Auburn tops poll once again; preseason No
Feb 24, 2025, 01:20 PM ET
Auburn remained atop the AP Top 25 for the seventh straight week on Monday, while preseason No. 1 Kansas left of the guys’s basketball poll for the very first time in nearly four years, ending the Jayhawks’ ranked perform at 80 consecutive weeks.The Tigers
earned all 60 votes from the national media panel after beating Arkansas and Georgia recently. They were followed by Duke and Florida, which traded places in the survey, with Houston and Tennessee completing the leading 5. Houston has the country’s longest active streak in the Top 25 at 102 weeks.Team Tape-record
| 1. Auburn( | 60)25-2 2. Duke 24-3 3. Florida 24-3 4 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| . Houston 23-4 5. Tennessee 22-5 6. Alabama 22-5 7. St. John’s | |||
| 24-4 8. Michigan State 22-5 | |||
| 9. Iowa State 21-6 10. Texas Tech | |||
| 21-6 11. Wisconsin 21-6 12. Texas A&M 20-7 | |||
| 13. Clemson 22-5 | |||
| 14. Missouri 20-7 15. Michigan 20-6 16 | |||
| . Maryland 21-6 17. Kentucky 18-9 18. Memphis 22-5 19. Louisville | 21-6 | ||
| 20. Purdue 19-9 | 21. Marquette 20-7 22 | . Arizona 18-9 23. | Saint Mary |
| ‘s 25-4 24. Mississippi State | |||
| 19-8 25. BYU 19-8 The Jayhawks were | |||
| dropped from the poll for the first time given that Feb. 8, 2021, when the season was played in the middle of the | |||
| COVID-19 pandemic. | That | ||
| had actually ended a record 231 successive | |||
| weeks in the Leading 25 for Kansas.The Jayhawks were dropped this week after a 74-67 loss | at Utah and | ||
| a 91-57 blowout loss at BYU, | |||
| the greatest margin of defeat in school history | for a | ranked Kansas team against an unranked opponent. | BYU entered the poll at No. 25 this week.Kansas took out its frustration on Oklahoma State on |
| Saturday, rolling to a 96-64 victory in Allen |
Fieldhouse.” We’re 1-0,”Jayhawks coach Costs Self said afterward. “That’s what we’re discussing. And everyone’s stat sheet in what they’re averaging this year is precisely what happened today. And we’re not even going to talk about the other stuff today.”Alabama fell 2 spots to No. 6 this week and was followed by St. John’s and Michigan State, which leapt 6 areas after back-to-back ranked wins over Purdue and Michigan. Iowa State and Texas Tech rounded out the top 10.
Kansas left together with Ole Miss, which had been ranked the previous 13 weeks and 15 of the previous 16. That made room for Saint Mary’s, which beat Portland and Gonzaga to get in at No. 23, and BYU, which followed its win over the Jayhawks by beating then-No. 19 Arizona 96-95 on Saturday thanks to 2 totally free throws by Richie Saunders with 3.2 seconds left.It was the very first time the Cougars had beaten ranked groups
in successive games given that 1988. “My message to our group is, you understand, whatever the next challenge in front of us, we’re trying to assault it, whether that’s practice, whether that’s shootaround, whether that’s a game,”first-year BYU
coach Kevin Young said.”I know that sounds cliché however that has really been the recipe for us, to not look any further than what we have to do at that moment.”Rising and falling Louisville joined Michigan State in making the most significant dive in today’s survey, climbing up six areas to No. 19. The Cardinals beat Florida State in their only game recently for their 5th consecutive win, and they head into today connected with No. 13 Clemson for 2nd in the ACC behind the second-ranked Blue Devils.Purdue fell 7 spots to No. 20
after losses to Michigan State and Indiana, but the Boilermakers kept a spot in the Top 25 for the 55th consecutive week. That is now the third-longest active streak behind Houston and Tennessee( 76 weeks). Preseason Top 25 checkup Kansas isn’t the only team ranked highly in the preseason poll to drop out entirely this season.Two-time protecting national champion UConn was
No. 3 with 11 first-place
votes in October however did not appear on any ballots today. Gonzaga was 6th, Baylor 8th and North Carolina ninth in the preseason poll– and all are unranked.In all, more than half of the groups in the preseason survey– 13 of them– failed to split this week’s Top 25. Conference watch The SEC continued its dominance with 3 of the top 5 and eight overall in the Leading 25 this week. The Huge 12 had three in the leading 10 and five ranked groups, while the Big Ten also had five teams in the poll. The ACC had 3, the Big East had 2 and the American and West Coast conferences had one group each.