TUSCALOOSA ?? The University of Alabama won but dropped one spot in this week’s basketball polls. Alabama is ranked No. 10 in both the Associated Press and ESPN/USA Today Coaches polls released Monday, a drop from last week’s spot at No. 9.
The Tide has been ranked as high this season as No. 4 AP and No. 5 Coaches in the December 3 polls.
The Crimson Tide is 9-1 going into a Wednesday night game at N.C. State, 7-2. Alabama will play for the first time in Raleigh at 5:30 p.m. CT in a return game from last year’s Tuscaloosa match-up that N.C. State won 68-64 in Tuscaloosa on December 22, 2005. Alabama played only one game last week, a 77-64 win against Southern Miss on Saturday in the Coors Classic in Mobile.
UCLA at 9-0 is the nation’s No. 1 ranked team in both polls. Both have North Carolina, 8-1, at No. 2 and Ohio State, 9-1, at No. 3. Florida is fourth AP and fifth Coaches and Wisconsin is fourth in the Coaches poll and fifth AP. Both have Duke at sixth, Pittsburgh at No. 7, Wichita State at No. 8, Arizona at No. 9 and Alabama at No. 10.
