The UCLA basketball team finds themselves on the outside looking in at the latest AP Top 25 poll after a victorious opening weekend to start the Pac-12 Conference schedule.
It seems as though the UCLA basketball team is going to have to try hard to break back into the AP Top 25 poll.
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Even after beating Kentucky on a neutral site, after beating down Washington State and even after a 35-point turnaround against Washington (the Bruins were down 14 and won by 21), UCLA still can’t crack the Top 25.
Last week, after beating then-#7 Kentucky, UCLA was able to capture 12 votes, the 31st most in the poll. Despite the solid effort to beat the Wildcats, the Bruins couldn’t shake the results of a few bad non-conference games. UCLA had been knocked out of the poll after a weak stretch against Michigan, Cincinnati and a not-too-impressive win against South Dakota, but that storyline has changed in the last two weeks.
UCLA’s last two games marked the start of the conference portion of the schedule as the Washington schools came to visit. Though the Cougars gave the Bruins a spot of trouble, UCLA blew the doors open in a 96-82 win.
Against UW, the Bruins looked as though they were going to get smothered, but UCLA took over the second half in a big way and came out of the weekend 2-0 in the Pac-12. Still, that was not enough to push the Bruins into the Top 25. This week they received 14 votes, the 30th most in the AP Poll.
Next: Pre-PAC-12 conference schedule power rankings
This weekend, the Bruins take their first road trip of the Pac-12 season as they head to the Bay Area to meet up with Stanford (6-8, 0-1) on Thursday and Cal (7-7, 1-0) on Saturday. If the Bruins can get wins in both contests, then there should be no reason why they do not make the Top 25.