Houston, KU remain tops; FAU 1st time in AP poll
Houston and Kansas remained firmly atop The Associated Press guys’s college basketball survey Monday after a record weekend of Leading 25 losses, while Florida Atlantic took advantage of the turmoil to crack the ranking for the first time in school history.Eleven teams in the Top 25 decreased Saturday, tying a record that has meant nearly 12 years, while Connecticut and Marquette likewise lost Sunday to provide the AP poll one of its most significant shake-ups in recent history.The banged-up Cougars, who had to combat South Florida to avoid their own upset loss, saw their advantage over the Jayhawks shrink ever so somewhat, pulling in 34 of 60 first-place votes from a nationwide media panel. Kansas got 23 votes to remain second while Purdue got the other three to remain third.Team Overall Points 1. Houston(34) 17-1 2. Kansas(23) 16-1 3. Purdue (3)16-1 4. Alabama 15-2 5. UCLA 16-2 6.
| Gonzaga 16-3 7. Texas 15-2 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8. Xavier 15-3 9. Tennessee 14-3 10. Virginia | ||||
| 13-3 11. Arizona 15-3 12 | . Iowa St.13-3 13. Kansas | |||
| St.15-2 14. TCU 14-3 15. | UConn 15-4 | |||
| 16. Auburn | 14-3 | |||
| 17. Miami 14-3 18. Coll | ||||
| of Charleston 18-1 19. Clemson 15-3 20 | ||||
| . Marquette 14-5 21. Baylor 12-5 22 | ||||
| . Providence 14-4 23. Rutgers | ||||
| 13-5 24. FAU 16-1 25. | Arkansas 12-5 Alabama remained at No. 4 while UCLA, riding a 13-game | |||
| winning streak, climbed up two | ||||
| areas to round | out the leading | |||
| five. | “We have actually evaded a lot of | bullets | this | |
| year in regards to injuries and things,”Houston coach Kelvin | Sampson said. “Sometimes | you just got to get lucky. I believed we got fortunate | [ against | South Florida] We might’ve lost that game.”Plenty of other groups weren’t so fortunate.Tennessee fell 4 areas to |
| No. 9 after losing to unranked Kentucky; UConn dropped from sixth | to No. 15 after falling to Marquette and St. John’s | |||
| , giving the Huskies | 4 |
losses in their previous five games; Arizona fell 2 to No. 11 after losing to Oregon and Kansas State fell 2 to No. 13 after losing to TCU; Arkansas plunged 10 spots to No. 25 after losses to Alabama and Vanderbilt; and Missouri and Wisconsin left altogether after each lost twice last week.Kansas may have had the most outstanding week, beating Oklahoma on Tuesday before squeaking by Iowa State 62-60 on Saturday– though the Cyclones were notable enough in defeat
that they in fact climbed up two areas to No. 12 in the poll.”We can play much better, but it was a great week,”Jayhawks coach Expense Self said. “I don’t suggest to say this in a way that comes off wrong, however individuals would get fired up to bet Kansas due to the fact that of time, and then you include a championship game onto it, I indicate, it’s a huge game for folks. Huge games for us, too. So sometimes I think we take a look at it like,’Well, we need to be doing this much better,’which holds true sometimes, however sometimes we’re
getting some pretty good efforts from other opponents.”So being able to win those games,”Self stated,”I think, is a mark of a pretty good group.”Gonzaga reached 6th in the survey Monday and was followed by Texas, Xavier, Tennessee and Virginia. Arizona was 11th, with the Cyclones ahead of Huge 12 competitors Kansas State and TCU. UConn, Auburn, Miami, Charleston, Clemson and Marquette made the leading 20. The last five were Baylor, Providence, Rutgers, FAU and Arkansas.FAU, which has just one NCAA competition look in 3 decades of Department I hoops, continued its rise under Dusty May, an onetime trainee supervisor for Bob Knight who likewise worked for Mike White at Florida.”This group is extremely poised, “Might stated of his Owls, who have actually won 15 directly after an early loss to Ole Miss.”Even when there’s friction, they remain together and love each other and support each other. That signifies a truly excellent group.”RISING AND FALLING Xavier climbed up 4 areas to No. 8 after pressing its winning streak to 11 games, Charleston moved up four to No. 18 on the heels of its 17-game winning streak and Marquette moved up 5 areas regardless of its close loss to the Musketeers.Arkansas took the most significant tumble, 10 spots to No. 25, while UConn dropped
nine to No. 15. IN AND OUT Clemson debuted at No. 19 after coach Brad Brownell got his 400th success and the Tigers improved on the best start in ACC play in school history (7-0 )with a 72-64 win over Duke on Saturday.
Baylor, Rutgers and FAU also entered the poll at the expenditure of San Diego State, Wisconsin, Missouri and the Blue Devils. “If you’re going to be good, you need to have a superpower,” Brownell stated.”Maybe it’s defense, shooting, rebounding– you know, ideally it’s several things to be really good. I believe our superpower is our friendship. The unity, the genuine care and love for one another, is plainly evident. I think that’s why we’re winning.”WAITING IN THE WINGS North Carolina State and Saint Mary’s are the first teams to land outside the Top 25. NC State went from getting no votes a week ago to almost making the poll after
wins over Virginia Tech and Miami.