Houston is back at No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 Men’s College Basketball Poll for the second time this season, while Kansas State continued its better-than-expected start by advancing from unranked to the fringes of the top 10.
The Cougars received 34 out of 60 votes for first place in Monday’s poll to return to the top after a two-week stint there earlier this season. Kansas finished second and had 22 first-place votes, while Purdue fell from No. 1 to No. 3 and got the other four first-place votes after suffering its first loss at Rutgers last week.
Prior to this season, the Cougars (16-1) had not been No. 1 since the high-flying “Phi Slama Jama” days of the 1980s.
“Each team just has to be brought along because they’re all different,” Houston coach Kelvin Sampson said after Sunday’s win in Cincinnati. “Our DNA remains the same, but the faces change. … As the season progresses, the guys just keep getting better.”
Kansas State jumped to 11th after an impressive week of two away wins against top-ranked opponents under coach Jerome Tang in freshman year. Selected to finish bottom in the 10-team Big 12, the Wildcats scored 116 points in Texas then edgy Baylor 97-95 in overtime.
That helped Kansas State (14-1) to its best start since the 1958-59 season and brought the Wildcats back into the AP Top 25 for the first time since the end of the 2018-19 season.
“We’re not trying to prove doubters (wrong),” Tang said after the Baylor win. “We’re just trying to keep believing in ourselves… It’s a great achievement for these young men. But that doesn’t matter if we lay an egg in the next game, does it?”
THE SUMMIT
Alabama and Tennessee gave the Southeastern Conference two top-five teams, with the Crimson Tide returning to No. 4 for the first time in a week there in December and the Volunteers hitting their season-high in fifth.
Connecticut, UCLA, Gonzaga, Arizona and Texas rounded out the top 10, with the Longhorns dropping four places after a turbulent week the dismissal of coach Chris Beard as he faces charges of domestic violence in the family.
RISING
No. 14 Iowa State climbed nine spots after beating Oklahoma away and No. 17 TCU. No. 12 Xavier rose six spots after extending his winning streak to nine games. A total of 10 teams rose from last week’s poll.
PUSH
No. 24 Duke suffered the biggest crash of the week, dropping eight places after a blowout loss at North Carolina State followed by a narrow win at Boston College. No. 16 Miami and No. 18 Wisconsin joined Arizona and Texas, falling four places. A total of nine teams dropped from last week’s rankings.
STATUS QUO
TCU and no. 20 Missouri were the only teams to hold their position from last week.
WELCOME
While Kansas State grabbed the spotlight for the week’s newcomers, the Big East added two teams joining the poll, No. 19 Providence and No. 25 Marquette. It was the brothers’ first appearance that year and the second for the Golden Eagles.
No. 23 San Diego State also returned to the pick this year for a second stint.
farewell (for now)
Indiana (No. 15), Baylor (No. 19), New Mexico (No. 21) and Ohio State (No. 24) fell out of the poll, with Scott Drew’s Bears now unranked for the first time since 2018-19 became season.
CONFERENCE SUPPLY
The Big 12 and SEC each had five ranked teams to lead the country, followed by the Big East with four teams. The Atlantic Coast Conference had three, while the Big Ten and Pac-12 each had two.
The American Athletic, West Coast, and Mountain West conferences and the Colonial Athletic Association each had a team in the rankings.
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