friars spent the final 8 weeks ranked in the AP Top 25. The Friars moved from 12th to 8th in the AP Poll and slid up from 13th to 9th in the USA Today Coaches’ Poll this week. This is the first time Providence has been in the top 10 of both polls this season. It’s also Providence’s highest ranking since the Friars were ranked 8th in the AP Poll on March 1, 1977.
Week 8 of the college basketball polls have been released and Providence moved in both polls, though they moved in different directions. The Friars won their only game on the schedule last week at UMass and it was in blowout fashion. Kris Dunn returned to the lineup after missing 2.5 games with illness and Ben Bentil had a career-high 32 points to go with 12 rebounds for his 3rd double-double of the season. Bentil was named Big East Player of the Week for that performance against the Minutemen. This is the first time Providence has been ranked in the AP Poll for 5 straight weeks since the 2003-04 season when the Friars spent the final 8 weeks ranked in the AP Top 25. The Friars dropped a couple spots to 12th in the AP Poll and slid up one spot to 13th in the USA Today Coaches’ Poll this week.
Week 7 of the college basketball polls have been released and Providence is moving up again after a 1-0 week with a win over Rider on Saturday and some losses from teams ahead of the Friars in last week’s poll. Providence was again without Kris Dunn (illness) and Ryan Fazekas (mono). This is the first time Providence has been ranked in the AP Poll for 4 straight weeks since the 2003-04 season when the Friars spent the final 8 weeks ranked in the AP Top 25. The Friars slid up slightly to 10th in the AP Poll and remained at 14th in the USA Today Coaches’ Poll this week. 10th is the highest Providence has been in the AP poll since 1978.
Week 6 of the college basketball polls have been released and Providence is moving up again after a 2-0 week that included wins over teams the Friars should beat in ACC bottom-feeding Boston College and now 2-9 Bryant. Providence was depleted in both games with Ryan Fazekas missing both (mono), Kris Dunn missing the second half of Boston College and the entire Bryant game (illness) and Ben Bentil missing the second half of BC (ankle). This is the first time Providence has been ranked in the AP Poll for 3 straight weeks since the 2003-04 season when the Friars spent the final 8 weeks ranked in the AP Top 25. The Friars slid up slightly to 14th in the AP Poll and 14th in the USA Today Coaches’ Poll this week.