Boiler up: Purdue new No
Purdue picked up wins over West Virginia, No. 15 Gonzaga and No. 12 Duke in consecutive weeks to win the Phil Knight Tradition tournament previously in the season.Wins over Hofstra and Nebraska recently, combined with a loss by Houston, sufficed to move the Boilermakers to No. 1 the AP Top 25 for the second straight season.Purdue went up three spots in The Associated Press guys’s college basketball poll released on Monday, receiving 27 first-place votes from a 62-person media panel. No. 2 Virginia got 19 first-place votes to move up a spot, No. 3 UConn received 15 and No. 6 Tennessee got one.Alabama and Houston completed the top five. Purdue(10-0, 2-0 Big 10)has made a consistent climb after being unranked in the preseason, moving
approximately No. 5 by winning the Legacy tourney in Oregon. The Boilermakers were No. 4 recently, then blew out Hofstra and scratched out a 65-62 overtime win over Nebraska despite poor shooting and a quiet scoring afternoon by 7-foot-4 center Zach Edey. “Can you discover a method to win a game when you don’t shoot the ball well? We were able to do that, “Purdue coach Matt Painter said.The Boilermakers hope this run at No. 1 will last longer than their last one. Purdue went to No. 1 for the first time in school history in Week 4 last
season and without delay lost to Rutgers.RISING TIDE Alabama had to replace 3 of its top four scorers and started the season without dynamic guard Jahvon Quinerly while he recuperates from knee surgery.None of it has slowed the Crimson Tide’s flight to a second top-five ranking in three seasons.Alabama knocked North Carolina off its top-ranked perch in 4 overtimes on Nov. 27 and ended up being the junior varsity– with Oklahoma in 1990– to beat two No. 1 teams in the
same season with its 71-65 win over Houston on Saturday.The Crimson Tide moved up 4 spots in this week’s survey.
“Big program win,”Alabama coach Nate Oats stated.”Uncertain how many groups get the opportunity to play 2 No. 1 teams in nonconference, not to mention beat them, however I think that shows where we have actually gotten this program to that we can have fun with anybody in the country at this point.
“1. Purdue( 27)2. Virginia (19) 3. UConn( 15)4.
Alabama 5. Houston 6. Tennessee (1)7. Texas 8. Kansas 9. Arizona 10. Arkansas 11. Baylor 12. Duke 13. Kentucky 14. Indiana 15. Gonzaga 16. UCLA 17. Mississippi St. 18. Illinois 19. Auburn 20. Maryland 21. TCU 22. Wisconsin 23. Ohio St. 24. Virginia Tech 25. Miami FLUCTUATING No. 17
| Mississippi State had the most significant | jump in the poll, |
| going up five spots after beating Minnesota.No. 19 Auburn had the most significant | drop, losing eight areas following an 82-73 loss to Memphis. No. 20 |
| Maryland dropped with | |
| successive losses to No. 22 | Wisconsin and |
| No. 6 Tennessee.No. 7 Texas lost a possibility to go up to No. 1 after its | |
| overtime loss | |
| to Illinois, | |
| dropping 5 areas instead.IN AND OUT No. 22 Wisconsin | |
| moved into the poll for | |
| the very first time this | |
| season following | |
| wins over Maryland and Iowa. No. | |
| 24 Virginia Tech is ranked for the very first time since 2020-21 after wins over Dayton and Oklahoma State.No. 25 Miami beat Cornell and NC State to |
get ranked for the first time since 2017-18. Creighton left of the poll after reaching No. 7 previously this season.
The Bluejays, ranked 21st last week, have actually lost four straight.Iowa State left from No. 20 after a lopsided loss to Iowa, while San Diego State fell out from No. 22 after losing to Saint Mary’s in Phoenix.CONFERENCE VIEW The SEC and Big 10 conferences blazed a trail with 6 ranked groups each. The ACC and Big 12 had four each and the Pac-12 three.The Big East, American Athletic and West Coast conferences had one ranked team each.