Notes: Cal makes first a appearance in poll

Tuesday, Feb. 18, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

SUN WIRE REPORTS

California's first ranking this season in The Associated Press college basketball poll might be an indication that the Bears are getting primed for next month's NCAA Tournament.

But coach Ben Braun wants no part of postseason forecasting.

"I don't even want to get into that," said Braun, whose team is ranked No. 25 this week. The ranking marks the fifth straight season that California (18-6) has cracked the rankings after a 32-year drought.

"I think right now our goal is to play up to our capabilities and just continue to play good basketball, and then the rewards will take care of themselves," Braun said.

Braun is in his first year at California, replacing Todd Bozeman, who resigned under pressure amid questions about recruiting.

California has won eight of nine, a string that has put the team into the thick of the Pac-10 race. Braun, who coached Eastern Michigan last season, said California's late-season surge hasn't been easy.

"I've noticed that for some reason we're everybody's rival," he said. "It's a compliment, but it makes life tough."

Elsewhere in the poll, Kansas remained the No. 1 team for the 12th street week. The Jayhawks (26-1), who beat Oklahoma State 104-72 and Colorado 114-74 last week, were again the runaway choice of the national media panel, receiving 68 first-place votes and 1,748 points.

Minnesota (22-2), which moved up one spot in the rankings, had the other two No. 1 votes and 1,649 points, 27 more than Kentucky (24-3), which also moved up one place.

Wake Forest (20-3), which lost to North Carolina State on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer that replays showed should have been worth only two points, dropped from second to fourth, matching the Demon Deacons' lowest ranking of the season.

Utah and Duke held fifth and sixth, respectively, and were followed by Iowa State, Clemson, South Carolina and New Mexico.

South Carolina, which rebounded from a loss to Georgia with an impressive win at Cincinnati on Saturday, jumped three places to its first top 10 ranking since the Gamecocks were No. 5 during the 1974-75 season.

Cincinnati dropped three spots to No. 11 and was followed by North Carolina, Arizona, Maryland, Louisville, Xavier, UCLA, Michigan, Villanova and Stanford.

Colorado, College of Charleston, Illinois and newcomers Indiana and California rounded out the Top 25.

UCLA, which beat Arizona and Arizona State on the road last week, had the week's biggest jump in the poll, moving from 24th to 17th, the Bruins' highest ranking since the third week of the regular season. UCLA, which was No. 5 in the preseason poll, returned to the rankings last week after falling out for a seven-week stretch.

The week's biggest fall was Colorado's drop from 15th to 21st.

* ACC OFFICIALS ON HOT SEAT: The Atlantic Coast Conference once again is at the forefront of college basketball officiating. This time, it's not a perch the league covets. "You can use adversity to get better, and hopefully we can. Hopefully something good will come out of this," Fred Barakat, the ACC's head of officials, said Monday as he discussed late blown calls by officials that affected the outcome of two league games in five days. Sixteen years ago, the ACC was one of the nation's first conferences to hire a former head coach and have him oversee the league's officials. That person -- Barakat -- has developed an exhaustive system of summer camps, instruction manuals, tapes and game-by-game evaluations, all designed to help ACC officials stay sharp. "We're doing a lot more than maybe other people are doing," Barakat said.

* PLAYER PLEADS INNOCENT: Injured Kentucky basketball player Derek Anderson pleaded innocent to traffic charges after spending a few hours in the Jefferson County jail. The 6-foot-5 senior guard, who underwent reconstructive surgery on a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee Jan. 22, was arrested early Monday and charged with running a red light and driving with a suspended license.

* MERCER COACH RETIRING: Mercer basketball coach Bill Hodges, whose team was rated the worst in America last week by Collegiate Basketball, is retiring effective Saturday. Hodges, who took Mercer to the Trans America Athletic Conference championship game in 1995 and 1996, is 62-104 in six seasons with the Bears. His team is 3-20 with three games remaining this season, but has won two of three since losing 17 in a row. Hodges coached Larry Bird and Indiana State to the 1979 NCAA title game.