Press Poll Picks NCAA’s 4 Top Seeds

Oklahoma, UNLV, Connecticut and Michigan State--the four top seeds in the NCAA tournament--are also the four top teams in the final Associated Press college basketball poll.

Oklahoma, which won the Big Eight tournament Sunday, received 57 first-place votes and 1,590 points to finish No. 1 for the second straight week.

Big West champion UNLV was No. 2, getting three first-place votes and 1,472 points from a nationwide panel of sports writers and broadcasters. Connecticut, winner of the Big East tournament, was third with 1,436 points and Big Ten champion Michigan State was fourth with three first-place votes and 1,411 points.

The other first-place vote went to 12th-ranked La Salle, which has the best record (29-1) in the country.

Rounding out the Top 10 are Kansas, Syracuse, Arkansas, Georgetown, Georgia Tech and Purdue.

Oklahoma (26-4) plays Towson State in the opening round of the Midwest Regional at Austin, Tex., and UNLV (29-5) opens against Arkansas-Little Rock in the West Regional at Salt Lake City. Connecticut (28-5) meets Boston University in the first round of the East Regional in Hartford, Conn., and Michigan State (26-5) faces Murray State in the Southeast Regional at Knoxville, Tenn.

Connecticut jumped five spots in the poll after beating Syracuse 78-75 in the Big East final. Michigan State, which beat Purdue 72-70 to win its first outright Big Ten title since 1978, moved up three places, and UNLV rose one notch after beating Long Beach State 92-74 in the Big West final.

Georgia Tech, which was 14th last week, moved into the Top 10 by beating Virginia 70-61 for the championship of the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament. Missouri went in the other direction, dropping from No. 6 to No. 11 after getting upset by Colorado in the opening round of the Big Eight tournament.

Michigan, the defending national champion, is ranked 13th heading into the NCAA tournament. Arizona is next, followed by Duke, Louisville, Clemson, Illinois, LSU, Minnesota, Loyola Marymount, Oregon State, Alabama, New Mexico State and Xavier, Ohio.

Alabama moved back into the Top 25 after winning the Southeastern Conference tournament with a 70-51 victory over Mississippi.

Georgia, which was No. 25 last week, dropped out of the rankings after losing to Vanderbilt in the SEC tournament.

THE TOP 25

The top 25 teams in the AP college basketball poll, with first-place votes in parentheses. 1. Oklahoma (57): 26-4 2. Nevada Las Vegas (3): 29-5 3. Connecticut: 28-5 4. Michigan State (3): 26-5 5. Kansas: 29-4 6. Syracuse: 24-6 7. Arkansas: 26-4 8. Georgetown: 23-6 9. Georgia Tech: 24-6 10. Purdue: 21-7 11. Missouri: 26-5 12. La Salle (1): 29-1 13. Michigan: 22-7 14. Arizona: 24-6 15. Duke: 24-8 16. Louisville: 26-7 17. Clemson: 24-8 18. Illinois: 21-7 19. LSU: 22-8 20. Minnesota: 20-8 21. Loyola Marymount: 23-5 22. Oregon State: 22-6 23. Alabama: 24-8 24. New Mexico State: 26-4 25. Xavier (Ohio):26-4