Auburn, Duke remain 1-2 atop newest AP Top 25
Auburn and Duke stay 1-2 atop The Associated Press Top 25 men’s college basketball survey for the third straight week, while Maryland is back in the rankings for the first time in almost 2 years.Bruce Pearl’s Tigers(20-1 )held the No. 1 ranking for the fourth successive week in Monday’s survey and the 3rd in a row as the consentaneous choice. Auburn has actually declared 246 of 248 first-place votes over the previous month while staying unbeaten in a rugged Southeastern Conference with 9 ranked teams.Auburn’s only loss concerned Jon Scheyer’s Blue Devils (19-2)
, who go into the week with the nation’s longest winning streak at 15 games after rolling previous rival North Carolina.Team Record 1. Auburn 20-1(62 )2. Duke 19-2 3. Alabama 19-3 4. Tennessee 18-4 5.
| Houston 17-4 | ||
|---|---|---|
| 6. Florida 18-3 | 7. Purdue 17-5 8. Iowa | |
| St.17-4 9. Michigan St.18-3 10. Texas A&M 17-5 11. Marquette 18-4 12. St. John’s | ||
| 19-3 13. Texas | Tech | |
| 17-4 14. Kentucky | 15-6 | |
| 15. Missouri 17-4 16. Kansas 15-6 17. Memphis 18-4 | 18. Maryland 17-5 19. UConn 16-6 20. Arizona 15-6 21. Wisconsin 17-5 22. Mississippi St.15-6 23. | |
| Illinois 15-7 24. Michigan 16-5 25. Mississippi 16-6 The two groups used the only | ||
| stability after | 15 teams in | |
| recently’s AP Top 25 lost recently, with 3 of | those losing twice.The leading tier Alabama | |
| went up a spot | to No. 3, followed by Tennessee jumping 4 | spots to No. 4 in an SEC-heavy leading tier. Houston climbed |
| one area to No. 5 | ||
| despite an | overtime loss to | |
| now-No. 13 Texas Tech to end a | ||
| 33-game home winning | streak.Florida was next at | |
| No. 6, followed by Purdue, Iowa State | ||
| , Michigan State and | Texas A&M to complete | the top 10. Increasing Texas Tech |
| (17-4)had the greatest dive amongst |
last week’s ranked teams, rising nine areas to 13th after beating TCU in the house and after that beating the Cougars regardless of coach Grant McCasland and forward JT Toppin being ejected early.Two-time reigning nationwide champion UConn climbed up six spots to No. 19 after winning at Marquette, while Missouri leapt 5 spots to No. 15 after beating Mississippi State.In all, 10 teams went up from their positions last week. That included Rick Pitino’s St. John’s group increasing 3 spots to No. 12, the greatest ranking for the program given that finishing the 1999-2000 season at No. 9. Moving Mississippi State had the week’s biggest tumble,
falling eight spots to No. 22 after home losses to Alabama and Missouri. Iowa State signed up with the Bulldogs in a two-loss week, falling five areas after losses to Arizona and Kansas State.No. 16 Kansas and No. 23 Illinois also fell five areas, pressing the list of sliding teams to 10. Welcome No. 18 Maryland, No. 20 Arizona and No. 24 Michigan were the week’s 3 new additions.Kevin Willard’s Terrapins(17-5)delved into the survey at No. 18 after pushing its winning streak to 4 games, a stretch that consists of winning at then-No. 17 Illinois and beating then-No. 17 Wisconsin in your home last week.That provided Maryland its first poll ranking in nearly 2 years, the last including a week at No. 21 in late February 2023. Arizona( 15-6 )returned to the poll for the first time considering that November. The Wildcats opened the year at No. 10 and peaked at ninth, but they’re back in after winning 11 of 12– consisting of versus Iowa State after Caleb Love hit a half-court shot to force overtime.Michigan (16-5)has two previous stints in the survey this season, peaking at No. 14 in early December.Farewell(for now)Oregon was one of the 3 departures from today’s poll, falling out from No. 16 after being among the trio to lose twice last week by falling at UCLA and in your home to Nebraska. Louisville (No. 21 )and Vanderbilt (No. 24)also fell out after losses to unranked foes.Conference watch The SEC had at least nine groups in the poll for the seventh straight week, including three weeks with 10 groups to make up 40%of the poll. The SEC has likewise had at least half of the top 10 eight times in 9 weeks, peaking at 6 teams on Jan. 6
. No other league has had more than 6 ranked teams in any week this season.Maryland’s arrival pressed the Huge Ten to six ranked groups, followed by the Big 12 with five and the Big East with three. The Atlantic Coast and American Athletic conferences each had one.