Marquette slides into Top 10 in both USA TODAY and AP Top 25

For the first time since the 2011-12 season, the Marquette Golden Eagles are a Top 10 team.

The Golden Eagles have slid up to 10th in the AP Top 25 and 9th in the USA TODAY Coaches Poll. MU was on the outside looking in last week, but following wins over the DePaul Blue Demons and the Xavier Musketeers, the Golden Eagles did enough to leap into an enviable position.

They were last in the Top 10 in the final week of the 2011-12 season, when they were ranked 9th at the time. They got to as high as 8th that season, so we’ll see if MU can ascend further. up the charts. Marquette has but one game this week, a road matchup against the Butler Bulldogs, and a convincing win could give them enough ammunition to shoot up the ladder.

Oh and, hey: Remember the Villanova Wildcats? Y’know, the team that went through its struggles and had four losses going into conference play? Well, after collecting their seventh and eighth consecutive wins this past week, ‘Nova is now sitting very prettily. The ‘Cats are ranked 14th in both the AP Top 25 and USA TODAY Coaches Polls this week. Their wins over aforementioned Butler as well as the Seton Hall Pirates vaulted them up from 18th last week in both polls. They just seem to be getting better by the week, and haven’t lost a conference game this season. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

The Big East Conference had no other teams join the fray this week, nor did they have any other teams receive votes.