The new college basketball rankings were released Monday. Duke is number one again in the men’s AP rankings and Coaches Poll, followed in both by Houston, Florida, Auburn and St. John’s. Iowa State is 15th in the AP, and 14th in the Coaches Poll. In women’s basketball, UCLA, South Carolina, Uconn, USC and Texas are the top five teams in both the AP and Coaches Poll. Iowa received 14 points in the AP voting, while both the Hawkeyes and Iowa State had 2 points in the Coaches Poll vote.
The men’s NCAA basketball tournament begins tonight with two of the First Four games. Alabama State plays St Francis at 5:40 this evening, with the winner becoming the 16th seed in the South Regional, and North Carolina faces San Diego State with an 8:10 scheduled start time. That winner will be the 11th seed in the South Region. Both games are on truTV. The other First Four games are tomorrow night.
Here are the games times for Iowa schools in the tournament – the Iowa State men play Lipscomb at 12:30 Friday on TNT, and Drake faces Missouri at 6:35 pm on Thursday, with that game on truTV. In the women’s bracket, Iowa plays Murray State at 11 am Saturday on ESPN, while Iowa State, which is part of the First Four, plays Princeton at 6 pm Wednesday on ESPNU. The winner of that game will advance as the #11 seed in Region 3.
The Cubs and Dodgers are opening the baseball regular season in Japan. Game one of the two game series started at 5:10 Central Time this morning at the Tokyo Dome, and game two will be at 5:10 am on Wednesday. Other teams will open the MLB regular season next Thursday.