Purdue No. 1; FAU at best rank in guys’s AP
Dec 25, 2023, 01:47 PM ET
Florida Atlantic’s run to the Last 4 last season was deemed a good story, a small program making a surprise run before sliding back into anonymity.The Owls are showing
this season that was no fluke.Coming off a double-overtime win over No. 4 Arizona, FAU went up 7 locations to No. 7 in The Associated Press men’s college basketball poll released Monday. It’s the Owls ‘greatest ranking as a program after being No. 10 in the preseason poll.Team Tape 1. Purdue (46)11-1 2.
| Kansas(5) | 11-1 3. | |
|---|---|---|
| Houston (9 ) | 12-0 | |
| 4. Arizona 9-2 5 | . UConn 11-2 6. Tennessee 9-3 | 7. Florida |
| Atlantic 10-2 8. Kentucky | ||
| 9-2 9. North Carolina 8-3 | ||
| 10. Marquette 10-3 | 11. | |
| Illinois 9-2 12. Oklahoma 10-1 13. Gonzaga 9-3 14. BYU 11-1 15. Colorado State 11-1 16. Duke 8-3 17. Baylor 10-2 18. Clemson 10-1 19 | ||
| . Memphis 10-2 20. | James Madison 12-0 21 | . Texas 9-2 |
| 22. Creighton 9-3 23. Wisconsin 9-3 24. Mississippi 12-0 25. Providence 11-2″ | We wished to play it in the worst method for a lot of factors, | “FAU |
| coach Dusty May | stated before the | |
| 96-95 win over Arizona on Saturday. “National television. | ||
| Our guys wanted to | be challenged. They like the obstacle. And we | |
| felt our program | was | |
| at a point where we needed these games to raise much more than a Last Four run.” | ||
| Purdue maintained its top ranking for the second straight week, receiving 46 first-place votes from a 60-person media panel after blowing out Jacksonville. No. 2 Kansas had 5 first-place votes and No. 3 Houston got 9. Arizona and UConn completed the leading five.Florida Atlantic made enormous waves last season, making the program’s very first ranking in the AP Top 25 throughout the regular season before making a wonderful run in the NCAA tournament. The Owls simply missed a chance at the championship game game when San Diego State’s Lamont Butler beat them with a buzzer-beating jumper.Florida Atlantic (10-2 )returned nearly everybody from that team and has revealed another deep run might be coming.The Owls suffered an unexpected slipup with an early home loss to Bryant and lost to then-No. 20 Illinois by 7 at Madison Square Garden on Dec. 5. FAU won the ESPN Occasions Invitational by knocking off then-No. 12 Texas A&M in the semifinals and Virginia Tech in the title game.The Owls showed lots of grit in Las Vegas on Saturday, going toe to toe with Arizona in one of the best games of the season so far.Johnell Davis scored 35 points and FAU evaded Caleb Love’s 3-point attempt at the buzzer to win its fifth game over a ranked challenger over the past two seasons. The Owls had been 1-19 against AP Top 25 groups before last season.RISING AND FALLING FAU had the greatest dive of the week within the survey and No. 16 Duke climbed up 5 locations after beating No. 17 Baylor 78-70. No. 19 Memphis went up four places following wins over Virginia and Vanderbilt.No. 22 Creighton had the greatest drop of the week, falling 10 locations after losing to
Villanova in overtime. No. 12 Oklahoma fell 5 places after losing by 12 to No. 9 North Carolina.IN AND OUT No. 25 Providence moved into the survey for the first time since hitting No. 20 last Feb. 27 after beating No. 10 Marquette and Butler last week.Virginia’s return to the AP Top 25 showed to be short lived. The Cavaliers left today from No. 22 after the loss to Memphis.CONFERENCE WATCH The Huge 12 again had the most ranked groups with 6 and the Big East had 4 . The ACC, Big Ten and SEC each had three.The American Athletic Conference had two ranked teams while the Pac-12, West Coast, Mountain West and Sun Belt conferences had one each. |