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The results of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament left no doubt as to which team would finish the season in first place. Unsurprisingly, the second team was also unanimous. The biggest question was how voters in USA TODAY’s Sports Coaches Poll would rank other athletes after the big dance. We already have the answer.
Of course, the University of Connecticut is coming off a year in which they finished last season on top. Runner-up Purdue ranked second, its highest ranking since USA TODAY began tracking the ranking in 1991.
In third place in the rankings is Houston, who held the top spot for most of the season before suffering an unfortunate injury during the tournament. The University of Alabama advanced to the national semifinals and rose to fourth place. Tennessee fell one win short of making the Final Four, but finished in the top five.
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North Carolina took sixth place, while Illinois, which finished in the Elite Eight, moved up three spots to seventh. Iowa State, Duke University and Creighton University all finished in the top 10, meaning each of the five conferences now has two top 10 teams.
So what about North Carolina? The Wolfpack’s regular season has been modest, but their incredible journey to the Final Four has left voters divided on where to place them. In the end, they finished in the middle of the top 25 at No. 13 behind No. 11 Marquette and No. 12 Arizona. Clemson, his third Elite Eight representative in the ACC, ranked him 15th in the final total. Auburn and Kentucky fell to 17th and 19th place, respectively, after losing in the first round. Washington state ranked 24th in the last poll.
Brigham Young fell out of the rankings, finishing just one point behind No. 25 Texas Tech. Florida and Wisconsin are the other states missing from the pre-tournament rankings.
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