Houston, UCLA, Kansas top latest AP Top 25; Duke back in
UCLA is booming, both heading into the postseason and in The Associated Press’s men’s collegiate basketball poll.
While Houston ranked No. 1 for the third straight week in Monday’s poll, the Bruins jumped two places to No. 2 for their highest finish of the season. UCLA (27-4) has won its last 10 games, including a showdown with top-ranked Arizona in the regular season finale behind star Jamie Jaquez Jr. to complete a perfect home record.
“I’ll say that, the recipe for success in March is usually — I mean, talent aside — a great point guard and high-level leadership, like a guy like Jaime Jaquez,” UCLA coach Mick Cronin said afterwards. “I mean we have a chance. But as you know, this tournament is crazy. It’s not ‘March Normal’.”
Kelvin Sampson’s Cougars stayed firmly at the top in their third No. 1 stint of the season, earning 58 first-place votes while the other three went to UCLA.
Houston had not reached the No. 1 spot prior to this season since 1983 during the “Phi Slama Jama” era, but the Cougars have now spent a total of seven weeks at the top to tie Purdue for most teams this season.
Houston (29-2) ended his regular season schedule with a last-second win in Memphis on a Sundaymarking his 11th consecutive win.
THE SUMMIT
The only change in the top five was that 4th-ranked UCLA swapped Alabama while Kansas stayed in 3rd despite losing to Texas in Saturday’s regular-season finals and the Boilermakers remain in fifth place.
Marquette stayed in 6th, followed by the Longhorns, who climbed two places to 7th. Arizona, Gonzaga and Baylor rounded out the top 10.
RISING
Texas A&M is the week’s biggest mover, jumping six places to 18th after beating Alabama in the regular-season finals. That’s part of a strong finish under Buzz Williams in their fourth year, which has seen the Aggies go 17-3 since mid-December and have lost just once since early February. Prior to this season, Texas A&M had not been ranked since February 2018.
A total of eight teams climbed up from the previous week’s places.
PUSH
Tennessee suffered their biggest crash of the week, falling five places to 17th after losing in Auburn in his regular-season final and his first full game since losing Zakai Zeigler due to a season-ending knee injury. Indiana was next, falling four places to 19th after losing at home to Iowa by 22 points.
A total of six teams slipped off their rankings last week.
STATUS QUO
Almost a third of last week’s ranked teams (eight) stayed in the same position, including No. 13 Virginia, No. 22 TCU and No. 23 Kentucky.
WELCOME BACK
The week’s three newcomers are all poll returnees, led by Duke #21.
The Blue Devils (23-8) returned for the first time since falling out in mid-January after opening the year at No. 7. First-year coach Jon Scheyer has guided Duke to six straight wins to finish the regular season, including Saturday’s win in North Carolina for a rivalry sweep that wounded UNC’s dubious NCAA tournament hopes.
Creighton checked in at No. 24 and returned to the polls for a third stint of the season after a week-long absence. Next up was Missouri at number 25, who have won their last four regular season games to return to the polls in the first half of January after a two-week stay there.
farewell (for now)
Providence (No. 20), Maryland (No. 21) and Pittsburgh (No. 25) are eliminated this week. All three will play in their conference tournaments this week.
CONFERENCE SUPPLY
The Big 12 and Southeastern conferences shared the lead this week with five seeded teams each, although three from the Big 12 group were in the top 10.
The Big East was next with four ranked teams including No. 11 Connecticut. The Atlantic Coast Conference had three, followed by the Big Ten, Pac-12, and West Coast Conferences, each with two.
The American Athletic and Mountain West conferences each had a ranked team.
ONE MORE
Next week’s poll marks the final edition for the 2022-23 season.
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Follow Aaron Beard on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/aaronbeardap
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AP College Basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25