Marquette tumbles in AP top 25 college basketball poll after loss to state rival Wisconsin

Ben Steele
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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The Marquette men's basketball team has fallen out of the top five.

The Golden Eagles (6-2), coming off a loss to state rival Wisconsin on Saturday, were ranked No. 8 in the Associated Press top 25 that was released Monday.

The Badgers made their season debut in the rankings at No. 23.

(Editor's note: Journal Sentinel beat writer Ben Steele had MU at No. 7 and UW at No. 22 in his weekly ballot.)

MU was ranked third last week. The Golden Eagles came in at seventh in the weekly USA Today coaches poll.

There were several notable upsets in college basketball over the weekend, including last week's top-ranked team with Purdue falling in overtime at Northwestern.

Arizona took over the No. 1 spot. Purdue dropped to fourth. If MU would have beaten UW, the Golden Eagles possibly could have reached No. 2, a perch they haven't reached since the 1977-78 season.

Why did Marquette lose to Wisconsin?

MU came into the game with a highly efficient offense.

But the Golden Eagles had their worst shooting game of the season against the Badgers.

UW also took advantage of MU's rebounding woes, with the Badgers grabbing almost half of their misses and scoring 18 second-chance points.

Upcoming Marquette schedule includes Shaka Smart's old team

The tough non-conference games continue for MU with a matchup against No. 12 Texas on Wednesday at Fiserv Forum.

MU head coach Shaka Smart was in charge of the Longhorns for six seasons. The game is part of the Big 12-Big East Battle.

The Golden Eagles then face Notre Dame on Saturday at Fiserv Forum. MU won easily against the Fighting Irish last season in South Bend, Indiana.

Marquette women's team moves up to highest ranking under Megan Duffy

The MU women's team is off to its best start in program history after beating Memphis and Penn to improve to 8-0.

The Golden Eagles made their season debut in the AP poll last week at No. 23.

On Monday, they landed at No. 19, the highest mark the program has been since Megan Duffy was hired as head coach in April 2019.

MU's only game this week comes on Sunday at Illinois State.

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