Kentucky drops to 8th in poll

Monday, Nov. 18, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

The opening doubleheader of the college basketball season had quite an effect on the rankings of three of the participants today.

Kentucky, the defending national champion which lost to Clemson in overtime in The Classic on Friday, dropped from third to eighth, while the Tigers used the 79-71 victory to jump from 20th to 12th.

Indiana, which wasn't ranked in the preseason poll, beat Connecticut 68-61 in the other game and was 22nd in the first poll of the regular season, knocking out Marquette before the Golden Eagles even played a game.

Cincinnati easily remained No. 1 after receiving most of the first-place votes that had gone to Kentucky in the preseason poll. The Bearcats had 47 No. 1 votes, 13 more than they had preseason poll, and 1,669 points, well ahead of Kansas, which stayed second with 16 first-place votes and 1,598 points.

Wake Forest moved up one spot from fourth with four No. 1 votes and 1,571 points, while Utah jumped two places to fourth after picking up a first-place vote and 1,417 points.

UCLA held fifth, while Villanova and North Carolina each moved up one spot and were followed in the Top Ten by Kentucky, Michigan and Duke.

Iowa State again led the Second Ten and was followed by Clemson, Syracuse, Fresno State, Massachusetts, Arkansas, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and Stanford.

The last five were Boston College, Indiana, Minnesota, George Washington and Iowa.

The No. 8 ranking is the lowest for Kentucky since the middle of the 1994-95 season. The Wildcats, who lost four players to the NBA draft from that team, were no lower than fifth last season on the way to a 34-2 record and the national championship.

The jump to 12th gave Clemson, one of the deepest and experienced teams in the country, its highest ranking since the 1986-87 season, when the Tigers were 10th for two weeks.

Indiana, which started three freshmen against Connecticut, was ranked for two polls last year, the preseason and first regular-season voting, before dropping out for the rest of the season.

Marquette's no-decision drop happened to California last season. The Bears were 25th in the preseason poll last year and dropped out without playing a game, although they did return to the rankings for two weeks later in the season.

The season gets into full swing this week as all but six ranked teams -- Villanova, Kentucky, Michigan, Iowa State, Massachusetts and Stanford -- are scheduled to play at least one game.