PROVO — The BYU Cougars have reached their highest men's college basketball ranking in 22 years.
In the new ESPN/USA Today coaches' poll and AP poll, the Cougars are ranked No. 17 and No. 18, respectively. The move up, from No. 23 and No. 25, comes after wins last week over UNLV at home and UTEP on the road.
"We feel similar today as we felt last week when we got in the rankings," BYU coach Dave Rose said after practice Monday. "I think it's good for our team and good for our program. But it's probably more motivation for the teams we're playing than it is for us. So we'll just to try keep on doing what we've been doing, and keep trying to win games."
The Cougars are 16-1 and have won 11 straight games. They are off to their best start since the 1987-88 team, which started the year 17-0 and climbed as high as No. 2 in the UPI poll and No. 3 in the AP poll. That team finished the year ranked No. 17 and No. 19.
Last Wednesday the Cougars came from behind at the Marriott Center to beat UNLV 77-73, with leading scorer Jimmer Fredette playing sparingly while battling illness, which was later determined to be mononucleosis. On Saturday, without Fredette on the floor, the Cougars beat UTEP in El Paso 83-77.
The Cougars are four points behind Wisconsin and eight points behind Connecticut in the coaches' poll, and 24 points ahead of Georgia Tech. In the AP poll, they are solid in the 18th spot with 456 points, 103 points behind Gonzaga at 17 and 78 points ahead of Temple in the 19th spot.
"The bullseye just got a lot bigger than it already was, but we welcome our challenges," senior forward Jonathan Tavernari said.
Under Rose, the Cougars have been ranked in the Top 25 in four-straight seasons. In 2007-08, Rose led BYU to a No. 20 ranking in the AP poll and No. 21 in the ESPN/USA Today coaches' poll.
Mountain West Conference foe New Mexico, ranked 12th last week, dropped out of the Top 25 in both polls after losses to San Diego State and UNLV. The Lobos are two spots out of the Top 25 in the coaches polls and received 59 points (30th position) in the AP poll. The Rebels are in the 28th spot in the ESPN/USA Today poll and 33rd in the AP poll.
Texas and Kentucky, ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in both polls, are the only two teams with records better than BYU's 16-1 mark. The Cougars play Wednesday at Air Force and then return home to host Colorado State on Saturday.
"It's going to make us better because we know we're going to get the best shot from every team, and that's going to make us come out and work harder," junior guard Jackson Emery said.
DAY-TO-DAY JIMMER WATCH BEGINS: Junior guard Jimmer Fredette, battling mononucleosis, watched practice on Monday but did not participate. He also visited with doctors on Monday and attended classes.
He might practice on Tuesday and is expected to travel with the team to Colorado Springs for Wednesday's game at Air Force. Basically, he won't return to the lineup until he's feeling stronger, and no one is sure when that will be.
"What we're going to try to do is leave this up to Jimmer and how he feels. But if he does play, it needs to be at a high level," Rose said.
YOUNG CONTRIBUTORS: It's very unlikely the Cougars would have defeated UTEP on Saturday without the contributions from freshmen Tyler Haws and Brandon Davies. Haws, who scored a game-high 20 and grabbed a team-high 11 boards, got the Cougars off to a good start in both halves and iced the game with 5-of-6 free throws late. At one point late in the second half Davies, who tallied 14 points, scored eight straight after the Miners had cut BYU's lead to two.
"One of the reasons this team is playing really well is because those two guys are really stepping it up," Rose said.
e-mail: jimr@desnews.com
Record Pts Pvs
1. Texas (56) 15-0 1,616 2
2. Kentucky (9) 16-0 1,569 3
3. Kansas 14-1 1,441 1
4. Villanova 14-1 1,426 6
5. Syracuse 15-1 1,353 7
6. Purdue 14-1 1,317 4
7. Michigan St. 13-3 1,191 10
8. Duke 13-2 1,178 5
9. Tennessee 12-2 1,030 16
10. West Virginia 12-2 1,006 8
11. Georgetown 12-2 934 12
12. North Carolina 12-4 844 9
13. Kansas St. 13-2 746 11
13. Wisconsin 13-3 746 17
15. Connecticut 11-4 633 13
16. Pittsburgh 13-2 565 23
17. Gonzaga 12-3 559 19
18. BYU 16-1 456 25
19. Temple 13-3 388 21
20. Georgia Tech 12-3 342 20
21. Mississippi 12-3 326 14
22. Baylor 13-1 301 —
23. Miami 15-1 189 —
24. Clemson 13-3 167 —
25. Florida St. 13-3 155 18
Others receiving votes: Texas A&M 126, N. Iowa 91, Missouri 64, Mississippi St. 61, New Mexico 59, Dayton 39, UAB 35, UNLV 28, Oklahoma St. 26, Vanderbilt 21, Notre Dame 18, Wake Forest 14, Cornell 12, Butler 10, Texas Tech 10, Marquette 9, Virginia Tech 9, William & Mary 8, Florida 2, Louisiana Tech 2, Harvard 1, Missouri St. 1, Siena 1.