BATON ROUGE — The LSU men’s basketball team, 11-1 going into a Monday night date at UNO, has cracked the new top 25 poll started this year by Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook in association with Collegiate Basketball News.
The Blue Ribbon/CBN ratings, appearing every Monday throughout the season, started Jan. 5, 2004 and the Tigers have broken into the poll at No. 25 in its Jan. 12 edition. The poll is compiled through votes of Blue Ribbon’s editorial staff, guided in part by CBN’s RPI data.
The Tigers are one of five SEC teams ranked in the poll with Kentucky at No. 4, Florida No. 9, Mississippi State 21, No. 24 Vanderbilt and LSU No. 25. The Tigers beat Alabama, 70-66, on Saturday at the Maravich Assembly Center.
Connecticut and Duke have been the top two teams in the poll in its first two weeks.
LSU, 2-0 in the SEC Western Division, will host Mississippi State when it returns to conference play on Saturday at the Maravich Assembly Center. Tickets are $12 and are available at the LSU Athletics Ticket Office and on the Internet at www.LSUsports.net. LSU officials are urging fans to buy their tickets in advance because of a large walkup crowd expected for Saturday’s game.
Blue Ribbon/Collegiate Basketball News Top 25
Jan. 12, 2004
1. Connecticut
2. Duke
3. Wake Forest
4. Kentucky
5. Stanford
6. Louisville
7. Saint Joseph’s
8. Cincinnati
9. Florida
10 North Carolina
11. Arizona
12. Kansas
13. Gonzaga
14. Syracuse
15. Texas
16. Georgia Tech
17. Oklahoma
18. Wisconsin
19. Texas Tech
20. Mississippi State
22. Marquette
23. Vanderbilt
24. Illinois
25. LSU