UMass Breaks Into Coaches Poll at No. 22, Rised to No. 21 in AP Top 25

Praise be the scheduling gods as the UMass Minutemen benefitted from an entire week off both physically and in the national ranking polls. Derek Kellogg's bunch finally cracked the USA TODAY/Coaches Poll at No. 22 this week and rose three spots to No. 21 in the AP Top 25.

After sweeping its way through the Charleston Classic, UMass took some time off to rest its weary bones and it ended up working out for them. While teams like Creighton and VCU battled in their preseason tournaments and lost enough games to fall out of the top 25 of the coaches poll.

But more than that, the rise of UMass in the polls shows that people are coming around on the Minutemen in 2013-14 and with that come expectations. Kellogg will have to temper some of those expectations, but that seems to be a task he is more than willing to undertake.

UMass will face Eastern Michigan and BYU this week.

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