BATON ROUGE — Apparently, the media voters in the Associated Press poll were impressed with LSU’s Saturday 85-72 victory over seventh-ranked Mississippi State. The voters put LSU back into the AP Top 25 at No. 23 following a week out of the poll.
The coaches of the ESPN/USA Today poll kept the Tigers receiving votes for a second straight week.
LSU first appeared in the AP poll on Dec. 23 after the Tigers upset of top-ranked Arizona on Dec. 21. LSU moved up to No. 21 after a win over Tulane and UNO, but fell out of the poll after the Jan. 5 loss at Georgia.
In all, six SEC teams are in the AP poll, which is topped by the nation’s only undefeated team, Duke. Florida, with wins over Mississippi State and Georgia, moved up to No. 6, with Alabama, a loser Saturday to Vanderbilt, falling to ninth. Mississippi State dropped from seventh to 14th with Kentucky at 16, Georgia at 20 and LSU at 23.
The Tigers host their final non-conference game of the season Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Maravich Assembly Center against Centenary before hosting Ole Miss on Saturday afternoon in a regionally televised contest at 1 p.m.