LINCOLN — The Nebraska women's basketball players insist they weren't necessarily playing for respect Sunday, when they subdued LSU and validated their program-best start with a noteworthy nonconference win.

They say they've believed in this team all along.

Outsiders weren't as optimistic — until now, that is.

Nebraska, which beat then-No. 5 LSU 77-63, jumped six spots in Monday's AP Top 25 poll, the largest leap of any team in the weekly media rankings. The Huskers (11-0) are now No. 14, two spots away from tying their highest ranking in program history.

“Just through practicing and through our games, we know that we're a good team,” senior Cory Montgomery said Sunday. “We just wanted to be able to go out in this game and play a good basketball game. ... We've proven ourselves up to this point.”

The coaches' poll will be released today. Last week, Nebraska was 18th.

But NU coach Connie Yori said she and her team don't pay any attention.

When they first earned a spot in the Top 25 earlier this month, that topic up never came up when players and coaches met as a team. And it doesn't seem like Yori's going to go out of her way to address it now.

“I'm the last person in the world who cares about rankings,” Yori said. “You may think that's coachspeak, but I really don't care about that. The challenge that we have in front of us is to try to get better every day and try to improve.”

Yori is giving her players the entire week off after Sunday's win, just the second victory over a top 5 team in program history. Nebraska doesn't practice again until Sunday, three days before hosting Albany at 3:05 p.m. Dec. 30 in the Devaney Center.

The Huskers will then begin 2010 with two road trips — to Vermont and to Iowa State. Assuming they take care of business, and a few higher-ranked teams falter, the Huskers could be a Top 10 team by the time they host No. 17 Texas on Jan 12.

LSU coach Van Chancellor said after Sunday's game that he thinks Nebraska is deserving.

“They're a top 10 or 12 team, if they play like they did (Sunday),” Chancellor said. “They were awesome.”

But the Huskers were expecting that type of performance, according to junior guard Dominique Kelley. She said they worked hard during the offseason for moments just like that.

“It just feels really good that the things that we do when nobody's watching are kind of paying off for us,” Kelley said.

Big 12 honors Griffin

The Big 12 named Kelsey Griffin its player of the week after her performance during Sunday's 77-63 win over LSU.

The senior forward scored 30 points and recorded 14 rebounds during 36 minutes of game action against the Tigers. She committed just one turnover and also drew an offensive foul, increasing her team-best total to nine on the season.

She leads the Huskers in scoring (17.9 points per game) and leads the Big 12 in rebounding (9.9).

It's the fourth time that Griffin has won the conference's weekly award in her career, but the first this season.

Contact the writer:

402-473-9585, jon.nyatawa@owh.com

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