2B SPORTS THE UNIVERSITY DAIRY KANSAN TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2007 athletics calendar Wednesday Swimming and diving at Big 12 Championships, all day, College Station, Texas Women's basketball vs. Missouri, 7 p.m. Allen Fieldhouse Men's basketball vs. Colorado 8 p.m. Boulder, Colo. Thursday Swimming and diving at Big Championships, All day, College Station, Texas Friday Swimming and Diving at Big 12 Championships, all day, College Station, Texas Softball vs. South Carolina, 1:1 a.m. Tallahassee, Fla. Tennis vs. Brigham Young, 2 p.m. First Serve Tennis Center Saturday Softball vs. Florida State, 6:30 p.m.Tallahassee, Fla Swimming and diving at Big 12 Championships, all day, College Station, Texas Softball vs. Jacksonville, 11 a.m. Tallahassee, Fla. Tennis vs. Utah, 11 a.m. First Serve Tennis Center Mem's basketball vs. Nebraska 3 p.m. Allen Fieldhouse Softball vs. Memphis 6:30 p.m. Tallahassee, Fla. Sunday Sunday Women's basketball vs. Kansas State, 1 p.m. Alleh Fieldhouse BASEBALL Baseball vs. North Dakota State, 3 p.m. Hoglund Ballpark BASEBALL Home-opening series rescheduled again Kansas and North Dakota State will test the third time's a charm theory next week. The three-game series, originally scheduled for Feb. 15-17, was moved early in the season to Feb. 14-16. On Monday, the athletics department reported the series would be moved again. The series is now scheduled to start Feb. 18 and end Feb. 20 in an effort to play in better weather conditions. According to weather.com instead of opening at home on Wednesday with a forecasted temperature of 17 degrees, the temperature on the rescheduled opening day should reach 49 degrees. This is the Jayhawks second attempt at a home-opening series. — Alissa Bauer NHL Chicago Blackhawks win games, but want panache COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Chicago Blackhawks are no longer satisfied with just winning. They want to play well while doing it. Martin Haviat had a goal and two assists and the Blackhawks scored three times in the opening period of a 5-4 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Sunday "It's a young team; Chicago coach Denis Savard said. "We made a few mistakes. The good thing about this is we can fix it." Peter Bondra and Bryan Smolinski each had a goal and an assist and Patrick Sharp and Martin Lapointe also scored for the Black-hawks, who have won five of their last seven games. A few Blue Jackets fans chanted "We want a refund!" in the third period — before their team came back with two goals to almost force overtime. Associated Press Duke finally falls out of poll >> NCAA BASKETBALL BY DOUG FEINBERG ASSOCIATED PRESS Dukes Top 25 streak is over. Saddled by its first four game losing skid in 11 years, Duke fell out of The Associated Press poll Monday for the first time since the end of the 1995-96 season. The Blue Devils had been in the media poll for 200 straight weeks the second longest streak behind UCLA. The Bruins' run lasted 221 weeks, from the 1960-67 preseason poll to Jan. 8, 1980. North Carolina is third all-time with 172 straight weeks from the 1990-91 preseason poll to Jan. 17, 2000. "If you do it for a long period of time, it means you've been good that long." Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said of his team's streak that began in the 1996-97 preseason poll. "We never bring it up. It's a nice sting thing." UCLA and Memphis are now tied for the longest active streak at 34 straight weeks in the Top 25. their slide Wednesday against Atlantic Coast Conference leader Boston College. The Eagles (18-6, 9-2) are finally back in the poll at No. 21 after falling out in week 3. Florida remained a unanimous No.1 for the second straight week, garnering all 72 first place votes. Florida beat Georgia 71-61 on Wednesday and won at then-No. 20 Kentucky 64-61 on Saturday in front of a raucous record crowd of 24,465. It was the Gators' fifth straight victory over their rivals. Duke was No. 8 two weeks ago before losing in the final seconds to Virginia and Florida State. The Blue Devils lost to then No. 5 North It had been 20 years since the Wildcats, college basketballs winning program, lost five straight games to an opponent. Tennessee was the last to do it from 1975-77. UCLA fell to fifth after splitting games this past week. The Bruins beat then No. 19 Southern California 70-65 on Wednesday, but lost to West Virginia by the same score Saturday. The Bruins had to fly across the country and play an early afternoon game. UCLA found "If you do it for a long period of time,it means you've been good that long." Carolina 79-73 on Wednesday and fell 72-60 at Maryland on Sunday for their first-tour game losing since Jan. 3-13, 1996. "We travel a narrow road between winning and losing," Kryziewski said. "We were in a position to win, you have to make sure the kids know that. They are doing a lot of things to put themselves in a position to win." Duke received 150 points, falling just eight short of No.25 Alabama. The Blue Devils will try to end itself down by 19 early in the second half before clawing back. MIKE KRZYZEWSK Duke coach "I was really pleased with the way we fought back," UCLA coach Ben Houwland said: "Obviously it's a long way to come to get beat." With UCLA's loss, Ohio State moved up to No. 2 _ its highest ranking since 1991. Wisconsin and North Carolina also gained a spot, moving up to No. 3 and No.4, respectively. The Cougars (21.4-10.3 Pac-10) moved up four spots after beating then No. 25 Stanford and California. Washington State is only a half-game behind first-place UCLA as AP MEN'S TOP 25 Texas A&M was No. 6, followed by Pittsburgh, Kansas, Memphis and Washington State. Florida still ahead The top 25 teams in the Associated Press college basketball poll, with first place votes in parenthesis, records through Feb. 11. total points based on 25 points for a first place vote through one point for a fifth place vote and last week's ranking. RK TEAM RECORD PTS PV 1 1. Florida (72) 23-2 150 1 2. Ohio St 22-3 1,668 1 3. Wisconsin 24-2 1,637 4 4. UNC 22-3 1,604 5 5. UCLA 21-3 1,605 2 6. Texas A&M 21-3 1,462 6 7. Pittsburgh 21-3 1,415 7 8. Memphis 21-3 1,272 8 9. Kansas 21-4 1,268 9 10. Washington St. 21-4 1,090 14 11. Nevada 21-2 1,084 12 12. Marquette 21-5 916 11 13. Butler 21-3 831 10 14. Georgetown 18-5 782 13 15. Oregon 20-5 689 12 16. S. Illinois 21-5 660 21 17. Air Force 21-4 538 15 18. Oklahoma St. 19-5 503 17 19. Arizona 17-5 438 14 20. Kentucky 18-6 387 20 21. Boston College 18-6 325 - 22. Southern Cal 18-7 200 19 23. West Virginia 18-7 272 - 24. Indiana 17-6 223 - 25. Alabama 17-6 158 18 Others receiving votes: Duke 150, Virginia Tech 129, BUY 66, Texas 55 Kansas St. 37 Tennessee 29, UNV 11 North Carolina 15, Wisconsin 18, Winthrop 15, Creighton 13, Va. Commonwealth 12, Xavier 10, Aaron 7, Massachusetts 5, Davidion 2, Villanova 2, Hofstra 1, Missouri St. 1, Old Dominion 1, Vermont 1 AP WOMEN'S TOP 25 Duke still on top The top 25 teams in the Associated Press women's college basketball poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, records through Feb. 11, total points based on 25 points for a first-place vote through one point for a 25th-place vote and last week's ranking. TEAM RECORD PTS PV 1. Duke (49) 26-0 1,225 B1 2. UNC 24-1 1,155 B2 3. Tennessee 24-1 1,129 B3 4. Ohio St 23-1 1,064 B4 5. Connecticut 22-2 1,051 B5 6. Maryland 24-3 984 B6 7. LSU 22-4 852 B7 8. George Wash. 21-2 818 B8 9. Stanford 21-4 795 11 10. Arizona St. 23-3 788 10 11. Georgia 21-5 757 B9 12. Vanderbilt 21-4 610 14 13. Texas A&M 19-4 607 16 14. Oklahoma 18-4 588 12 15. Baylor 21-4 562 15 16. Purdue 21-5 500 13 17. Middle Tenn 23-3 428 19 18. Bowling Green 22-2 419 18 19. Nebraska 21-4 394 21 20. Louisville 22-3 280 17 21. Marquette 20-4 195 23 22. California 19-6 177 20 23. Rutgers 15-7 164 22 24. Michigan St. 19-6 120 B- 25. James Madison 16-2 99 25 Others receiving votes: Wis.-Green Bay 9, Montana 15, Pittsburgh 15, Tulane 13, Texas 6, Mississippi 5, Florida St. 4, Notre Dame 4, Temple 3, Mississippi St 1, N.C. State 1 the Cougars chase their first league title. Nevada was No. 11, followed by Marquette, Butler, Getorgetown, Oregon, Southern Illinois, Air Force, Oklahoma State, Arizona and Kentucky. Georgetown made the biggest jump, moving up eight spots to No. 14 after convincing wins over Lousville and then No. 11 Marquette. The Hoyas have won seven straight. "We're getting better, and our guys definitely have a comfort level with how we want to skin the cat, so to say, we Georgetown coach John Thompson III after Saturday's win over Marquette. "We're more poised. A lot of times early in the season teams would make a run, and wed stand around looking starry eyed." Oregon fell two spots after splitting games with Arizona State and then-No. 24 Arizona. Southern Illinois moved up five spots to No. 16. Boston College was followed by Southern California, West Virginia, Indiana and Alabama. VALENTINE'S DAY ONLY AT THE HAWK WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 14 $1 00 ALMOST ANYTHING NBA NBA Celtics set new team record for consecutive losses Easier said than done, especially when you've lost a franchise-record 18 consecutive games. The latest loss came Sunday when Ricky Davis' jumper from the corner with 0.2 seconds remaining lifted the Minnesota Timberwolves to a 109-107 victory. "You can feel it in the locker room, each loss definitely hurts," Paul Pierce said. "These guys are going to keep playing hard. We just need to get it out of our head." The Boston Celtics are in a record-breaking rut that has shaken their confidence and damaged the image of a once-proud franchise. The Celtics' previous franchise low was 13 straight losses in 1993-94 and 1996-97. They've blown past that mark, and haven't won "It is tough, the guys played so hard and deserve to win," said Pierce, who scored 29 points. "We did everything we could. Down the stretch, they made the last play" The Utah Jazz also lost 18 straight in 1982 and seven teams have lost 19 games in a row. The Celtics still have a ways to go to get to the NBA record of 24 straight losses by the Cleveland Cavaliers, a streak that spanned the end of the 1981-82 season and start of the 1982-83 season. since beating Memphis on Jan. 5. But Kevin Garnett tied it with two free throws, then got a steal on the defensive end to give the Wolves a chance to win it with 3.6 seconds left. In other NBA games, it was: Chicago 116; Phoenix 103; Seattle 114; Sacramento 103; Cleveland 99, the Los Angeles Lakers 90; Miami 100, San Antonio 85; Indiana 94, the Los Angeles Clippers 80; Portland 94, Washington 73; Dallas 106, Philadelphia 89; and Atlanta 106, Golden State 105. At Minneapolis, the Celtics led by 10 points in the first half and 107-105 to 1:17 to play after Pierce led Al Jefferson for a dunk. Associated Press