Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Break into the Top 25 in USA Today/ESPN poll
February 14, 2006 | Women's Basketball
Feb. 14, 2006
USA Today/ESPN poll in PDF Format
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BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - For the first time in nearly 12 years, the Bowling Green State University women's basketball team has broken into a national poll. The Falcons are ranked 25th in this week's USA Today/ESPN Top 25 Coaches Poll.
BGSU's appearance in the poll (which was released Tuesday afternoon, Feb. 14) is the Falcons' first since March 15, 1994. The Falcons appeared in the USA Today poll in three consecutive weeks in March of 1993, peaking at #20, and the lone poll appearance in March of 1994 saw the Falcons ranked 24th.
"It is very exciting for our program to attain a national ranking," said BGSU head coach Curt Miller. "I am very happy for our players. They have worked very hard to put themselves in this position, and I can't be more proud of them.
"There have been a lot of great teams in the history of the Mid-American Conference, and a lot of those teams weren't given the recognition that they deserved. So, I am also happy for our conference as a whole, because I think MAC women's basketball is very strong and often underrated. I am pleased that this will bring more attention to the conference.
"While we are obviously pleased with the ranking, it does not change the fact that our goals begin with winning a MAC East Division championship. With five regular-season games remaining, that goal still has not been reached, and we are working hard, day-in and day-out. We need to continue to maintain our focus, and take it one game at a time to try to reach our goal."
BGSU received 33 points in this week's poll, three ahead of Utah. The Falcons trail 24th-place Louisiana Tech by 71 points and #23 Texas A&M by 73 points.
This week's ranking marks only the eighth week in MAC history that a league institution has been listed in the USA Today poll, and BGSU has been that team in five of those eight weeks.
The Falcons, 20-2 overall and 11-0 in MAC play, head to Akron to face the Zips Wednesday night (Feb. 15). BGSU returns home for a Saturday (Feb. 18) game vs. Buffalo. That game, the first half of a doubleheader, begins at 1:00 p.m. at Anderson Arena.
MAC Schools' Weekly USA Today Top-25 Appearances
Date School Rank 2/18/86 Ohio 25 2/25/86 Ohio 243/1/93 Bowling Green 20 3/9/93 Bowling Green 22 3/16/93 Bowling Green 20
3/15/94 Bowling Green 24
2/15/99 Toledo 25
2/14/06 Bowling Green 25
USA TODAY/ESPN Top 25 Poll
Feb. 14, 2006
Rank School (FPV) Record Points Previous 1. Duke (23) 23-1 764 2 2. North Carolina (5) 23-1 727 1 3. LSU (3) 22-1 726 3 4. Maryland 22-3 662 6 5. Tennessee 22-3 621 5 6. Connecticut 22-3 614 3 7. Ohio State 21-2 607 7 8. Rutgers 19-3 591 8 9. Oklahoma 21-4 508 12 10. Purdue 20-3 502 9 11. Baylor 17-5 421 11 12. Stanford 18-5 396 14 13. Georgia 17-6 387 13 14. Michigan State 19-7 335 16 15. DePaul 20-5 308 15 16. Minnesota 17-6 302 10 17. Arizona State 20-5 301 17 18. Brigham Young 20-2 216 18 19. New Mexico 18-6 197 20t 20. Boston College 19-6 183 22 21. Vanderbilt 17-8 177 20t 22. Temple 18-6 118 19 23. Texas A&M 19-5 106 25 24. Louisiana Tech 18-4 104 23 25. Bowling Green 20-2 33 NRDropped out: No. 24 St. John's (18-5).
Others receiving votes: Utah (17-5) 30; Indiana State (20-2) 24; George Washington (17-6) 15; Chattanooga (21-3) 13; St. John's (18-5) 13; Tulsa (19-4) 12; Louisville (16-6) 11; Notre Dame (14-9) 10;North Carolina State (15-9) 9; Texas (12-10) 7; Virginia Tech (17-6) 6; Florida (18-6) 5; Western Kentucky (18-5) 4; Missouri (17-6) 3; Charlotte (18-5) 2; South Florida (16-9) 2; UCLA (15-9) 2; Old Dominion (14-7) 1.
